I think it was Oscar Wilde who said that socialism was doomed to fail because there weren't enough evenings in the week. In discussions I've had with a wide variety of people on the Big Society 'time' is an issue that doesn't take long to emerge. Engagement specialist and social entrepreneur Richard Wilson has expressed this as well as anyone I've read to date. Here's a quote worthy of any good sermon or pilotical speech:
'Time is the currency that fuels community, society and progress. We are, as a society and as individuals, how we spend our time.' He goes on to express a view about how time has, over the last half century, been dissipated from local communities. 'One of the most direct consequences of widespread economic liberation is that the time once invested in our communities has now been transferred into the wider financial economy. No one is suggesting that we should return to the starkly prejudicial times of the 1950s; but these developments have consequences.'
Richard then quotes research from the Henley Centre which showed that 'in 2009 64% of people felt they did not have enough time to get things done' a figure which has risen during the recession.
Now this has implications. In a statement which is pretty close to being prophetic Richard concludes as follows: 'We need to understand how we spend our time right now, and what it is that drives our current life choices. And we need to find and adopt the policies and practices that allow us to reinvest our time, our most precious resource, sensibly and responsibly
Now whilst Richard's interest is in social policy, this got me thinking about about our time priorities as churches. Mission-focused churches think about how to transform their communities with the Gospel. For many, this is in terms of winning people to faith one at a time. Others seek to transform the culture of their communities through a combination of prayer, outreach, and large-scale social action - think Eden Project. And this really is the heart of the question. To what extent is our ambition to win souls, and to what extent is it also to transform culture through engaging with the opportunities provided by major socio-political developments.
The Big Society will ask the question 'what are you doing with your time'? The response of many will be 'mind your own business'. As John de Jong said in response to my last post, many are 'conditioned to being recipients rather than contributors.' Others will decide they are too busy simply getting through life to invest energy in their communities, whereas others will say they are building the Big Society already - through sacrificially giving their time and expertise to good causes or to people in greater need than themselves. Paring back the state will mean some activities currently supported through tax will need community-minded people to pick up the slack. What can the church offer?
Well I think the answer to that is 'quite a lot' but it will mean refocusing some of our time. I say 'refocusing' because mission-minded churches tend not to have lots of spare time to play with. They are busy with their worship meetings, Alpha type courses, small groups, discipleship arrangements, husbands clubs, overseas missions, providing hospitality for visitors and friends, and all the other activities and groups needed to make a church tick. All this is not only valuable in its own right, but also contributes to the wider fabric of society. We don't always recognise the value of this. Churches already contribute a lot to the foundations of community through giving lots of cash to good causes, generally building strong families, and providing social networks that draw in many different kinds of people thereby creating 'social capital' - new networks of relationships that would not otherwise have developed. And whilst some do invest energy in 'social action' this tends to be an added extra rather than a core activity.
So do we need a fresh look at our resources as churches and how they can be deployed? Churches have good project managers, people who can help others learn to budget, language teachers who can prepare people for overseas mission, and help asylum seekers overcome the language barrier, people who can transfer parenting skills, artists who can bring people together around a common focus of music, the visual arts, community celebrations, and a host of other skills too many to enumerate. All these can also be focused through the church to transform communities by organising volunteers, identifying problems, finding the skills and manpower to resolve them, raise funds, and bringing diverse people together around common causes.
So a key question the Big Society raises for the church is the extent to which churches are another sub-community and sub-culture, or powerful forces for change within existing community structures. To what extent do we see ourselves as part of the mix, or a separate cake? With a little creative thinking, I am quite convinced we can continue to do the essential and core business of church, equipping our people to live worshipful and holy lives before an eternal God and be an even greater transforming force in our communities. The Big Society provides us with some big opportunties. And if we're smart, maybe we won't need another day in the week to grasp them.
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