LEADING YOUR CHURCH INTO GROWTH

The Revd Ashley Evans is now working in the Synod as LYCiG Consultant. A key focus for this year for those churches which are looking at leading their churches into growth, using a varied "toolbox" of resources, is a joint Synod event in November 2024. Involving northern Synods together with West Midlands Synod, this promises to be an inspirational event. Contact Ashley at [email protected] for more information and to invite him to your Church Meeting, Elders' Meeting or talk through possibilities. Tel: 07403 423 082. 

Download Ashley'S INTRODUCTION

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SHARING GOOD NEWS!  -
Imaginative ideas and their impact for the local church?

​Resources for local churches

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GOOD NEWS STORIES with NICK STANYON, former Synod Evangelist
​A number of video stories of mission ventures around the Synod can be viewed
on YouTube here
on this Website here

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Dementia cafe in Solihull
Support is offered to those living with dementia - cared for and carers - in an informal morning of activities.

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CHAPLAINCY
Various types of chaplaincy offer opportunities for mission and outreach into the community. Most involve both ordained and lay chaplains. Explore more via the Chaplaincy page.

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SOLUTIONS FOR 'THE NEW EVANGELISM'
The Synod Mission Fund is accepting applications from churches wishing to increase their online engagement

The Coronavirus pandemic and the resulting lockdown has caused a sea change of our churches’ practices. All churches were closed, and we had no corporate worship in our buildings. These circumstances led to a proliferation of Online Services, in a variety of different formats. These format, these services, the subsequent consequences of these services and the implications for the future were discussed at the Synod Ministers’ Virtual Summer conference this year. The Online services have been developed in different ways to suit local circumstances:

• Virtual services via platforms such as Zoom
• Services available over the telephone
• Services recorded locally with the video being posted online
• Live streaming of services

This list is not exhaustive but designed simply to show a degree of the variety.

It turns out that these online facilities have appealed, not only to our own congregations, in being able to worship and meet virtually, but they have appealed to people outside the confines of our churches. Nearly all churches whether large or small have found that visits to their websites have increased in number. This has not just been from our own individual communities but also from across the globe. The internet is able to join people up in a unique way. It seems that the general public has been in need of spiritual support, in need of comfort and perhaps in need of religion in a format different to the standard Sunday Morning service. These facts have surprised many but have provided a unique opportunity to reach out to those people who wouldn’t want to join us in our church buildings on a Sunday. They impact not only on our technological expertise but also on our expertise to design services or facilities that might be more attractive to non-churchgoers (i.e. different from the usual hymn and sermon sandwich!) – we are living in challenging times in many ways! The Panel would particularly like to hear from churches that wish to explore the use of technology to develop new ways of "being church" in an attempt to reach out to those outside our normal church communities and in order to support them in their faith journey in new and innovative ways

Synod has felt that online facilities are an opportunity, not to be missed. An opportunity to reach out into our local communities and across the world. The Mission Fund Panel feels that this new form of mission needs to be supported and enabled. We have decided to support applications for funding of training and equipment which will enable online services / streaming of services over the internet. We are inviting applications on a new application form which is available on the West Midlands Synod website (Synod>Finance>Guidelines and Forms>Digital form). Of course, these applications will be scrutinised in the usual manner by the panel.

So far, we have had five applications for such funding. Interestingly, there has been a spectrum of potential solutions, with differing complexity and differing costs. This spectrum of solutions offers churches and the Synod the opportunity to evaluate and assess these different ideas. We all need to learn from this initiative. What each church needs, in terms of support, will vary depending on several factors. The size of the building will be a factor; the existing equipment, the available expertise both come into play. The Mission Fund Panel has dictated that a condition of the funds being granted is that the results of the implementations are assessed and fed back to Synod so that the information can be shared with other churches, across the synod, who might be thinking about setting up the streaming of services. We have asked that the successes and the failures are reported back along with any learning points for other churches.

The West Midlands Synod wants to support this new enthusiasm for evangelism carried out in fresh and innovative ways.

Peter Horrocks - Mission Fund Convenor
October 2020

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