Barry Dugmore is the priest-in-charge at Tiverton St George in Devon, a CPAS patronage church in the process of being joined with the nearby St Paul's church. These two churches will be working more closely together, sharing a vision for mission and growth for the future.
'Working together will enable us to be more effective in mission and evangelism in the community,' said Barry. 'As a PCC, we have been discussing the changes we will need to make, including developing a new leadership structure and a shared vision for the churches.'
Charles Burgess, CPAS leadership development adviser for the South-west, has been working with Barry as they discuss these issues. Barry said: 'It has been really useful to have someone from outside the situation to help us think practically about how to enact the calling God has given us.
'It is still early in the process for us but, with Charles, we have started thinking how we can develop the leadership team across the two churches, recognising that we need to build a sustainable model at every level - we don't want everything left to the vicar!
'With this in mind, we have purchased the CPAS Growing Leaders course and will run it for the first time, starting in January. We want to build people up in all the areas of the churches' ministry, such as social action and mission in the local community, worship, youth and children's ministry and our work with the elderly. Growing Leaders is really good at helping people to recognise and understand their call to leadership, even though they might not be overall church leaders, and then enabling them to be released into using their gifts to serve.
'We believe God led us to this point in order to thrive and grow as one community. We're already starting to see growth happening, and are looking forward to this continuing as we move further into the process.'
The churches have a meeting to discuss the plans for integration further with the congregation on 12 September.
Please pray for:
- Everyone to come onboard with the new vision and to see the potential for growth.
- Wisdom for the leadership throughout the process to move forward at the right pace and make the right decisions.
- More churches to find the best ways to connect with their surrounding communities and share the gospel.
