It’s a moment of honesty for Sydney Christians as we talk the ‘elephant in the room.’  Despite rises in giving, clergy numbers and population the number of Christians in Sydney Anglican Churches is in plateau or decline. 

Raj Gupta is the senior minister of St Paul’s Anglican Church, Carlingford, a member of the Anglican Growth Corporation. 

Raj asked questions at the latest Synod about attendance numbers, the pipeline into ministry and about Rectors leaving mission critical senior leadership roles in their mid fifties.  See links here (http://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/the-plateau-problem

A decade ago the Sydney Anglican Church endorsed a Mission 2020 strategic plan for mission.  For the first time there were specific, measurable and time based goals set.  These will be able to be assessed rigorously in the next few weeks when the Australian National Church Life Survey denominational results are made public. 

Raj is concerned that the trend in regards to newcomers has not been strong. See the graph below. 

He notes that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expect different results, and so wants a fresh broad conversation among senior leaders about what could be changed. 

What hard conversation is needed in your ministry network? 

http://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/the-plateau-problem

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