THE ROAD TO GROWTH

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THE ROAD TO GROWTH

• In Derby

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Part 1

• Attendance Trends

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C of E growth indicators 2003-4

• 2003 2004
  change
• Oct adults Sunday 853th 846th -1
• Oct adult Weekday 104th 105th 1
• Oct child Sunday 164th 164th
  0
• Oct child Weekday 85th 92th 8
  
• USA adult Sunday 757th 760th 0
• USA child Sunday 145th 143th -1
  

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C of E growth indicators 2003-4

• 2003 2004
  change
• Easter Attend 1504th 1513th 1
• Christmas Attend 2653th 2639th -1
• Baps Thanks 144th 144th 0
• Confirmations 31,800 30,400 -4
• Marriages 56,100 57,000 2
• Funerals 227th 212th
  -6

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Diocese of Derby October Count Sunday attendance

• Adults Children Total
• 2001 15,100 2,900 18,000
• 2002 14,700 2,800 17,500
• 2003 15,200 2,500 17,700
• 2004 15,000 2,500 17,500

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Diocese of Derby October Count Weekday
attendance

• Adult Child Total
• 2001 1,000 500 1,500
• 2002 1,300 700 2,000
• 2003 1,300 500 1,800
• 1,500 1,200 2,700
• All Age 2001-2004
• Sunday down 500 Weekday up 1,200

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Self Inflicted Wounds

• Team Ministries
• Short Incumbencies
• Discouraging Young Ordinands
• Lengthy Vacancies

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Problems with Team Rector Vicar Parishes

• Extra administration meetings
• Internal focus relationships organisation
• Conflict personality clashes
• Who is in charge and who has pastoral care
• Problems in one church infect the others
• Short stay team vicars (V 9.5/TV 5.9)
• Easy for the diocese to cut a post

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Strengths of teams working well

• Clergy support and fellowship
• Creation of senior posts for clergy to progress
  to
• Sharing of lay clergy gifts abilities
• Strengths of the large as well as the small
  eg youth ministry, range of service types
• Can think act strategically across area
• MMAs must aim at acquiring the strengths of teams
  not the weaknesses

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Length of stay in a midlands diocese

• 26 Rectors average 11.1 years
• 90 Vicars average 9.5 years
• 21 Team Rectors average 8.4 years
• 39 Team Vicars average 5.9 years
• 45 Priests in Charge 4.6 years
• 221 Clergy 8.0
  years
• Church growth happens best between the 5th and
  12th years of an incumbency

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Recommendations for training for stipendiary
ministry

• Age Group 1983 1993 2003
• 20-29 200 102 78
• 30-39 74 108 109
• 40-49 27 37 109
• 50-59 2 2
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• Total 303 249 324

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THE ROAD TO GROWTH

• In Derby

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Part 2

• Change or decay in all around I see

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Eight changes that lead to church growth

• Usually, churches only grow when they change
• Surveys show that churches that dont change are
  shrinking, churches that do change are not
  shrinking
• Not every change is associated with growth new
  prayer or hymn books cause no ripple
• But usually the choice is change or decay

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Survey Results innovation electoral roll
change

• Churches number of change to
• Making churches ER
  1996-2002
• No innovation 17 -22
• Min one change 32 3

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Eight changes that lead to church growth

• Planting new congregations fresh expressions

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New Worship Events stimulated in Walsall
Archdeaconry in 2005

• Monthly Youth Services
• Weekly Pub Service Sunday night
• Monthly services in Care Homes
• Sunday morning doubled up to 9.30/11am
• All age service in shop premises
• Café Church
• Monthly Memorial Services

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New Worship Events stimulated in Walsall
Archdeaconry in 2005

• Nursery Praise
• Sat evening for migrant workers families
• Healing Services
• Monthly Taize or Iona style
• Tues lunchtime Bible exposition
• Young families Sunday 4.30pm
• So far found 33 new events in c90 churches

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Eight changes that lead to church growth

• Planting new congregations fresh expressions
• Making worship less stiff, more relaxed, varied
  (Joy and laughter only growth universal)
• Better provision for children and young people
  (Family Services, Sunday Schools, Youth)
• Improving welcome integration
• Better quality, more varied, contemporary music
• More lay involvement in leadership
• Better small groups pastoral care
• Improvements to buildings

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THE ROAD TO GROWTH

• In Derby

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Part 3

• Resourcing a Growth Strategy

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Lichfield Growth Strategy encouraging churches
to grow

• MAPs and Cluster Visits building vision
• Offering resources (courses, books etc)
• Growth Officers for each area - consultancy
• Keeping vacancies short
• Set up network relational congregations
• Work with larger churches
• Change the Share formula

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Lichfield Growth Strategy equipping
people-growth agents

• Equip all church members to share their faith
  stories
• Provision of right nos of different ministries
  OLM, NSM, youth worker, lay ministers etc
• Training to emphasise mission-evangelism
• Encourage clergy to stay 10-12 years
• Train recruit clergy as missional leaders and
  enablers of other peoples ministries

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Lichfield Growth Strategy nurturing CH and YP
in the faith

• Include on PCCs etc
• Training clergy others to work with YP eg
  taking assemblies
• Set up Fresh Expressions for CH YP inc
  after-school worship, lunchtime groups
• Admit children to communion pre confirm
• Provide funding for youth chs ministers
• See schools as centres for mission

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Lichfield Growth Strategy funding the growth

• Establish a Diocesan Growth Fund
• Encourage deaneries (MMAs?) to do the same
• And churches to have a development budget
• Re-format diocesan budget to move funds towards
  growth
• Identify new funding sources (partners, house
  sales, legacies etc)
• A growth-friendly Share system, without any
  formula-link from attendance or income to Share

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Retrenchment v Investment

• Strained finances often mean retrenchment fewer
  clergy, cuts in diocesan staff grants
• Have to avoid the insolvency precipice
• Finance people can see investing in the future as
  a threat to this years financial stability
• The trouble is if you dont invest in the future
  you wont have one!
• Numerical declinemain enemy of sound finances
• If we dont invest money in future forms of
  church ministry we will keep shrinking until we
  die
• We must avoid the no investment precipice

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Retrenchment v Investment

• So we have to find ways of investing in our
  future while staying financially solvent today
• This means being smarter with our money eg
  selling the spare houses
• And not spending all our available money simply
  keeping going as many posts from the past as
  possible

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Lichfield Growth Fund

• 250-300,000 pa mid 2005 to mid 2008
• From Commissioners mission funding and diocesan
  capital
• Grant-making group of seven one bishop, one
  archdeacon, one pioneer, one missioner, one
  vicar, two youth/childrens workers with
  post-modern outlook
• Meets four times a year to make grants
• For initiatives that will grow the church

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Lichfield Growth Fund

• All parishes have an application form guidance
  notes
• Up to half the cost up to 15,000pa up to 3 years
  salaries or other costs (not blds)
• Seed corn money to start new initiatives, fresh
  expressions for the under 40s
• First grants made July 2005 now offered
  c400,000

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Lichfield Growth Fund

• Youth Ministers trainees
• Childrens Ministers
• Families Ministers
• Church planters eg young adults, workplace
• Fresh Expression start-up IT costs
• Missions
• Youth events

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Lichfield Growth Fund

• January 2006 meeting requests for grants
  totalled nearly 400,000 from about 25 different
  projects
• We were able to offer about 100,000
• Important to maintain the CCs mission funding and
  grow the diocesan contribution

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Derby Local Mission Fund

• Approved by Synod last week
• Lichfield was a helpful model
• 100,000pa to be available in grants
• To parishes, MMAs, etc
• Hallelujah! Well done Synod!!
• Start thinking about your mission initiative

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THE ROAD TO GROWTH

• In Derby

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Part 4

• Human resources for future growth

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Human resources for church growth
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Human resources for church growth

• Pro-active recruitment of young ordinands
• To give new hope energy in the short term
• To lead growing churches in the medium term
• And to be the experienced diocesan leaders in the
  longer term

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Human resources for Church Growth

• Investing in the older clergy
• Space to re-charge batteries
• Professional human resources managers
• Better medical care
• Training input on how post-moderns tick
• Younger colleagues MMA leadership teams should
  be a mix of ages

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Future shapes of ministry

• Pastor to the flock Leader in Mission
• Church curator Church planter
• Chaplain Missionary
• Settler Pioneer
• Conformist Entrepreneur
• Being safe Taking risks
• Maintaining existing forms pioneering fresh
  expressions

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Future Shapes of Ministry

• Doing the ministry - Ensuring it is done
• Father Cork Enabler of others ministries
• Multi-competent dog collar Specialist team
• Single-church leader Oversight of churches
• High-cost operation Unpaid leadership
• Lone Ranger Collaboration in the team
• Middle-aged The young

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Future shapes of ministry

• Manager of decline Inspirer for growth
• Building-centred Relationship-centred
• Rock of stability Manager of change
• Authority figure Authenticity advert
• Establishment figure - Counter-cultural leader
• Independent operators working together

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Human resources for church growth

• We have fewer vicars so we must train a group of
  lay people to fill the gaps
• Instead of the minister we will have the
  ministry team
• To become a recognised ministry team the group
  must go through a three year diocesan training
  course

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Human resources for church growth

• The evidence suggests that churches actually
  shrink as a result of developing a ministry team,
  at least during the three years of training. In
  one diocese churches developing lay ministry
  teams shrank 25 while other churches stayed the
  same
• Now why should that be when they are apparently
  doing the right thing in growing lay leadership?

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Human resources for church growth

• Instead of declericalising church life they were
  just clericalising a few of the laity
• And keeping the structures the same as before
• But taking some key members from their existing
  roles to re-train them for something else
• The rest of the congregation was still denied
  recognition as ministers
• Focus is turned inwards as the team trains
• And the ministries are often internal

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Features of Mission Ministry Areas

• 255 parishes into 57 MMAs
• 150 down to 120 incumbents in five years
• Currently c7 posts over the plan
• 12 months vacancy policy internal recruit
• Area Vicar is not Team Rector more RD
• MMA council includes lay leaders
• For vision, strategic direction, mission focus

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Cutting posts does not inevitably mean attendance
decline
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Lessons from Team Rector parishes Lay Ministry
Teams

• No ambiguous authority structures
• Keep focus on individual churches with their own
  clear leadership
• Evangelism not internal ecumenism
• Ministry is for all not just a ministry team
• Keep vacancies short advertise for best leader
  in mission enabler of other peoples ministries
• Creative, strategic thinking across area eg for
  new lay posts, or planting fresh expressions

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Churches as missionary communities

• Whole churches need to be trained together as
  missionary congregations
• Recognising everyones gift and ability, not just
  the chosen few the ministry of all believers
• And they should be trained in outward-focussed
  ministries
• Not to maintain the institution but to share the
  faith

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Churches as missionary communities

• The commonest question now is not Is
  Christianity true? but Does it work?
• This is best answered not by an evangelist but by
  testimony it works for me!
• The most direct way to turn a church into a
  missionary congregation is to help every member
  tell their own God-story

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Learning to tell our story

• First in the safety of the church one to one,
  small groups, church services
• Use dvd and websites get the teens to do the
  technical stuff
• Then with friends, family and colleagues in the
  outside world
• When we can all tell our stories there will be no
  stopping us!

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The Road to Growth in Derby

• May be narrow winding but it is open in front
  of us if we choose to walk it

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Flip Chart Headings

• Changes we are making to help us grow
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• Todays most important insights for us
• 1.
• 2.