by Liz Hogarth

The newly formed congregation at St Mary’s, Balmain, part of the federation of churches known collectively as Darling Street Anglican Church, is not a traditional church plant, but that has not stopped it flourishing.
Earlier this year the 9.30am Sunday morning service at St Mary’s was given an injection of new blood from the 10.15am service at St Thomas’, Rozelle, principal venue for the four very different congregations which make up the ‘federation’.
“So far things have been going really well for us,” said the Rev Ed Vaughan, rector of Darling Street Anglican Church. “We recruited a diverse group of 15 people of varying ages to go to St Mary’s, with the aim of bringing together the two groups and growing this congregation. The two groups have merged together very well and we have seen a bit of growth. Five new people have joined during the course of the year to make a stable congregation of about 35. A crèche has also been started. I would say there is a pretty buoyant atmosphere down there.”
Mr Vaughan attributes much of the success of the venture to the willingness of the original congregation to accept change and to the time spent talking with them long before the merger came about. “We spent a long time in negotiation with this group of people,” Mr Vaughan said. “Our Archdeacon, Trevor Edwards, was always there and he was very helpful. So far things have very much been in line with expectations on both sides.”
Time spent planning and negotiating before a church plant is put into effect is a cause close to Mr Vaughan’s heart. He spoke recently on this very topic at the second meeting of the newly formed Anglican College of Church Planters. Over 170 people – a four-fold increase in numbers from the first meeting in August – gathered to hear him talk about the perils of not thinking through some key relationships when setting up a church plant. “As we approach the task of church planting, our biggest fear is failure,” he told the meeting. “Yet our biggest problem may be success.”
He explained that what had preoccupied him as a novice church planter were disaster scenarios, such as what would happen if no one turned up. “What I hadn’t thought through is what happens if it goes well,” he said. “Church planters need to think through the implications that will come up down the track – the relational problems that might arise.”
He outlined nine different true stories of church plants that had experienced problems because the instigators had not considered the consequences of success. He gave one instance where the minister of a church with a successful church plant was offended when ‘his’ plant wanted to become fully independent. “We need to consider what might happen in six years’ time to structures like parish councils,” said Mr Vaughan. “This is a gap in our thinking.”
However, he is hopeful that if churches learn to think relationally then much could be done to avert future problems. “Church planters need to think, ‘What are our key relationships?’ It is important not to do these things in a relational vacuum, but to think of the proposed congregation, for example, in relation to the parish council, other congregations and the bishop of the diocese. My point is that it is far better to work these things out beforehand.”
He added that the relational issues that often bring conflict to new church plants include poor communication, lack of clearly defined goals and expectations, territorialism, people wanting to ‘go it alone’ and uncertainty as to who is ultimately in charge or in control of resources. None of these, he commented, were theological issues. “The critical question is: what is the relationship between the church plant and the group that sends them?” he said. “In my experience the issues that arise from church planting are not caused by abject failure from the start.”
True to his own edict he and the team at Darling Street have thought carefully about the future of the St Mary’s congregation and put in place leadership structures that will serve the church as it grows. “We have a much clearer idea of what we are doing because we have learned from the mistakes of the past,” said Mr Vaughan. “I think being clear about vision, mission and values is the key.”