By Daniel Scott, minister of St. John’s Church

“Your job is to help the church close,” said the Interim Moderator. These are not words a first-time minister longs to hear. The first Sunday I preached at St. John’s, Bradford, there were 12 people. In some ways, it seemed like it was not a viable church and it probably should close. There were, however, positive signs: a faithful core of people, a growing community, and a long Presbyterian presence in Bradford West Gwillimbury. Indeed, the current congregation traces its roots in Canada to the arrival of Selkirk Settlers from Scotland in 1814.

On November 21, 2004, at the dedication of a beautiful new church building on five acres of land, a member of presbytery said to me with tongue in cheek, “You failed miserably. We are never going to trust you to close a church again.” Some eight years after I was called to this struggling work, it had turned around significantly. Attendance at worship services had grown from 20–30 to 150–200, a variety of programs were underway, the annual budget had increased from $30,000 to over $250,000, and we had outgrown our historic church building. We needed a place that was accessible and had lots of parking, nursery space for new babies, a gymnasium, Sunday school classes and a sanctuary with more seating capacity.

How did this turnaround happen? What did we do to make it happen? Prayer was foundational. The core members prayed to keep their church. The minister prayed to stay in this beautiful area of southern Ontario. Everyone knew that Bradford was on the verge of growth, so closing the church and asking members to drive to Newmarket or Barrie didn’t seem necessary. If only things could change. Here are the things we did.

1. Systematic visitation. A week or so after moving to the community, I met with an elder and his wife. They gave me a list of people associated with the church. Many of these people had not been at church in years. I went through the list from A to Z and set up visits with Doris Allan and Helen Zaborsky and about 50 families in between. I listened to their stories, got to know them as people, and invited them back to church. Many of them came.

2. Relevant and engaging services – an alternative to “Alternative Services.” In my visits, I consistently heard people complain that the services at St. John’s were long and boring. I made a commitment to make the services as interesting as possible and to rarely go longer than an hour. I work hard to prepare sermons that are accessible, biblically based, and yet relevant to the needs of people today.

Many feel that in order to attract people to your church, you have to give up hymns, do away with the organ, shed clerical garb and get with the times. Other churches in our community were doing these things. The Baptist church had a praise band and lots of drama. The Catholic church was doing folk songs at Mass. The Anglican church was using a book of alternative services. We decided we would provide an alternative to “Alternative Services.” We would provide a traditional Presbyterian service, but ensure that it was not stale or stuffy. While other churches were getting rid of their organs, we bought a new one!

3. Articulate a mission statement. On a Saturday morning, about 35 people gathered at the China Garden Restaurant to develop our congregational mission statement. We didn’t bring in a consultant. I just picked up a book from the local library describing how to develop a mission statement. We brainstormed phrases to describe what we do and settled on one to encapsulate them all. We then picked three areas in which we would concentrate our efforts. As a result, our mission statement became “Sharing the love of Christ, through worship, education and service.”

4. Give attention to the business side of the church. I learned early that in order to do effective ministry, there had to be an understanding that, in part, the church was a business. It seems odd to think of it now, but 15 years ago the church did not have a phone in the church building. As a result, the church wasn’t in the phone book or yellow pages. In today’s terms, it would be like not having a church website. In seminary, most clergy don’t learn much about the business aspects of ministry. Over the years, I’ve had to learn (often from experts in the congregation) how to write grant proposals, business plans, demographic studies, memoranda of understanding, an articulation agreement with a mining company and stewardship campaigns.

5. Community involvement. An aspect of our mission is to share the love of Christ through service. One of the tag lines we have adopted is “serving the community since 1819.” Presbyterians have been a presence in the community for over 190 years. We have tried to celebrate this and make people aware of it. For example, Presbyterians started the first school in West Gwillimbury and the first co-op nursery was in the basement of our former church building. Expanding on that, we have made our new church building available for use by the community. Guide and Scout groups, local hockey and soccer teams, local businesses, blood donor clinics, elections, and more – all have brought the community into our facility. Often people say, “I came to your church for a funeral or a church supper and decided I just had to come on a Sunday to see what it is like.” One person said, “There are always so many cars in your parking lot, it seems like your church is the centre of the community.” However, it is not just having the community come to the church; we also emphasize having the church go to the community. We have an active group of people who run the foodbank, coach sports teams, serve in Scouting, teach in schools, visit in the long-term care facility and bring the presence of Christ into the community.

6. Hours and hours of hard work by faithful volunteers. Years ago I learned the phrase “the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” At St. John’s, there is a core of people who spend countless hours working at the church. Some even spend more time working at the church than others spend working at their full-time jobs. Like most churches, there are a minority of people who seem to do the majority of the work. However, the task of this minority is to continually provide opportunities for new people to find an area where they can make a contribution.

Maybe it is the Scottish roots of St. John’s, Bradford, that makes the current congregation so stubborn. I don’t think that any of the 12 people I met the first Sunday I came would ever let their church close. They have been aided by many new people to carry out the task of “sharing the love of Christ.” We are doing a good job at keeping the church open and welcoming new families into our fellowship. In terms of closing the church, however, we have failed miserably!

Popularity: 12% [?]