Weaving connections: the Willow Centre and Saint Paul's Way

Yesterday and today have proven to be quite confronting - the former because it raised questions about the nature of the link between a congregation and its mission, the latter because... well, let's just say I discovered some tender spots I didn't know I had.

Ashford in Kent was once a market town until after WWII; then England's post-war economic needs meant the establishment of industries and a surge in population. Which was fine until the industries disappeared leaving a significant population unemployed and unemployable. Today's Ashford carries the burden of generations of disadvantage. A local Baptist church and its visionary leader began a process which has led to the establishment of the Willow Centre, a creative building hosting imaginative government-funded programs for families with children under five. Much of our day was spent understanding the context and nature of those programmes and witnessing the powerful benefits of the Willow Centre's work.

Why then the unease? Because the last part of our day was spent, not with the Willow Centre staff, but with the current pastor and members of the congregation. What immediately became apparent was the level of disconnection between the Centre and the congregation which gave birth to it. Now the degree of "ownership" of the Church's mission is highly questionable. Why? Well there are any number of possible reasons.

For a start one might question the degree to which the vision for the Centre was the pastor's rather than the community of faith's. At the same time, the Uniting Church's experience of what happens when our agencies receive money to provide government programmes might be seen to be true in their situation too. And finally there is the vexed question of how wedded we become to our "projects" - when does it become time to let things go to be managed by someone else, how do we released missional activities with our blessing? The last part of our day failed to provide answers to these questions; in fact, I think it just heightened my sense of unease about this one (albeit a very important one) part of what is overall an excellent articulation of God's desire for the poor and disadvantaged.

(More to come, particularly on the very real but often unexamined nature of the link between faith and works.)