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.

Lifelong Christian Nurture

There are many ways in which the Churches can nurture faith. Think of your Church and the way people grow in their understanding of Jesus on their journey of faith.

“We can think of faith as a seed growing into a plant, and opportunities for learning about our faith in our Churches as a support structure. This structure provides opportunities for us to develop our faith and understanding….. (and) allows our faith to be nurtured.”

Link to Shaped by God resources

Thought for the day… Shaped by God “Sharing our Faith”

Evangelism and Church growth are not just for Evangelicals; they are for ALL Christians.
We often envisage them as happening in someone else’s situation (usually the someone else has got more resources, people and finance than us), or as happening in our situation at some point in the future if only we could be more…
In fact, they can begin to happen where we are, and they can begin to happen now. Click on link to take a closer look at the Shaped by God booklet – “Sharing our Faith” http://www.leicester.anglican.org/shaped/themed.html and go to “Confident and Sensitive Evangelism”

9 Marks of Mission. “Welcoming Newcomers”

Your church has a prime advertising site – its own notice board.  It advertises you church 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Your church notice board may be much more.  It may be one of the very few remaining points of contact between Christianity and, much of your local community.

For your link to the Shaped by God Toolkit, please go to….

http://www.leicester.anglican.org/shaped/toolkit.html