The Plateau Problem and a deeper issue - with Raj Gupta
It’s a moment of honesty for Sydney Christians as we face up to an ‘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 allowing this graph to be produced.
Raj has also asked a series of confronting questions about the pipeline into ministry and about vacant parish numbers and Rectors leaving mission critical senior leadership roles in their mid fifties. See the Synod Minutes here.
A decade ago the Sydney Anglican Church endorsed a strategic plan for mission. For the first time there were specific, measurable and time based targets 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 Gupta is concerned that the trend in regards to newcomers has not been strong. See the graph below taken from the mid point review of mission 2020.
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?