Have you ever felt a “holy discomfort”? That nagging sense that God is calling you to serve, but perhaps not in a way that fits into a traditional Sunday morning box?

Recently, I stood in the Bishop of Exeter’s Palace to celebrate with a group of people who felt exactly that. I love that pioneer training with CMS doesn’t just happen in Oxford or in one single place. It’s happening – and growing – across the UK.

The latest CMS Pioneer Graduation gathered students from across the South West, including Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.

The palace was filled with creativity, warmth and joy. There were interactive worship displays, beautiful sung worship led by a harpist, moving student testimonies, lots of delicious food and, of course, as befits a celebration, much cake.

A celebration of community 

This was more than simply a celebration of completing a course or receiving a certificate. Again and again, students spoke about finding a home. They spoke about finally discovering a language for what they had sensed God calling them to for years. They found a way of looking at mission – a missiology – that made sense of the places they were serving, and training that helped them do what they do with greater confidence, wisdom and courage.

That is one of the great gifts of pioneer training. It names and nurtures what God is already stirring. It helps people understand that mission does not only happen in familiar church settings, but also out at the edges – in the overlooked places, among those who may never walk into a church building, in communities where fresh expressions of Christian witness and discipleship are needed.

Some of the creative demonstrations of work by graduating students

Jesus calls us to the edges with him 

I had the privilege of sharing a few words during the celebration, and I found myself returning to a theme that has been growing in me for some time: Jesus as the Great Disturber.

That might sound like an odd thing to say at a graduation, but I think it fits. Jesus has always had a habit of lovingly disturbing people into new possibilities. That disturbance is not there to crush us, but to awaken us. It is often how mission begins.

Because pioneering is not first about having all the answers, having a perfect plan, or building something impressive. Pioneering begins with a willingness to follow Jesus into places that are unfamiliar, overlooked, risky, and sometimes uncomfortable. And that is right at the heart of CMS.

You may not always feel ready. You may not always feel confident. Some days you may feel small, uncertain, or underqualified. But the good news is this: God has always loved working through ordinary people who say yes.

And as I said to the graduating students: “Your ‘yes’ matters. So, as you graduate, don’t just think, ‘I’ve finished something.’ Think, ‘I’m being sent.’”

Rt Rev Mike Harrison, Bishop of Exeter, and I handed out certificates to around 24 students, each one representing a story of faithfulness, courage and calling.

As ever, the certificates only told part of the story.

The real story is what comes next: the communities that will be served, the conversations that will be had, the experiments that will be tried, the friendships that will be formed, the prayers that will be whispered, the people who will encounter Jesus in new ways because these pioneers said yes to his call.

Are you being called to something new? Find out about training with CMS

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UK: Pioneer Mission Training programme

CMS is hosting two open days next week: on-site in Oxford on Tuesday 21 April and online on Wednesday 22 April. These events are designed to help prospective students explore CMS Pioneer Mission Training options, including streams focused on African Christianity, Asian Christianity, children’s, family and youth work. Pray for people to attend these open days and see how the training could make a difference to their ministry. Find out more and book your place at https://churchmissionsociety.org/open

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As we cross the threshold into autumn, we gather at the equinox – that moment of balance between light and dark – to reflect on the horizons within us and beyond us.

Set in the beautiful surroundings of the Lake District, Equinox Retreat weaves together hiking in the fells, generous hospitality, reflective conversation, shared meals, still moments, and space to breathe. It is time to step back from the noise, look forward with intention, deepen old friendships and form new connections, and reconnect with nature and the great outdoors.

Rooted gently within the Christian tradition, the retreat also offers space to revitalise our connection to the divine. We approach faith here as something spacious, embodied and alive – attentive to beauty, open to mystery, and grounded in love.

Expect:

• Guided walks in stunning landscapes 
• Thoughtful conversation and gentle reflection 
• Space for solitude and stillness 
• Shared meals prepared by Home Community Café 
• Warm, relaxed community 

Whether you come seeking clarity, rest, connection, spiritual renewal, or simply fresh air and good company, you are warmly welcome.

• Hosted by Paul Rose and Johnny Sertin
• Catering by Home Community Cafe

Take part

Cost: £150 per person
A subsidised rate is available if needed – please do ask. We do not want anyone to miss out.

Book now via eventbrite Download flyer

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UK and global: Following the Fringe Dweller

Give thanks for the approximately 2,000 people who are journeying through Lent with CMS, using our Fringe Dweller resource. Please pray that this resource will be meaningful for people and that  many will be challenged to consider what following Jesus to the edges looks like in their lives and neighbourhoods.

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UK: mission and migration

CMS’s Acts 11 Project exists to facilitate a sustained conversation on the implications of migration for Christian faith and mission. Pray for the Acts 11 team as they pursue possible partnerships and plan events to encourage people not just to think more deeply on this topic, but to engage others in their churches and communities in discussion and take action.

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UK: Community Shed Carlisle

We give thanks with mission partner Garry Ion for a huge answer to prayer! Following the closure of Carlisle’s Community Shed in October 2025, the local community was able to raise money to start the project up again. Garry and the Community Shed team are now in the process of setting up in a new location, aiming to welcome Shed members through their doors by the end of February. Pray for them as they once again provide a place where people can open up about mental health struggles and find a place of belonging and support.

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If you’ve been thinking of booking your place on the Faith in Public course then don’t wait any longer. Spaces are filling up.

The agenda has been announced and more speakers with it. Including Jane Perry from Church Action on Poverty and The Very Rev Rogers Govender of Manchester Cathedral.

The course will take place over three online sessions and one weekend residential in Manchester.

The residential will include a visit to Manchester Cathedral and a Justice walk around Manchester’s civic centre, in which you will explore sites of significance in Manchester’s radical history and their connection to faith. It will include a panel of Christians in public service, with a chance to ask them your questions. And of course, given the political climate today, there will be a focus being a witness in today’s fragmented political environment. As well as being deeply theological the course will also be highly practical.

Here’s the full agenda:

You can read more about the course and book your place here.

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Are we letting buildings, structures and practices distract from conversation, the lifeblood of community?

A few years ago, I was involved in a series of round table discussions, focused on the church and its mission. The room was full of people invited from the wide range of traditions within the Church of England. Our task was to explore what a missional ecclesiology for the future of the church might be.

The day involved facilitated discussion on three themes: mission, kingdom and church. And what was interesting was that, while discussion on mission and kingdom revealed a high degree of common ground, the discussion on church saw a few sparks flying!

Out of that day the idea was developed to publish a book that reflected the spectrum of perspectives and missional practice represented by that conversation. Being the People of God (SCM 2025) continues the conversation and, we hope, widens it by giving people a chance to hear how, in a variety of contexts, the church is responding in mission to our changing cultural context.

Clare Watkins, a Catholic lay theologian and a professor at Durham University, has said that the church might understand itself as “a community of discerning conversation, open to the necessary incomplete and flawed contributions of all who seek what is most true”. But do we see the church and its ongoing life as “a discerning conversation”? I am not sure we do. Most often our attention is drawn to more concrete things like buildings, or to the organisational structures of the church. Or it is drawn so easily to the practices of the church, what we are doing (or not doing), and how we can do it better (or do it at all!).

Yet conversation is the stuff of healthy communities and healthy organisations. Without conversation, through which ideas, information, innovations and ideals flow, are reflected on, adapted and reinforced, organisations ossify into rigid institutions or machines. Good, open conversation is the life of any community. Conversation is also a key locus of discernment, making space and time for that slow work of reflection and evaluation as communities navigate their life and purpose through changing circumstances.

It is in the spirit of that need for discerning conversation that Being the People of God was put together. We recognised that the struggle to find sufficient common ground when talking about the church was not a problem to be fixed. Instead, it simply highlighted the nature of the church. That the church is not a fixed star somehow detached from the world, but an ongoing communal conversation on what it means to live together as disciples of Jesus in the world as it is.

Furthermore, the world as it is undergoing a period of change perhaps unlike any other in human history. We are engaging in this conversation in wildly turbulent days. The strapline for the book therefore reads “Missional ecclesiology in uncertain times”.

I invite you to join in this conversation at the next CMS conversations day on Tuesday 17 March. The day will explore many of the themes of the book. And we will be helped to do this through the contributions of some of those who wrote chapters for it. As you might expect there will be plenty of space for you to engage in conversation! We look forward to seeing you. Book your place now

About Paul Bradbury

Paul is an ordained pioneer minister in the Church of England, based in Poole, Dorset. He is a freelance practical theologian, writer and researcher, and a tutor and lecturer in missional ecclesiology.

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Cathy Ross explores the theology and stories of those who have found lament to be the catalyst for healing and something new.

Lament is often associated with Lent but it can also be off-putting with many unsure of how to “get it right”.

Canon Dr Cathy Ross, lecturer and tutor with CMS Pioneer Mission Training, will help us understand the theology and how it informs our practice.

She will share case studies of those who have found lament to be the catalyst for healing and something new.

By the end of this webinar, you will you know how to reflect on areas of your own life or in the world which cause you pain, how to present those to God and how to allow him to renew your hope.

Canon Dr Cathy Ross

Canon Dr Cathy Ross is a lecturer and tutor with CMS Pioneer Mission Training and is a lecturer in mission at Regent’s Park College, Oxford.

She led CMS Pioneer Mission Training Oxford from 2019 to 2025, before handing over the reins to Dr James Butler.

Until 2016 she was the General Secretary of the International Association for Mission Studies.

She has previously worked in Rwanda, Congo and Uganda with NZCMS. Cathy is also canon theologian at Leicester Cathedral.

Her research interests are in the areas of contextual theologies, World Christianity, feminist theologies and hospitality.

She is married to Steve, a GP in Oxford and they have three children and five grandchildren. She enjoys tennis, swimming, coffee, travel and watching the All Blacks.

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Worship on Talland Beach was a great way to start the last day of the final module of the CMS Certificate in Pioneer Mission for the students of the South West Pioneering Hub.

Worship was brilliantly led by CMS graduate Liz Dudley of Exeter diocese who leads creation walks for spiritual seekers in Exeter city.

The final module, Mission Entrepreneurship, was led by Trevor James, a pioneer and mission entrepreneur from Paignton, Devon, who models resourcefulness and resilience in creating ways of funding mission through an online antique business and furniture restoration. He is a passionate advocate for the idea of church as Seven Sacred Spaces, a monastic concept explored in a recent book by George Lings of the same title.

Former students take the lead

It was encouraging for all of us when our three guest speakers on the module weekend all turned out to be former students on the course with learning to share.

The course takes place over a year and in that time lots happens. One couple had a baby – our first Southwest Hub baby born between modules! He was a welcome visitor to Sclerder Abbey, the venue for the module near Looe in East Cornwall. With his parents, of course.

A small number of people left the course during the year for different reasons, but most found it worthwhile or even life-transforming. Apart from the insight and ideas they gain into contextual mission and starting new Christian communities, they usually say how much it has helped them find and express more of their true self.  One student, Denise Robinson, said of the course:

“I discovered just how much I loved exploration by creative means. I never knew what was going to come out when I started the demonstrations of learning for each module. I’d like to continue this exploration.

“My experience of the final weekend together on this wonderful pioneer course was absolutely brilliant.”

Looking to the future

The students are looking forward now to the award ceremony in March when they’ll be awarded their certificates and some will be commissioned or recognised as Local Lay Pioneers who can live out their calling in the local parish, benefice or deanery.

The Hub leaders are turning their attention to the next cohort of the Certificate in May 2026. We are always adapting to the external environment as the times demand and the next intake of students will mainly be drawn from the dioceses of Truro, Exeter and Bristol. We’re delighted to welcome Bristol on board!

We’re now recruiting and praying for people who have the potential to flourish and want to become more fully who they are made to be as they head out to join in with what God will reveal to them in their local communities. 

If you know of anyone in Devon, Cornwall, Bristol, South Gloucestershire or north Wiltshire who you think would benefit from the course please direct them here for more information: churchmissionsociety.org/south-west

Alternatively (or as well) please do get in touch with tina.hodgett@churchmissionsociety.org for a conversation with no pressure to commit to anything!

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UK: men on the margins in Carlisle

Over the past five years, mission partner Garry Ion has been supporting people on the margins, especially men, through practical work in Carlisle’s Community Shed.

At the end of October, the Shed closed down, making it harder to come alongside people in the community who need support.

Pray for conversations around relaunching the Shed, particularly for concerns around sustainability, running costs and staffing to be resolved.

Give thanks that Garry and others from the Shed are able to meet at the Restore Charity Shop in the centre of Carlisle in the meantime.

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CMS celebrated the graduation of 38 Pioneer Mission Training students on 11 December 2025 with a commissioning ceremony filled with prayer and praise.

James Butler, Pioneer Mission Training leader, opened the event with a reminder that we are sent by Jesus into the harvest that awaits – to leave behind what is past, carry forward what we’ve received and go where Jesus leads.

One graduate, Paul Latham, says he has “never fitted in”, but that at CMS he found a community of others like him.

He describes the pioneer teaching team as “great founts of knowledge,” and stresses that the strength of their teaching is that they’ve done pioneering mission themselves; they can offer guidance based on their own experience.

Angela Rena Collins Itzstein, who also graduated, said one thing she particularly appreciated about the African Christianity focus was the breadth of perspective afforded by students in different countries participating online:

“You have all of these different people, from all different types of experiences, wanting to do different things, but we’re all able to come together and share our hopes and our dreams and the things that God is saying to us and share that in this space.”

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