A pack to run wth

Crieff Hydro has changed since the day I scurried down its long corridors as a young teenager. As an only child, I relished that evening spent running with a pack of doctors’ kids while our parents attended a conference in the Drawing Room.

My wife Lorna and I stayed at the Hydro last week. It remains child-friendly, but the decor has been transformed. There’s not one swimming-pool but two. The lower slopes of The Knock are now covered with self-catering chalets and a golf course. There are over sixty activities available on site (I misread this as activities for over-60s!) Boredom is not an option.

We visited Innerpeffray Library, out in tranquil countryside. The oldest free public lending library in Scotland it was founded in 1680. It no longer lends books but remains a fascinating historical curiosity. People’s needs for information and intellectual stimulus remain the same, but libraries have moved on.

We also dropped in at the Watermill in Aberfeldy. The watercourse was dry that day, but the old building has found an imaginative new purpose as a coffee shop, gallery and award-winning bookshop.

Everything changes, the transformation driven by the economy, technology, social attitudes, the mere passage of time. That 13-year-old mesmerised by the sound of the thundering pipe organ at Crieff Hydro (still in place) was clearly me, and yet in significant ways, not me.

In a recent interview, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby praised the way the Monarchy has re-invented itself through a ‘genuine, profoundly thoughtful, extremely humble, determined recognition that the world has changed, and a response to that in all sorts of ways.’ The Royal Family’s ‘basic values haven’t changed,’ said Welby, ‘but they have found a way of re-engaging with people.’

‘It’s genius. Absolute genius,’ he exclaimed. He implied that the Anglican Church must similarly change if is not to be regarded as a historic relic like Innerpeffray Library, change so that it shows its relevance while retaining its values. What Justin Welby says of the Church of England can be applied to a greater or lesser extent to all churches.

In fact, however, churches have been changing, thoughtfully considering how to connect with 21st century people. And many churches are involved in social programmes such as Foodbanks, and the low-interest Credit Unions through which the Archbishop is committed to competing with Wonga.com.

But we run into difficulties if think that churches can be transformed in exactly the same way as other organisations. I imagine the Crieff Hydro business model focuses on number of guests, guest satisfaction, profitability, impact on the local economy and quality of life. In contrast, the Church’s ultimate goal is deeper - to encourage people to seek an encounter with God so transformational that it will affect every aspect of their lives.

The driving force behind any church changes aimed at promoting this level of encounter is not a business plan or a Chief Executive’s vision, but the naked power of God. Changes to churches will fail unless in planning them we are dreaming the dreams of God for our specific situation. If our dream is not God’s dream, then while we may have successful social enterprises, like the Watermill at Aberfeldy, the watercourse may be dry, the Spirit of God absent.

And churches must take their cue from God, rather than from society. A business like Crieff Hydro will for the most part respond to people’s expectations of a leisure resort. But churches will lose their purpose if we try to be so inoffensive that we suppress the challenge of Christian values. Churches must not be afraid to take a stand against exploitative business models, against damaging political policies, against changes in moral convictions which undermine communities rather than upbuilding them. But we must distinguish between those issues where the Church has a warning from God for society, and issues where through society God is teaching the Church to examine its traditional views.

What matters fundamentally is the quality of relationship people encounter in church. ‘Where people find a community where they are loved and cared for they find that very attractive,’ says Justin Welby. Is wholeness and freedom to be found in running with this pack in the corridors of God’s house?

It would be crazy for Crieff Hydro to revert to the early 19th century days when people flocked to its rigorous, water-centred therapies. It would be crazy for me to seek to recover my gauche 13-year-old self.

But might the Church find the impetus for the way ahead by revisiting its roots, when people passionate about a new faith and a new Saviour met together fairly informally, carried forward by the thundering dynamic of God’s Spirit, which no water-course can constrain? For the Church, could going back be the way ahead?

(Christian Viewpoint column from the Highland News dated 8th August 2013)