Renewing mission in Sherbornes with Pamber

After a season of change and challenge, Revd Stewart Deering and a team from Sherbornes with Pamber joined the CCX Grow Course. The space to pray, reflect and plan together helped them rediscover a confidence for mission and begin opening up new pathways into church life for local families.

When Revd Stewart Deering arrived as Priest in Charge of Sherborne St John with Pamber, the parish was ready for a new chapter.

The church had known a long and fruitful season in the past, but after a tricky season that saw many members move on, the identity of the community needed reasserting. Stewart set about helping a core element of the congregation recover their confidence for mission in the area, listening to God and discerning what mission might look like in a changing parish.

‘There was a really strong core still here,’ says Stewart, ‘who needed someone to come and sort of patch them up a bit, and then set them loose on a slightly new and different way of doing things, because we’re in a different time, the parish has changed.’

The parish of Sherbornes with Pamber is made up of three churches, sitting just north of Basingstoke. The village is a varied, vibrant rural community, with the church of St Andrew’s at its heart, a beautiful flint-faced church built in the 12th century, the village school sitting opposite. Travel north to the Pamber Priory, or to All Saints’, Monk Sherborne, and the parish becomes yet more rural. Head a stone’s throw south and the landscape changes to one of flats, social housing, newer builds and young, multi-ethnic families. It’s a part of the community that the church would long to reach and draw in.

As soon as Stewart arrived in August 2023, he was aware of the congregation’s desire to reach those members of its community who didn’t currently belong. The Area Dean suggested that they take part in the CCX Grow Course, earlier than might usually be expected for someone new in post, but because of the parish context, it felt like the right opportunity.

‘It was just all very new to me,’ says Stewart. ‘But we thought, well, here’s an opportunity.’

After inviting a small group from the church, mainly consisting of members already deeply involved in the life of the parish, Stewart and the team began the course in November 2023.

‘It gave us a space outside of the parish to travel together,’ Stewart recalls. ‘We were able to talk about the church and the parish, and it gave me a chance to get to know them in a very different way, hearing first-hand some of the history of the church, and to look forward together.’

A key early question was not whether growth mattered, but what faithful growth could look like now.

‘There was that hunger for growth,’ says Stewart. ‘I guess it was then helping people to think, are we just wanting things to go back as to how things were, or is there a new direction?”

An important moment came as the team began to reflect on leadership and culture. A faithful core had carried much of the life of the church for a long time. But the Grow Course helped them ask whether, unintentionally, that same commitment might make it harder for others to step forward into leadership.

‘I remember that kind of light bulb moment of actually asking the question of why are more people not kind of stepping up into these leadership positions?’ says Stewart. ‘Is there something about our identity as a church and our culture that is actually putting barriers in place completely unintentionally?’

‘There’s work to be done on that still, in terms of changing that culture, but we’re moving towards it. We’re inviting some of the well established members to be willing to step aside and encourage others forward. In some cases, being servant-hearted and being sacrificial is sometimes about saying no, because when you say no to something, you’re immediately saying yes to something else that God has for you. That was something that definitely came out of the Grow Course.’

Another valuable opportunity the Grow Course afforded Stewart and his team as they journeyed together, was a chance to revisit and refresh the church’s vision. Their language soon settled around three words: connect, share, grow.

‘As a leader, I find them really helpful to hang messages and invitations on,’ says Stewart. ‘Having that language helps us ask better questions.’

Those questions are now shaping church life. A new outreach project was proposed midway through the course, in Easter 2024. An Easter egg hunt was planned, designed to connect with local families, but with an impact that went beyond attendance.

‘The value of it, particularly that first year, was less the event, less the visitors who came,’ recalls Stewart. ‘It was more that we said, as a group, that we’re not deliberately going to ask those who would normally offer to lead this to.’

Instead, others were encouraged to step forward.

‘There were people doing things that hadn’t done that kind of thing before,’ says Stewart, ‘that was a turning point.’

The church has run the Easter egg hunt annually for the past three years, welcoming families into the church before following a trail around the village. It gives them a chance to meet church members and encounter an invitation into the Easter story.

The event has caused other gatherings to emerge; there’s now a dads and kids group, and a Families at Four service, while a long-established toddler group has developed a more missional focus, leading to families from the area attending other ministries. It’s produced a pathway of connections and relationships that is beginning to show fruit; some families who first connected through toddlers or community events are now coming to Families at Four service, with others beginning to come on Sunday mornings.

‘We are, without doubt, connecting with way more people in our community than we were three years ago,’ says Stewart. ‘That is a real positive and a real sign of God’s goodness to us and His grace.’

Stewart recalls the story of having to cancel a dads and kids session because of a diary clash. One of the dads replied in the WhatsApp group asking whether Families at Four was happening that Sunday.

‘I said, “Yes, it is” and put the flyer on the group,’ Stewart explains. ‘Then three of the dads turn up at church for that hour on Sunday afternoon. Not invited by me, invited by the kind of not-yet-Christian dad.’

For Stewart, that was a sign of something deeper.

‘That’s a pathway through our values, of connect, share, grow,’ he says. ‘It’s showing that he’s got to know me, he’s got to know that the church is kind of okay, it’s a safe space to come and bring his child.’

There is still work to do, and Stewart reflects that culture change takes time.

‘It doesn’t happen in three years from a culture that’s been set for 30,’ he says. ‘It’s not going to change in three. I shouldn’t expect it to. And that’s okay.’

But he is encouraged by what he sees God doing among local families.

‘It feels to me, you know, that God is at work,’ says Stewart. ‘That he is stirring again in some of these young families that we’re getting connected with.’

Asked whether he would recommend the Grow Course to other leaders and churches, Stewart is clear.

‘I would say yes,’ he says. ‘I don’t think I would hesitate to say yes.’

For him, the key is not simply receiving and reflecting on content and resources, but making the journey with others.

‘I think having that team to do it with is really crucial, that’s what makes the real difference,’ he says. ‘I’m really grateful for those that took that journey with me.’

Looking ahead, Stewart is praying for the families now connected with the church, many of whom are still early in their journey of faith.

‘We’re praying for the work of the Holy Spirit in them, and for opportunities to have deeper conversations with them,’ he says. ‘To see them brought into our church or another church, just to have them brought into the kingdom would be brilliant.’

If you would like to know more about how CCX can support you in church growth, or for more details on the Grow Course, please get in touch with the enquiry form below.