‘The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see.’  Alexandra Trenfor’s well known maxim is our aspiration as trainers and writers.

by Rev Greg Bakker

Our forthcoming book, Into all the Parish, is an attempt move away from rejuvenation of the parish church based on replicable strategies or programmes into a ‘way of being’. As reviews of our forthcoming book pour into our inbox, many have commented on the ‘practical companionship offered’ for congregations wishing to make this journey.

Our approach does have a strategy; it is simply rooted in rediscovering afresh the missional aspiration and calling through five dynamic principles (or ways of being church) which characterise a pioneering congregation. Through the five dynamics, we seek to show leaders and congregations where to look, but not what to see.

Our theory is that parish churches who have recaptured a pioneering spirit and made it integral to parochial life practise these five dynamics in a communal way:

• congregational spiritual discernment: the transformative skill of noticing
• shared missional values: the power of principle over preference
• shifting heart, attention, and resource outward: losing your life to find it
• trusting in God’s abundance: what do you have in your hand
• different ways of being church: equal, connected, and distinct.

We sometimes have clergy say that they are already teaching these things in their congregations. This is great. Keep going.

What we ask for is the opportunity to help raise missional aspiration and formation in whole congregations through the communal practices of the five dynamics. For as long as I’ve been a parish priest, our interpretations of the gospel have largely been focused on the individual. What would we see if we practised together the five gospel dynamics in a communal way, allowing these to shape our aspirations, our use of power and processes in decision making, and our spiritual care for one another and a wider range of people unconnected with the church?

So, if you yearn for your congregations to thrive but you’d appreciate a little help about where to look without being told what to see, get your hands on a copy of Into all The Parish.

Buy Into All the Parish now from Church House Publishing, Eden or Amazon.

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Dr Gavin Mart recently completed his DTh exploring ultrarunning as a site of spiritual encounter. He is now working with the Methodist Church and the Church in Wales, helping to practically develop these ideas across outdoor, community enterprise and pioneering contexts.

Dr Cathy Ross, lecturer and tutor with CMS Pioneer Mission Training talks to Gavin about his doctoral research experience.

Cathy: First of all, congratulations. How does it feel to have completed the DTh?

Gavin: It still feels slightly unreal. It’s been one of the hardest things I’ve done, so thanks for being a great supervisor! But it’s also one of the most stretching in terms of how I think and see the world.

The doctorate didn’t just give me answers. It changed the questions I’m asking.

What led you to study this area?

I’d completed both the FdA (Foundation degree in Arts) and MA in Pioneer Mission through CMS and was keen to attempt to answer some of my own research questions. The starting point was very simple. I was already involved in outdoor community and endurance sport, and I kept noticing that people were having profound experiences, myself included. Awe, connection, even moments of what they described as something “bigger than themselves”.

But there was almost no theological language to engage with that.

At the same time, a sports ministry report highlighted a lack of in-depth theological thinking in sport and wellbeing contexts, particularly at ground level. Practice had moved ahead, but theology had not kept up.

That gap became the focus. What is actually happening in these environments, and how might theology respond to it?

So what did you discover?

The core discovery is this:

Ultrarunning can function as a site of spiritual encounter.

Not in a forced or imposed way, but through embodied experience. Through endurance, suffering, landscape and community.

People consistently described moments of awe, surrender and connection, even if they didn’t use religious language. Statements like, “I’m not religious, but I pray when I run,” came up repeatedly.

So, the thesis doesn’t claim that every experience is spiritual. It asks how we might interpret these experiences theologically, and what it means to take them seriously.

That sounds quite different from traditional approaches to mission.

Yes, it shifts the starting point.

Instead of asking, “How do we bring people into church?” it asks, “Where is meaning already happening?”

I draw on John V Taylor here, a former Anglican bishop and missiologist whose work focused on recognising the activity of the Spirit beyond the boundaries of the institutional church. In 1959 he became Africa Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, and in 1963 he succeeded Max Warren as its General Secretary, remaining in post until 1974. His thinking was significant because it gave theological permission to take seriously what is happening in the wider world, not just within church structures.

He describes the Spirit in very physical terms, in the strain of muscles, in the contact between people, in what happens between us.

That opens up a different posture. Not imposing meaning, but noticing where something is already unfolding.

Can you give an example from your research?

One runner described what he called “the crack” around 60 miles into a 100-mile race. A point where something in him gave way.

After that, he spoke about feeling like he was between two worlds, even sensing the presence of dead relatives. He didn’t frame it as belief. He described it as experience.

Others spoke about moving through the night and emerging changed, not necessarily stronger, but clearer.

Rather than deciding whether that is “spiritual” or not, I explore how traditions like the mystics might interpret it. There are clear resonances with ideas like the dark night of the soul and transformation through endurance.

The key is not to reduce the experience, but to take it seriously.

What implications does this have for pioneer ministry?

It suggests a different way of engaging.

I describe something I call the “adventurous pause”. A moment of attentiveness before we rush to explain or act.

In that pause, we begin to notice what is already happening. How people are searching for meaning, how community forms through care and hospitality, how environments shape encounter.

Pioneer ministry, in that sense, becomes less about creating something new, and more about recognising what is already there and joining in with it.

You also explore community and digital culture. What did you find there?

There’s an interesting tension.

In ultrarunning, you see very raw forms of community. People helping each other at their weakest, often without any shared belief system. There is a kind of radical hospitality that emerges naturally.

But then that experience is translated online.

One participant said, “If it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen.”

There’s a kind of modern confession and affirmation loop. We offer the experience up and wait to be recognised.

You might describe this as being alone together. Connected, but not fully known.

So, you get this split between embodied, real experience and its digital reflection, I find this area of research fascinating.

What happens next for you?

The work doesn’t feel finished.

If anything, it feels like it’s opening out.

I’m working on a consultancy basis now both with church organisations and those interested in community wellbeing and enterprise development, and beginning to explore how this kind of attentive, embodied approach can take shape in practice.

What’s becoming clear is that many organisations sense something is shifting culturally, but don’t yet have a framework for engaging it. They can see that people are searching for meaning, but they are not sure how to respond.

That’s where this work is starting to land.

And if people want to explore this further?

I’m already in conversations with churches and organisations who are asking similar questions, particularly in outdoor, wellbeing and community contexts, but also organisations who want to change their approach and posture in the community.

Sometimes organisations want to reimagine their building as an events or creative enterprise space, sometimes they want to get out of the building altogether and venture more meaningfully into the community.

More and more, leaders are asking not how to attract people in, but how to recognise what is already happening and respond well.

This research is really just a starting point for that kind of work.

Find out more about doctoral research with CMS and the University of Roehampton.

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Church House Publishers approached Tina and me in August 2023 about writing a book. 

by Rev’d Greg Bakker

We prepared a proposal for the editorial board and were delighted with the affirmation that what we proposed was a ‘hopeful, conciliatory and constructive contribution to contemporary church life and the church’s mission’.  This summer, after three years of work, Into All the Parish:  Pioneering practices for every local church, will be published. 

Mike Harrison, Bishop of Exeter, describes Into All the Parish: “A wise, accessible and practical guide to helping Christian communities discern how God’s Spirit is at work inside and outside the Church. Tools are provided helping congregations to ensure principles eclipse preferences, abundance mind-sets hold sway over scarcity narratives, and different ways of doing and being church are held together synergistically. All this wrapped up in a missional understanding of being caught up in God’s sacrificial loving movement towards the world – personified in Jesus and inviting our participatory involvement. Recommended!”

I was asked recently why we wrote this book. Tina will share her response in a forthcoming newsletter. I wrote because I believe God is not done with the parish church. I dare to believe God has more for congregations than can be seen from where we currently find ourselves. I believe God invites congregations to journey, to explore, to discover what God has for us. 

God has shown me over many years that when engaged and generous congregations of all shapes and sizes redirect their energy, talent, and resources towards unconnected people and help nurture safe space for those on the margins to be seen, heard and valued, the thriving of local community and of Christian faith become possible. Into all the Parish is a reflection on the pioneering practices which transform the inner life of congregations through small but dynamic changes and cultivate an environment within and beyond the church walls for unconnected people to discover that they are seen, heard and valued by God.

Pre-order the book from Church House Publishing.

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‘An Englishman’s home is his castle’.  This was a proverb I learned growing up, and as I look out of my upstairs office window typing this I see a row of castles opposite.

by Rev Tina Hodgett

When the weather is good my neighbours sit in their gardens and pretend the others in the other gardens are invisible.

In ancient Biblical times people lived in tents that could be moved.  You’d see people coming from a long way away and would prepare to meet them on arrival, not knowing if they brought gifts or threat. In either case, as Abraham knew (Gen 18), offering lavish hospitality was a way of making it more probable the outcome of the visit was a good one for all.

Hospitality is about a posture of openness to the stranger. It is about holding a space for them and yourself to meet on shared ground as fellow human beings. A fellow human being is in need of water in the desert. She or he needs freshly prepared nutritious food, shade, rest. When we encounter others as fellow human beings – subject to bodily needs, physical and psychological safety, and a need to make meaning in our lives – we are more likely to see a stranger as an opportunity to share connection. Not barricade ourself into the castle of seeing people we don’t yet know as a potential threat.

When you read this it will probably be in the raw bright days after Easter Sunday. The encounter between Jesus and the couple on the road to Emmaus may be in your mind.  Sometimes we focus on what happens at the table in that story, but Jesus is hospitable way before that. In his tone of voice, body language, humble listening and responding to them in their distress and confusion, he has created space for them to see more and become more while they are together on the road.

This is what Pioneering Parishes aims to do and aims to help churches to do; create space for others to see more and be more through encounters with Jesus and others on the road.

Is being hospitable an important value for your congregation? Discover who your congregation aspires to be for God and your local community at the next Pioneering Parishes Values Setting and Embedding Workshop. Find out more.

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There is no getting around the idea of power. It is woven into the fabric of every human community and organisation. What is asked of every congregation and its leadership is to be attentive to the use of power.

by Rev Greg Bakker

An attentiveness to the use of power in our congregations is rooted in the humility of God. Our worship liturgy, sermons, and prayers frequently affirm the power of God. Yet, one of the defining but understated characteristics of God is humility.

We often read our Bibles and pray as though humility is primarily about our unworthiness. But what the coming of Jesus shows us about divine humility is its willingness to draw alongside humanity and nurture space for us to be seen, heard, and thrive. Equally, our disposition of humility before God is about cultivating space for God to be seen, heard, and honoured in our lives and world.

How would we know that our church community and leaders are being attentive to the use of our power? We might expect to see:

• significant efforts to include as many as possible in the contributing of ideas
• robust, transparent, honest conversations in our church communities
• a curiosity to understand others and what has shaped their perspective
• careful listening for ideas that reflect the whisper of the Spirit rather than just simply seeking the opinion of the majority
• pastorally sensitive, participatory processes of change rather than change done to us by those with power

How would we know when our church community and leaders are not being attentive to the use of power? Power lacking humility:

• frequently expects people to move quickly through stages of loss or adjustment (just get on with the new stuff)
• marginalises those who have questions or simply need more time to see in a new way
• reflects and benefits the personal preferences of the “powerful” within the congregation
• rewards those who get in line with the vision and strategies of those in charge without robust processes for communal discernment

Attention to the use of power is vital to the thriving of our church communities. Power used well, power to bless, is ultimately shaped by a humility which allows us all to feel we have been seen, heard, and valued within the kinship of God.

Discover more about paying attention to use of power during a Pioneering Parishes course. Find out more.

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At Pioneering Parishes, we are persuaded that pioneers and parishes need each other.

But the dynamics between pioneers and advocates are often challenging and disruptive. To foster better understanding and coloration in mission, Rev Greg Bakker and Rev Tina Hodgett, leaders of Pioneering Parishes, have created the beatitudes for pioneers and priests.

Last year, on our blog we featured a series on the Pioneering Parishes Beatitudes. Beginning with an introduction and then looking at each beatitude in more detail. You can see all the posts here:

• Introduction to Pioneering Parishes beatitudes
• Aspiring to be our best
• Show interest
• More in common than you might think…
• Equality…
• Think Win/Win
• Journey Together
• Practise the Better Way

Now we have put together the beatitudes into one download. Making it easy to share them with your priest or pioneer and see if you can support each other to be who you each aspire to be for God and your community?

If you would like support in working with either a priest or pioneer, Pioneering Parishes can help. Take a look at our training courses or get in touch with us via the link at the bottom of this page.

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by Rev Tina Hodgett

‘These are uncertain times.’

‘This is an unprecedented situation.’

‘Things don’t seem to work anymore.’

How many times a week do you hear these kinds of phrases on TV, social media, the radio? They appear in articles and book titles like ‘How to lead when you don’t know where you’re going.’

I wonder if you ask yourself what you can do to make it (whatever ‘it’ is) better, particularly in the context of leading in the parish church?

Often what needs our attention is our own posture towards God, ourself and others. What ways of being, listening, talking and doing do we bring to these areas of our life? Our existing ways of being may be wise and wonderful.

On the other hand they may have been formed in early life to keep us feeling safe, and it may be time to carefully, with self-compassion, with the help of our community, open ourselves to change them.

This is the essence of being adaptive. Understanding that new ways forward will depend on giving up existing beliefs and habits and adopting new ones; being willing to let go of aspects of ourselves and our familiar practices; take a risk for the sake of discovering something we hadn’t imagined; trying out new things and celebrating failure as learning.* This is, I would add, the essence of the life of a disciple of Christ.

All of this can be uncomfortable, but it will be more fruitful than applying an ‘off-the-peg’ solution that assumes our deep-rooted challenges in parish churches are purely technical and can be fixed like a faulty boiler (unless of course they are a faulty boiler).

Pioneering Parishes is an adaptive organisation. We try to model adaptive approaches and we encourage parish churches to do likewise.

*You can read more about technical v adaptive solutions in Heifetz, Ronald A., Marty Linsky, and Alexander Grashow. The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World. Harvard Business Press, 2009 or find short articles on the internet.

Find out about how your church can make being adaptive part of who it is at Pioneering Parishes Values Day.

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From Piccadilly station to Manchester Cathedral: a note on the ways of being public with faith.

When I go to Manchester, I tend to get a train that stops at Piccadilly station. To get to Manchester Cathedral you have to walk about a mile down one long stretch of shops, cafes, restaurants and stalls. It’s a hive of activity, with buskers often spaced meters apart from one another. Interestingly, I often see a number of examples of ‘public faith’. There are usually one or two street preachers with various placards, a speaker and a microphone. Usually, their message centres on the need to be saved quickly, because you don’t know what will happen when you die, and when that is going to happen…it could be today! I have also walked past numerous Jehovah’s witnesses and Mormons. There’s also been a marquee with leaders from the local mosque giving leaflets about the Qur’an and the Islamic faith.

This is one way of being public with faith. While those who operate with this kind of public faith do so with noble intentions – indeed I have experience on both ends of the microphone – the end result, in my view, is a bland view of the world that stops us seeing God’s presence in the lives of others, and in the world. We reduce Christianity to ideas, beliefs and messages, rather than seeing Christianity as a way of being that bears witness to the God who is present in both the church and the world. However, there are alternative forms of public faith that have different aims and enable us to see God in the lives of our neighbours.

I spent a number of years for my PhD studying the public theology of Manchester Cathedral. Briefly, public theology is theological reflection on public life, both offered in the church and in society. It explores how Christians can engage the world and in society. The significant emphasis of public theologians is found in Jeremiah 29:7:

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

For Jeremiah, the exiles’ task was not to make Babylon Jewish, to try and convert their captors. Rather, their task was to love their neighbours as themselves, to seek to do good in the place they found themselves, however disturbed and conflicted they felt about this task. And at Manchester Cathedral, the goal is the same.

Why cathedrals?

If you are anything like how I was before I started my PhD, you’ll think that cathedrals are little more than great tourist attractions, which ought to be awed for their stonework, grand ceilings, incredible organs, and their general ability to make one feel as though they have stepped into another time. I would not have thought that cathedrals could be exciting spaces of mission and witness. But isn’t it interesting how cathedrals seem to operate as points of gathering for important cultural, city and national events? As Simon Oliver says:

When bombs explode on our streets, a member of the Royal Family dies, a nation remembers its war dead, or a national charity wants to celebrate the anniversary of its founding, we default to a more substantial and enduring ‘middle’, the cathedral, which, because of its Christian proclamation, provides an expression of unity and hope that exceeds the chaotic pluralities of modern society. It is a genuine via media, lying comprehensively in the middle of public and private, sacred and secular, heaven and earth.

What I find interesting about cathedrals generally, is that they seem to transcend boundaries that might be assumed to be in place. They are both civic spaces, and social spaces. They can be used for secular events but are always sacred spaces. There may be a market hall put up in the Nave, while the Eucharist takes place in the Quire. And as such, they are unique spaces, that all people can feel welcomed within to participate.

Manchester Cathedral aims to be a space which fosters cohesion, unity and justice within the diversity of its city. Through various networks, forms of social action, hosting debates and forums, celebrations of all kinds, engaging with people of all faiths and non, seeking inclusion for those marginalised and excluded, the cathedral aims to be a beacon of hope and life in its city. It strives to be a cathedral to people of all faiths and none.

Take part

During the session I am leading on the Faith in Public: Political Theology for Mission residential, I will be exploring the theological and biblical foundations for political engagement. We will visit Manchester Cathedral and it will be a key case study to explore some of these themes more deeply.

Book your place now

Dominic Budhi-Thornton is a public theologian who explores the connection between faith and practice, particularly in relation to marginalised communities and issues of justice. He is the author of the book Public Theology in the Post-Secular Age: Lessons Learned from Manchester Cathedral (Pickwick: 2025). 

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The lecturer entered the lecture hall bellowing, ‘What questions do you have about the assigned reading?’ The room went silent. No one engaged.

by Rev Greg Bakker

The lecturer then raised the temperature in the hall. ‘Please take out your exam booklets,’ he replied. ‘If you don’t have any questions, I’m assuming that you have mastered the content and are ready to demonstrate this.’

Hands were quickly raised in hopes of heading off an exam few were adequately prepared to sit. What followed was extraordinary. There was no lecture. There was only engagement around the questions, insights and connections of the learners in the room. Sometimes questions raised were even answered by other students.

I was in that lecture hall. I was profoundly changed that day. What Ted Hamilton, “lecturer” in Geography, did was transform me into an active participant in my own learning. His whole approach to teaching was to model what he expected of himself and what he wanted to see in us – participative learners who were curious, questioning, noticed patterns and able to explain our understanding of content to someone else in a way which contributed to their learning. His medium was his message.

One of the key values of Pioneering Parishes is ‘we model what we want to see’. In many ways, this aspiration is the pinnacle. It is the value into which all our other values flow. This value is the commitment to embody who we aspire to be in the little and big things we do. The implication is that if, for example, we aspire to be creative and pay attention to the use of power, we will cultivate systems, ways of going about things which in themselves convey our aspirations. The medium of communication, as people say, becomes the message.

This, of course, isn’t fancy corporate speak. It is deeply Christian for we follow the One whose very life was his message.

Come along to Values Day to find out more about modelling what you want to see. Book your place now.

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Christmas is a reminder that migration has always been woven into the story of salvation.

by Joseph Ola

22 December 2025

We know that Jesus enters the world into the margins: he was born away from home, visited by travellers from distant lands, and forced into exile as a refugee child. Through his birth and life, we see how God does not shy away from the precarity of human movement – in fact, God inhabits it.

The Yoruba have a proverb that offers a caution in this regard:

“Sún mọ́hùn-ún, a ó ṣorò ilé wa, tí kò jẹ́ kí àlejò di onílé.”

“Make room, we are about to perform our family ritual,”

which keeps the immigrant from ever becoming part of the household.

This proverb exposes a painful truth which has echoed loudly amid various migration policy conversations across the globe: communities can welcome migrants for a while, yet draw invisible lines when true belonging is at stake. A seat may be offered – but not a voice. Proximity – but not participation. Hospitality – but not home. Christmas confronts such boundaries!

In the incarnation, God does not stand at the doorway politely uninvited – he steps inside the human household. Jesus is not kept outside the rituals of belonging; he becomes the centre of the family story. He is not tolerated at the edge – he is welcomed by heaven and earth as Emmanuel: God with us.

So, as migration continues to shape our societies, Christmas asks us uncomfortable but necessary questions: Are we truly making room, or only appearing to? Do we allow the stranger to become kin, or merely a guest who must not get too close?

May we practise the kind of welcome where newcomers share not just the table but the story – where those on the move discover that, in Christ, they already belong. May we tear down the lines that keep others out. For in Jesus – the eternal outsider – we meet the One who makes us all at home.

As we celebrate the birth of Christ, may we remember that God comes to us not in stability but in vulnerability; not from the centre but from the edges. May we find Christ anew in the migrant, the seeker, the stranger, the neighbour – and also in ourselves, as people continually invited to journey with God.

May the peace, joy, and hope of Christ be with you and those you love.

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A church where I served in the early 2010s runs an event at this time of year called Star Trail.

by Rev Tina Hodgett

The 13th century civic parish church of St Peter’s in Portishead is turned into a Middle Eastern landscape, starry skies are projected onto the vaulted ceiling, adults dressed as the Lord of Time, navigators, magi, Mary… school children travel the star trail to meet the wise men to hear their individual stories in elaborately decorated gazebos. It’s magical… there’s no shortage of adults to dress up and rock a baby Jesus on a bale of straw, or dress themselves as an alchemist trading in myrrh.

It’s a playful, embodied, interactive and relational way of telling the ancient story. It’s immersive and engages the whole person. As infant nativities do, they draw us in to the moment body mind and soul. Of course, with infant nativities there is risk and mistakes, laughter and the unpredictable rogue child. Families attend to watch their child go through pre-school ritual, but also to enter into the jeopardy of the story again.

I’ve always seen the story of the birth of Jesus as the story of God at play. After all, here is the Son of God appearing on the human stage dressed in flesh and blood, heart and spirit, acting out the drama of God’s design in the world while the angels look on. It’s a breath-taking event, full of twists and turns, surprises and overturnings. The Holy Spirit directs the play – the drama – and creates the space for spontaneous improvisation by the human actors – the unpredictable rogue adult.

In Pioneering Parishes we are convinced that God is inviting us to join the Holy Trinity at play in the world today, like little children confident in the love and welcoming gaze of their adoring parent. We try to be playful in all we do… beyond Christmas and in the training space, in the parish, in our newsletter. How are you incorporating play into your practice as a priest or minister? Let us know!

If you would like to gift your church the opportunity to be playful in training why not buy a gift voucher for your church? Drop us a message here.

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This week, the BBC featured an article exploring the rising number of Tommy Robinson supporters turning to church. It shines a spotlight on some tricky questions we have to navigate as Christians and churches at this time; what does it mean to show the love of God to all, to welcome the stranger, and be faithful followers of Jesus?

On the one hand there’s something to celebrate: people are coming to church who have not walked through the doors for years and years, perhaps ever. And yet their motives, as the article identifies, are often not primarily about following Jesus or even finding out about Christianity, but rather supporting an institution which they feel is able to defend something of what it means to be British.

As the article asks, how do churches respond to this, when some of the assumptions about Christianity and its values being brought by those turning to the church might be seen by many to misrepresent Jesus and his teachings? Indeed, a few weeks ago a number of Church of England bishops, with leaders of other denominations, accused protestors of co-opting the cross and causing division.

As we explore on our course Faith in Public: Political Theology for Mission, these kinds of questions are ones which churches have faced many times in the history of Christianity.

Jesus wasn’t born into a Jewish nation, but one occupied by Roman rule. It was about 300 years after his death that the question of what a Christian nation would look like came up, when Constantine converted to Christianity. For some, this is the point at which Christianity lost its way – becoming involved in state power was corrupting. Instead, they might say to see true Christianity one has to look to the margins, to those who maintained the radical message of Jesus despite the church working with the state – think of the desert fathers, monastic movements, the anabaptists in the reformation, of the non-conformists of more recent years. In this view, accepting Britain has been losing its Christian identity for some time, and even encouraging that, is a sign of faithfulness to the gospel because it gives the church freedom to truly model Christian living – often in spite of what governments may do.

The concern is that when churches think the answer is to step into positions of power to further the cause of Christianity, the risk is that Christians and churches overestimate their ability to do good, and instead either become co-opted into someone else’s agenda, or in seeking a particular good, end up turning to increasingly manipulative means to make those happen. What the bishops were saying back in September was that while some saw an opportunity in the Unite the Nation march to name things they were proud of and wanted to maintain within Britain, the problem was that rather than shaping the narrative they became co-opted by a movement with origins in a far-right agenda. Jesus pointed out that his kingdom was not of this world, and he rebuked his followers for trying to bring it about by force. Jesus’ kingdom would only become a reality when he returned, and until then the kingdom was to come about like yeast through the dough, or like seeds which grow up without anyone noticing.

So, what does it mean for Christianity to influence, shape and witness to our nation?

In the Faith in Public course, we meet with people who have done just that. We will hear the story of Manchester Cathedral and the ways in which it has sought to be a faithful Christian presence, shaping the public life of Manchester through its words and actions. We will hear from Ian Rutherford, a Methodist minister working at Methodist Central Hall, about the way he has collaborated and worked with so many seeking a common good which reaches across divides to find ways for all to flourish.

In a number of places the Bible describes followers of Jesus as foreigners and pilgrims and those whose citizenship is in heaven. Our calling is not to make the world look like what we think Jesus’ kingdom should look like by our own strength and power, but to live as citizens of that kingdom which will come with Jesus’ return. This is challenging but Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles living in Babylon can help us to make sense of this. Writing to the Jews who were living in an alien culture where God was not worshiped, they would have been surprised to hear Jeremiah telling them that God said: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7). They were called to collaborate with those in Babylon and do things which promoted its welfare. By collaborating together, there are possibilities for faithful witness, for justice and for mutual flourishing.

The place of church in society is not a simple question, but fortunately people have been thinking about this and living it out for centuries. In our currently climate the risk is we look for easy answers; and yet the reality is it is hard, slow work, of prayer, of building relationships, of navigating difference and working towards the welfare of all.

Want to explore this further?

Come and take part: Faith in Public: Political Theology for Mission takes place via online learning and a residential in Manchester from Thursday 7 to Saturday 9 May 2026. Book your place now.

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