Revitalising a dying church: what's the secret?

Of making many strategies there is no end, and many training sessions weary the body.

As I have re-entered the Presbyterian ministry in a small church, Scots Kirk in Newcastle, New South Wales, I have been reflecting on my two previous ministries and on answering the question: how do you revitalise a traditional church, which is nearing the end of its life? It’s a situation I have faced before.

Not least in St Peters Free Church in Dundee – a large historical building which was noted for being the church of Robert Murray McCheyne. As such, it was the nearest thing Protestants get to an evangelical shrine. Busloads of tourists from all over the world (or at least the Reformed world – the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, the US) came to visit each year. But the congregation was a literal handful – we had no families, no young people and as a traditional psalm singing only acapella congregation, we were never going to attract the young, hip and happening evangelicals who moved to the city. Indeed, it was 18 years before one evangelical family came to us. We just had to grow our own.