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Planting New Parishes - How To Do It So, you're Orthodox and you have a vision for evangelism and Church growth. You're not interested in jurisdictional bickering, turf wars and the mission-brake of bogus ecumenism. You believe, (with the rest of the Orthodox Church from time immemorial I might add), that the Church's primary duty is to preach and live out the gospel life wherever God has planted her. You want to maintain good relations with other (non-Orthodox) Christians but you're certainly not going to be put off by silly ideas such as:- "this is our patch ... go and do that sort of thing in Russia, Eastern Europe, Greece or the Middle East." You want to see new Orthodox communities up and down the breadth of this and other lands such that no one has to travel more than 10 miles to get to one within, say, two decades. You expect that these new Orthodox parishes will be using the language of the people in its services and that its clergy will be local people and locally trained. Are you a hopeless dreamer? Twenty years ago, many would have thought you to be such, but not now. Suddenly with many more English usage, mission minded parishes around in the western world a new expectation is around that the Orthodox Church is shaking off its "diaspora mentality," its self imposed incarceration within ethnic enclosures. Here in the British Antiochian Orthodox Deanery we have many challenges but dealing with that cramping legacy is not one of them. We believe in mission .... by the British to the British .... by the Japanese to the Japanese ... by the Spanish to the Spanish .... and so on. Moreover, our Patriarchate and the whole Antiochian Church is committed to that vision. The recent granting of autonomy to the American Antiochian Archdiocese is an act of spiritual and moral courage and confidence in the maturity of the American Church by the Holy Synod of Antioch. We are a long way off that prospect yet in Western and Central Europe, (maybe a century or so), but we must work toward that, now. But how to do it? How are new communities to be planted? What can we learn from the mission practice of the Orthodox Church from the Acts of the Apostles through the centuries to the work of St. Nicholas of Japan and beyond. (If you are not Orthodox and reading this, you might be a little surprised that the Orthodox Church is committed to mission at all! As a little diversion you may wish first to follow this link). Before we can work out the practical implications here are two guiding principles:- (1) Mission and Church growth is God's work through the offering of our prayers, sacrifices and labours. The growth of the Church is not a game plan with strategies and plans worked out in advance. The Church is constituted by the Holy Spirit working within human life as repentance leads to renewal. (2) Mission is not simply a message, an announcement or even a teaching. If it were, the advent of modern communications might have heralded the dawn of a new golden age for those churches here in the west that believe in that approach. It has not. Mission is a life ... God's life for us; our lives for God. So, there are no short cuts in mission; no "easy fixes." Expect blood, sweat and tears ... but also joy, fulfilment and radiant peace ... the peace of God. This is not a calling for the faint-hearted. It is a promise for those who are prepared to give all to God and put their shoulders to the wheel. Such people are few but their witness is powerful. You could be one of them. Don't be overcome by false self modesty at this point. It's a well worn (and fairly transparent) trick of the evil one. Modesty has nothing to do with it. It's faith and endurance that count on your side of the equation; nothing else. "Come on, come on, tell me how it's done!" OK ... here goes, (who am I to instruct? God is my teacher. May He correct me). (1) PRAY. Nothing, absolutely nothing is achieved without prayer. Pray intelligently, with wisdom from the Scriptures and Holy Tradition ... listening to the voice of the Fathers and your spiritual father / mother in that praying. Pray for guidance concerning mission. Ask the Lord:- "where?" ... "who?" ... "how?" ... "when?" Wait for answers. Act on them. Don't delay. (2) GATHER. The root meaning of ekklesia is an ingathering, an assembly. Invite people God puts in your way ... Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike. Pray together the services of the Church, preferably first in your homes. Establish the domestic church. Place your germinal community under the spiritual parentage of a wise and godly priest who can look after and over you ... even if he lives a little way away. (3) STUDY. Be instructed in the faith. Grow in the knowledge and love of God. Practice what you learn. Be generous and indiscriminate in your love. Learn that the wisdom of God is to be found often in unexpected places. Let this feed into mission as well. (4) GROW. Regularly participate in the Holy Mysteries, whether this is by the priest coming to your community or by you going to his. Pray that this participation will strengthen and illumine your work. Grow also by seeing others grow. At appropriate God-given times and in consultation with the priest who will arrange their instruction, invite these folk to receive the mantle of God in baptism or chrismation. (5) SHARE. Share the fruits of your labours with those who oversee you. Respond generously to correction or encouragement. Develop a common response to the growing needs of your community. Begin to pray for God to send you those who will actively minister with you and for you ... perhaps some of them as future deacons and priests. (6) CONSOLIDATE, EXTEND. At the right time your mission will grow into a parish with its own place of worship since your community will now be too big to meet together even in the most spacious of your homes. You will now have, ideally, a deacon and a priest. Love them and support them as they with you consolidate the peoples' mission work. Be ready for the next call to bud a new community from this new young mother somewhere else. The cycle of God's renewal begins again. Do not quench the Holy Spirit. Remember that you will give an account of your charge. With St. Paul cry:- "Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Corinthians 9:16). If you want to discuss further the practical implications of this "mission manifesto / template" please contact us right away. This is a "work in progress" and we are learning all the time. I expect that this article will evolve and grow as God teaches us all concerning His work. Be assured of this though ... as to mission, this Deanery means business! Fr. Gregory |
