The Circuit Stewards’ Handbook and Training materials are now available to download. The handbook and materials are amended annually, any recommendations should be sent to mvw@methodistchurch.org.uk
To help churches, circuits and districts consider their next steps, a mission planning toolkit can be found on the Methodist Church website. The kit offers resources to guide and support those who are thinking about and planning the next chapter in their story.
Connexional Evangelism and Growth Strategy Foundations Welcomed at Conference
Since autumn 2018, the new Evangelism and Growth team has led 75 consultations in every region of the Church – the first phase of its work to inspire, architect, and embed a contextual, coherent, and coordinated Connexional Strategy for Evangelism and Growth. Those consultations led to a “Strategic Foundations Paper” that was workshopped at the Superintendents Conferences and the Methodist Conference. Another 300 people from across the Connexion will engage with these strategic foundations at an October 2019 Consultation on Evangelism.
The developed strategy will be presented to the 2020 Conference in Telford for discussion and acceptance. In the meantime, the Evangelism and Growth team is kick-starting some experiments to help the whole Church stretch into a renewed commitment to faith-sharing, growing churches, and starting new Christian communities.
Here are a two ways you can get connected now:
A Mission Plan for Your Church [https://www.methodist.org.uk/our-work/our-work-in-britain/evangelism-growth/changing-growing-churches/mission-planning/]
If your church doesn’t yet have a mission plan, the Mission Planning Toolkit has lots of resources to get you started and to guide you along the way. Mission Planning is a crucial step towards one of our strategic dreams: Every Church Growing.
New Places for New People Grants [https://www.methodist.org.uk/our-work/our-work-in-britain/evangelism-growth/new-places-for-new-people-starting-christian-communities/new-places-for-new-people-grants/]
Are you looking to pioneer something new in your circuit or church? We would like to help you get started, and affirm you as you seek God’s calling, with a “New Places for New People” starter grant. We are looking for projects right at the start of their pioneering journey where £100-£1500 would lift a bit of pressure at that early stage.
Trey Hall, Director of Evangelism and Growth said: “As we prepare to launch a significant strategy change in 2020 around starting new churches, partnering with leaders in the most deprived areas of the country, and raising up a movement of young leaders, we’re excited to announce these micro-grants as a very small sign of the expansive commitment that we hope to make in 2020.”
The new issue of the connexion on this theme is now available.
Read about the work of Rev Nik Wooller, who is employed to reach ‘Missing Methodists’ and ‘Churchless Christians’ in Scotland.
See Rev Helen Jenkins – Forth Valley Circuit – speaking about her call and ministry’
Methodist Insurance is offering awards for individual or group volunteers in Methodist Churches. There will be a £1000 award for the best in each region, and an extra £2000 for the overall winner.
Nominations must be received by 30th September 2019.
The Methodist Church has joined with over 100 organisations to call on the government to give asylum seekers the right to work whilst waiting for a decision from the Home Office.
Read more about it. Sign the petition.
A new podcast series from Cranmer Hall, part of St John’s College, Durham.
The first podcast features David Wilkinson on ‘Why Theology needs Science”.
Read the latest briefing from the Joint Policy Issues Team, which explains how this rule is creating poverty for children.
