Church, Community & Change

What is Church, Community & Change?

Church, Community & Change is a training programme that will enable churches to respond to the needs of their communities in a way that shows God’s love and brings about real, lasting and positive change.
It provides churches with a structure that helps them to:

• Build relationships with the community and identify local needs by listening and doing research
• Motivate and envision church members to get involved and to serve their communities
• Where appropriate plan and implement a community initiative that is fully supported by church members and members of the local community
• Deal with the issues that arise as they begin to engage with the community. e.g. beliefs, attitudes, fears, prejudices
• Work through the internal changes required if they are going to be effective in the community

Who is it for?

Church, Community & Change is for churches :

• That are serving communities experiencing significant poverty/exclusion issues
• That have a sense of calling to be more involved with people in need within those communities
• That have some experience of and the capacity to plan and run church activities and/or community initiatives
• That have a leadership who are open to change, are committed to meeting people’s physical and spiritual needs, are keen to involve the laity, and are prepared to work with and learn from other local agencies and groups
• That have a significant number of the congregation willing to be involved in church activities beyond Sunday services (eg, home groups)
• Who assent to the E.A. basis of faith

How do Churches get involved with Church, Community & Change?

Church, Community & Change is available to both churches who contact Tearfund directly and to those churches that are introduced to Church, Community and Change via a Tearfund/ resource organisation partnership¹

Churches Contacting Tearfund Direct

1. Interested churches contact Tearfund and request an ‘About your Church’ application form
2. They complete and return the form
3. A member of the UK & Ireland team then discusses the application with the leadership and if positive will arrange a meeting with the Church Leadership team and interested church members
4. If all are agreed the process will be put in motion. (see Step by Step Guide to the process

Churches introduced to Church, Community and Change via a Tearfund/ resource organisation partnership

Where Tearfund has entered into a collaborative partnership(LINK) with a local resource organisation, Church, Community & Change may be recommended to churches as one element of that organisation’s general support. If the church is interested a meeting with the leadership is arranged and the process continues as for individual churches (see above)

A Step-by-Step Guide to the Process

1. The Leadership team appoints six to ten people to form a co-ordinating team. This team will communicate with the church, liase with the external facilitator, and plan and run activities from the Church, Community & Change manuals.
2. Tearfund appoints an external facilitator to work with the church through the process.
3. The facilitator arranges an initial meeting with the church leadership team and subsequent briefing meetings with the Co-ordinating team.
4. The co-ordinating team and the facilitator plan and run an introductory workshop for the whole church.
5. The co-ordinating team and the facilitator plan a programme of activities to help church members discover the needs in the local community and work through the issues around practical involvement.
6. The co-ordinating team and facilitator plan and run a workshop for the church to agree on an appropriate response to the needs identified by the listening and information gathering process.
7. The co-ordinating team or newly appointed planning team plan and implement a sustainable practical response.
8. The co-ordinating team and facilitator organise a final review of the process and celebration and commissioning of the new community initiative.

Core Principles of Church, Community & Change

Leadership must be totally committed to meeting both people’s physical and spiritual needs, laity involvement and be open to change

Every effort is made to involve the maximum number of church members at every stage of the process

Values and attitudes must be addressed as part of the process

Any initiative is based on listening and research and is developed in participation with representatives of the local community.

The process is not time bound:  1-2 years if necessary

What is Required of the Participating Church?

• Calling. A sense that God is calling the church to be more involved with people in need within its neighbourhood.
• Committed leadership. Leaders who are committed to practical church engagement with the community and who are willing to involve the membership of the church and make Church, Community & Change a priority in their church’s programme. They must be open to learning from and working with other local churches, agencies and groups. Church leaders play an important role in overseeing the process within the church.
• A Co-ordinating Team. A group of six to 10 enthusiastic people to co-ordinate the process, liaise with the external facilitator, and help to run activities from the Church, Community & Change manuals. They are central to the process and significant in determining its success. They will need to meet frequently to review progress and plan the way ahead.
• Involvement. A congregation that is willing to be involved through church services, home groups, listening, information gathering and other activities.
• A donation. The church is asked to make a donation towards the cost of the programme.

What the Participating Church Receives

• An external facilitator, appointed and paid by Tearfund, to accompany the church through the process.
• Preparation and planning manuals
  Making Connections – over 40 activities including Bible studies, group activities and training outlines to help church members ‘connect’ with the local community.
  Taking Action – activities, information, resources and technical guidance to help the church shape, test and implement an appropriate response to identified community needs.
• A co-ordinators handbook. Detailed guidance, advice and suggestions for each stage of the process
• A CD-Rom -  containing all the above materials
• Support from the UK & Ireland sub-regional team
• Access to Tearfund’s experience and resources in Christian Community Development

Some Stories and Comments about Church, Community & Change

A Church in the Welsh Valleys

A church in a Welsh valley town moved into the town centre, leaving the existing church building and hall vacant.  A number of church members had a vision to develop the old building as a centre for the community and felt that the Church, Community & Change process could provide a structure to explore this further.  As the core group of 10 volunteers from the church began to engage with the community, they discovered an ageing community lacking in self-esteem, bemoaning the loss of vital community services, eg: transport, threatened by the local youth and by incomers placed there by the local council.  They discovered a community with many grievances, which didn’t feel it had a voice and which had given up on the statutory services.  It quickly became clear that one possible role of the church was to stand shoulder to shoulder with the community and join its voice with theirs in order to get something significant done.  To this end a meeting was set up for the community to hear feedback from the research and to consider how they might jointly take the issues forward.  To reinforce the idea of giving value to people a first-class meal was provided for those who came.  16 people from the community attended that meeting on a Sunday afternoon and participated fully in the meal and in the ensuing discussion.  As a result a joint church/community group has been set up to agree on priorities and decide on the first steps to take.  A quote from one of the key members of the church:  “The more secular this process has become, in other words the more we seem to be dealing with practical social issues rather than explicitly spiritual ones, the more prayerful we have become.  For many of us in the church we feel out of our depth and therefore more dependent on God”.

A Church in the North of England

A church in the North of England had little or no contact with the local community.  Cut off from a major part of its parish by a dual carriageway, the church struggled to find a way to engage.  Through Church, Community & Change contact has been made with the community.  Just before Christmas the church held a very successful pensioners’ lunch and plans are afoot to build on that.  Recently the church was approached by the Council to host a community event.  All major social agencies with an interest in youth were invited to a consultation.  The church young people acted as hosts, “12 months ago no-one would have known that we existed, now we are right in  the centre of the action” the vicar says. 

Comments

“Even if the process ended with no concrete outcome - which seems unlikely - the process of leadership formation and the negotiation of a participatory model for progressing work, would more than justify the time and effort given to the Church, Community & Change project.  I like this way of working, it’s such a contrast to the confrontational model that underpins so much of civic and church life. We are stuck with models of government in church and society which are representational and excluding.  Representational models are flawed structures but not enough people question the chairman, secretary, treasurer, executive committee hierarchy.  It is too easy to accept what was always in place and forget to ask why are we are doing it this way.  There are other structures for making things happen and it’s great to have a chance to engage with one such alternative”.  (A co-ordination team member)

 “Church, Community & Change is certainly having a big impact on us as a church, both collectively and individually, children and adults alike.  We are being challenged and stretched as we take a fresh look at what it means to be “salt and light” in our community as God leads us on this journey of discovery.” (A co-ordination team member)

“I am very excited about engaging in this Church, Community & Change process because I do not know where this process will end.  This is the first time in my life that I have ever agreed to head up a project not knowing what the outcomes were likely to be.  It is very exciting, it is also very scary and it means that we have to look to God to lead us on this journey”. (A Belfast church minister)

“Church, Community & Change gets right to the heart of what church is about.  Because of that the process is often messy and takes longer than anticipated but it is the most effective tool for helping a church change and engage with the community that we have found”.  (An external facilitator)

This page was last updated on 23 July 2007