Our region is young, diverse, creative and constantly changing. In the midst of political, economic, social and environmental changes, God is at work – inside and outside the church.
Our vision across the Church of England Birmingham is: Growing churches at the heart of each community. This vision has its heart in local parishes and in all forms of growth: numerical, spiritual and transformational.
We are achieving our vision through four focus areas:
Parish growth
We support parishes so that they grow and flourish. Our churches and parishes are diverse, so we need a range of mission and discipleship resources. This includes context-specific mission coaching, training and specialist advice, a seed-fund for new local activities and the roll-out of projects across churches and schools, enabling new worshipping communities.
Leadership
To further our vision of growing churches, we need exceptional leaders – both lay and ordained. We want to find, form and deploy the right leaders in the right places, and have a strong pipeline for the future. We also aim to find and equip leaders from under-represented groups.
Sustainability
Our plan is for the diocese to become financially sustainable, so we can continue to see churches growing for years to come. Our new financial model fairly distributes costs amongst our parishes, also considering Lowest Income Communities funding. Our new Generosity Team is leading on conversations with parish leaders to support fair, planned, and context-sensitive increases in Common Fund.
Church planting and revitalisation
Locally – and nationally – church revitalisation and planting has proven an effective way to bring new life into some churches. Planning is underway for an initial eight new revitalisation projects. We will provide support for these projects for a period, while the church becomes self-sustaining. Through these projects, we aim to reach new people in new ways.