Obsolete

All-age communion Cheddington

Gospel Matthew 28

The Great Commission

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Talk

Extinct

8 track players
Carbon paper

Typewriters
Button A and B

MS Dos
Floppy disks

Curly bus tickets
Slam door trains

Top loaders
Mangles

Pepsodent
Blue whitener

Pez
Facit machines

Dial telephones
Conductors

Betamax
Dodo

iPod v1
Cinerama

STD

About to become extinct

Yellow pages
Video recorders

Telephone boxes
Ham radio

Incandescent Light bulbs
Analogue TVs

Camera film
Milkmen

Emperor penguins
Dot matrix printers

Book shops
Encyclopaedias

Correct punctuation
Stag beetles

Family dinners at table
Public toilets

Make your own list of 3 each

Did anyone include the Church of England?

Statistics

Attendance

1968 1.6m

2008 850,000

C of E losing 20,000 per year

Children

1997 180,000

2007 127,000

-30% in 10 years

Sunday attendance dropping – but monthly and midweek holding up.

More than 1.7 million people attend Church of England church and cathedral worship each month while around 1.2 million attend each week - on Sunday or during the week - and just over one million each Sunday.

Cheddington – about 1 – 2% attend church.

Graph shows church will be extinct in a few years – what can be done to reverse the decline?

What happens if membership of a club declines? What do we do?

Promotion
Personal invitations to join a club
Taking people along to meetings

Publicity

The Great Commission

All authority has been given to Christ

We are commanded to go out and make disciples

A disciple is one who learns – not a follower

Not followers or supporters or associates

So we are to impart the good news, as if to pupils

The man with the extinguisher “I’m not a religious man”

We need to impart knowledge – not convert – that is for God alone.

In doing so, we can remember that Jesus is with us, beside us, and the Holy Spirit will provide the words to speak: as he says at the end of the Great Commission -

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Amen