It wasn't so long ago that my Diocese released a course for all its churches, including a talk from a senior staff member who argued that local churches should 'forget about being missionary'. There was maybe an important point buried in there, but it was symptomatic of a wider complacency about evangelism, mission and church growth.
How things have changed - we're now recruiting for this:
This is an exciting opportunity to join the Diocese of Bath and Wells as we start to implement our new strategy which seeks to put mission and evangelism at the heart of everything that we do.
We want to appoint someone who is passionate about Evangelism who will inspire, teach, train and enable others in this ministry, working across the diocese at every level.
We are looking for someone who has:
- An understanding of evangelism and mission in an Anglican context
- Experience of developing church planting, fresh expressions or of pioneer ministry
- Ability to enthuse and inspire others
- Proven ability to develop evangelism and mission and enable numerical and spiritual growth
more details here. Great news.
Sometimes we don't see the normal day to day activities of our Churches as Mission or Evangelism. But doing them well and regularly does attract new people. Sometimes mission and outreach is a burst of activity than nothing - keeping the momentum and enthusiasm of those involved at a level of continuing to be effective, while prepared to listen and to change what isn't working takes real time prayerful reflection by Clergy and Laity, focused through the PCC, who if they are not on song with what inspires the incumbent and Mission team - might just slow or stop initiatives in their tracks.
ReplyDeleteBut our bread and butter day to day ministry, seems to produce results in terms of meeting people and passing on the good news. A well trained and motivated welcome team might do more for mission than many other overt activities.