In order to grow churches at the heart of each community we need to have in place the structures, and leaders, that can facilitate and sustain this growth. Church of England Birmingham has been seriously engaged with working this through since 2018 and the emergence of the People & Places programme. We have reduced our deaneries from 13 to 6 and employed full time Area Deans. This has meant more capacity locally to support our change work and champion mission and ministry. We are now finishing the process of forming our Oversight Areas which are the primary directional leadership for mission and ministry. Oversight Ministers, as well as many other forms of leaders, are being identified and equipped to enable Oversight Areas to be seedbeds of growth. People & Places is just the start of this process and over the coming years we will be looking to equip and support more leaders to serve the churches at the heart of their communities.
Oversight Area Formation
What is Oversight Area Formation? Oversight area formation is the process by which groups of churches understand their new local context & collaborate together in mission; with a clear sense of direction or focus and by sharing existing resources between them more effectively.
Every oversight area will have an Oversight Minister who bring directional leadership; working together with parish incumbents and other local licenced or authorised lay leaders (for example Local Ministers) in a mixed leadership ecology and supported by Area Deans.
Together they will look to sustain a number of local churches, including fresh expressions of church in mission and ministry. They also work out with wider CofEB support, what new forms of mission are needed across the oversight area and are implemented.
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