Transcript Diocese of Birmingham adult uSa by size group

Welcome to a day about Transforming Church
es in
Making discipl
Midi
sized Church
es
Diocese of Birmingham adult uSa by size group
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
under 50
50-99
2003
2007
100+
Attendance at the 27 churches at this conference
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
ad usa
ch usa
ad Oct
2011
2012
ch Oct
Numbers of churches growing & shrinking
• October Count all week average:
•
adults
• Numbers up in 2012
15
• Numbers the same
1
• Numbers down in 2012
11
• Group % growth
6%
• Child % growth less school events
children
17
3
7
33%
27%
Diocese of Birmingham change in growth indicators 2012
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
ad usa
ch usa
ad oct av
ch oct av
ad net join
ch net join
Growing the church….
• Is about growth in three dimensions – spiritual, numerical & vitality
• Healthy churches grow in all three dimensions together
• Growing churches get deeper with God and more effective in their
communities as well as bigger
• Jesus told us not to be churchgoers but to be his disciples
• He told us not to make churchgoers but to make disciples
• And he promised us the power of the Holy Spirit to help us
Matthew ch 28v19,20 & Acts ch 1v8
“Go and make disciples of all nations….teaching them
to obey everything I have commanded you”
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit
comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and
to the ends of the earth”
So what does it mean to be a witnessing disciple?
• A witness is, literally from the Greek, a martyr – a
‘blood-witness’ to Jesus in a hostile world.
• A Christian witness testifies to their experience of
Jesus by how they live and what they say
• As a result, others begin to follow Jesus as well
So what does it mean to be a witnessing disciple?
• A disciple is committed to their rabbi or master – an
imitator of them, trying to become like them, part of
their team, learning from them in order to be able to
teach and influence others
• A disciple is not just an acquaintance of the master, a
disciple’s life is shaped around serving the master
• We are called to be Jesus’ disciples ourselves and to
help others grow as disciples as well
Who are we helping to become disciples?
We are Anglicans – we are there for everybody!
But the most responsive people tend to be
children, teenagers, young adults and
families…………….
Age at which 1242 people became Christians
(from 'Confidently sharing the faith')
6 & under
20 to 25
7 to 11
26 to 40
12 to 15
over 40
16 to 19
Who are we helping to become disciples?
We are Anglicans – we are there for everybody!
But the most responsive people tend to be
children, teenagers, young adults and
families…………….
We are there to help both people who are close
to church and those who are a million miles
away………………..
Acts ch 1v8
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit
comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and
to the ends of the earth”
Growing witnessing disciples in the NT
Judea …
Samaria …
The ends of the earth ….
Jerusalem
Churched
Fringe?
De-Churched?
Non-Churched?
What challenge will help you grow as a disciple?
It may be a church job, a contribution to the wider
community, or a new piece of Christian learning
Jerusalem
Churched
How can you bring fringe people and the church
children into the centre?
Give them a role? Get them into a small group?
Get to know them, mentor them?
Judea …
Jerusalem
Churched
Fringe?
What ways can you find to befriend and invite
people who have drifted away or fallen out with
church, including the teens who have left Sunday
School?
Judea …
Samaria …
Jerusalem
Churched
Fringe?
De-Churched?
How can you go to the foreign countries and speak the
foreign languages of the tribes among whom you live? This
may not be about inviting them to ‘your’ church but about
forming new shapes of church around and with your different
people-groups
Judea …
Samaria …
The ends of the earth ….
Jerusalem
Churched
Fringe?
Non-Churched?
De-Churched?
What sort of church is yours?
• Are you stuck in Jerusalem or moving out to Samaria & The Ends
• Are you growing in depth and vitality as Jesus’ disciples?
• Are there plenty of you but it’s a bit shallow?
• Does it feel like the Holy Spirit pours life into you?
• And does that life overflow into making new disciples and serving the
community?
• Or is it all a bit stagnant?
• If your church was a lake, what sort of lake would it be?
(Caution – Marmite Moment)
If your church was a lake what sort would it be and
what sort of growth does it most need?
Archbishop Justin’s vision
• There is no reason why the C of E could not double in size in the next
15-25 years if we renew our prayer life, achieve reconciliation within
the church & beyond it, and recover the priority of evangelism at
every level of the church:
• Boards, Councils, committees, PCCs – our agendas, diaries and
budgets should be dominated not by money, buildings & internal
conflicts but by evangelism – by the drive to become witnessing
disciples
• Every Christian should routinely invite people to their church, should
be informed & confident in their faith, and should be capable of
witnessing to it
Routinely invite people to church - Samaria
• 3m people say they would come to church if invited
• They are not inclined to gate-crash someone else’s private club
• But so far nobody ever has invited them
• Pray about whom to invite – find one of the 3m
• Pray for the courage and opportunity to invite them
• Back to Church Sunday
• But what about Christmas? In fact, any Sunday?
• Create regular opportunities in the church calendar
Routinely invite people to church - Samaria
• Most people need inviting several times before self-starting
• You need some confidence in your church’s events, services & community
to risk inviting people-so make church a great experience for newcomers!
• Always offer to bring people with you, to call for them or meet them
• Be cunning – ‘Would you like to come to church at 10.30 then to our house
for Sunday lunch?’
• ‘Would you like to come one Sunday?’ – takes away the ‘Sorry I’m busy this
week’ excuse
• Use a Sunday with an invitation card. Pick the right one – invite a young
family to Mothering Sunday, an old soldier to Remembrance Sunday
Routinely invite people to church - Samaria
• Smarten up the welcome – do ‘Everybody Welcome’ or ask Rhiannon
about doing some ‘Welcome’ training with you
• Appoint a ‘Welcome Team’
• Develop a church culture in which friendliness quickly moves on to
friendship
• People need to do more than just attend a church event – they need
to start belonging to the church community
Routinely develop your foreign language skills
– The end of the earth
• Develop links with your unreached people-groups
• Find the open and sympathetic people
• Work with them at developing new ways of being church
• The story of Baslow – the school gate, assemblies, friendship links, a
new style, doing it with them not for them, being prepared to give
something up
Be informed & confident in your faith
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Courses for Christians to deepen faith & understanding (Pilgrim)
Small groups – be in one, be used to discussing life and faith-issues
Read Christian books or use new media
Study the Bible regularly at home
Absorb what weekly worship and sermons can give you
Be honest about your gaps and go out of your way to plug them
Don’t be afraid to ask the naïve questions – others will be grateful
Confidence comes from experience of God in our lives so we need churches
in which it is normal to share our experiences – in services, in small groups,
in conversations and one to ones
Be capable of witnessing to your faith
• Apparently +Justin was ‘absolutely terrified’ of evangelism until he did
the ‘Lost for words’ course from CPAS, which he found
‘transformative’
• Check out the ‘Lost for words’ course and consider using it in your
church
• Look out for a major ‘Lay Discipleship’ conference “Inviting Disciples”
to be put on by ‘Church of England – Birmingham’ on November 15th
2014 – we are hoping for 1000 people at it. Invites to come.
Faith-sharing courses
• Blowing Your Cover Evangelism training course – 6 sessions
• Becoming a contagious Christian Willow Creek – 6 sessions
• Lost for Words CPAS Courses for children, youth & adults – 6 weeks
• Mind the Gap Gap between church & popular culture agape.org.uk
• Time to Talk to God From the Methodist Church
Be capable of witnessing to your faith
• We are called to be witnesses not evangelists
• To tell our story not explain substitutionary atonement theory
• Learn to tell your own story in the safety of a small group of Christian
friends
• Hone it down – two minutes not twenty
• Make it up to date not all about 30 years ago
• Make testimony a regular feature of church services
• When you are confident about telling a story pray for opportunities to
tell it
Now lets hear a story……
St John Perry Barr