First steps

A do-able congregational discipleship journey

A series of four webinars which help clergy, lay leaders and congregations discover pioneering; what it is and why it’s integral to parish life.

First Steps offers an introduction to a do-able congregational discipleship journey that clergy, lay leaders, and congregations make together with Jesus, who calls us to lose our church lives for the sake of reaching unconnected people for the Kingdom of God. In First Steps, congregations are invited to step out beyond the walls of church to make spiritual care possible for a wider range of people as pioneering people do. Case studies and ideas are shared along with practical tools, enabling churches to have honest conversations which will help shift the energy of the congregation out towards those who are not yet connected to God in Christ. This begins an effective re-wiring of the existing church system.

Next course

Take a look at our Eventbrite page to see upcoming courses.

Book via Eventbrite

Who’s it for?

PCC members, parish clergy, diocesan or parish support staff, people exploring a pioneer call, and anyone searching for tools to help them shift the energy of the parish outwards beyond the church walls. If a group of people come from one church, they have the advantage of being able to share their learning and build on it together.

What can I expect?

Each webinar is 90 minutes and contains teaching, guest speakers and break out rooms. Explore what it means to become a pioneering parish in an informal, warm, fun and open environment that draws on all the wisdom in the room and practices the skill of communal spiritual discernment. First Steps may involve challenging customs, attitudes, practices and activities in your church which hold a bias towards those who are already present. Watch this short video to get a flavour of one of our in person sessions.

What content will be covered?

Over the four webinars, we will have conversations about the key strategic tasks for parish life:

Session 1: Jesus the Pioneer
Jesus constantly generated newness in his life on earth. Drawing on Hebrews 12:2, we take Jesus as our pioneer and look at the common characteristics found in other pioneering individuals in Scripture, church and society. We consider the relationship between the time-honoured and the new, and ask how they can mutually enrich each other.
Session 2: Values
As we seek to hold distinctive forms of church together, we explore how shared agreed values rooted in the life of Jesus can help a congregation collectively answer the question ‘Who do we want to be for God and our community?’ and form a healthy foundation from which to make decisions about community life.
Session 3: Pioneer advocacy
We share what we believe are the required postures of a leader who is able to hold space and shape understanding, to allow both long-standing and emerging forms of church to flourish alongside each other and contribute to the whole.
Session 4: Creating capacity
A key area of decision-making is about how to unlock enough resources in what appears to be a world of scarcity. We suggest postures, practices and tools which help create an attitude of abundance in place of a scarcity mindset, and release capacity in people and generate resources from unexpected sources.

How much does it cost?

We would hate cost to be a barrier to anyone attending so we charge just £10 for the four webinars in total.

If you bring a team, the maximum your church will pay is for five spaces (£50), any additional participants are free.

The real cost for the facilitation and materials is much higher, so if you feel able to contribute a little more you will be helping to support the continuing work of Pioneering Parishes.

Previous participants’ comments

‘Inspirational!’
Ali Mascarenhas, PCC member, St Mary’s Brighstone churchyard project

‘It’s been incredibly helpful. The… training… did a lot of the heavy lifting in the culture shift to think missionally. It was very eye-opening for the congregation on what can be achieved, that you can do a bit of thinking outside the box, and you can respond to God in a way that’s not prescriptive to the way we’ve always responded. We’re starting to see people take responsibility for changes and not being fearful or defensive.’
Rev Tim Solosy