Have you heard of the Canterbury Trail? It’s a witty way of referring to the fact that lots of people, particularly young people, from other denominations are attracted to Anglicanism. Our own church has young people who were formerly Reformed, Baptist, Lutheran, Wesleyan, and Presbyterian—and that’s just off the top of my head. Not that this is a new phenomenon: the first use of the phrase was in a book by Robert Webber entitled Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail way back in 1985!
But this is a two-way street. We can become complacent about the fact that Anglicanism is sometimes attractive to people in other traditions. The opposite is also true: we have important things to learn from other denominations. If we dismiss them offhand as “conservative,” “non-sacramental,” or “non-liturgical,” we will be missing out. Let me give you three recent examples that made me think.
Divine Renovation
In October, I was in Calgary for an interdenominational conference on church planting. Around 250 people were present, from a range of mainly evangelical denominations. That in itself might teach us some things, but perhaps the most remarkable thing about the conference was that one of the plenary speakers was a Roman Catholic layperson. In fact, as he began to speak, he said, “I find it hard to believe I’ve been invited to speak to a conference of evangelicals!”
Why was he there? He is part of a renewal movement within the Roman Catholic Church called Divine Renovation (divinerenovation.org). Their website opens with words that could have been written by an Anglican: “Your parish was made for mission. After all, Jesus didn’t give the Church a mission: he gave his mission a Church. The trouble is (and this is hard to hear), most parishes are living through an identity crisis: they’ve forgotten their purpose.” Hmm, where have I heard that kind of thing before?
There is a lot of interesting material on their website, including encouraging stories of congregations discovering new life and beginning to grow again. If I had to reduce their strategy to its simplest level, I would say they are doing two things: they have learned to welcome people, and they offer the Alpha course (which, we should note, is Anglican in origin!).
Pentecostals
I had coffee recently with a Pentecostal friend (yes, I do have some) who told me of Pentecostal congregations which are bucking the trend of declining numbers. He said, “I have a guaranteed three-point method of helping churches grow.” I was intrigued. “Tell me,” I said, quite prepared to be skeptical. His reply was simple: “Number one: invite people. Number two: don’t suck. Number three: make friends.”
Of course, he is right. “Invite people”—but to what? Probably not just a regular Sunday, but what about a special service for Mother’s Day (in May), or a Blessing of the Animals (in September), or the Christmas carol service (OK, I admit it’s a bit early—or late—to be thinking about that one)?
Then, “Don’t suck.” In other words, whatever you do, do it with excellence, “as to the Lord.” And “make friends.” That’s a huge topic in itself, but it puts us on our guard against just thinking, “Oh good, another giving unit!”
Reformed
Lots of our parishes collect food for St. Matthew’s House, and that’s a good thing, of course. But some neighbourhoods run their own food collection from time to time, quite separate from local churches.
One neighbourhood association I know of distributes big brown paper bags to every home in the area beforehand, and then volunteers drive around on the day itself to collect the full bags. One church, in the Reformed tradition, decided they wouldn’t do their own independent food collection but would contribute what they could to the neighborhood effort. They offered their premises to the volunteers as a food collection point and provided a warm welcome and refreshments for folks as they dropped off their bags of food.
The bags that were distributed had the names of the sponsoring groups printed on them—local lawyers’ offices, local grocery stores, and so on. Plus, the name of the Reformed church! And at the annual meeting of the neighborhood association, there was a shout-out to just one of the local churches, a thank you for their partnership and warm hospitality—and you know which one it was.
The Body of Christ
When we think about “the church” as the Body of Christ, we most often think of the varied members of our own congregation and their unique contributions to the life and mission of the church. Nothing wrong with that, of course.
But what if we also thought of churches of different denominations as unique parts of the Body of Christ, each doing things the others cannot, and therefore all of them necessary? And what if we thought about how those different members can work together to serve the world?
What Can Anglicans Learn from Other Denominations
Have you heard of the Canterbury Trail? It’s a witty way of referring to the fact that lots of people, particularly young people, from other denominations are attracted to Anglicanism. Our own church has young people who were formerly Reformed, Baptist, Lutheran, Wesleyan, and Presbyterian—and that’s just off the top of my head. Not that this is a new phenomenon: the first use of the phrase was in a book by Robert Webber entitled Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail way back in 1985!
But this is a two-way street. We can become complacent about the fact that Anglicanism is sometimes attractive to people in other traditions. The opposite is also true: we have important things to learn from other denominations. If we dismiss them offhand as “conservative,” “non-sacramental,” or “non-liturgical,” we will be missing out. Let me give you three recent examples that made me think.
Divine Renovation
In October, I was in Calgary for an interdenominational conference on church planting. Around 250 people were present, from a range of mainly evangelical denominations. That in itself might teach us some things, but perhaps the most remarkable thing about the conference was that one of the plenary speakers was a Roman Catholic layperson. In fact, as he began to speak, he said, “I find it hard to believe I’ve been invited to speak to a conference of evangelicals!”
Why was he there? He is part of a renewal movement within the Roman Catholic Church called Divine Renovation (divinerenovation.org). Their website opens with words that could have been written by an Anglican: “Your parish was made for mission. After all, Jesus didn’t give the Church a mission: he gave his mission a Church. The trouble is (and this is hard to hear), most parishes are living through an identity crisis: they’ve forgotten their purpose.” Hmm, where have I heard that kind of thing before?
There is a lot of interesting material on their website, including encouraging stories of congregations discovering new life and beginning to grow again. If I had to reduce their strategy to its simplest level, I would say they are doing two things: they have learned to welcome people, and they offer the Alpha course (which, we should note, is Anglican in origin!).
Pentecostals
I had coffee recently with a Pentecostal friend (yes, I do have some) who told me of Pentecostal congregations which are bucking the trend of declining numbers. He said, “I have a guaranteed three-point method of helping churches grow.” I was intrigued. “Tell me,” I said, quite prepared to be skeptical. His reply was simple: “Number one: invite people. Number two: don’t suck. Number three: make friends.”
Of course, he is right. “Invite people”—but to what? Probably not just a regular Sunday, but what about a special service for Mother’s Day (in May), or a Blessing of the Animals (in September), or the Christmas carol service (OK, I admit it’s a bit early—or late—to be thinking about that one)?
Then, “Don’t suck.” In other words, whatever you do, do it with excellence, “as to the Lord.” And “make friends.” That’s a huge topic in itself, but it puts us on our guard against just thinking, “Oh good, another giving unit!”
Reformed
Lots of our parishes collect food for St. Matthew’s House, and that’s a good thing, of course. But some neighbourhoods run their own food collection from time to time, quite separate from local churches.
One neighbourhood association I know of distributes big brown paper bags to every home in the area beforehand, and then volunteers drive around on the day itself to collect the full bags. One church, in the Reformed tradition, decided they wouldn’t do their own independent food collection but would contribute what they could to the neighborhood effort. They offered their premises to the volunteers as a food collection point and provided a warm welcome and refreshments for folks as they dropped off their bags of food.
The bags that were distributed had the names of the sponsoring groups printed on them—local lawyers’ offices, local grocery stores, and so on. Plus, the name of the Reformed church! And at the annual meeting of the neighborhood association, there was a shout-out to just one of the local churches, a thank you for their partnership and warm hospitality—and you know which one it was.
The Body of Christ
When we think about “the church” as the Body of Christ, we most often think of the varied members of our own congregation and their unique contributions to the life and mission of the church. Nothing wrong with that, of course.
But what if we also thought of churches of different denominations as unique parts of the Body of Christ, each doing things the others cannot, and therefore all of them necessary? And what if we thought about how those different members can work together to serve the world?
John Bowen is Professor Emeritus of Evangelism at Wycliffe College in Toronto, where he was also the Director of the Institute of Evangelism. Before that, he worked a campus evangelist for Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. For over thirty years, John has been a popular speaker, teacher, and preacher, on university campuses, in churches and in classrooms, and at conferences, across Canada and the USA. His most recent book is The Unfolding Gospel: How the Good News Makes Sense of Discipleship, Church, Mission, and Everything Else (Fortress 2021).
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