New ideas to grow rural churches

 

Mission-shaped and Rural, is written by the Revd Sally Gaze, Team Rector of a multiparish benefice in the Tas Valley in South Norfolk which incorporates a rural cell church.

 

The book sheds light on how traditional models of the Church’s work in the countryside should be re-assessed and complemented by emerging forms of ministry in order to meet the needs of today’s rural communities.

 

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has praised the book’s insights – which include real-life examples of alternative worship communities such as mid-week Eucharist services in local pubs: “Rural faith today is in the process of finding its own distinctive voice in a climate of enormous cultural change and economic challenge. In this informed and inspiring guide Sally Gaze affirms the distinctive and complex quality of rural life today while courageously exploring new possibilities for ministry,” he said.

 

Sally draws on her decade of experience in rural ministry to survey recent periods of “substantial and unsettling change” in the countryside, driven both by major national crises in the agricultural sector and changing patterns of tourism and population. Against this backdrop, Sally urges today’s Church to “prune the vine to bear more fruit” in a “careful, prayerful, and discerning” way, in a direct challenge to reconsider elements of existing church structures such as multi-parish benefices and the use of church buildings for worship alone.

 

First published in 2005, Mission-Shaped Church has already been credited with sales of more than 20,000 copies – a record-breaking number for a non-liturgical Church of England publication.

 

This follow-up book seeks to transform the aspirations of the original report into both aspects for further reflection, and recommended actions, specifically for those engaged in ministry in a rural setting.

 

This contribution to the debate, following the publication of Mission-shaped Children earlier this year, marks another important step in the Church of England’s approach to mission through creating a ‘mixed economy’ Church where ‘fresh expressions’ of being church are developed alongside more traditional models.

 

Mission-shaped and Rural: growing churches in the countryside (ISBN 0-7151-4084-1) is priced £7.99 and available from Christian bookshops or on the web at: www.chbookshop.co.uk (mail order available).