In this post we will share with you the latest development in rural mission we have launched. For some time we have been using 21st century technology in an attempt to turn back the 20th Century decline of Christian presence in rural UK. During the second half of the last century several thousand non-conformist chapel were sold off - many in the rural areas. At the same time reduced levels of Anglican clergy led to the development of multi-parish benefices and the loss of the local village priest for most villages.
For much of this time I was part of an evangelistic team conducting around 200 short-term high impact evangelistic missions for rural churches in various parts of Great Britain and for various denominations. These were highly effective, but the declared mission for the organisation I was working in was "To evangelise rural Britain". Also, during this period, I helped to establish the national Rural Evangelism Network. That led to an awareness that the combined effort of all the specialist rural evangelism would not even evangelise 2% of the people in rural Britain. And, of course new people were being born or moving into the rural areas, while others we were hoping to reach were dying.
While realising the limited potential of the evangelistic agencies, I was also aware that, despite so many church closures, there were still many thousands of churches in the rural areas. Each of these had been established at some time as a result of an evangelistic vision and energy. If that original vision and energy could be rekindled then the rural areas of the UK could be re-evangelised. But how to do it?
Since 1988 we developed and refined a process for helping churches discover how to engage in mission in ways that fit their size and resources, and in a style and with methods with which they could feel comfortable. This is our "Tailored Mission Solution" programme. We have proved how well it works, but spreading the word has been hard work.
This is why we pioneered using Internet technology for mission enabling. Slowly, the audience for our Rural Mission Webinars has grown. Almost 200 people in rural areas have now expressed interest in these 45 minute teaching sessions. Each month, our team is able to potentially reach many more than we could ever have done through conferences and consultations. Those who have already attended are spreading the word to others. One Anglican priest now shares the webinars with others in the benefice, a practise we are keen to encourage. But there is more to be done.
All you need to benefit from a webinar is 45 minutes of your time on the day it is broadcast. All the webinars are repeated several months apart and are updated. To grow the audience, video recordings of the webinars are available on our website and also on a YouTube Channel. This equates to many hours of helpful information and training material - all available free.
To this library we have just started adding another resource. Realising that for some, a 45 minute video is a long time, and not everything in a webinar will be relevant to every church, we have started breaking down the video recording into bite-sized videos. The first of these was launched this weekend. It covers just one section of our most recent webinar.
In a few weeks time the school summer term will end and the long summer holiday will begin. The video suggests various ways in which rural churches can engage with their local primary school. This opens up possibilities, even if a village church does not have its own regular children's work. With only a few weeks to go before the end of term, now is an excellent time to take a look at this video.
If there are any young people in your church or the village starting university this autumn, you will find very helpful information and suggestions also in this video.
As this is a new venture it is a little rough around the edges when it comes to editing, but we expect to get a lot better quickly.
To watch the video CLICK HERE.
If you find the video helpful there are two things you could do please.
- Firstly, please click on the subscribe link on the Channel. This will ensure that you receive notifications as we add more and more resources that can help your church.
- Secondly, spread the word to others in your church,benefice, diocese, organisation, etc. Please work with us as we seek to enable rural churches to engage appropriately and effectively in rural mission. Thank you.
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