Moderator’s Opening Address Press Release

Oppurtunities for Constructive Change

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in his keynote address at the start of the Assembly spoke of the need for the Free Church to change. The Rev Donald Smith, who is Rector of the Lima Evangelical Seminary in Peru, brought a new perspective from Latin America where the church is growing rapidly. He said, “My aim is to help us to clarify our shared vision for our church, to encourage us to act more boldly and to challenge us to be more creative in our efforts to extend Christ’s kingdom.”

He spoke of the need to face up to change: “There is no improvement without change. This basic principle of administration is a matter of simple logic and common sense. If we wish to improve our part of the church the question is not whether we have to change it but only what we have to change, and how and when to change it. We must change our church if we are to improve it and to do this we must find out what has to be changed. The society in which we live is constantly changing and if we wish the Free Church to survive and flourish we must change what we do in an appropriate manner to remain relevant. If we cannot adapt to changing circumstances our church may become a curious fossil or an elegant ruin, but it will no longer be a living, growing part of the church of Christ.”

One area he highlighted was the need to cooperate with other churches: “Have we taught ourselves in the Free Church to see only the differences between ourselves and other branches of the church? Are we interested also in what we have in common with them? Perhaps we knew but have forgotten that all of the branches of the church belong equally to our Lord. Have we forgotten that we are not the church but only a very small part of it?… Would we be interested in working towards the production of a contemporary confession of faith that included all evangelical opinions in the country as the Westminster theologians did?”

Mr Smith then proceeded to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the Free Church, and what opportunities and threats we face. Among the strengths of the Church he listed: “Our youth camps and conferences are attractive and successful. Our singing can be enjoyable and inspiring and our festivals of praise are unique and widely admired. We have recently produced an excellent contemporary psalm book. Our preaching and theology is centred on the scriptures. Our best preachers have acquired international reputations. We have attractive and effective publications. We maintain international missions and a prestigious theological college. We maintain ministers and attractive buildings in many parts of the country. Several of our congregations are growing and provide a positive environment for new Christians and families with children.”

The weaknesses he mentioned included: “…having complex laws and procedures that few people understand, and which are virtually unknown to many of our members. Many of our buildings are too old or too large, or unsuitable in other ways. Many of our congregations do not attract visitors and are declining in numbers. Some of our public services are inspiring, but many are not. We engage in little or no cooperation with other church organizations in the common cause of Christ’s kingdom. Our singing of psalms only and our exclusion of musical instruments from public worship seems odd and even bizarre to many visitors and onlookers. Most of our members are women, but we have few public roles for women and in some places, none at all. Our preaching and publications often seem to be addressed only to ourselves and our own small interests. We invest most of our resources in apparently sterile causes. We seem unable or unwilling to change things that we have been grumbling about for decades.”

Considering the threats the Free Church faces, he said: “Observing from a distance it seems incredible that a church organization as small as ours can maintain so many paid ministers. Many church organizations of comparable size around the world function typically with one tenth of the number of ministers we employ. We struggle to meet our financial obligations to our ministers and have very little left to finance anything else. We seem more concerned with the quantity of ministers than with the quality of ministry. Should the top priority for the use of the offerings of God’s people be the provision of jobs for ministers? At this point we are seriously out of step with the world church and also with current administrative common sense. We may be guilty of misusing the funds that the Lord’s people have trusted us with. Are we exempt from the common obligation of deploying resources in such a way as to produce measurable results? If we resist change at this point we will certainly endanger our viability.”

However, Mr Smith believed the Free Church has great opportunities: “We have succeeded in organizing congregations that are attracting rather than losing people. Could we learn from them to improve the congregations that are in decline? Do we know why these are in decline? If not can we find out? Our more successful operations may point to opportunities for improving the less successful ones. Common sense points to giving higher priority and dedicating more resources to our more successful operations. We affirm publicly that the gospel and the scriptures in general were designed to meet the needs of men and women. Are we not surrounded by people? Do we not have the God-given resources that they need? Why have we identified so few opportunities for matching the resources to the needs of the people? We have something important to say but why do we seem to say it only in pulpits to small groups of people who have heard it often? Are there other ways and places to share our message?”

In urging the Church to consider the need for constructive change, the Moderator warned of the dangers of not planning ahead: “If we do not plan for the future we will inevitably get more of what we are used to getting. The familiar present trends will continue. If we do not steer our own course we will be driven by forces external to our church, and we will end up wherever the pressures of our society take us. Is there not a better way? Can we change things now so that our future will not be just the result of trends and pressures? To get more of the same we only have to do nothing.”