Reaching New People

Living Churchyards Webinar Churchyard maintenance and its relationship to biodiversity Webinars for All Lay and Ordained Leaders. As part of the St Albans Diocese Mission Department we are hosting a series of webinars around presenting topics relevant for all lay and ordained church leaders.

Discovering New Forms of Missional-Incarnational Life and Ministry from the Historical Missional Movement (Part Two) Webinar This will be a four-part series of micro-learning opportunities for missional leaders to discover new forms of missional-incarnational life and ministry from the historical missional movement. Part 3 - Organising for Mission in a digital world that values participation The relationship between the church and mission has always been a complex one — just ask three Christian leaders about the topic and you will get a myriad of different answers. The current emerging paradigm of Christianity is at its core a participatory ‘Missional Church’ that is rooted in partnering with the mission of God that is already happening in its midst. Part 4 - Redrawing our Maps Reading the book of Acts reminds us how often ‘unwelcome disruption’ comes to the Church and though people pray against it and hope that God would never let terrible things happen- disruptive change results in a deepening and expanding of spiritual and numerical growth for the Church. It is interesting to think about how the new emerging Western church will look in the next ten to twenty years. No doubt, many churches will continue to mourn the loss of membership, vitality, and influence, alongside yearning to reach emerging generations who have no reference point of gathering on a Sunday morning. As the church undertakes this next stage of its historical journey, it cannot hope to make sense of it using old institutional maps. Instead, it is when Christians are willing to accept our confusion instead of fleeing from it, and change the questions we are asking, that we can discover new insights that will give us new maps.

A thirst to learn from Jesus (Week 2) Two week series: Tuesdays 21 & 28 April 2020 Week 1: A thirst to learn from Jesus - discussion and thoughts around incarnational ministry after the lockdown is lifted. Week 2: A thirst to learn from Jesus - exploring the Jesus model of Invitation and Challenge in the making of disciples.

A Vision of a Net Zero Carbon Church Practical steps for moving church buildings towards the net zero goal from General Synod, with Catherine Ross, National Church of England Environment Officer.

Discovering New Forms of Missional-Incarnational Life and Ministry from the Historical Missional Movement (Part 1) Webinar This will be a four-part series of micro-learning opportunities for missional leaders to discover new forms of missional-incarnational life and ministry from the historical missional movement. Part 1 — It might be Mission history, but not as we know it! Hundreds of years of how the global church has organised itself have changed in an instant during the 2020 global pandemic. In truth, the church is no different from many other organisations who were birthed in the industrial age and are currently finding it hard to adapt to the reality of a new digital age. The exciting news is that systemic changes in Christianity have been an ongoing theme, and there is much wisdom to draw from the past as we redesign new ways of creating new Christian communities in the 21st century.

As part of the St Albans Diocese Mission Department we are hosting a series of webinars around presenting topics relevant for all lay and ordained church leaders. A thirst to learn from Jesus (Part 1)by Alison Jackson Part 1: A thirst to learn from Jesus - discussion and thoughts around incarnational ministry after the lockdown is lifted.

Rev’d Dr Ash Barker is a pioneering urban activist, leadership developer, writer and Minister. A husband to a force of nature and Dad to 2 amazing kids, Ash spent over 25 years immersed and ministering in urban poverty contexts in his native Melbourne and Bangkok’s largest slum. Ash founded and leads Newbigin School for Urban Leadership (NewbiginSchool.uk) which partners with NTC for formal studies (MA, PhD supervision) as well as emerging leaders programmes like UrbanChangeMakers.org to mobilise, prepare and equip Christians leaders for our new urban world. Embedding themselves among the people they are serving has always been a significant aspect of the Barkers’ approach to mission. ‘Programmes are not going to be enough; institutions are not enough,’ Ash says. ‘It takes people to reach people, and communities to reach communities. We feel like the gospel flows better relationally than it does just through a programme.’

Simon Mattholie is an ordained baptist minister, who is the current CEO of Rural Ministries, an ecumenical mission agency that works across the UK. With a wealth of experience over the last 20 years, Simon has played a key part in assisting many diocese across the UK in their rural strategy and helping them to secure funding to support this. Simon lives on a small farm in Suffolk with his wife Kirstie and a menagerie of animals. He has two grown up children, and is also a grandfather.

What can you and your church do to care for God's earth? Climate change, plastics in the ocean, nature in crisis. These are just some of the headlines reflecting the environmental challenges of our times. This workshop will look at how and why we're called as Christians to care for the earth and will also provide an overview of Eco Church, a practical scheme run by A Rocha UK to help churches engage and respond. Helen Stephens is Church Relations Manager for A Rocha UK a charity focused on mobilising Christians and churches to care for God's earth. Helen oversees the Eco Church scheme which now has 1600+ participating churches.

Sacraments are at the heart of Christian faith and mission. In this webinar we will explore how a sacramental method can run through our new christian communities naturally leading to the fulness of church community. We will be thinking about: - Sacramentals as gateway to the Sacraments - Creative freedom within Anglican polity - How to share best practice Father Eddie Green, vicar at All Saints Leavesden, has over 25 years experience of new christian communities and is community enabler for Sanctum, a network of over 300 creative sacramental practitioners.

Cris Rogers, Rector of All Hallows' Church, Bow, London will be sharing how he has considered making disciples as not as easy as it is presented in the gospels. We know we want to help disciples mature and grow in their formation but we often struggle developing a discipleship action plan for our congregations. - During this training day we will.... - Explore tools useful for assessing the whole life discipleship shape of individuals and congregations - Use this to help map a discipleship action plan for your church. - Look at research just being published on the 6 shifts a church leader needs to make in their church to cultivate a culture ripe for disciple making.

Lee-Ann Matthews, Diocesan Web and Social Media Coordinator for the Diocese of Montreal, joins us for a Webinar on how to connect meaningfully with your community through Social Media. If you would like to learn how to develop a strategy to help you to share the good news stories in your context then join us for our Webinar as Lee-Anne shares her wisdom with us.

Churches have an important role in accompanying children, young people, and their carers through key transitions on the journey to adulthood. Margaret Pritchard Houston, Children’s Mission Enabler, and Dean Pusey, Diocesan Youth Officer, St Albans Diocese, will lead a conversation on baptism, the transition to secondary school, confirmation, and school leaving. They will help us look at what these times mean in the lives of children, families, and young people, and how the church can be present for meaningful ministry and mission at these important times. Please bring your questions, your stories, your thoughts, and anything else you have on this important topic!

New housing developments are springing up all over the country – our challenge as Christians from all traditions is to work out our response. During the webinar, we will explore some underlying principles for engaging in new communities; how we might welcome and bless new residents and create opportunities for the Christian faith to be explored and nurtured in ways that are appropriate to the new context. Rev Alison Boulton is a new housing pioneer and works as a regional Pioneer Mission Enabler. Along with Rev Penny Marsh she has founded the nation New Housing Hub to encourage and equip Christians of all traditions to share God’s love in every new community.

Engaging with schools can be a joy and a challenge. Lizzie Jeanes has been working as a teacher and Diocesan Education Officer for 20 years and will share some ideas about ways to engage with schools in order to develop your work in the community as a whole. Bring your questions and we will work through them together.

Hosted by Pádraig Ó Tuama, Leader of The Corrymeela Community, this webinar will explore scripture stories that centre around conflict. Building on a close reading of those texts we will explore the dynamics of conflict at their heart, the resolutions to the conflict, the escalations and de-escalations of conflict and consider how Christian spirituality can deepen our capacity to respond well in times of conflict.

Messy Church – From The Horse’s Mouth! Hosted by Lucy Moore, Messy Church Founder and Team Leader at the Bible Reading Fellowship, we’ll be looking at what Messy Church actually is, rather than what some think it is. We’ll also talk about how to make the most of the opportunities it gives for discipleship and how a busy and hard-pressed team might aim to grow disciples both among the families who come and the team leading it. If there’s time, we can consider questions around the sacraments, the exciting projects teams are initiating (such as prisons and Vintage) and be inspired to go way beyond ‘event’ into ‘church’.

Hosted by Revd Joe Pienaar, Vicar of St.Hugh's & Area Dean of Luton. So often we look at what Jesus said (His words) and what he did (His works), but fail to consider the way in which he conducted ministry (His ways). We will spend time exploring the doctrines of Missio Dei, Trinity and Incarnation and the theme of ‘Family on mission’ as Jesus way of bringing these three doctrines together in a lived reality – a life lived in mission.