How many candles ought there to be in your Advent Wreath? There are basically two possible answers to this question – four or five. One of these answers is wrong….

Growth for its own sake commodifies the Gospel in a way I do not find helpful. Aiming to renew the church – making church communities more authentically that which God would have us be – seems to me to be a much healthier strategy.

Does your parish own a vicarage? Does the vicar live in it?

The data reveals that there has been a gradual upward trend in vacancies for at least the past thirty years. It is equally clear that there has been a fairly dramatic acceleration in the past decade.

Research has shown that the longer the vacancy, the greater the rate of parish decline, yet we seem increasingly to be moving towards more and longer vacancies rather than fewer and shorter ones.

Not every church can manage separate services aimed at different personality types. What we all can do, however, is to provide spaces and opportunities in our churches for people with different personality types to flourish.

When people are looking for a church to join, one of the things they are most often seeking, alongside community, is a chance to ask questions about God. By offering regular opportunities for people to engage with the Scriptures and Big Questions we make our churches into places much more likely to attract and keep those who are looking for a pathway to Jesus.

One of the great enablers of parish growth can be for the clergy to be freed up from some of the less “clergy-specific roles”, by lay staff or lay volunteers undertaking the things that, over time, have come to crowd out the vicar’s diary at the expense of “core business.”

The moment the church is described as “ours” then we are claiming ownership, and those who come seeking God become “you” or “them”; people who are by definition not inside and in consequence people who, at best, need to prove their worthiness or, at worst, need to be kept out at all costs.

What would our parishes look like if the busy amongst us took a deep breath, and set a goal to halve our workloads? What if the clergy set out to become examples of prayerful reflection and ready availability rather than the sort of people who other people don’t bother because “you’re so busy already.”