From attending to Belonging to Contributing: as simple as ABC?

Over the past year over 1,300 people, who weren’t previously members of any church, joined the worshipping communities that make up the Church of England in Leicester and Leicestershire. This is great news, but it also presents a challenge.

Many of those that are new haven’t grown up with the Christian story, language, symbols or being part of any church, in any way. Added to which the experience of many is that often church communities, with their strong sense of fellowship, can be difficult places to join in their own right. How then might we help those who are new to church to become fully a part of our worshipping communities, able to contribute their gifts and grow deeper as disciples of Jesus?

We are delighted to welcome Bob Jackson to help us think further about this. Bob is the best selling author of Hope for the Church and The Road to Growth, co-author of major new welcome course, Everybody Welcome, experienced parish priest, and former Archdeacon of Walsall & Growth Officer for the Diocese of Lichfield. Whether you are a church leader, member of a church council, Churchwarden, Sidesperson, part of a welcome team, Mission Partnership Convenor, Mission Action Group member, Area Dean, archdeacon mission committee member or just interested in the topic, you are most welcome to join Bob for this special one-off gathering organised under the banner of Shaped by God: the diocesan vision for mission.

As the topic is so important, the session will run twice. Once in a slightly extended format in the morning and once in the evening on the same day:
Wednesday 13th October 2010

Extended morning session
Time: 9:30am-1:00pm (with coffee and pastries from 9:15am)
Location: St Paul’s Church, Hamble Road, Oadby, Leicester
Free parking in St. Paul’s car park

Repeated evening session
Time: 7:30-9:30pm (with coffee and pastries from 7:15pm)
Location: Emmanuel Church, Forest Road, Loughborough
Free parking in Emmanuel’s two car parks

Both sessions are free to attend, but, with demand expected to be high and limited places, book soon to avoid disappointment!).
Bookings to Carol (carol.gibbons@leccofe.org or 0116 248 7411).
For more information contact Mission Enabler, Barry Hill, barry.hill@leccofe.org or 0116 248 7435.

Special Resourcing Gatherings 2010

for Mission Partnership Action Groups, Convenors, Area Deans,
Archdeaconry Mission Committees and anyone else who would like to come!

Evening for lay members of Mission Action Groups (PMAGs)
Wednesday 23rd June, 7:45pm – 9:30pm, St. Paul’s, Oadby
A new addition to this years timetable, a gathering for just lay members of Partnership Mission Action Groups. Based on an idea from Watermead Mission Partnership, which worked really well, it’s an opportunity to share, discuss and pray together. There is no cost for the evening, but booking at least a week before hand is essential.

Bookings to Carol (carol.gibbons@leccofe.org or 0116 248 7411).

Morning or Evening with Bob Jackson for all
Wednesday 13th October, EITHER 9:30am-1pm, St. Paul’s, Oadby
OR 7:30pm-9:30pm, the same day, at Emmanuel, Loughborough
Best selling author of Hope for the Church and The Road to Growth, co-author of major new welcome course, Everybody Welcome, experienced parish priest, and former Archdeacon of Walsall/Growth Officer for the Diocese of Lichfield, Bob Jackson is one of this countries most respected experts on church growth and welcome. With a wealth of anecdotal experience and statistical evidence, he brings a fresh, and at times challenging, take on church growth. During the longer morning session and repeated in slightly shorter form the same night, Bob looks at what it means to be a welcoming church, set in the wider context of the changing times we live in. Everyone is welcome to this important session together.
There is no cost for the morning, but booking at least a week before hand is essential (although places are limited and demand expected to be high so book soon to avoid disappointment!).
Bookings to Carol (carol.gibbons@leccofe.org or 0116 248 7411).

New Prayer Course

Jonathan Walker, a Reader in the Church of England has written a new course on prayer called Prayer Eleven for Seekers. The course is aimed at teaching individuals (or perhaps small groups) about prayer, and they can download the course for free from his website www.prayereleven.org

If you think your congregation or others might be interested in this please could you put a notice in your church notice sheet (see website) or forward them a link to this post.

A Day Conference for Leicestershire on Rural Mission

A Day Conference for Leicestershire on Rural Mission

Saturday 10th July at Broughton Astley Village Hall, from 10am to 4pm.

In response to requests from Mission Partnerships, Barry Hill, the Mission Enabler for the Diocese and colleagues have been planning a major day conference for Leicestershire on Rural Mission. They are still finalising the last few speakers and presenters, but I wanted to let you have all the details we currently had so it could get in people’s diaries before it was too late!

It will take place on Saturday 10th July at Broughton Astley Village Hall (just south of the city), from 10am to 4pm. It is specially for designed for all those in rural churches (leaders, licensed ministers, Churchwardens, church council members, small group leaders, those who help with children and young peoples work, those interested in new ways of being church and Fresh Expressions, and anyone else interested in the mission in a rural context). The day will be led by a range of experienced practitioners in different aspects of rural mission and will include several keynote addresses (followed by times of questions and answers), and a choice of two seminars from these five:

* How do we resource mission in a time of often diminishing resources
* Rural Children, Rural Church: Mission Opportunities with young people
* Fresh Expressions in a Rural Context
* What might a fruitful rural Mission Partnership look like
* Church Tourism and mission – making effective use of our buildings

The heavily subsidised day costs just £5 per person, including lunch and refreshments during the day (booking in advance, but payment on the day).
It is designed for groups from a church to attend together, so to encourage this, if four tickets are bought from a single church or benefice, the fifth is free! More details and booking with Carol Gibbons (carol.gibbons@leccofe.org, 0116 248 7411). Numbers are limited to 150, so if interested best to book as soon as possible.

Evening for lay members of Mission Action Groups (PMAGs)

Wednesday 23rd June, 7:45pm – 9:30pm, St. Paul’s, Oadby
A new addition to this years timetable, a gathering for just lay members of Partnership Mission Action Groups. Based on an idea from Watermead Mission Partnership, which worked really well, it’s an opportunity to share, discuss and pray together. There is no cost for the evening, but booking at least a week before hand is essential. Bookings to Carol (carol.gibbons@leccofe.org or 0116 248 7411).

Morning or Evening with Bob Jackson

Wednesday 13th October, EITHER 9:30am-1pm, St. Paul’s, Oadby
OR 7:30pm-9:30pm, the same day, at Emmanuel, Loughborough
Best selling author of Hope for the Church and The Road to Growth, co-author of major new welcome course, Everybody Welcome, experienced parish priest, and former Archdeacon of Walsall/Growth Officer for the Diocese of Lichfield, Bob Jackson is one of this countries most respected experts on church growth and welcome. With a wealth of anecdotal experience and statistical evidence, he brings a fresh, and at times challenging, take on church growth. During the longer morning session and repeated in slightly shorter form the same night, Bob looks at what it means to be a welcoming church, set in the wider context of the changing times we live in. Everyone is welcome to this important session together.
There is no cost for the morning, but booking at least a week before hand is essential (although places are limited and demand expected to be high so book soon to avoid disappointment!). Bookings to Carol (carol.gibbons@leccofe.org or 0116 248 7411).

Morning on Mission Action Planning

Wednesday 28th April, 9:30am-1pm, St. Paul’s, Oadby
Would you like to know more of the tools available for discerning and implementing a mission plan?
This morning looks specifically at what Mission Action Planning is, before four people present tools they have used, together with a critique of the kind of situations they work best in (and less well for). After hearing a summary of all four, there’ll be opportunity to spend time with one of the presenters looking in more detail at the tools/he is sharing. The tools covered will include Natural Church Development, Growing Healthy Churches, the Grove model for envisioning and a home grown tool. There’ll also be opportunity to discuss how tools might be best used and adapted for your context. Everyone is welcome to this important session together.
Due to numbers and the reduction of budgets, lunch will not be provided, but refreshments
throughout the morning will be. There is no cost for the morning, but booking at least a week before hand is essential (although places are limited so book soon to avoid disappointment!). Bookings to Carol (carol.gibbons@leccofe.org or 0116 248 7411).

Mission Partnership Joint Choral Evensong

The next in our series of Mission Partnership Choral Evensong services will take place at St Peter's Church Oadby at 6.30 pm on Sunday 14th February. A joint mission partnership choir led by Janet Arthur from Smeeton Westerby will lead the singing at this traditional Book of Common Prayer service.

Do come along for what promises to be a treat for those who love choral church music.

St Luke's Six - Everest Base Camp 2010

Six worshippers from St Luke's Church are on their way to Everest Base Camp.

The 19 day trip will be a tough test as they raise money for The Hope of Glory Foundation and CLASP, The Carers Centre. Follow their progress (internet connection permitting) at their blog.

Vicar serves hot drinks to sledgers at Thurnby

On Saturday 9th January when the county was covered in snow, Thurnby families turned out in large numbers to enjoy sledging down the hill behind the Rose and Crown pub. Jon Barrett, vicar of Thurnby, went along with his family and using St Luke's new insulated coffee dispensers provided hot drinks for all.

A great time was had by all - the initiative was a great success and everyone was delighted, especially as the coffee was free!

Mission Initiative: Community Choir at Foxton

Caroline Johnson, reader at Foxton writes:

Back in October, a small group at Foxton studied "The Square Mile" using the DVD and booklet from the Evangelical Alliance which challenges people to think about mission in their mile of influence.
One of the group, Andy, was challenged to look at the way we reach out to Gartree, an area of the parish where we do not have much influence. Both Andy and our daughter Becs were unemployed at the time and met up each week for lunch and came up with the community choir idea. Becs is a music graduate specialising in singing. Having had the Gareth Malone choir on the TV recently this was the inspiration. They produced a very attractive leaflet and then went round Gartree one Saturday knocking on doors and asking if people would like to sing in a choir at the Christmas carol service. Subsequent targeted knocking in Foxton resulted in 35 people aged 7 – 85 turning up to the first practice in November. Andy had followed up the visit by texting people to remind them to come along and 5 people from Gartree came none of whom has had any contact with the church. Becs made us practice silly warm ups and we provided coffee afterwards to get everyone to know each other. At the carol service we sang ’ O Holy night’ with one of the newcomers, Shelley singing the solo. There were a number of new faces in the congregation many of whom had been invited by our singers. Sarah’s husband came to church for the first time in 23 years, Elaine’s husband to his first carol service in 15. Liz had invited her work colleagues who had never been to church and initially were very scathing. Three days later we went carol singing round the village with the same singers and had mulled wine and nibbles afterwards. Billy, a prison officer, and Liz both brought their families to the midnight and Christingle services.
We hope that the new guys have found the church community friendly and welcoming. The singing conducted by Becs was certainly of a higher standard than usual and lifted the congregation.
What next? We are planning a follow up event at Easter – a musical evening with gospel music.
We were challenged by the fact that our new singers asked all their friends to come to the carol service – how many of the normal congregation brought someone new along? Not many I fear.

Growing in Wholeness Course Part 2

The Growing in Wholeness Course Part 2 will begin on 27th January, the last Wednesday of the month, and run for 6 consecutive Wednesdays with a break during half term week. The first week will be held at St Luke's Church, and the following five sessions at St Luke's School, starting at 7.30pm and finishing at 9.30pm.

Part 2 course is for those who have completed Part 1. Please contact Helen Bence if you would like to enrol on 011 2707820 or email helen@thurnbychurch.com. Part 1 will run again later in the year.