'15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.’ 1 Peter 3 verses 15 & 16

Dear Church Family

I was chatting to a young(ish) vicar after the recent Deanery Synod hosted last week in St Peter and St Paul’s, Shepton Mallet. He is something of an expert on church decline, church growth and the current state of the Church of England. In sum . . .

    •    to ignore the continued decline is to live with one’s head firmly and deeply buried in the sand. 

    •    to ignore the tried and tested means of Church growth is to doubt God’s power in the Gospel of Jesus      Christ. 

    •    to imagine that the Church of England will suddenly reverse the decline for us is rather naïve. 

He then quoted a statistic that surprised me for a second or two and then didn’t surprise me at all. He said, "6% of your average congregation actually share their faith."

Thanks to COVID (There is a phrase you don’t hear often!), we are now quite familiar with the concept of the 'R number’: the number of people an infected person passes the infection on to. If R is greater than one, the infection spreads, if less than one, the infection disappears. The way people respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not easy to define but, a reasonable estimate would be that, for those hearing about Jesus in the context of a longstanding friendship, 1 in 5 might eventually respond in faith. With only 6% of church members sharing their faith, it isn’t altogether surprising that the church has been in decline for the last 100 years or so. 

The good news is, across the Benefice, more than 6% are sharing their faith in a regular basis. This is great! We are already breaking the trend. As rector, my question is this: ‘What could I do so that we are all better prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks the reason for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ?’ 

Heads in sand, doubting the power of God to build His Church through the Gospel of Jesus or looking to the 'Church of England to do it,' won’t build the Church. God builds His Church as He has always built His Church: through the likes of you and me sharing our faith in Jesus. 

Together let's break the trend! 

Jonathan 

Our services are now live-streamed via our online radio station Shepton LifeStream and are available to listen live on Sunday mornings and at regular times throughout the week here

The audio recordings of the reading and sermon from these services are also available to hear again. Click on the play button in the players below.

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Parish Church, Church Lane, Shepton Mallet BA4 5BW (w3w: self.outs.think)

Parish Office, Peter Street Rooms, Peter Street BA4 5BL (w3w: growth.impulses.packages)

Peter Street Rooms are available for hire

Peter Street Rooms are the rooms normally used for Church activities but they are also available for hire. We have two large meeting rooms (one with ground floor and ramped access, the other on the first floor) and a smaller meeting room on the second floor. There is a kitchen, male, female and accessible toilets and a small courtyard.

If you would like to find out more details with a view to hiring the rooms, please contact our administrator, Helen Bennett on 01749 342163 or 01749 346320

Who we are

We are gathering again post covid. Learning from Jesus, that we may live for Jesus and love like Him. We believe that is what Jesus calls us to do. 

When and where

Our weekly service in Shepton Mallet is on Sunday mornings at 10:30 am in the Parish Church. To locate us precisely go here. Our village church services times are here

What to expect

We are a diverse Church family of all ages and backgrounds and who appreciate differing kinds of services. Being together is more important than having exactly what any one of us wants but we do strive to provide a breadth of styles to our services for all to engage in and enjoy. 

How long is our service?

The Sunday service in Shepton Mallet lasts for about 75 minutes. 

Service patterns

Currently we have Holy Communion twice each month on the 2nd and 4th Sundays. On the 4th Sunday, our children and young people return from their groups so that we are all present either to receive the bread and wine or to receive prayer. 

Prayer ministry

Prayer is offered each week during and after the service

What to wear!

Most members of our congregation are generally casual but some a little smarter and some less so. To be honest, we don’t mind how you dress or what you look like - we’d just love for you to come and meet us!