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As reported by The Edmonton Journal, October 21, 1968, p. 42 (bold in original):
Church must become flexible, mobile, say United ministersThe emphasis by these United Church of Canada ministers on the importance of change sounds like the same thing that's been promoted by the "Emerging Church" and by the Church Growth Movement in "evangelical" churches over the last 15-20 years. "Change for the next 50" years in the United Church, which was in the early stages of declining membership--which peaked in 1965--has been in the direction of further apostasy and decline.
The big change to the modern church must be to make the church both flexible and mobile so that it can get out to the people.
This was the feeling of two United Church ministers who are acquainted with the need for change in the Christian church generally and the change in approach necessary for churches in the central core of the city.
Dr. Rex Dolan, minister of Knox United Church in Saskatoon, and author of The Big Change, a United Church Study book, and Rev. Harry Meadows of McDougall United Church in Edmonton discussed these changes prior to the 97th anniversary service of McDougall Church.
Change was the key to the service and the forum on Sunday evening, Rev. Meadows said, because McDougall Church was on the threshold of a great change.
Plans were discussed to use the highly valued commercial property on which the church is now located for a business complex containing a church.
A sub-committee of McDougall Church has done considerable study as to how the ministry could be best served by using revenue from the sale of this property for projects which would take the church to the people in the central core of the city, Rev. Meadows said.
NEW IMAGE
Dr. Dolan is aware of the particular problems in central core churches from the years he spent as minister at the Young Street Church in Winnipeg, near Portage and Main, and the Knox United Church in Saskatoon, another central core church.
"All wings of the Christian church recognize the need to change and get the church out to the people," Dr. Dolan said.
He noted that the Catholic church was ahead of the Protestant churches in some areas of this change.
"The church must develop a new image today. The new image is that of a servant," he said.
FLEXIBLE
The new image was necessary, he said, because in the past the church was leaving much of the world untouched.
"The church is not opposed to the world," Dr. Dolan said. The church today must listen to bring the gospel to the public domain and to find out how much of the gospel is already there.
Secondly, because of the "amazing development of technological innovation," the church has got to get used to change, he said.
"We will have to live with change for the next 50 or 100 years if not infinitely. For this the church must be both mobile and flexible."
Dr. Dolan said this change would include music closer to the rhythm of our times, prayers which are thoughtful and world-centred, and sermons which are short or instead question and answer periods and forum types.
One thing that hasn't changed in 50 years is that McDougall United Church still occupies the same building downtown; the original building that was next to it, a small structure built in 1873, was long ago moved to Fort Edmonton Park as part of the tourist attraction's heritage theme, which seems appropriate. What's missing in "central core" churches such as McDougall United is a central core of biblical Christian doctrine.
See also my previous posts:
Today's Evangelicals, Tomorrow's Liberals--A Warning from 1983 (January 13, 2010)
More evidence that yesterday's liberalism has become today's evangelicalism (November 8, 2011)
More evidence that
The latest LifeWay survey provides more evidence that many "evangelicals" may not be Christians (October 30, 2018)
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