I keep being asked about why there are no Anglican mega-churches in Sydney. After all there are Pentecostal mega-churches, and non-denominational mega-churches surrounding our city, but no Anglican mega-churches within the metropolitan area.
Leaving aside the question of whether a mega-church is the best way to grow Christ's kingdom, the question about Anglican mega-churches may not be about Anglican, but may well be about Sydney.
1. Bible belt separated from deserts
It seems to me that Sydney is a very difficult place to church plant.
There are clear areas where people are humanly more likely to respond to the gospel already have a church on almost every street corner.
Coupled with that, and I am glad of this, that most of he churches on those street corners are Bible believing, Bible teaching churches. All this means that a church plant in these areas is no "greenfields" activity. The landscape is already crowded.
This is a different situation to what we sometimes see in regional Australia, where there may be very few Bible believing churches in an area, and so people will flock to the new church that proclaims the gospel.
The areas where there is very little church life in Sydney are the hard areas: the places where cultural groups opposed to the gospel have congregated, or areas where Christianity has not been on the agenda for residents for generations. Work in these areas will be slow, unless the Lord should do a rapid work in the lives of these communities.
2. Transport
Sydneysiders don't like travelling. Even on Sundays our roads are congested and our public transport less certain than during the week.
Nevertheless, a fifteen minute drive to church is considered long in Sydney.
Outside Sydney friends tell me they will travel half an hour to church, and not think twice about it.
Conclusions
My suggestion is that we are unlikely to grow mega-churches in Sydney, except perhaps in the western outskirts where there are not many churches, and where there is a pool of people moving in willing to give church a go.
Firstly, we need not think we fail if we do not grow mega-churches; we fail if we do not grow churches.
Secondly, neither should we be content if our buildings are full. There are so many more areas and groups of people in our city that have no gospel presence. Let's start planting new ministries there.
[Editor Jeremy Halcrow says: Part of the cause of the two issues Archie identifies is that Sydney is uniquely a city of peninsulas, with only a few roads connected by bridges. The CBD is the highway ‘hub’ but is far east of the geographic heart of the city.]
