Harnessing the benefits of traditional parish churches

COLUMN: Food for Thought by Rev John Sterrett

I’d like to say a few words in praise of traditional parish churches. Forget Messy Church, Emerging Church, Sweaty Church, and other hotshot, contemporary programmes and ways of “doing church.” Many such programmes work in certain circumstances and have been a help when they were needed, but they are peripheral activities. They aren’t the main thing.

Yes, I want you to think, for a few moments, of sitting in a traditional parish church—one with wooden pews, an organ, a big pulpit, and maybe stained glass windows and a high ceiling. Sometimes these churches even have an old church smell. I wonder if this description brings back any memories for some readers?

For one thing, old churches are peaceful. When you are in them, you feel you are in a holy place and you have time to collect you thoughts. You might be moved to pray and speak to God about your life. You might even want to repent, or make changes in your life, or pray for someone else.

You can feel the presence of God in an old church. They are places where people have been speaking to Him and listening to Him for years, so it stands to reason He would still spend time in them.

But I’ve also discovered other benefits about traditional churches. However small their congregations, tradtitional churches tend to have members who’ve attended for a long time. Some people might find this cliqueish and, sadly, there are often cliques in churches. But this also means that some of these people, at least, really believe in what they are doing and in what the church stands for.

I have found the best friends of my life during my time spent in traditional, parish churches. In places people have attended a long time they tend know one another well, and they get to know you well when you decide to attend them too. It’s nice to be a well-known part of something.

When people know you that well, some of them really come to care about you. They offer you genuine friendship and company. And they will pray for you. Old churches are not just pretty places, though they can be very attractive. There are always people in them who pray.

I have met people in these churches who had surprising wisdom they could share with me about life. They know how to trust God in relationships and financial matters and business decisions, knowledge that has proved invaluable since I first went in the ministry.

I have met people in some of these old churches who may look ordinary on the outside, but are the kind of people to whom you could confess your worst sins and they would still accept and love you. The forgiveness of God, I’ve learned, operates through some of these seemingly ordinary people in these seemingly ordinary, old churches.

Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”(Matthew 17:20). I have discovered that there are many people in these old churches I’m talking about whose faith can, and has, moved mountains.

“Contemporary churches can offer all that!” some people might respond. That may be, but I think we will lose something valuable and be all the poorer spiritually once many of the old churches in this country are closed as is, apparently, planned. I realise the National Church has financial problems, but if only we could harness the benefits of traditional parish churches and make them grow, perhaps they wouldn’t have to close. Contemporary churches are found, and thrive, mainly in urban areas. Most of this country is rural. As it is, we could be looking at a spiritual desert in this country in future.

Rev John Sterrett is minister of St Andrew's Church, Golspie.

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