Revitalised Churches

Growing, inclusive, evangelistic, justice-seeking
REVITALISED CHURCHES

Our vision: When a church in its current form appears to be coming to an end and the congregation feel called to experiment with being church in new contextually relevant ways they will be supported to do so.

Faith Rooted Community Organising practices enable small groups of people to make a significant impact on their neighbourhood. Where a small congregation have an appetite to experiment with fresh ways of being church and have the right support to do so, positive change can happen quickly.

What is possible will be shaped by the gifts and fluctuating availability of unique individuals, so adaptive learning and incremental steps will be more important than rigid long term plans. Sometimes a period of experimentation will lead to a healthy Ending Well rather than long term continuation of a church.

Key challenges will be:

• It is likely that many of our churches or pieces of work within these will face questions about whether to end well or try radically different things in the next few years
• Churches of all denominations in economically marginalised or geographically isolated communities may be at greater risk of ending
• Many churches are reliant on small numbers of people, meaning that their confidence about the future can change suddenly
• Allowing time for experimentation can place additional burdens on ordained ministers and circuit officers
• Revitalisation requires both passion to continue meeting and enthusiasm to try new ways, with the balance of these not always being simple to discern.

To enable this District will:

Support experimentation and re-visioning:

• Make available district staff to walk alongside congregations (and their ministers) at risk of ending and but feeling called to experiment with new ways of being church based on local community needs to connect with new people.
• Provide easily accessible seed funding grants towards this experimentation Find out how
• provide larger staffing grants towards extended experimentation Find out how

Implementation of this vision will be overseen by our Revitalising Churches Support Team