For years I thought that a successful Church was one that was filled to capacity every Sunday, as a teenager I used to look around our local chapel and dream of the day when I would see the place packed to capacity every Sunday, sadly the only times I saw that happen was on special ocasions. During the eighties and nineties I had the great fortune to attend a Church that was full most Sundays and I can remember many a time when we would have to bring chairs in to accommodate the extra people, we even used to have ushers, who’s main task was to spy out empty gaps on the pews to slot in late arrivals and I loved it, I truly believed that was the sole sign of a successful church.
Moving to Norfolk in 2005 I would start my ministry with pastoral charge of three churches, a bit like the lovely fairy story of Goldilocks and the three bears there was a big one, a middle sized one and a small one. In honesty, the one that scared me the most was the little one. It was a lovely little chapel and whenever I preached there, it felt a little as though I was standing in the front room at home chatting to a few mates, there was a lovely atmosphere, that you seldom find in a big town centre Church, everybody knew each other, everybody appeared to get on well and the whole experience of worshipping there was at time a bit reminiscent of watching the Vicar of Dibley, but I loved it!
In recent times we are still encouraged to social distance and whilst I struggle with the concept, I think that it has taught me one vital lesson that maybe I have needed to learn for a very long time. Sometimes the Church can be so full and so busy that we can be guilty of squeezing God out, there have been too many times when I have found myself in difficult situations and wondering where on earth we see God in power struggles, political point scoring and even on occasions, out and out fighting. As I think of our twenty first century Church, reinventing ourselves to be fit for the current age, the spaces between us can be a stark reminder that we are leaving space for God. I still long to see full Churches, but maybe it is helpful to see the spaces in our Churches as being the place where Jesus fits in?