Studying with CMS has changed my life!
Studying with CMS has changed my life!
Former MA Pioneer student and current CMS employee Natalie Burfitt talks about the long-term transformation of studying with CMS.
by Helen Harwood,
HH: Hi Natalie and thanks for agreeing to be interviewed again. Since completing your MA with us you have moved on both to volunteer and to work for us! Can you tell us about your reflections on study with us?
It sounds dramatic but studying with CMS has changed my life!
When people use that phrase, I always imagine lottery-winner type jubilation. It is more evolutionary rather than revolutionary change – but it is true that my life is very different now to when I started studying the MA.
I’m connected with lots of inspiring, imaginative, theologically progressive people based all around the country and the world and I’m equipped with all sorts of resources for thinking, speaking about and doing mission that are robust in the current culture.
The joy of working for CMS is that it keeps me connected to this amazing hub of people that work creatively and intelligently on the future of Christian faith in the UK. There are lots of other ways to stay connected though and part of what we’re working on at the moment is how we can enhance this being connected as a pioneer movement – watch this space!
I also work for a Gloucester Diocese organisation called Sportily. Sportily works in a number of locations around Gloucestershire as a dispersed network.
The work is both based in schools and in the community, aiming to be part of what God is doing in encouraging people to be healthy and active. (Think about how much inactivity costs the NHS every year and the suffering this causes. I see the growth in grassroots sport, the fitness industry and the like as a movement of God, leading people in to fullness of life.)
Sportily also aims to create opportunities for people to explore Christian faith and to do that in ways that are active, outdoors and rooted in the groups with which they’ve connected. It isn’t about getting people to church on Sunday. All this requires drawing on all that good stuff that CMS gave me!
You volunteered as the undergraduate chaplain; can you reflect on any of that time too, please?
Again, it was part of this joyful energy of being around the kind of people that land at CMS pioneer training.
It was an opportunity for me to receive as much as give – I’ve been wow-ed by the people that come on the course and their stories. There are also a lot of students facing really big challenges, as well as attempting to undertake the rigours of theological study.
I was able to offer some support remotely with zoom or phone call conversations. The ideal would be for a local chaplain that has time to be around whenever the students meet (in person or online).
Chaplaincy is so much about a ministry of presence – people need to bump in to you for them to have the courage to share what’s on their mind.
You work for CMS now in the Movement team, please do tell us about your work and the highs and lows of being in the Movement team.
Ha-ha-ha – you mean, grass up the inside goss? Not gonna happen, Helen.
The people that I work with are the high point – fun to be around, caring, always throwing out new ideas and ways of navigating the complex landscape.
I am the CMS contact for the four hubs that deliver an unaccredited certificate in pioneer mission around the country (Carlisle, Birmingham, South-West and London) and the ways that students on the course report being liberated to make a difference in their local communities is deeply heartening.
I really encourage anyone reading this to come to Gather events where you can be in person with these like-minded pilgrims – there’s nothing more life-giving. (Dates for regionally based Gather events will be published soon.)
Can you tell us a bit about your own personal development over the last few years?
A key thing has been a confidence in how my work-vocation has shaped up over the years.
I don’t think you ever feel like you’ve ‘arrived’ and other possibilities are always beckoning. But when I started my training with CMS, there was part of me that felt I’d failed by not taking up a parish role as an ordained priest in the Church of England – that I was a disappointment to the church. Now I feel completely free of that condemnation.
I’m playing my very small part in a wider movement that is actively seeking a new way of inhabiting Christian faith in the UK at this time.
Lastly, Natalie, how can we pray for you?
My own pioneer practice is around building neighbourly connections where I live. It’s very low-key. I’d love your prayers for God’s guidance in this and for new opportunities to present themselves.
