Path to becoming a pioneering parish
A tool to help you prayerfully reflect on your church’s journey of culture change
Every pioneering parish is different and each one travels its own path using the tools they’ve received through Pioneering Parishes training or book, Into All the Parish: Pioneering Practices for Every Local Church.
While unique, each pioneering parish works collaboratively with congregations to integrate five dynamics into its life. The dynamics enable churches to offer spiritual care to a wider range of unconnected people and potentially create new worshipping communities. Use this tool to find out where your parish is on the path.
The tool is flexible and can be used individually by incumbents to identify areas for their leadership/PCC to consider or in leadership/PCC groups. If you are doing this as a group, it is recommended that you give this tool to those who will be using it ahead of a meeting to give them time to reflect individually before discussing it together.
Read the description of each dynamic below then prayerfully reflect on where your parish is along this path. Colour in the path for each dynamic according to how far you are along it. This will help you to visualise the strengths of your parish and where there is space and opportunity to go further.
Download the pathway tool
Download PDFA. We use tools for congregational spiritual discernment in order to shape the future in the flow of God’s Spirit.
We aim to discern together what the Holy Spirit is inviting us to be and do by being present to the ‘now’: we pay attention to and try to notice what is going on in our congregations, in our local community and in our inner selves. We adopt practices of spiritual discernment to help transform congregations into active participants in whatever is emerging through the work of the Spirit around us. We expect God to guide us not only through Scripture and church tradition but also through contemporary culture and the created world.
- We are rarely guided by practices of congregational spiritual discernment
- We are sometimes guided by practices of congregational spiritual discernment
- We can show evidence that we are guided by congregational spiritual discernment
B. We base our decisions on agreed missional values rather than individual preferences
We agree share principles (values) with our congregation(s) and engaged members of our wider community and make these the basis of church decision-making; we have written descriptions of what our life together looks like, sounds like, and feels like when our agreed values are shaping our behaviour; we have embedded the values into our church structures, systems and practices. The PCC regularly reviews our progress towards living out our values as part of its ongoing work.
- We rarely make decisions based on shared agreed principles or review how we’re doing
- We sometimes make decisions based on shared agreed principles and review how we’re doing
- We can show evidence of a regular rhythm of making decisions based on shared agreed and reviewing how we’re doing
C. We shift our heart, attention and resources towards people who are unconnected
We listen to those who are on the fringes of our church congregations and respond to their views and aspirations for the church. We find out what they think and need rather than tell them what we want them to hear. We find out what will be attractive to them and hold lightly to those things we have learned to love; we shift our resources towards those who are as yet unconnected to God in Christ.
- We rarely shift our heart, attention and resources towardspeople who are unconnected
- We sometimes shift our heart, attention and resources towardspeople who are unconnected
- We can evidence that we have shifted our heart, attention and resources towards people who are unconnected
D. We actively celebrate and trust in God’s abundance
We recognise when we are thinking and acting as though God cannot provide for his people or make the resources available to fulfil his call. We believe that God can surprise us with unexpected ways forward and unlock surprising resources. We ask: “What do we have in our hand?”, nurture alternative thinkers and encourage new ideas. We are open to seeing differently. We engage in a cyclical process of evaluating the tradition for what should be retained, re-imagining tradition(s), stopping things that are no longer serving us, and starting new things.
- We want to trust God to provide more
- We try to operate out of a sense of God’s abundance
- We can evidence that we actively celebrate and trust in God’s abundance.
E. We cultivate a range of different ways of being and doing church within one parish
We go to others because they are unlikely to come to us. In order to offer the cure of souls to a wider range of people we look to see new expressions of church arising that are shaped in dialogue with the people they serve. We celebrate the equality of different forms of church, the new and the time-honoured together. We see ourselves as one part of a diverse range of credible, connected and distinctive forms of church and rejoice in that diversity.
- We are not yet cultivating a range of different ways of being and doing church beyond what we already have
- We are starting to cultivate conditions to grow a range of different ways of being and doing beyond what we already have
- We can evidence that we have cultivated a range of different ways of doing and being church which are seen as equally valuable and valid.
Travelling the path
When you’ve completed the tool and can see dynamics that you’d like to take further, use this section for help and support.
Keep reading Into All the Parish: Pioneering Practices for Every Local Church for ideas and tools to travel further along the path to becoming a pioneering parish in a way which is appropriate for your context.
Check your progress
Repeat the process again in set period of time (perhaps six months, a year or whatever feels right to your church) and see what progress you have made along the path.
If you would like a conversation about how you might develop your engagement with the five dynamics further, please contact us and we will be in touch.
If you are an Area Dean or Rural Dean, contact us to find out how we are working with deaneries to create support and companionship as parish churches walk a new path to being authentic in their community. This is not another ‘thing to do’ but a valuable way to be.
