Money and Numbers

I think lots of outsiders who look at the Anglican Church assume that's it's rich - seriously rich! And when viewed from the perspective of property assets, that's hard to deny. Not only do we have things like big cathedrals bang in the middle of big cities, but we also have hundreds of local church buildings in prime locations too. For the scene here in Melbourne, check out this visualisation by my friend Bryan (you can zoom in and out for different levels of detail). In addition, there's also any number of op-shops, offices and Anglican agency buildings owned by the Anglican Church.

But these property holdings don't give any indication of the cash position or, more importantly, the potential 'richness' - material or spiritual - that a local Anglican church can share with its surrounding communities. Some are actually quite poor.

A while ago, an Anglican minister told me that only 25% of parishes in Melbourne survive on 'live' giving. That is, only one in four can pay its bills using the income it receives in the form of congregational giving. The rest survive by doing things like renting out their car parks or charging people for weddings or getting subsidised by the diocese. I really don't know if this 25% figure is correct, but if it is, it's staggering! It's not only an indication that many local churches may be struggling to keep their heads above water, but it also suggests they may not have many resources with which to bless others.

The problem with once-strong now-declining institutions is that you can get away with not directly addressing these sorts of issues for a long time. For example, you can survive by just deciding to sell off one of your many properties where there's no longer a viable congregation and then using the proceeds of the sale to prop up the organisation for a while. And when you have lots of property assets and real estate prices are so high, you could continue doing this sort of thing for a century or more! But while this can bail you out of financial tight spots, it does nothing to address the ongoing, deeper issues. Instead, it can actually just reinforce the idea of there being a substantial buffer to protect us if we're not actively recovering and rebuilding local churches.

Fortunately, here in Melbourne, this is not the path we're taking. While property assets may be liquidated from time to time, the leaders of the Diocese do not want us to live (or die) this way. Instead, they want to see more parishes grow to the point that they are self-supporting (or, thinking of Venn's three-self idea, to greater maturity). To this end, the Archbishop appointed a 'Vision Coordinator' this year, whose role is to get alongside and resource a number of parishes that want to see renewal.

This is a great and positive move to address the real issue. However, under God, it will all ultimately come down to our leadership capacity. Do we have ministers who are able to lead large churches and - more difficult - help grow smaller churches? Do we have up and coming ministers who could be trained, coached and apprenticed such that they could oversee significant, healthy church growth? Historically, we've had a few of these guys, but in a time when the Australian population just isn't committed to the local churches like it used to be, we really need to identify, win, train and release a whole lot more.

One of the selection criteria for parishes who want the Vision Coordinator work with them is that they need to establish a focussed, weekly prayer meeting. I'm so glad this is in there because it's critical to call and depend upon God as we proactively strive to accomplish his purposes. It will be great for lots of others of us to join in these prayers. How great if we could see those numbers turn around, with 75% of parishes (or more!) sustained by live giving and their congregations growing as they give themselves to their neighbourhoods and networks.