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| Seed Scattering Over 500 at Cathedral's 'Seed Scattering' event
This September there is an opportunity for every church in the diocese to join a national campaign with the simple objective of inviting friends, family and neighbours back to church. This is one simple project any church can do... Back to Church Sunday is being run by churches across the diocese this autumn. The special event on Sunday September 30th will involve people in churches all over the country who will say "hello again" to friends who haven't been to church for a while. The national campaign, supported by a website: www.backtochurch.co.uk claims there are various reasons why people stop going to church when once it played an important part of their lives. Back to Church Sunday offers quality resources to local churches so people in church can give an especially warm welcome on this special Sunday of the year, through posters, invitation cards and welcome packs, including chocolate bars! Canon Missioner, the Revd Mark Brown said: "Back to Church Sunday enables all our parish churches to use a very simple idea to great effectiveness in their ongoing service to our local communities. Using tried and tested methods of inviting and welcoming, the national campaign aims to help congregational members become more aware of the vast numbers of people in our communities who would welcome an opportunity to be with us on Sunday. By engaging with this project next Autumn (Sunday 30th September 2007) we will benefit from advertising and profile raising that other parts of the country will be experiencing. In its intention Back to Church Sunday is simply about connecting with people who used to come to church once, but would eagerly like a friendly, welcoming, no strings attached, invitation back. Far from being a mad idea which really does not work, many churches and dioceses have found it does and are making it part of their regular calendar. Last year some 4,000 people came back to church as a result of the campaign.” St Peter, Ravenshead The Parish Church ran Back To Church Sunday on 26th November in 2006. They had 1 extra person at 8am; 23 extra (new) people at 9.45am and 90 people of all ages came to the evening family service - which normally has around 25. Young people took part in a dramatised reading of the King’s Banquet at the evening service and there was also an opportunity to write on a card the name of someone who they would like to ask to be prayed for. Vicar, Chris Rattenberry said: “The church was very pleased with what happened and we hope to take part again this year.” New Cross Church – Sutton-in-Ashfield At New Cross Community Church in Sutton-in-Ashfield, they ran Back to Church Sunday on the weekend of the 1st/2nd July and 10 new people came. Four people started coming regularly as a result of this special invitation. Anglican Minister, Tim Mitchell, said: “One result of the event was that a member of the congregation called Cis (who is in her early 70s) brought a friend along with her, who began to attend regularly. We wanted to encourage the idea of a Back to Church movement, rather than just a one off during the year, and Cis seized on this and decided to invite friends who didn’t go to church to a meeting in her house. This has now grown into a new house church – a kind of fresh expression, as a direct result of Back to Church Sunday. Joining in Back to Church Sunday, September 2007: For more information see the website: backtochurch.co.uk On Course – Exploring Spiritual Growth and formation - using small groups, led by Rt Revd John Finney – Saturday 19th May 2007 – at St.Paulinus Church, Ollerton 10.00am – 4pm (lunch included). There has been a good take up for this day which focuses on how to reach and keep people by running courses in our parishes. This is not the only way of doing this but it is an important ingredient in every parish’s menu. Details will be given of courses which are evangelistic, suitable for enquirers and those who are more strictly into formation of adult disciples. Please book in with the Department for Development, Dunham House, 8 Westgate, Southwell, Notts. NG25 0JL. Tel: 01636 817232 or email: catriona@southwell.anglican.org). The input gained on this day will directly assist the Bishop of Sherwood's initiative Seed Scattering and Back to Church Sunday. Sport Sport can be a fantastic way of connecting your church with the community, whether it is going to help at the local club or running a special sport event at the church... Sharing faith in the world of sport will be the focus for the diocese’s new Sport Ambassador, when he takes up the post in January 2008. Tim Friend (pictured right) is a 25-year-old rugby player, who is currently working in Gloucestershire in a youth sports ministry role for an ecumenical church project. He will be the first Sport Ambassador for the Church of England – a brand new post backed by the Diocesan Mission Fund. Bishop Tony, who will be managing Tim in the new role, is delighted about the appointment. He said: “Tim is someone who has a proven ability to motivate other Christians in using sport for evangelism. This appointment is not about sport it’s about the church in 2007 being where people are and being where people are passionate.” Tim, who is a History graduate from York University, plays rugby in the Gloucester premiership league. After graduating he spent a year in Kenya teaching, coaching pupils in sport and leading Christian discipleship groups. As a qualified rugby coach, he runs training sessions each week in rugby and also leads Christian groups for the same young players on Sunday evenings. He said: “I want to do the job because I’ve got a passion for sport and a passion for Christ. My experience is that so few people have an understanding of Christ in sport and rugby clubs.” He said sport was a great leveller; with 42% of the population involved in sport regularly, and 87% of young people, he believes it is important to reach these people with the Christian message. Tim said the new role was very important for three main reasons: “Sport is huge..it’s massive, there are 106,000 sports clubs in England with 8.1 million members. It’s also strategic because it has the power to break down all barriers of age, sex, race and the reach people across a range of backgrounds to form deep friendships as they win and lose together. Finally, there is also massive potential for growth as the government plans huge investments in sport with the aim to increase the number of people involved in sport from the current 40% to 70%.” Sports outreach through the local church Tim writes: “I played for a Yorkshire rugby club while at university. It quickly dawned on me that my reason for living was very different from everyone elses at the club. This was reflected in our conversation, the way we played, and how we related to the ref, opposition, and others on a night out. I saw my club as my mission-field. I was passionately motivated that these men had a chance to experience Christ and I was disappointed that the church was not involved in any obvious way. I prayed for my teammates, behaved in way that might point them to Christ, and tried to speak relevantly of my faith when I had the opportunity. It was exciting to see players take a genuine interest in Jesus and the difference He makes. Later I learned the Christians in Sports motto ‘Pray, Play, Say’. The church can be so helpful in this mission field. Instead of keeping sports-players ‘in’, we should be encouraging them ‘out’. If home-group clashes with football training, be pleased you have a sports missionary out there and pray for their opportunities to share Christ. If you have several sports players, why not put on an event for them to invite their teammates along to, such as a curry night with a relevant speaker, or a sports quiz? Maybe join with another church to host it. Sport provides the ideal atmosphere to make friends and share the difference Jesus Christ makes in your life. It is arguably the greatest door of opportunity in the post-modern world for the church to grow.” Sport Sunday - East Leake The East Leake Benefice are planning to hold a Sport Sunday event on the afternoon of Sunday 1st July at the village school in Costock. A group from the church decided they would adopt the idea of a Sport Sunday as a way to engage the church family with their wider community. Co-ordinator, Colin Knight said: “Many families are involved in sport activities at the weekend either as spectators or participants and many church members also have interests in sport or would be willing to support sporting activities by, for example, timekeeping, judging, sharing their own sports expertise e.g. golf, etc. This presented a real opportunity for lay people within the church to get involved with engaging non- church people in a different yet fun-filled way.” How did we get started? We called a meeting of interested church members to explore and plan what programme of sports we would need to run. By that point we had booked the school premises, the village hall and approached a music group. What did we decide we would need? We needed a catchy theme and so we adopted a football approach. We will have an event with a first and second half and a half time break which will be our worship time. So the outline programme would look like this: Kick Off at 2pm; Half Time at 3pm and the Final whistle at 4-30pm. We are planning for two or three sport events during the first half e.g. football skills, non-stop cricket, etc and, for the second half, we would have progressive sports (a bit like potted sports). We’ll use a whistle, just like in football, to signify the start and end of each period. The village hall will be our wet weather option. Publicity will be essential and we are planning presentations at local school assemblies for June, where invitation leaflets will be given out. What next? If you’ve read these stories and have been inspired, please don’t leave it there. The first thing to do now is to ask your vicar for an agenda item at the next meeting of the Church Council (PCC allow enough time to set the context of the vision, which is:
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