Tag: Uniting Church

You’ve heard it before, we all know it’s happening: the Uniting Church is in steady decline. Despite the good intentions of many who try to encourage us to change our ways so we can thrive again, the truth is the church is currently heading towards a gloomy situation.

Dr Keith Suter, futurist, well respected Australian social commentator and Uniting Church member, has independently researched and completed his third PhD: The Future of the Uniting Church in Australia, as a labour of love through the University of Sydney. Using the ‘scenario planning’ method, which Revive has previously featured in relation to work of the Uniting Church in WA’s Strategy and Mission Planning Commission, Keith has come up with four ‘possible’ futures the Uniting Church in Australia could head down.

To clarify, a possible future is different to a predicted or preferred future, in that it may not be a scenario which we all want and it’s not the only option available to us. Instead, Keith has put forward a number of realistic scenarios that could or could not play out depending on how we manage the organisation from here on.

The view from the pew in an Australian Uniting Church isn’t always inspiring. Many long-term congregation members are all too aware of empty seats, voices that waver on beloved hymns and the lurking spectre of a budget committee meeting when the service ends…

It’s true that church attendance in Australia is in decline, as it is throughout much of the Western world. But that’s not the full story. Globally, and particularly among our Asian neighbours, Christianity is still the world’s largest and fastest growing religion. In China, three new churches have been either re-opened or newly built every single day for the past thirty years. And as a global church, partnering with brothers and sisters throughout Asia, Africa and the Pacific, we’re renewed by this growth.

Through an historic new partnership with the China Christian Council, we’re also faced with a unique opportunity to shape the future of global Christian leadership.

“We have a strong focus on the community.”

“We do well regarding the worship on a Sunday morning.” – Rev Dr David Kriel, mission planner, Uniting Church in WA.

These are the strengths of the Uniting Church in WA which came out of the Listening Workshop, held in April. There was a buzz around the room as 80 participants who are associated  with the Uniting Church in WA participated in an informal discussion and feedback session on the future of the church. After analysing strengths and weaknesses, David found that the group felt these strengths reflect the core purpose of the church: worship, witness and service, as outlined in the Basis of Union.