From books co-authored by CMS staff to anticipated inspiration from (other!) brilliant minds, here’s this year’s list of tantalising titles…

Fringe Dweller, Jonny Baker and David Cotterill, Getsidetracked, 2026

Jesus was loved by fringe dwellers – the poor, lame, blind, lepers, the oppressed, the possessed, foreigners, beggars, outsiders, those deemed unclean, women who experienced shame, tax collectors and sinners. He spent time with them. Fringe Dweller is a collection of 40 reflections with 20 original illustrations by artist Jon Birch, based on encounters in the gospels with Jesus the Fringe Dweller. Each reflection includes a scripture reading, a practice and a liturgy. Ideal for personal use, for groups and for those preaching or curating worship.

Into All the Parish: Pioneering Practices for Every Local Church, Greg Bakker and Tina Hodgett, Church House Publishing, 2026

Arising out of the Pioneering Parishes project, Into All the Parish holds together pioneering and parochial forms of ministry, which are frequently in tension. It honours both as distinct yet connected modes of ministry, seeing pioneering as an integral dynamic within vibrant parochial ministry and essential for widening the possibilities to fulfil the “care of souls” in a local area. Into all the Parish offers practical principles, stories and case studies, forming a framework for corporate discipleship in which congregations identify their aspirations, commit to live out of shared values and create space to pursue ministry within and beyond the church walls.

In the Fullness of Time: A Story From the Past and Future of the Church, Paul Bradbury, Canterbury Press, 2024

This is a book about the present and future of the church in our own challenging context: a secular age, decline, stretched resources, complex and fragmented communities requiring diverse missional approaches. Weaving together storytelling, travelogue and poetry, Paul Bradbury journeys from rural Norfolk to inner-city London, from a radical missional community in Lincolnshire, to a traditional village parish in Dorset, to explore what the church looks like today, and how local parish communities are wrestling with the tensions between the value of inherited church and the need to look to the future.

Being the People of God: Missional Ecclesiology for Uncertain Times, Paul Bradbury, Isabelle Hamley, Andy Smith, SCM, 2025

In unsteady political, societal and ecclesial times, what might a missional ecclesiology offer? Drawn from a consultation by the Church of England’s Faith and Order Commission, this book seeks to offer a conversation involving theologians and practitioners across three key themes – the church’s worship as a gathered community, its witness as a scattered community and its walk as a pilgrim community. With contributors including: Jonny Baker, Angus Ritchie and Cathy Ross.

Decolonizing Mission, Harvey Kwiyani, SCM Press, 2025

For the past 500 years, the idea of the mission of God has been synonymous with that of the expansion of Western civilisation and its influence in the world. In Decolonizing Mission, Harvey Kwiyani traces the history of Christian mission alongside the history of empire, showing the influence that one had on the other. Imagining what mission without imperialism would look like, Kwiyani sheds light on the connection between colonialism and mission and invites us to realign our missional methods with God’s. One of the International Bulletin of Mission Research’s Ten Outstanding Books in Mission Studies, World Christianity, and Intercultural Theology for 2025.

Words Fitly Spoken: Everyday African Theology for Millennials and Gen Z, Joseph Ola, Word Alive, 2025

What does it mean to live faithfully as a young African Christian in a digitally connected, culturally complex world? In Words Fitly Spoken, Joseph Ola weaves together powerful quotations, African proverbs and personal testimony to offer a refreshing vision of Christian discipleship – one that honours both global wisdom and African identity. Through 13 compelling reflections, this book addresses the core struggles of millennials and Gen Z: the pressure to succeed, the fear of failure, the tyranny of busyness and the search for authentic faith in an age of performance and comparison.

Chinese Heritage in British Christianity: More than Foreigners, Alexander Chow (ed), SCM, 2025

This is a critical time for British Chinese Christians. On the one hand, the national churches of each of Britain’s four nations have experienced an unprecedented decline in attendance. On the other hand, British Chinese Christianity is among the fastest growing Christian populations in the UK. But there is a much longer history, with the first Chinese Christian in Britain dated to the 17th century. This book tells the story of the rise of British Chinese Christianity, and how British Chinese people have been shaping and reshaping the future of British Christianity. It brings together theological educators, church ministers and parachurch leaders, including a contribution from Mark Nam, chaplain to the Asian Christianity MA students at CMS.

The Starter’s Way: Leading New Contextual Christian Communities, Ed Olsworth-Peter and Dwight J Zscheile (eds.), Church Publishing Inc, 2025

A call for new ways of starting thriving church communities, based on global case studies of churches who have innovated from within their local communities. As many established churches struggle to connect with people in increasingly post-Christian societies, there has been a vital shift in focus toward starting new Christian communities. This book – edited by two leading thinkers around innovation in the Church, one from the United States, the other from the UK – brings a rich and international array of practitioners and scholars together to explore starting new contextual Christian communities as a way of life. Includes contributions from Jonny Baker, Ali Boulton, Tina Hodgett and Harvey Kwiyani.

Imagining Mission with John V Taylor, Jonny Baker and Cathy Ross, SCM, 2020

The impact that John V Taylor, former general secretary of CMS, had on our contemporary understanding of mission is vast – his determination that mission should mean engagement across cultural boundaries has deep resonance today. In Imagining Mission with John V Taylor, leading missional thinkers Cathy Ross and Jonny Baker invite us into a vision of church, mission and society which takes John V Taylor’s ideas seriously, seeking to imagine what Taylor’s insights might mean for these three areas in our contemporary context. The result is a clarion call to the church to take bigger risks and dream bigger dreams.

• The Gratitude Way: Creating Common Ground in a Divided World, Girma Bishaw, IVP, 2025
• When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor… and Yourself, Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett, 2014
• Living for Jesus and Justice: Daily Prayers for Radical Christians, Simon Jones, Red Letter Christians UK, DLT 2026
• Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development, Bryant L Myers, Orbis, 1999
• The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission, Lesslie Newbigin, SPCK, 1995 (2nd edition)
• God’s Heart for Child Protection and Safeguarding: Practical Theology from Global Perspectives, Nativity A Petallar, Roseline Olumbe and Martin Munyao (eds), Langham Global Library, 2026
• Positive Urban Theology: Finding God in the Grit and Glory of the City, Revd Dr Cris Rogers, CCX, 2026
• Liturgies of the Wild: Myths that Make Us, Martin Shaw, Rider (PRH), 2026
• Justice of Jesus: Reimagining Your Church’s Life Together to Pursue Liberation and Wholeness, Joash P Thomas, Baker Books, 2025
• Love made me an inventor: The story of Maggy Barankitse, Humanitarian, Genocide Survivor, Citizen without Borders, David Toole, Orbis Books, 2025
• Solidarity: The Work of Recognition, Rowan Williams, Bloomsbury, 2026

• Grace Abounds: God’s Abundance Against the Fear of Scarcity, Walter Brueggemann, Westminster/John Knox Press, 2024
• Earthbound: God at the Intersection of Climate and Justice, Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Orbis, 2025
• Reconciling Mission: Realizing God’s Reign through Community Engagement, Alastair McKay and David Brubaker, T&T Clark, 2026
• The Cross and the Olive Tree: Cultivating Palestinian Theology amid Gaza, John Munayer and Samuel Munayer (eds.), Orbis, 2025

Related posts

Get our email updates:

SIGN UP

The post Church Mission Society’s summer reading list appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

Dr Harvey Kwiyani, founder of the Acts 11 project, a CMS initiative, shares how migration is essential to mission.

Mission and migration have always been deeply connected within the history of Christianity. From the beginning, the Christian faith spread not primarily through institutional strategies or mission agencies, but through the movement of people across borders, cultures and empires.

In many ways, the Bible itself is a migration story. Abraham leaves his homeland in response to God’s call. Israel experiences displacement, exile and wandering. Jacob is remembered as a “wandering Aramean” (Deuteronomy 26:5). Jesus himself becomes a refugee in Egypt before returning to Nazareth. The early church emerges within the mobility of the Roman Empire, and the spread of Christianity in Acts takes place largely through trade routes, diaspora communities, persecution and migration.

The history of mission

Historically, the gospel travelled through merchants, enslaved peoples, refugees, students, labour migrants and missionaries. At times, mission became entangled with empire and colonial expansion – this history remains complex, containing both stories of sacrificial service and painful memories of cultural domination. As a result, conversations about mission today increasingly require humility, historical honesty and mutual listening.

Britain became one of the great migrant-sending societies of the modern era. Around 22 million people left the United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries, while more than 60 million emigrated from Europe. Many of these migrants were Christians and their movements helped spread European culture, political influence and Christianity across North America, Australasia, Africa and other parts of the colonial world.

Mission is changing direction

Today, migration patterns are evolving in new ways. Europe has increasingly become a destination for migrants from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Among these communities are vibrant Christian movements reshaping the religious landscape of the West.

The demographic centre of the faith now lies increasingly in the Global South and among migrant and diasporic communities worldwide. African Pentecostal churches in London, Brazilian churches in Lisbon, Korean churches in Los Angeles and Filipino congregations in the Gulf all demonstrate how migration is becoming one of the primary ways Christianity renews itself.

Sometimes this mission movement unfolds in surprisingly ordinary places. Recently, a friend shared with me stories about migrant carers working in British homes. One woman described how Ghanaian carers looking after her husband during his dementia would sing hymns and worship songs over him when he became distressed, calming him through prayer and presence. Another spoke of Zimbabwean carers fasting and praying for elderly patients in their care. A Tanzanian Christian working as a home carer described opportunities to share hope with families facing loneliness, grief and despair.

These stories reveal something profound: mission is now taking place quietly inside British homes through migrant Christians whose compassion and spirituality is becoming part of the moral and emotional fabric of British society itself.

Migration shapes mission

Western discourse still primarily discusses migration through the language of crisis, borders, economics and national identity rather than theology. Yet the New Testament is deeply shaped by migration.

Paul was a Jewish migrant from Tarsus, moving across the Mediterranean world. Aquila and Priscilla, migrant Jews from Pontus, became missionary leaders because they were displaced from Rome by imperial decree. Lydia, a migrant businesswoman from Thyatira living in Philippi, became one of the earliest supporters of the church in Europe.

Migration was not incidental to mission; it was one of the primary vehicles through which the gospel travelled.

Mission happens “on the move”

Some theologians have argued that migration is a “theologising experience”. Migration changes how people understand God, identity, hospitality, community and belonging. Migrants often read Scripture differently because they encounter displacement and vulnerability in deeply personal ways.

The people of God are always “on the move”. Pentecost offers a powerful image for mission in a migrating world. The Holy Spirit did not erase linguistic or cultural differences but spoke through many languages simultaneously. Mission, therefore, is not about making everyone culturally the same. It is about creating communion across difference.

Mission can no longer be imagined as Western Christians going elsewhere to evangelise others. Increasingly, mission happens through mutual exchange, diaspora witness, hospitality and intercultural encounter.

Mission in partnership

Is there still a place for Western Christians and mission agencies within this landscape? Absolutely. But the role must shift from “senders” to partners. The future of mission depends on Christians everywhere learning to listen, share leadership and participate together in the mission of God within an interconnected and migrating world.

Migration is not merely a social phenomenon or political issue, it is one of the defining theological realities reshaping the future of global Christianity.

Learn with us

Explore study routes in African Christianity and Asian Christianity to dive deeper into these shifting
mission dynamics with CMS Pioneer Mission Training.

Explore what the current trends of migration mean for contemporary mission around the world through the work of the Acts 11 project.

Join us for the Mission and Migration Conference in Liverpool, 4 and 5 September 2026:

churchmissionsociety.org/events

Related posts

Get our email updates:

SIGN UP

The post Mission and Migration 101 appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

The latest issue of Anvil, the journal of theology and mission from the Church Mission Society, is out now. The theme of this issue is movements, communities and sodalities.

The idea for this issue was prompted by the launch of Aspen in November 2025. Aspen is a spread-out community, set up to look after the charism of pioneering mission and to generate more of that practice. It is a response to the movement in mission we have seen grow in Britain and other post-Christian contexts over the last 30 years.

There is an article on movements in which Jonny Baker examines this notoriously slippery concept. Ade Green has contributed an article on being a Franciscan, one incredible movement that has been running for over 800 years. It makes quite a good ‘compare and contrast’ with Matt Richards’ article on new monasticism and mission.

Looking internationally, Tim Soerens of the Parish Collective has a conversation with Tina Hodgett and Kris Rocke of Street Psalms speaks to Johnny Sertin. Katharina Haubold reflects on the Fresh X-Network through conversation with others who have been part of the movement in Germany around mission and fresh expressions. Common Grace is a movement in Aotearoa/New Zealand that is focused on activism and justice, seeking to transform unjust structures in society. Alex Johnston tells their story.

There are further articles reflecting on practice. Idina Dunmore reflects on her experience of being part of a mission community, Servants Southall, London. Kairos is a new movement and community in Yorkshire catalysed through the Methodist church’s New Places for New People work. Liane Kensett tells their story and how they have developed a rhythm to the community’s life as they seek to reimagine what that might look like if we become future-facing. Harvey Kwiyani and Nuam Hatzaw have a conversation around Harvey’s book Decolonizing Mission. This conversation took place at the Assembly which is our annual get-together with people in the network.

At CMS we have been pondering what sort of spirituality enables a life lived in mission. Ian Adams has been conducting lots of conversations with people about their own practice under the header “Presence”. Together with a couple of others, this has been distilled to a pattern of five principles to aid a life of prayerful presence, a mission spirituality if you will.

It is a bumper issue of Anvil so do take your time with it. Read Anvil here.

Get our email newsletter:

SIGN UP

The post Anvil is out now appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

‘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.

More from Pioneering Parishes

Connect with Pioneering Parishes:

Get in touch

The post Discover a different way of being appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

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.

Get our email newsletter:

SIGN UP

The post Ultrarunning, encounter and paying attention appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

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.

More from Pioneering Parishes

Connect with Pioneering Parishes:

Get in touch

The post God is not done with the parish church appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

‘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.

More from Pioneering Parishes

Connect with Pioneering Parishes:

Get in touch

The post We are hospitable appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

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.

More from Pioneering Parishes

Connect with Pioneering Parishes:

Get in touch

The post Attentive to the use of power appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

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.

More from Pioneering Parishes

Connect with Pioneering Parishes:

Get in touch

The post Pioneering Parishes Beatitudes appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

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.

More from Pioneering Parishes

Connect with Pioneering Parishes:

Get in touch

The post We are adaptive appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

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). 

Get our email newsletter:

SIGN UP

The post On being public with faith appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

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.

More from Pioneering Parishes

Connect with Pioneering Parishes:

Get in touch

The post We model what we want to see appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).