Mother Emma admits that she was nervous of beginning the Grow Course:
‘I had been asked five times to do the course and had said no because it wasn’t in our Liberal Catholic churchmanship. But my associate encouraged me to do it, and I can say now that he was absolutely right.
‘There was so much that we took away but overall, I think it was being intentional about things – looking at things in a different way, asking what was good and what needed changing which made it so positive. For us, that included things as simple as getting rid of an old desk used to welcome people and moving furniture to create a nice welcoming space.
’When we did this people said: “Oh you can change things!” and that was significant because I’m not sure some things had changed (physically) at our church for a very long time.
‘And then people started thinking of other things we could do like having a visitors’ book or a ‘tappy’ machine instead of a saucer for coffee. I’d also wanted to say those things for ages but I didn’t know that we could change things.’
Being intentional in other areas of church life has also impacted the way things are done – for the good.
‘We’ve now set up our teams – of welcomers, readers and servers – to be much more effective, while keeping true to our tradition,’ says Mother Emma. ‘We still do it the same way but we’re now delegating more, we’re giving people a title and have created a manual to support them doing their role – that’s made all the difference as before they were just showing up asking “what do we do?”’
On discipleship and growth, the course has helped encourage more conversations about the Bible. ‘We asked people in church and they said they wanted to know more about the Bible,’ says Mother Emma, ‘which we found fascinating and encouraging as we didn’t know they all wanted to learn more…’
In response, the church ran a course over Lent on ‘Loving your neighbour’, with guest speakers from the charities they supported. Around 20 people came to each session in contrast to previous years when only a handful of people would attend. The preaching focus at Eastertide was made in response to a specific comment, ‘I want to know more about the Bible but I’m too scared to read the book of Revelation’, giving an opportunity to follow up with more conversations between clergy and congregation members.
The Grow Course encourages drawing in a wider group from the congregation, which gives people beyond the team an opportunity to be involved. Mother Emma says: ‘This group came up with all this stuff they’d been thinking but not telling us, what they thought was important, asking what they could do. It was a great source of help and inspiration.
‘Overall the course has been really helpful in so many ways and we’ve seen a real impact in our growth, in numbers but also, there is growth in depth of faith.’
As Area Dean for Kensington, it was Fr James who originally suggested doing the course together. For him the experience has also been positive and fruitful in similar but also some different ways in his own context:
‘One of the main things for us was that as a clergy team, the course gave us an opportunity for the six of us to go aside for several hours and think broader and bigger – and we don’t often have the chance to do this – that was a real gift for us.
‘Another outcome was some practical support with one of the CCX team coming to look at our systems – everything from our database to our financial systems. It was affirming to hear that most of what we had was good. However it did prompt us to change our database, something I’ve been wanting to do for 10 years!
‘In turn that has streamlined everything – including helping with our electoral roll. We’re now able to send an email to everyone on the Electoral Roll for example about giving and other communications, that’s been really helpful!’
For Fr James one of the biggest impacts of the course has been that it has introduced some culture change which he admits, can take a long time.
‘Our clergy team feel we are working at capacity and we can’t take on any more, however, the course prompted us to look at how we could help others in church to engage more in parish life. We started a Time and Talents initiative and now we’ve put an online brochure together and people have really begun to engage. It’s gradually changing an expectation which we sometimes feel, that it’s only the clergy that can do things.’
Like Mother Emma, Fr James has seen growth in faith and discipleship through being intentional and looking for solutions that fit their context:
‘A missing link for us was having something like Alpha for those who are new to church, or have been on the fringe,’ he says.
‘We looked for something which would be in keeping with our church tradition and found that the Being With course is a good fit. Two people are doing the training and we’re looking forward to starting to use it. All these things are the fruits of the Grow Course – we’re continuing to think and plan how we move ahead and how and what we’re going to do. It’s been such a positive thing for us.
Asked about the benefits of doing the course as a deanery, Fr James is enthusiastic:
‘We knew each other and we trusted each other and so that got things going really quickly and worked very well. From us ‘a big thumbs up for deanery organised courses!’
If there was one highlight to choose, both Fr James and Mother Emma mention a video used in the course:
‘The video about Barriers to Growth was just excellent,’ says Mother Emma, ‘and that was the absolutely standout video which I shared with everyone I came into contact with including PCC, our team, and the wider group because I think that it doesn’t matter what your churchmanship is – the idea that you can’t change the colour of your coffee cups is just pervasive in the Church and that can be such a block if you feel can’t do something differently! The course showed us we could think differently and make changes while not changing who we are.’
Find out more about the CCX Grow Course
