Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Cavalry Won't be Coming: A Way Ahead for the Small Church
    The Cavalry Won't be Coming: A Way Ahead for the Small Church
    The Cavalry Won't be Coming: A Way Ahead for the Small Church
    Ebook129 pages1 hour

    The Cavalry Won't be Coming: A Way Ahead for the Small Church

    By Dave Mullan

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Dave says, When we used to go to the movies in our childhood we loved to immerse ourselves in the stories of the pioneers of the Wild West. We gasped at their struggles and we wept over their tragedies. We booed the men in black hats for we knew they were the baddies and we cheered on everyone in white hats. We followed all the ups and downs of pioneer life and when it became impossible for them to remain on the land we crowded together in the fort with the beseiged community. We always felt safe when everyone was in the fort.
    But, sometimes, the garrison was empty because the cavalry was away on other duties. They might have been called there by some mysterious challenge we didn’t understand. But until they returned we knew our lives still hung by a thread. And how we cheered when right at the last moment we heard the stirring call of the bugle and saw the flag on the horizon and the troopers came galloping back out of the sunset. Now the baddies would be despatched and everything would be fine.
    The experience of many small mainline congregations is that the professional ministry which used to shape and secure their existence is no longer available. The fort still stands and the people are in it but the cavalry has left. So the people are waiting for things to return to normal. They can manage their day to day existence but for the big challenges they pray for the cavalry to return and rescue them.
    The message of this book is, Sorry, the Cavalry Won’t be Coming. You’re on your own. You have what is needed.
    Earlier, in 1990 Dave published Ecclesion, the Small Church with a Vision. This proposed a team of unpaid people working in ministry in small congregations. A year or two later he was involved in the Bay of Islands Uniting Parish which set up the first Local Shared Ministry team in the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches.
    Consultancy work in two Presbyteries of the Victorian Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia and even across the border in South Australia created considerable interest in a model for non-Anglican congregations. Many small churches found their mission revitalised as they were assisted to take responsibility for their own mission and ministry.
    The concept was also promoted through the Uniting Congregations of Aotearoa-New Zealand and eventually both Methodist and Presbyterian Churches amended their regulations to allow it as a legitimate alternative to stipendiary ministry of ordained people.
    Over a ten year period the Bay of Islands Parish was asked to provide 60 videos and kitsets of material explaining the strategy and offering guidelines to making it work. Many of these went overseas as a result of consultancy work done by Dave in England and Wales, Canada, USA and Australia.
    This haphazard material had within it the makings of a book but it wasn’t until David U’Ren of the UCA, offered—without qualification—his own detailed work on the background and theology of a lay ministry strategy that The Cavalry Won’t be Coming began to take shape.
    Dave says that sharing this account of Local Shared Ministry has been an exciting journey. “The message has rung bells for many people in many countries. Members of small congregations know what needs to be done. They even have a pretty good idea about those who have the gifts that have not been developed. They can see it can be done. This book is designed to help them—and those church authorities responsible for them—on a new journey in a different way of travelling.”

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDave Mullan
    Release dateMar 28, 2015
    ISBN9781877357183
    The Cavalry Won't be Coming: A Way Ahead for the Small Church
    Author

    Dave Mullan

    Retired Presbyter of Methodist Church of New Zealand. Passionate pioneer in Local Shared Ministry, consultant in small churches, publisher of over 100 niche market books, producer of prosumer video, deviser of murder mystery dinners and former private pilot. I trained for the Methodist Ministry at Trinity Theological College and eventually completed MA, Dip Ed as well. Bev and I married just before my first appointment in Ngatea where our two children arrived. We went on to Panmure and Taumarunui. Longer terms followed at Dunedin Central Mission and the Theological College. During this time I was also involved as co-founder and second national President of Family Budgeting Services and adviser to the (government) Minister of Social Welfare. My final four years were part-time, developing the first Presbyterian or Methodist Local Shared Ministry unit in this country and promoting the concept overseas. Retirement has brought a whole lot more opportunities and challenges. We are now living in our own villa in Hibiscus Coast Residential Village.

    Read more from Dave Mullan

    Related to The Cavalry Won't be Coming

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Stumbling Blocks That Delay Church Transformation Part 5

      May 20, 2022

      In my previous writings I have pointed out that institutionalised Christianity is fading away. Organised religious systems are sucking the life of Christ out of believers. In many cases, believers are busy with the church programme, but not with God.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Pastors Need A Firm BIBLICAL FOUNDATION

      Dec 30, 2019

      The Gospel is the most powerful force on this earth. The transformative power of the Cross changes lives around the world daily. If the Gospel is not changing hearts, then it is not the full Gospel that is being preached. In Africa today we see a num

      4 min read

    • Article

      Don’t Lose Your First Love

      Jun 15, 2020

      Lockdown has forced us all to become accepting of change. During lockdown, most Christians have been logging onto online church services on Sundays, and possibly also their home groups during the week. ‘Doing church’ remotely has become the new norm.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Uncharted Cultural Waters

      Mar 18, 2022

      Uncharted Cultural Waters
      2 min read

    • Article

      Helping Gen Z

      Oct 27, 2023

      Helping Gen Z
      2 min read

    • Article

      Alextbh.

      Jan 2, 2020

      Alextbh.
      7 min read

    • Article

      Ask Val

      Sep 23, 2022

      Ask Val
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Anglican Church’s Controversial Political Stance On Israel

      Oct 27, 2023

      A decision by the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) to declare Israel an apartheid state “is highly concerning” as it “portrays a false view of the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel,” says Bafana Modise, head of communications at S

      3 min read

    • Article

      FAMILY TIME with God

      Aug 25, 2023

      FAMILY TIME with God
      3 min read

    • Article

      Christian Leaders Forum

      Nov 19, 2021

      The Christian Leaders’ Forum was started just over five years ago with founding members Michael Cassidy of African Enterprise and Dr Robin Stephenson. Many conferences and meetings, both physical and virtual, have since been held and many new leaders

      2 min read

    • Article

      Caregivers For The Spirit

      Jul 21, 2020

      Caregivers For The Spirit
      6 min read

    • Article

      Stumbling Blocks That Delay Church Transformation

      Dec 31, 2021

      I believe that the Church has received a prophetic mandate from God that every generation of believers must fulfil. We must, at all costs, protect the evolution of the mission of the Church and ensure no one will stop it. One important element of our

      2 min read

    • Article

      Ask And You Shall Receive…

      Feb 9, 2024

      When something is repeated over and over again, it can lose its impact. As Christians, how often do we hear the scripture, “Ask, and you shall receive ... knock, and the door shall be opened”? It is so popular, and so repeated, but yet is such a powe

      2 min read

    • Article

      A New Day Of Pentecost

      Jul 21, 2023

      A New Day Of Pentecost
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Shame Of The Catholic Church

      Nov 15, 2018

      One doesn't have to be Roman Catholic or even Christian to recognize the great good the Catholic Church has done. America would be worse off were it not its pro-life stance and numerous acts of charity. But good works are sometimes diluted or even ov

      2 min read

    • Article

      On A Mission From God, But To Do What?

      Nov 30, 2018

      When is the murder of a missionary a martyrdom, and when is it a justifiable act of self-defense by an insular culture that doesn't take the threat of incursion by outsiders lightly? That conundrum lies at the heart of the unfortunate demise of John

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Cavalry Won't be Coming

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Cavalry Won't be Coming - Dave Mullan

      Table of Contents

      Foreword

      1.—Introduction

      2.—The Problem

      3.—A New Paradigm

      4.—Stirrings of the Spirit

      5.—Whom shall I call?

      6.—Commissioning the Team

      7.—Doing it together

      8.—The Wider Church

      9.—Other Things to Think About

      10.—Dangers

      11.—Appendices

      About the Author

      Dave’s Books on Church and Ministry

      Dave’s Other Books

      Foreword

      When we used to go to the movies in our childhood we loved to immerse ourselves in the stories of the pioneers in the inhospitable environment of the Wild West.

      We gasped at their struggles and we wept over their tragedies. We booed the men in black hats for we knew they were the baddies and we cheered on everyone in white hats. We followed all the ups and downs of pioneer life and when it became impossible to remain on the land we crowded together in the fort with the besieged community. We always felt safe when everyone was in the fort.

      But, sometimes, the garrison was empty because the cavalry was away on other duties. They might have been called there by some mysterious challenge we didn’t understand. But until they returned we knew our lives still hung by a thread. We were still in a kind of wilderness. And how we cheered when right at the last moment we heard the stirring call of the bugle and saw the flag on the horizon and the troopers came galloping back out of the sunset. Now the baddies would be despatched and everything would be fine.

      The experience of many small mainline congregations is that the professional ministry which used to shape and secure their existence is no longer available. The fort still stands and the people are in it but the cavalry has left. So they are waiting for things to return to normal. They can manage their day to day existence but for the big challenges they pray for the cavalry to return and rescue them.

      The message of this book is, Sorry, the Cavalry Won’t be Coming. You’re on your own. You have what is needed.

      The writing is shaped around a couple of papers prepared by David U’Ren for the Victoria Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia. These were directed particularly at the members of small congregations for which this style of ministry is most appropriate. It was David’s work which stimulated my resolve to embark on this long-delayed project in 1999 and again, now in 2015.

      My own account of developments in the Bay of Islands Co-operating Parish in New Zealand from 1991 was a second major source and with David’s permission I drafted the merging of these materials under the headings that follow. Exact quotations from both sets of writing are usually presented indented but readers who know either of us will recognise our individual contributions in the rest of the text as well.

      With publishing on demand any future editions of the book could grow and change from issue to issue. But I have tried to bring together in one place a range of reflections, experiences and resources from which interested people can draw some inspiration, some guidelines, some warnings and, I hope, some enthusiasm.

      I have tried to lay out the fundamental principles of this model as distinct from other ways of congregational ministry. The details of how these principles are to be applied need to be worked at in the context of each individual setting. I have made suggestions and given different examples to highlight the variety that is already present.

      My basic intentions are to suggest some well-tried ways for those who are just beginning the journey and to encourage those who some distance down the track to seek a common language and be a little more consistent in our various procedures.

      You don’t have to read this book slavishly from beginning to end. Dive in here and there and use the list of contents to ensure that you discover what you need. And whether you find it or not, feel free to get in touch and offer your feedback— there will always be more for us all to learn.

      Dave Mullan,

      Red Beach 2015

      1

      Introduction

      The old strategies have failed or are failing and we are losing. But we have no new moves to bring onto the board. We don’t even know the rules of the game.

      This rather pessimistic statement is from my book Ecclesion—the Small Church with a Vision. In fact, I went on to offer some significant new moves and great developments have been taking place in many congregations in several countries. But only slowly. The picture is still grim.

      In most of the first section of this book, my friend David U’Ren, of the Uniting Church of Australia, reminds us of what the church is really about.

      The Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news to the world; to persons, nations and the whole creation.

      It is a call to persons to follow the way of Jesus. It calls those followers to live a radical lifestyle with Jesus Christ as the head, with the Spirit as the empowering presence, and to live in loving and creative community with fellow followers.

      It is a call to this community of people to demonstrate the values of Jesus Christ in and to the whole creation, to live as citizens in God’s realm and to live for the sake of the world.

      The problem is that the church has often been only an obscure reflection of this call. Sometimes it has been captured by the state and society as an expression of the establishment of the day. It has become an enormous institution with all the human limitations of an institutional bureaucracy.

      Sadly, much of its life has failed to demonstrate the characteristics of the realm of God and is a caricature of God’s will and purpose for the world. Its culture and expression are frequently out of touch with the age in which they are set. Although the church makes pronouncements of splendid rhetoric, its conviction often fails to ring true and as a result seems to have little to offer the world of the third millennium.

      Crisis Few seem to recognize the seriousness of the situation that is now facing the church. David U’Ren develops this theme:

      We live in an age where the mainline church, in its local and congregational expression, is rapidly declining to the point of extinction in the foreseeable future, at least in its present form. As people born before the second world war die, much of the present shape of church will die with them. Their culture of conformity, loyalty and passive compliance causes them to hang in and pay the bills.

      Their children are different. Those who are still with us tell us they find church irrelevant, frustrating and boring. They let us know they often feel unfed in their struggle to live with integrity and faith. They feel uninspired and undernourished as they try to handle the enormous complexities of living in the modern world.

      They are a constant reminder to us all of the need for dramatic and urgent change. Their cries of desperation must be heard.

      Some hang in with the church out of loyalty and duty and some eventually move off to find their spiritual nourishment and stimulation in the evangelical/conservative congregations that have sprung up so vigorously in recent decades.

      It needs to be stated over and over again that God is still active in the world. The Divine mind has not changed from loving the world with the gift of Jesus Christ for the salvation of us all. The challenge is to find where God is working and to be there. to find a way of being—faithfully—the people of God.

      Thank God we are going broke!

      The challenges are, of course, greatest in the areas which are under the greatest stress. Smaller congregations, particularly in rural areas are under enormous pressure because the cost of traditional ministry has forced them to adjust.

      Thank God that some small churches are ‘going broke’, unable to continue in their present form because of their inability to pay the minister. This situation has often encouraged a readiness to try new ways instead of simply ceasing to exist. This openness to change, though forced and sometimes faced with reserve or resistance, means that at least some places are trying to find another way of being church. It is the beginning of a path that lets God lead them to new life.

      A crisis of faith

      Nevertheless, whether in country or urban areas, the crisis remains. Only superficially is it a crisis of funds. In reality it is a crisis of faith. It is a crisis of

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1