First person: should I stay or should I go?

‘Should I stay or should I go?’ was the question famously sung by rock group The Clash in 1981.

It is the question many in the Church of England – especially those of us who are ministers – are now asking.

I am currently on sabbatical from my parish ministry post (though not en) and last Sunday sat happily in a service at Peacehaven Evangelical Free Church. The previous two Sundays had seen me, respectively, at South Street Free Church, Eastbourne and an international evangelical church in Grenoble. None of them were Anglican, and of course it didn’t matter; the Bible was being preached, the services had heart as well as head, and there were good things at all three.