The SuffoThe Centre of Mission has Church Army’s (CA) DARE strategy at its heart: Doing, Advocating, Resourcing and Enabling Evangelism and Pioneering.lk Centre of Mission (CoM) is a Diocese-wide hub for Evangelism and Pioneering. It works in partnership with and in support of both parish churches and fresh expressions of church. The Centre of Mission offers training; seeks to invite others to join in mission and evangelism in a variety of ways and provides hands-on pioneering.
The Suffolk Centre of Mission is not a physical building, instead it aims to be at the centre of people - bringing people together and encouraging people to understand and share their faith story. Through this, we will enable all groups to grow - whether a parish church community, PCC, Lightwave group, youth project, a Fresh Expression or even as an individual person”.
Gail Southgate, Suffolk Centre of Mission Lead Evangelist.
The Centre of Mission has Church Army’s (CA) DARE strategy at its heart: Doing, Advocating, Resourcing and Enabling Evangelism and Pioneering.Doing:
Doing
- Providing hands-on evangelism and pioneering in different locations, such as Pilgrims Together and the youth project in Southwest Ipswich.
Advocating:
- Championing and highlighting good practice from across the Diocese
- Growing a community focused on evangelism, that is open to all who seek to actively discern and step into God’s mission in their context.
Resourcing:
- Developing support networks and groups based on the model of CA Envoy communities
- Joining and promoting the Missional Youth Church Network (MYCN).
Enabling
- Growing CA Envoy communities
- Promoting CA Faith Suite
- Co-facilitating Growing New with the Lightwave Community
- Supporting the discernment of and empowerment of all individuals to be Evangelists and Pioneers through training, equipping and licensing.
The Suffolk Centre of Mission is the overarching holding place for various training and support programmes including:
Envoy
Church Army’s model of Envoy Communities is an innovative peer-led approach to developing personal evangelism and effectiveness in living missionally. Envoy communities are formed of up to 6 people including a facilitator. Distinct practices are learned and applied such that the group speak and release value for each other, deepen faith and step into mission and evangelism appropriate for each person and their context. Communities may form from one church family / Lightwave group or individuals may gather from different churches or groups. Such diversity can often bring enrichment and insight from outside contexts.
The formation of Envoy communities amongst church planting teams is also being promoted as part of the Suffolk Centre of Mission role in supporting the facilitation of the Diocese’s Growing New Program.
The Suffolk Centre of Mission is developing Envoy pathways specifically for use in the Diocese of Suffolk focused on evangelism, pioneering and living missionally both as individuals and as church families. These pathways also provide the initial discernment process for anyone seeking to explore licensed lay evangelist and licensed lay pioneer in the Diocese. More information can be found here.
Church Army’s Faith Suite
Offering a set of resources which enable churches of all traditions to explore sharing faith both as individual members and corporately as a church family.
- Faith Pictures helps individual Christians of all traditions speak about their own faith story with confidence.
- Faith Shared helps churches of all traditions think about how they connect with the communities around them.
- Faith Questions explores how to answer difficult questions about faith.
- Faith Empowered helps churches explore specific calling to evangelism.
More information can be found here.
Missional Youth Church Network (MYCN)
The mission of MYCN is to enable local schools, churches and community projects to work together to reimagine church with young people. MYCN facilitate a Learning Community in order that youth leaders and volunteers can come together for training, encouragement, prayer and support as they build for the future. Missional Youth Church Network (mycn.org.uk).The Suffolk Centre of Mission provides direct support and advice to assist the development of youth churches across Suffolk based on the MYCN model.
For more information
To find out more please email: Gail Southgate | 07394 568396