As one of our Regional Ministers, Lindsay Caplen is responsible for the pastoral support/equipping and the development of missional networks for our network, its churches and ministers. In this short article she explains why this ministry is so important in our region at this time.
The times we are living in are increasingly confusing. Everything seems to be changing so rapidly! Nationally Church attendance is in decline. This is happening at a time when many, perhaps more than usual are desperate to make sense of life, seek hope and find a place to belong.
How we respond as God’s people at this time is therefore crucial! The great commission remains. He has told us to ‘go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’
If we are to continue to be faithful to that commission, we will shape how we communicate the great news of Jesus so that it can be heard and understood in this new context. We need to ask ourselves what it means to be a blessing in our communities and how best we can offer a foretaste of the Kingdom and signpost people towards Jesus.
God’s people have always had to innovate so that message is heard afresh in each generation and each context. Whether that be a church plant, a new expression of church, a chaplaincy or some other ministry that sends us outside the walls of a church building.
Today, with less and less people coming through the doors of our church buildings, we need to pay fresh attention to how we join in with what God is doing in the places we find ourselves. That will require all God’s people to be serious about Christ, to be serious about people (both those within and outside our regular gatherings) and yet to be adaptive, experimental and playful.
What if this was an kairos opportunity to release God’s church all over the place?
Find out more about some of the ways in which Lindsay is supporting individuals and commmunities as they take hold of the Great Commission here in the West of England: