How many of you have potential, but unreached, connections in the community where your church is rooted? The chances are there are thousands of people who have yet to know the transforming love of Christ.
In Birmingham, we are deeply conscious of the many children, young people and adults who are on our doorsteps, yet know nothing of the gospel. Birmingham is a city with a strong industrial and creative heritage and is currently the youngest city in Europe. Our longing is that the Church here would reflect something of that. So, we find ourselves at the start of an exciting new chapter in the life of Church of England – Birmingham, as 2015 saw the launch of an outrageous vision entitled ‘Growing younger’.
Our vision is to help thousands of children and their families respond to the love of Christ. Over the next five years, we’re dreaming of church congregations doubling in size, planting churches or setting up Fresh Expressions. We’re hoping to hear dozens of children and their families talking freely about their newfound faith, and for many, many more new Christians.
Building on the strong foundations of many people working faithfully around Birmingham through the generations, one of the key ways in which we want to see this is through the appointment of children’s and families’ missioners (CFMs) right across the diocese. Through a generous grant from the Church Commissioners and significant investment from Church of England – Birmingham, we have so far appointed 12 missioners, with the hope of having a further four in place by this summer. The intention is that the CFMs will help their churches reach further into their communities through empowering and inspiring others, rather than doing everything themselves. Principally, this will happen through training up members of the local congregation to take assemblies; deliver all-age worship; head up Sunday Schools or equivalent; run holiday clubs, age-appropriate baptism and confirmation groups; liaise well with schools; teach parents how to share their faith at home; and lead Messy Church, ‘Who let the Dads out?’ or similar initiatives that are suited to the needs of their communities.
They will also take a lead in encouraging congregation members in how to disciple children and their parents, on their continuing path of faith. Already they are making an impact. Here’s one story:
There was an old beer advert that boasted that its drink ‘refreshes the parts other beers can’t reach’. In the short time Mandy has been in post as our CFM, she has begun to reach parts of the parish that others have not been able to refresh. In the last few months we have
- Found doors opening to all four primary schools in the parish because of Mandy (and after years of prayer)
- Told the story of the nativity to 2,000 primary school children through a ‘walking nativity’ written by Mandy
- Begun creating relationships with more than 70 children and their parents / grandparents through ‘Messy mission’ events organised by Mandy and a team of volunteers over Christmas.
The impact of having an ‘authorised’ role cannot be underestimated. In this parish, Mandy now has credibility as an outward-facing, softly-spoken evangelist who overcomes barriers and draws people in. She is also empowering others to join in the enterprise of bridge-building and relationship-forming. Children and adults are coming into safe wondering spaces to explore faith in Christ. They are being changed and so are we. In fact, there is not so much a sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’, but ‘we’ together, building bridges to lead people to the true source of refreshment: Jesus. Just reviewing the last few months fills our hearts with joy. How have we been doing this?
Here are some of the tools we’re using:
- Contextualisation: One of the first things the CFMs do is an audit of their communities discovering where children are, and what is already happening. From this they can work with the parish to create a strategic plan suited to their location.
- Schools: Obviously, this is where children are a lot of the time! We are exploring the many different ways in which congregations can engage in a supportive way in local schools.
- Making good use of opportunities: Baptisms are a key time when children and their families find their way into our churches. We are asking questions about how those occasions can help create a good link between the family and the church.
- Seasonal opportunities: Whether that’s putting together a resource for Harvest, Christmas or Easter that can be offered to schools, or inviting schools in for services or events at particular times of the year, we’re looking at more creative ways of using the seasons or Church calendar.
Ruth Hassall is assistant director of mission for Church of England - Birmingham
