CHURCHES were yesterday urged to update their methods to meet the

needs of city dwellers.

New forms of worship and flexibility of times and venues for services

were among the suggestions put forward by Dr Ray Bakke, an American

expert on urban ministry who advises Churches around the world.

He said that much of Church thinking and practice was based on the

days when most of the population lived in rural areas. The timing of

Sunday morning services, for example, could be traced back to when most

church-goers had cows to milk early.

With a shift of population from the countryside to the cities,

Churches now had to adapt basic functions to the urban context.

''The Church needs to be a 24-hour ministry with day pastors and night

pastors,'' said Dr Bakke, who heads the Chicago-based International

Urban Associates, an organisation which acts as a consultancy for

Churches, and who has many years of experience as an inner-city

minister.

In the field of worship, for instance, he said: ''The forms we have

used in the past do not always work. We need to consider new ways of

worship, using new kinds of music and the arts, meeting at different

times of day and night, meeting in people's homes and so on.

''The Church has to get into the 'people ministry'. The old pastor

used to ask, 'What is my text'? The new pastor must also ask, 'Who is my

audience'?''

Churches were facing new challenges as city populations grew and

became increasingly multinational.

''I am convinced that the Church is the one institution that has the

credibility to create hope, meaning, and stability in all of this. The

Church, in Scotland and throughout the world, is going to be beautifully

positioned.''

Dr Bakke was speaking in Glasgow as he prepared to give the opening

address at the Scottish Urban Mission Conference, described by its

organisers as the first event of its kind in Scotland.

The week-long conference is being attended by 180 people from all over

the country who are examining how Churches should tackle the changing

nature of city life and the issues affecting urban dwellers, including

unemployment and poverty, housing and homelessness, health and family

support, and women and violence.

The inter-denominational event is sponsored by the Church of

Scotland's board of national mission and by World Mission, a Christian

relief and development agency, with support from all the major Christian

Churches in Scotland.

The Rev. Ian Moir, the Church of Scotland's national adviser for urban

priority areas, is chairing the conference.

He said another challenge was the fact that the Church itself

reflected the disparity of resources between rich and poor areas. ''The

Church needs to think sacrificially in terms of being prepared to

release more of its resources to put in properly trained people to work

in the poorer areas.

''We need to do a lot of thinking and it is going to be costly. We

talk about urban priorities -- is it just a name or do we mean

priority?''