Inspiring growth and renewal

By Andrew Humphries

When Rev Mat Harry talks to congregations and faith communities in Victoria and Tasmania, he imparts one simple message.

There is no limit, he says in his role as New and Renewing Communities Catalyst, to what can be achieved through a positive mindset and one open to change.

After all, as Oscar Wilde once wrote, “when opportunity knocks, answer the door”.

In early April Mat hosted the ‘Inspiring – Celebrating Stories of New & Renewing’ event and was heartened by the stories he heard of Uniting Church members embracing the opportunities offered through growth and renewal.

“Energy and excitement filled the room as stories were shared by Uniting Church members who are giving things a go,” Mat says.

“Listening to how some leaders have responded to rapid change by adapting the way congregations come together and seek to serve and live out their faith in Jesus was nothing short of inspiring.”

If congregations and faith communities are prepared to have a go, says Mat, anything is possible.

“One example is ‘Dog Church’, which has started within the Heatherton Dingley Uniting Church,” he says.

“Minister Rev Andrea Mayes recognised that a member of the congregation was building relationships with dog owners at the local dog park, and these people had then been invited into the church for a Sunday afternoon get-together each month.

“Andrea wondered then whether they would be interested in continuing to come if a worship element was brought into the equation.

“The answer was ‘yes’ and ‘Dog Church’ was born.”

It’s a wonderful example, says Mat, of how church and community can build a partnership together.

That church-community partnership is at the heart of what congregations like Buninyong, Brown Hill and Benalla are doing in regional Victoria.

Buninyong Minister Rev Paul Sanders is a firm believer in promoting church and community, particularly for those churches in regional areas that might otherwise struggle to survive.

Why not, says Paul, have a crack and see what happens?

“In our case I took the view that we might die, and that’s okay, but let’s die wondering by doing something a bit different,” he says.

“I wrote a very frank article in the Buninyong community newsletter about the church and the future of Christianity.

“I pointed out that church sites are actually community sites, and not just the church’s property, and unless we open them up for multiple use they are likely to disappear.

“So at Buninyong the community is encouraged to become part of what we are doing, and it’s actually all about networking and repositioning the church as a receptive, inclusive and creative presence in their midst.”

With that in mind, Paul created a gathering promoting ‘spirit, mind and body’, with about 95 per cent of people attending coming from outside the church.

“With some others I began what we call ‘wisdom days’, which are a combination of a really contemplative approach with some mindfulness, music and interplay,” he says.

Paul admits to being slightly unusual as a Uniting Church Minister, given that he is also a Zen teacher and master.

“I bring a fair bit of knowledge around embodied practice, particularly meditative practice, as well as that interest in contemplative practice,” he says.

“I’m finding a few people are taking part who may have even left the church but are still really open to exploring that deeper place of searching for wisdom.”

The feedback from the ‘spirit, mind and body’ gathering was positive and out of it has come a contemplative group which meets in the church every week.

At Brown Hill, Church Council Chair Jane Measday, her husband and lay preacher Andrew, and a committed and enthusiastic congregation embrace what Jane describes as a “culture of welcome”.

“The Uniting Church has a strong connection to the Brown Hill community and the congregation and council have a strong commitment to sustaining a Christian presence here,” she says.

“That’s meant that they’ve always been outward looking, not just looking inward at the congregation.

“They really want to serve the community.”

When it came to ideas around fostering that community connection, the congregation was able to lean on the expertise of Mat.

“We had an opportunity to be mentored by Mat through the Tradition with a Future program, and he gave us more tools and a great sense of other things that we could actually do (to forge that connection),” Jane says.

Held as a series of webinars between March and May last year, Tradition with a Future encouraged congregations and faith communities to develop a pathway in which newcomers could embrace their faith.

“Because we had so many people participate in that program we’ve really learned to share what happens out in the community and our intentional work with the congregation,” Jane says.

“Everybody is really aligned in terms of wanting and welcoming new people to come to our church, and that is something we celebrate.”

Sometimes, a seemingly simple act of inclusion can be enough to make newcomers feel right at home at Brown Hill, as one family discovered.

“We had a family turn up and to make them feel welcome we removed some chairs, had a table prepared for them, and bought some blocks as part of a children’s space we created,” Jane says.

“That family came back and saw that this was their space and they were just so relieved that they could be comfortable in the church with their children.”

At a wider level, Brown Hill is building strong community partnerships, resulting in the creation of men’s, women’s and children’s groups.

“We met with all of the community leaders in Brown Hill after Covid-19 and what we worked out was that we really wanted to create a sense of belonging for the community,” Jane says.

“The result is that we have a lot of people who are friends of the church who don’t necessarily worship with us but feel comfortable in the church space and come to the things that we intentionally invite people to.

“We have to have things to invite people to, so we have a men’s breakfast, and a women’s craft group, offering a pathway for those taking part to belong to the church family.

“We also have a kids’ club and those children don’t necessarily worship with us on a Sunday, but that’s part of our connection with the local school.

“We have to be part of the community, outward looking, and relevant to the community for us to sustain a Christian future.”

None of this active work around inclusion can happen without a strong commitment from all congregation members, something Jane is delighted to say happens often at Brown Hill.

“The congregation really wants to make space for new people and make them feel like they belong straight away,” Jane says.

“This work is achieved because everybody in the congregation has a role and everybody participates.”

In Benalla, the establishment of family friendly Sunday services, and a community garden, has seen the congregation go from strength to strength.

Tanya Walker, recently ordained as a Presbytery Minister in North East Victoria, was one of the congregation members keen to reach out to the local community.

While Benalla has continued its traditional Sunday morning service, Tanya and other congregation members recognised that families weren’t being served well by that.

The answer was to introduce a regular 5pm Sunday service specifically for families.

“At that time even our family was finding that the traditional service wasn’t very engaging for our children, and that no other families were going there,” Tanya recalls.

“We knew that something different would suit us and our family, but we also found there were other families that we were in contact with that were interested in something like this type of alternative service.

“The 5pm Sunday service is important because we found a morning service was not always possible for some families as it clashed with other activities.

“The late afternoon service gives people who have been doing other things over the weekend an opportunity to attend (an informal gathering) and have a meal as well.”

The more relaxed setting also offered a different way to worship.

“We sit in a circle and we’re all facing each other, so lots of participation is able to happen in that setting,” Tanya says.

“I think participation is one of the critical things because all ages want to be able to mix together.

“When you are sitting in a circle and you have ways of worshipping that allow all ages to participate, then they feel they are valued and they have something to contribute to what is happening in worship.”

The establishment of a community garden by members of the congregation has also allowed Benalla to reach out to the wider public.

The inspiration for a garden came to Tanya when she attended a Synod Meeting some years ago as a lay person grappling with ideas around what more could be done with the community.

“I went to the Synod meeting and it inspired me because I was probably at a point where I wanted to do more around serving my faith and I wanted to use some of the skills I had,” Tanya says.

“At that time I had been doing some horticultural study, which spearheaded the idea.

“The church has quite a large carpark area and so I thought we could section off some of it and have a community garden there.”

The garden is now hugely popular, with a mix of congregation and community members enjoying what it offers.

“I opened it up to advertise across the whole community and it’s amazing the people who come out of the woodwork for something like that,” Tanya says.

“The value in it is that it’s community people who might not set foot in the door of the church but will come down to the garden and help out, and when that happens there are opportunities for conversation and community building in that sort of setting.

“There’s a committed handful of people who really put in a lot of work down at the garden, and the motive behind it is about creating community and also about helping some of the more vulnerable people in our community who need free food.”

On a deeper level, Tanya has seen the remarkable impact the garden has had on wellbeing within the community.

“Most people want to get in there and do something useful and everyone’s having conversations while you are working away,” she says.

“I think it’s a really good avenue for creating a real sense of community.

“It becomes a place where people feel like they can belong when they can’t find anywhere else.

“I heard some amazing stories, particularly through Covid-19, of a couple of people saying they came down to the garden because they were really struggling, and it actually saved them at times.”

Mat Harry says Buninyong, Brown Hill and Benalla have shown anything is possible when congregations and faith communities have the will to move out of their comfort zone.

“Who knows where further exploration of ideas may take us,” he says.

“With experimentation and the idea of giving things a go, who knows where God will lead us?”