In agriculture and gardening, transplanting or replanting is the technique of moving a plant from one location to another.”

I work for a church which like many others is getting old. Instead of being young vibrant and full of life it seems to resemble the appearance of many of many of its members hardened and reminiscent of better days.

To hear story’s of how forty years ago the church would have been packed and required extra seats is quite sad to hear. As now the church shows a different scene. With Johnny Cash playing Danny Boy in the background it feels like a death has happened.

Understanding how to move forward requires being respectful of the past and we must be but we must not mourn for long for the we have the future to look to. 

Change is coming although it may take time but change is needed. We must begin to talk and look at how we re invent the church now because if we don’t we not only be letting down those who come after us but we will be letting down those who went before us. Yeah sounds very grand but we have known for years that the numbers of attending church has been decreasing. On the other hand we see interest in spirituality increasing. People still believe that religion is an important element of their lives so why don’t we capatialise on this. 

Belfast has a growing number of small pockets of church less community. Mix this with areas where the church is pretty established and growing and getting bigger. The landscape seems pretty unbalanced.

My question is why don’t churches who are successful share the wealth? Why don’t they gather some of their people together and send them to the places not to far from them and grow the church there. 

I guess this idea comes out of frustration but instead of place individual passionate people in areas where there passion and enthusiasm slowly gets stolen from them why not send out or transplant a new heart into areas. 

Yes it will be a painful, emotional, heart breaking decision but it will also be a releasing, joyful encounter that will see the kingdom grow and will see the church regain places it has long lost.

This is not a new idea it has been happening in parts of london for years and there are some people trying to do it here but the first step is to agree to talk and to get the ball rolling!