Did you know that the Diocesan Board of Finance offers mission grants of up to £5000 to encourage and support churches seeking to try something different in order to reach new people with the story of Jesus? These grants are designed to support our diocesan vision to be ‘Living and telling the story of Jesus’ and aim to help you reach new people with His story. Click on this link to find out more about the grants we offer.
Last year, Grace Church in Bath (a Bishop’s Mission Order church) applied for, and was awarded a Growing Churches grant to assist them with appointing an Assistant Minister for Children and Families. Stephen Demetriou was employed in the autumn and took on the responsibility for the children’s groups (including creche, Sparks, 7Up, Youth) and for the Holiday Bible Club that took place during the February half term, as well as engaging with parents and planning attendance at summer camps. Since he started, the number of families connecting with Grace Church is growing. We’ve spoken to the team and Stephen and hope their answers to our questions will inspire you to think about whether you could also benefit from a Growing Churches grant!
What you have learned as a team?
The church family has been hugely supportive in welcoming Stephen. He brings a wealth of experience, and his enthusiasm is proving infectious! Being able to rely on a dedicated resource is paying dividends in enabling families to be encouraged and supported, and Stephen is reaching out to local school and sports communities with links to Grace Church to foster good relations and encourage others to come to our church. The Grace Church family is loving having a new Children and Families Assistant Minister and we are all profoundly grateful for the diocese’s assistance with this provision.
And Stephen, how did the mission grant from the diocese help to support you in what you set out to achieve?
Without the grant from the diocese I would not be employed at the church (so I'm very thankful personally!) but without that support, our Geek Cafe, Holiday Club and other youth and children's outreach just would not be able to happen and families and children would have missed out on hearing the glorious news of the Lord Jesus. The grant has been essential in bringing me here and giving the church a lead staff member whose sole focus is on families and young people, groups that otherwise could get lost in church.
How did you listen to the community to identify what might work as a missional project?
For Grace Church, the foundation is always prayer and then from there, as a BMO our focus is always to try to meet people where they are at. One of the key ways we do that is using the people in the church to chat to their connections to see what the need is in the city. So at the moment, we're trialling a question to ask people that we know, ‘what are you noticing recently that people would like support with in their lives?’ This is to gauge a sense of what the real needs are in the city rather than putting things on that we want to do, but which might not need a real need.
At what point did you start thinking about how you could make the most of the plans you were developing, in terms of what could come next?
We're always thinking ahead! The leadership team are very good at thinking, ‘what's the next step? What's the next event?’ I think being a BMO again gives a certain flexibility and ability to pivot into what's needed where it’s needed.
And finally, what would you say to other churches wondering about trying something new, and the support that the diocese can offer in enabling this to happen?
We'd say go for it! Projects that require more support may seem intimidating, but the support the diocese offers financially, prayerfully and practically is invaluable and really can make a huge difference in getting ambitious (God ordained) projects off the ground!