Letter from Archdeacon of Dudley

In recent years I have often visited Top Church, Dudley, asplans have come together to make it a Resourcing Church. Meetings havetaken place in a back room, as the main worship area is huge and hard toheat. When I have been involved in Sunday services, the tiny congregationhave been dwarfed by the cavernous building which they have struggled sofaithfully to maintain.

It was a delightful experience therefore to walk into thechurch one recent Sunday to be greeted with well over a hundred people of allages, ethnic backgrounds and church traditions gathered to hear the recentlyappointed Resourcing Church Leader, the Revd James Treasure, outline thechurchs unfolding vision. There was a real buzz!

Home-made cakes and good coffee were served, activities wereprovided for children and young people, and using an informative PowerPointpresentation, James shared the Top Church story, past, present and future, andexplained about the changes planned to enable the church to be fit for purposefor the next 200 years.

Further discussion then took place over plenty of delicioushealthy, vegetarian food, served in compostable trays with wooden forks. Thesedetails underlined the message James and the team he is forming want tocommunicate.

I came away inspired and encouraged, hopeful about what willgrow in and around Top Church in the coming years, but also challenged aboutattention to detail. Is the message of welcome, inclusion, care for theenvironment and whole-life discipleship we preach in our churches also fleshedout in our actions? As Kingdom People do we model lives ofintegrity? What is communicated to newcomers potentially exploring faithin our churches if we serve unfairly traded coffee in plastic cups and ask fora contribution?

We dont have to be a resourcing church to be welcoming andattractive and holistic in our approach. We could all perhaps identifyone small detail in our building or welcome, which if given a few moments thoughtand attention, could change the experience next week for those who cross thethreshold. What might it be in your place of worship?