“If the UCA in the Hunter is not already dying, within twenty years it will be all but dead, is a key sentence in a “Strategic Mission Plan” for the Hunter Presbytery (region) of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA).
The report was discussed at a meeting of the Presbytery last night. The facts paint a grim picture. “Approximately 60% of people attending the Uniting Church in Australia are over the age of 70. If nothing else changes, the Uniting Church will be half the size it is today within twenty years. The Hunter has an average age of 75. This puts it in a more precarious situation than the rest of the Synod. It has really come to a point where you need to act now or die.”
The Hunter Presbytery’s NCLS profile shows no people aged 15-29. Four per cent are in the 30 to 49 years bracket. Twenty per cent are between 50 and 69. Seventy-five per cent are over 70.
“The next five years are critical. If changes are not made, the Uniting Church will not exist into the future in the Hunter region,” declares the Strategic Mission Plan prepared by Cameron Eccleston, a Mission Facilitation Consultant for the UCA.
The recommendations are revealing. Recommendation one is “a clearly articulated and communicated Vision and strategic plan”.
Recommendation two is that the plan should not try to preserve every congregation but have a regional focus. “I believe congregations can be placed into three categories, Regional Congregations, Fresh Expressions of churches and legacy churches (those that won’t change and will eventually die).” Fewer bigger churches in better buildings is the plan.
“I appreciate how difficult it is to let go of a building that has been a large part of our spiritual forma6on and our lives. It will be absolutely necessary if we are to take up the challenge of meeting the missional needs of our communities.”
Alongside these big churches, the plan includes planting “fresh expressions’ of church.
Recommendation three is considering how to grow younger.
Other recommendations concern matching property, staffing and developing lay leadership.
But the report notes Hunter has a limited time. “The NCLS Community data reveals a Presbytery that, if not already in dire straits, will be in five years’ time. The Uniting Church is rapidly ageing, but the Hunter Presbytery average is four years older than the Synod’s average. You need to take action and take it now before it is too late.”
The plan outlined in the Mission strategic plan to set up regional churches has worked well in other parts of Australia – but without the same age profile as the Hunter Presbytery.
West Adelaide Uniting and Newlife Church on the Gold Coast were formed by merging several smaller uniting congregations (the UCA word for a local church) into a regional church. New Life and Adelaide west disposed of several church properties to fund bigger, modern premises.
Stu Cameron led the highly successful Newlife church for 15 years before becoming CEO of Wesley Mission in Sydney.
He came up with a more radical solution for injecting vitality into the UCA. “
“The Uniting Church owns billions of dollars tied up in property, including congregational assets,” Stu Cameron posted on his Facebook thread soon after he started his new job. “Right now, we are selling these assets down at an accelerating rate, and the funds realised being used for various purposes (including new missional initiatives), but also, in my view, to prop up redundant and ineffective ways of being church – whether at a denominational or local level.
“We are squandering the significant property legacy given us on managing our decline. This would be a scandalous, sinful waste of kingdom resources.
“Here’s my very practical suggestion. Property Trusts should NOT sell any redundant congregational asset unless a new missional initiative (in or outside the geographic area) is identified that can be directly linked to the property proceeds for the sale. If that condition cannot be met, we should invite churches, in particular church plants, OUTSIDE our denomination (Baptist, ACC, Churches of Christ etc) to express interest in its use on a long-term basis for a peppercorn lease of $1 per year, plus ongoing maintenance costs.
“All our property is held in a legally established Trust. AND there is a spiritual trust attached to the property we have been blessed with. Simply put, these are NOT Uniting Church resources, but kingdom assets – and its incumbent for us to treat them as such. There are church planting movements (denominational and independent), people-ready, that are desperate for property such as we have. We have no good reason NOT to release it to them if we have it and have no other effective missional use for it. Can we be so bold, generous and open handed? I hope so; the gospel requires it of us.”
Well if sin is no longer considered sin, there is no need for a savour. Perhaps the UCA should considered that.
Well observed and said Peter.
Well observed and said Peter.
By the way John Sandeman, great article. Thank you for publishing and offering some practical solutions.