During this long period, declining churches in the inner
city were shut down, and their properties sold off. Surviving churches
struggled through the decline, with little in the way of resources and
opportunities from traditional ministry approaches to refashion themselves for
a new era. As generational change lead to people moving away from the inner
city, these churches were maintained by a faithful remnant who only knew one
way to be church.
No-one envisaged the residential return to the inner city
that has unfolded over the past two decades. Town planners were largely
unprepared, and churches with them. While the cities have undergone a massive
renewal of infrastructure, many churches inside the doughnut find themselves
with churches and ministry centres designed for ministry in the 18th
century, and with ministry strategies best suited for communities filled with
young families beginning their journey in new neighbourhoods.
Some important things considerations inside the doughnut:
·
Renewal of church infrastructure in the inner
city is an expensive exercise, often complicated by heritage constraints. Inner
city churches are often faced with a conundrum: in order to reach people in
their community, they need to renew their infrastructure. However, due to the
size of the church community they lack the financial resources to undertake
this renewal. (As a side note, it is interesting to observe that most growing
and vibrant churches have renewed their infrastructure in the previous decade.
Cause/effect?)
·
Families in the inner city are a different
demographic than those in the new dormitory suburbs. They are generally older,
and have a stronger commitment to environmental and political concerns than
their outer-urban cohort. It is likely they are more affluent and more highly
educated also.
·
Risk and reward for inner-city ministry is often
such that denominations are less likely to invest. New models of ministry need
to be found, which makes choices between investing in the inner city (with its
unproven track record for growth strategies) and in growth areas on the urban
fringe a no-brainer for denominational resources.
·
Ministry training is largely focussed towards
church-as-it-is, or at least a continuation of the trends which have been
evident for decades.
In reality, an approach which appears to make the hole in
the doughnut larger is not only dangerous, but one might suggest ultimately
counter-productive. There ARE signs of re-emergence in inner suburbs and inner
city around the world. But not only are the models of this re-emergence diverse,
they are mostly very different from the models driving outer-suburban church
plants. I suspect that the large majority of these re-emergent models are based
in refurbished infrastructure.