Glo’ing in Offerton

Glo Church was planted in 2010 out of All Saints, Marple into the Offerton Estate which is a suburb of Stockton, Greater Manchester. This was the 5th church that I visited in my tour of churches who had received funding from the Archbishops Council for building up the church on estates in England.

Spreading out in Warrington

My fourth church isn’t really one of the estates based churches that I am visiting on my sabbatical but I was strongly recommended to see what it was all about, especially as he was using many of the principles Phil Potter advocated when I was his curate in Haydock.

Off on Sabbatical

Well I start my sabbatical on Sunday afternoon. I must say that I am very much looking forward to it.

Fresh Expressions Vision Day

It was exciting last year when the Diocese of Southwark gave overwhelming support for holding a Vision Day for Fresh Expressions. There has been a growing realisation that the church cannot carry on as it always has done.

So now what should we be….

One of the most exciting development at Springfield is the developing of what we call River Ministries. These are ministries that we start in the community for the community.

Springfield…. New interview on Fresh Expressions

Fresh Expressions have just published a video interview with Sue Bosley and myself. We were asked some time ago to do one and what with diaries etc we had to wait until the middle of September and its only just now been published.

Change in Southwark Diocese…

I was presenting a proposal last night to the Southwark Bishop’s Council to run a Mission Shaped Ministry Course in Southwark.

A mission shaped future…

Last year I came across a project that was being launched by the Church of England to give funding to churches that might be able to show how the Church could grow on estates.

Getting to grips with the Church of England….

As some of you who read our weekly newsletter or attend Springfield will know is that we, along with St Paul’s Brixton and the Diocese of Southwark, recently won a bid from the Church Commissioners for developing estate based mission in South London.

Church Growth and the state

There is a very much travelled narrative in the UK that the Church is in a nosedive decline to marginalisation and irrelevance. The case for this is the falling church numbers in the Church of England and other mainstream churches.