Future of the Uniting Church

Freed from worrying about congregations, this Uniting Church will be able to move into new community service activities. It will not be weighed down with concerns about congregational matters. It will be able to tender for government contracts without the risk of theological complications.

This Uniting Church recruits from a wide range of professional people. For example, business people with a few decades in the harsh business world may well want to join it to give something back to the community and derive the pleasure of knowing that they are helping people – rather than just serving the corporate shareholders. They in turn will bring their management skills from the business world to make it even more professional and business-oriented.

Current congregations are largely aging and declining, while the community services are professionally managed enterprises and are growing in size, influence and ambition. Flourishing examples of this scenario may be found outside the Uniting Church. For example, Barnardos began as a British Christian welfare agency for children; it now sees itself in Australia as a child welfare agency involving people with all faiths and none; it is committed to social justice for children but without any specific Christian doctrinal approach.

If congregations continue to fade away while there is a continued willingness by government to outsource welfare work, then "Secular Welfare" could become the possible future for the Uniting Church.

The Uniting Church therefore needs to think about the implications of the second scenario: such as how to wind up congregations gracefully, and how to ensure Christian values are maintained in the welfare institutions (which are often financed by secular government).