Pioneers connect at Greenbelt
Pioneers connect at Greenbelt
Greenbelt is an annual fixture in the team calendar and we are looking forward to this year’s festival. CMS has a stand so if you are coming do come and say hi to us there.
by Jonny Baker,
Church Mission Society at Greenbelt 2026
- Friday 28 Aug, 3.30pm: Pioneer meet-up at Hope and Anchor
- Saturday 29 Aug, 11am: Fringe Dweller with Jonny Baker and David Cotterill + guest artists at Shelter
- All weekend: Come and connect at the CMS stand, and sign up for Fringe Dweller
The theme of the stand this year is based around Fringe Dweller, with a series of postcards using images from the book inviting people to join in God’s mission at the edges.
The popular Fringe Dweller Lent course has been set up as a course you can subscribe to any time which comes to you via email. Each postcard has a QR code so you can do that. Do come and take those and encourage people you’re with to visit the stand and do that.
Part of the charism of pioneering and indeed CMS mission purpose is about joining in with what God is doing and making disciples at the fringes. In fact the name Fringe Dweller was inspired by former General Secretary of CMS John Taylor who suggested in one of his newsletters that if we are followers of Jesus then we will find ourselves fringe dwelling.
A new prospectus for pioneer training was delivered yesterday to CMS office which looks great – so do come and grab one of those. Our best advert for the course is former students so please invite people to come and talk to us about training. It’s not too late to sign up for September (though it is quite late!).
Last year we had quite a few conversations about Aspen, the new ecclesial community we launched last November. So if that’s something you’d like to talk about we’d also love to do that.
Look out for me (Jonny Baker) and David Cotterill taking Fringe Dweller to Greenbelt in the Shelter venue at 11am on Saturday exploring ‘Flip The Script’ with a series of artists responding to it. It feels such a Greenbelty kind of theme!
We will have a pioneer meet up for anyone and everyone at 3.30pm on Friday at the Hope and Anchor. Do come along and meet other pioneers, Aspen members and so on.
Speaking of the Hope and Anchor, Methodist pioneer friends will be hanging out there I’m sure. Ash and Anj Barker and Newbigin hub friends are involved in the URC venue. Anj is hosting some conversations each evening that are pioneer/mission focused.
Greenbelt is always a joy – look forward to seeing you there.
