By John Cole

(I) Local churches come in all shapes and sizes - large and small, in town and country and in many different traditions. But they have at least two things in common: 1. The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. Some kind of institutional structure. The problem is that these two don’t always match.

Churches are organised as institutions, often by law, so that they can’t lose their identity. Nothing must be changed. The problem arises when we organise our church life on the same basis.

All well and good while we are inside the church - because we know what we like; but how does it look from outside the churchyard gate?

(2) More than two-thirds of the population know that, instead of feeling welcome in an ‘open’ church, they are faced with something more like a fortified camp. Worse still, they see churches as ghettos, prisons or bolt-holes for those who can’t cope with real life.

(3) OPEN CHURCH OR FORTIFIED CAMP? That’s the charge. Does it stick?