Sorted, a fresh expression of church in Bradford, has been awarded a £100,000 Church Commissioners' grant. The Developing Church Growth in Deprived Areas funding recognises Sorted's work with multi-cultural communities in deprived areas.
The Bishop of Bradford, Nick Baines, said,
I am hugely encouraged to see the Archbishops' Council and Church Commissioners committing money to church growth in areas of the country traditionally not associated with such expectations and where resources are often harder to access.
Liverpool Cathedral's fresh expressions work has also been awarded £100,000 from the Archbishops' Council and Church Commissioners to increase the development of:
- Zone 2 - a weekly, all-age, café-style Sunday morning congregation meeting in the Cathedral at the same time as the traditional Choral Eucharist;
- Deeper, an evening adult-oriented Discipleship and worship gathering which meets twice a month.
The grant will:
- Enable the work to multiply across the Diocese of Liverpool, particularly in parishes lacking resources, and help build an online resource library for churches to use;
- Fund a Mission Pastor for three years. The Pastor will work as an associate to Richard White, the Cathedral's Canon for Mission and Evangelism, to facilitate the development across the Diocese. Richard will work with parishes wishing to start similar groups and release him to deliver the wider vision for the cathedral as a base for church planting and a hub for a network of church plants;
The Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, says,
The support for the developing work of the Cathedral is a huge affirmation of our diocesan commitment to growth and the importance of high quality local leadership.
Richard White added,
Our recent experience of specific pioneer initiatives at the cathedral gives us confidence that there is tremendous potential here to enable new models of church planting that are more achievable and more sustainable than has often been experienced, particularly in parishes with few resources of their own. We believe that the model we are developing when combined with an online library of effective and high quality resources gives this an interest and applicability well beyond the Diocese.
Archbishop Rowan has championed a 'mixed economy' where traditional churches and fresh expressions work alongside each other in mission. Our experience is increasingly that there is indeed significant mission potential in this mixed economy approach.
Zone 2 was planted in March 2011 with a team of nine adults and seven children who were already committed members of the cathedral and/or Dream - as well as a further three adults who were connecting with Dream but were otherwise un-churched or de-churched. This has grown in the first five months to a regular congregation of between 40 and 60 people across the age spectrum. Roughly half of those were previously either fringe members or not church goers. We are committed to zone 2 being regarded as fully 'church' but this commitment highlights a growing need for more specifically adult-oriented teaching and discipleship to develop those being nurtured in their faith as well as potential new leaders.
As a result we have reshaped the monthly Sunday evening Dream service at the cathedral to take much more of a teaching and discussion focus. Now known as 'Deeper', the teaching, worship and discussion dovetail with small groups which meet during the alternating weeks for further discussion, support and prayer. This 'pastorate' model has been very effective elsewhere and will, we believe, become an effective base for practical discipleship teaching and leadership development.
The Archbishops' Council and Church Commissioners have distributed £1million as part of a nationwide move to help develop successful church growth projects in deprived areas. The £100,000 grants have been distributed to 10 projects across nine dioceses where existing activity has a proven track record of growth. A further £2million in grants is being distributed next year. This overall £3million for developing church growth in deprived areas is part of £12million set aside by the Archbishops' Council and Church Commissioners for research and development work in 2011-13.
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