Get away to the country? (Sally Gaze)

Sally GazeSally Gaze is getting away to the country.

Lots of people have a very set idea as to what life, or ministry, in the countryside is like – usually people who have never lived or ministered here! Sometimes their image owes more to The Archers than reality, but the fact is that rural contexts are very diverse and the countryside is changing very quickly indeed.

A conference I'm involved in at the beginning of May will explore discipleship in these contexts. Those booking for making and growing disciples in the countryside were asked to let us know a little more about their own settings and the variety is amazing. One minister's parish covers 350 miles and includes ten distinct communities: four islands, five villages accessible by road and one by sea on the mainland. In a classic understatement he says, 'The traditional parish model cannot provide a model of ministry that enables mission and innovation to be developed.'

It's also interesting that there are recognisable differences in what people think of as a rural setting. A lot of places that describe themselves as rural would not be seen as such by others in more remote areas; there are real regional differences being played out against the same backdrop. Many of the 'rural' areas surrounding the London belt for instance would not be seen as such by many working in far flung areas of England, Scotland or Wales. That's fine; we wouldn't say one 'urban' context is exactly the same as another simply because it's urban. The same is true of the countryside.

Rural contexts are very diverse and the countryside is changing very quickly indeed

In a major cultural shift in recent years, many people – whose families have lived and worked in the same rural area for generations – can no longer afford to live there. Instead others move in from the towns; some settle well, but others have a very different approach to life and the area they inhabit. This means there can be several 'villages' within a village as the very different communities live side by side but appear to have very little else in common. The challenge as we minister in these situations is to share the good news of God's love with all of the people in the area, whether they are long-time residents or newcomers.

Some ministers, seeing the unity of the church as being vital to mission, are concerned that the development of fresh expressions of church is something that will lead to further segregation, but I believe diversity is good for unity. It is as we listen to people – and honour their different needs and preferences – that we communicate the love of God.

The changing face of church planting in the countryside (Sally Gaze)

Sally Gaze explores the changing face of church planting in the countryside.

CowsA few years ago, when the working party for the best-selling Mission-shaped Church report asked questions about church-planting in a questionnaire, there was a less than enthusiastic response from rural areas. As one Church of England official wrote,

With 648 churches in this diocese, there is little incentive to plant more.

This is understandable; in the countryside there are typically many more churches per head of population than in urban areas – and some of those congregations struggle to keep going. A person might well conclude we don't need any more.

However, deep down, we know that when we think like that we've got it precisely the wrong way round. God's mission isn't there to keep existing particular congregations going. Rather it is the church as God's people, which has been called into being to participate in God's mission – the sharing of his love with his world. The whole point of church is God's mission – doing what God sends us to do. The need for church planting is often something that emerges when people consider what church in a particular area of countryside would look like if we started from that perspective: If God has sent his people to this rural area, what is it that they need to do to carry out his mission, including the making of disciples?

One particular characteristic of good rural church planting is the degree to which it works in a complementary way to older forms of church. This is partly aiming for the Heineken effect: Reaching the parts that other churches have not reached! It is also about appreciating the strengths of other churches and loving them. A church plant which is great at communicating the gospel to teenagers through contemporary youth culture, might struggle to make Jesus real for elderly people and vice versa. When those two churches meet for joint projects or to socialise together, they give a glimpse of the kingdom of God.

Urban church plants with larger numbers and working in larger populations may get away with independent witness. In a rural village, everyone can see whether the Christians truly love and support one another. As Jesus said, 'By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.'

To find out more about the Rural Churchplanters' Forum, including how to join, please contact Peter Hallsworth, the current convenor.

How can we get support?: Tas Valley

This story illustrates the principles of How can we get support? in the Guide.

The Tas Valley Cell Church is a rural cell church networking across a multi-parish benefice in Norfolk. Seven cell churches have grown up in six parishes since 2003, with many of their members recently coming into faith.

The cells, says rector Sally Gaze (in mission-shaped and rural: growing churches in the countryside, CHP, 2006),

worshipped and loved, they related to the wider church and respected the authority of its leaders, and participated in the sacraments… they engaged in mission.

Putting the cells together, the cell church was also as strongly attended as some Sunday services with around 8-10 members in each cell (making 40-50 members) compared with 6-45 in each parish church. In a mixed economy benefice, the question arose: how can a growing number of cell churches find their legal standing alongside the traditional churches?

We felt it was time to help the cell church grow up and take responsibility,

says Sally, who also wanted to give the cells a secure place within the benefice.

We felt that cell church members should give to the cell church. It also makes a statement that giving to church is not just about keeping buildings going – our cell church doesn't have a building.

So the benefice discussed with the diocese ways in which cell members could give to their church that would enable it to claim back tax as in traditional offertories. In 2005 a cell bank account was set up, an important step in acknowledging the Tas Valley cells as part of the Church of England as a whole.

The bank account, says Sally,

encourages us to sort out giving, to encourage Gift Aid and teach stewardship. The cells pay a couple of thousand towards the benefice share. This is less than their numerical strength would suggest because a number of people are brand new Christians who will take a time to sort out financial stewardship, and others are members of both cell and parish congregation.

We didn't want to reduce the income of parish congregations so where people are members of both cell and parish church, they either stick with their parish giving or give on top of that to the cell church. The proportion of benefice share that the cell church and all the PCCs pay is kept under annual review.

The cell church has a cell leaders' meeting rather than a PCC and is still

a peculiarity on the edge of the diocese. But in the benefice itself it is treated as an equal member of the team of churches and represented on our equivalent of a team council.

4All – update Jul12

4All ran successfully for five years but as the children involved got older, many of them became more involved with projects at neighbouring churches. Sally Gaze reports back on what has happened since.

The little village of Swainsthorpe went through a period of having very few younger children and 4All ceased for a period. However, in the period it ran, it had helped the congregation at the village of Swainsthorpe to grow a little in numbers and greatly in hope.

4All - crowdGradually the church has got more involved in running events for the whole village. In 2012, the old church building – which is the only public building in the village – is being reordered to make it suitable for wider community use. When the work is done there are hopes to re-launch a monthly all age service with a new team and a mission project with an environmental focus.

The group of mums who led 4All have led two Alpha courses as a team and they still meet and pray together. This year, their focus has been praying for blessing on the Tas Valley area – including blessing on this very special Swainsthorpe Community Project.

4All

Sally Gaze describes the Alpha course she ran with seven young mums from four villages in her Norfolk benefice as

the easiest ever.

They were all very alike and gelled very quickly,

she says. The women were drawn from local mother and toddler groups and were not previously churchgoers. The Alpha course developed into a daytime cell church, one of several forming part of the ‘mixed economy’ of the Tas Valley benefice, of which Sally is team rector.

In this group we had shared and prayed… we had struggled to engage with the Bible over the noise of ten toddlers and we had changed and grown,

Sally says.

They had also begun to think about mission. Three of the women, each from different villages, had the idea of putting on something for toddlers at church, specifically a music group. As their Alpha course helped them to bond and grow into a church relationship with one another, these three formed a team to organise a children’s service supported by their fellow cell members.

With Sally they visited a neighbouring benefice’s children’s service,

and got the bug of it,

Sally says. A monthly service for toddlers, 4All, is held at 4 o’clock on Sundays including around 40 minutes of ‘lively, child-focused worship’, followed by high tea for the children and tea and cake for the adults.

Young women with a life stage in common discovered church together, then went on to share their new life of faith with others

Initially, 4All was planned by Sally with input from the women. These roles have now been reversed, with the women planning and Sally helping out.

Very importantly, they invite people,

Sally says.

They deliver 30 invitations personally and look after the refreshments.

They also pray for those who attend, many of whom were not previously churchgoers.

4All is a bridge. It has done a lot to help build community in the village.

Two years after studying the Bible together and growing in discipleship, the cell has undertaken the Alpha course again, this time running it for a new set of participants.

Young women with a life stage in common discovered church together, then went on to share their new life of faith with others.

Tas Valley Cell Church – update

Tas Valley logoThe story of Tas Valley Cell Church in south Norfolk was first told on expressions: the dvd – 2. Its leader, Sally Gaze, tells what has been happening since the cameras rolled.

When I arrived here eight years ago, we very quickly did an Alpha course and 26 people turned up, some of them were church people already but we had a group of about eight who became Christians at the end of the course. We didn't have a full ministry team here then and that has since made a huge difference.

At that time I felt that – for people who hadn't been to church before – going to what were quite traditional, and not very user-friendly, church services on a Sunday wasn't going to help them move on in their faith very quickly. I was darting about from one to another of the new Christians at the end of services to try and be supportive but I knew that something had to be done.

Tas Valley graffiti wallTas Valley Team Ministry is a happy family of churches serving the villages of Newton Flotman, Swainsthorpe, Tasburgh, Tharston, Saxlingham and Shotesham. Congregations were very welcoming but the newcomers were being asked to join the flower rota or help out with the fete. They didn't have the opportunity to discuss issues such as how faith might help with their marriage, children or work. The new Christians found this quite difficult to cope with after having had the chance to do that every week at Alpha.

We decided to set up the cell church of small groups. We've got 50 adult members; about half of them – generally the people who haven't previously been part of a traditional church congregation – would say that cell church is their prime form of church. The remaining 25 attend cell church in addition to church in a Sunday. We've also got 25 teenagers, two thirds of whom would say that cell is their main form of church.

Tas Valley groupThe numbers are still growing, though much more gradually than at the time of the DVD. Now there is more and more of a crossover with the Sunday congregations and we encourage the mixing and supporting of each other. The cell continues to meet weekly though the cell and traditional congregations will also get together three times a year – for instance, we recently came together for a Passover meal.

Cell church continues to make an impact and we really do see changes in people's lives as a result. It's all about the trust that people build up in a small group, you can be much more open and it's a lot easier to think about how you can grow in faith in a very practical, down-to-earth way.

Tas Valley - shepherdSome may question the role of the cell church but I think it can help to take the pressure off traditional congregations to do the things they can't do for all sorts of reasons. I've had discussions in the past where the focus has been on 'How to get young people in?' Simply including a modern song in the service really isn't going to do the trick. I believe that many churches, faced with this sort of challenge, would say that they were not able to change sufficiently to meet it.

Here we built up those youth cells so that they can lead worship on their terms and we then go and support them in that. Half a dozen of our young people, aged between 13 and 18, are now involved in the youth band which is led by two adults, both of whom are cell church members. They now serve some of our Sunday congregations and go and play for them. This in turn has freed up the traditional congregations to do what they do well.

It's not a matter of right or wrong ways of doing things. The same could be said of the development of fresh expressions of church as a whole. Some people feel threatened that fresh expressions try to 'take over' to some extent and see them as a threat. Instead we are saying there is more than one way to 'be' church; we can complement each other.

Tas Valley prayer enclosureTas Valley Cell Church is currently seeking a Bishop's Mission Order and we are trying out various things as we develop and change. We now have cells with children as well as adults, that has seen mixed results and we continue to explore how we disciple people in families.

Other subjects in the mix include looking at new monastic models and considering how cell relates to Messy Church. The basics and values of cell have remained the same since the start of it all but I do tend to delegate as we now have more lay leaders to take on responsibilities. I think the way forward is just to keep on growing more leadership and eventually a leader to replace me.

Tas Valley Cell Church

In the Tas Valley Team Ministry, there are six traditional parish churches and a cell church comprising six adult cell churches and a youth cell. This 'mixed economy' reflects the nature of rural networks, some of which cross the villages through social links, others of which are village-based.

It is mixed here,

says Tas Valley vicar, Sally Gaze. She gives the example of a young mothers' cell which grew out of an Alpha course.

It was the easiest Alpha ever because they were all very alike and opened up to each other very quickly, but they were from three different villages. If we had focused on one parish we wouldn't have got enough people together. By enabling certain groups to come together, we strengthen them to be part of the church as a whole.

Sally explains that the Tas Valley group of churches is still working out what it means to be connected to its different parts, both village to village and cell to traditional church. Cells have about ten members each, the parish churches between six and 45 members. Many of the cell members are also members of one of the parish churches – but new Christians usually join a cell in the first instance. Sometimes they later start coming to Sunday parish church services as well.

Sally believes that the presence of cells in the mix helps to create unity. The success of this approach is reflected in the supportive presence of four members of a very traditional ('Book of Common Prayer') congregation at a cell-led monthly seeker service. The cells also contribute towards their 'parent' churches' finances.

Respecting both the traditional way of doing church and the needs of those outside it 'to discover Jesus, too'

If you're in a cell it's much easier to think that you can't be church on your own than when you have a medieval building,

Sally says.

Cells are more fluid so members think benefice-wide. Often the members of a cell will come from three or four different villages and help to draw the congregations from those villages together in understanding.

We don't bring the six parish churches together with the cell church very often  because we've tried to maintain the witness of Sunday church in every village. When we do come together we can do something of a higher quality.

United benefice services happen about three times a year. Benefice-wide events focus on socials, outreach activities such as holiday clubs, training events and 24-7 Prayer.

Respecting both the traditional way of doing church and the needs of those outside it 'to discover Jesus, too' has seen this rural benefice celebrate and share in the life of faith in all its members.

The cells, says rector Sally Gaze (in mission-shaped and rural: growing churches in the countryside, CHP, 2006),

worshipped and loved, they related to the wider church and respected the authority of its leaders, and participated in the sacraments… they engaged in mission.

Putting the cells together, the cell church was also as strongly attended as some Sunday services with around 8-10 members in each cell (making 40-50 members) compared with 6-45 in each parish church.

In a mixed economy benefice, the question arose: how can a growing number of cell churches find their legal standing alongside the traditional churches?

We felt it was time to help the cell church grow up and take responsibility,

says Sally, who also wanted to give the cells a secure place within the benefice.

We felt that cell church members should give to the cell church. It also makes a statement that giving to church is not just about keeping buildings going – our cell church doesn't have a building.

So the benefice discussed with the diocese ways in which cell members could give to their church that would enable it to claim back tax as in traditional offertories. In 2005 a cell bank account was set up, an important step in acknowledging the Tas Valley cells as part of the Church of England as a whole.

The bank account, says Sally,

encourages us to sort out giving, to encourage Gift Aid and teach stewardship. The cells pay a couple of thousand towards the benefice share. This is less than their numerical strength would suggest because a number of people are brand new Christians who will take a time to sort out financial stewardship, and others are members of both cell and parish congregation.

We didn't want to reduce the income of parish congregations so where people are members of both cell and parish church, they either stick with their parish giving or give on top of that to the cell church. The proportion of benefice share that the cell church and all the PCCs pay is kept under annual review.

The cell church has a cell leaders' meeting rather than a PCC and is still

a peculiarity on the edge of the diocese. But in the benefice itself it is treated as an equal member of the team of churches and represented on our equivalent of a team council.