Ministry In The Community


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Do you care about your local community?
Many within the church are sensing that God is calling us to some kind of community ministry, to be part of God’s engagement with our wider neighbourhood.This calls

for leaving the ‘four walls’ of our comfortable church environments and going into our communities to be of practical support. We are called to be the “leaven in the lump”, holy community builders, working with God to transform our communities. The Lichfield Diocese “Going for Growth” Strategy calls for “more transformed communities” and Bishop Jonathan has identified “entrepreneurship” as another priority. Churches are being encouraged to build this kind of ministry into their mission action plans. This new course seeks to equip people and churches to respond to these strategic priorities.

It’s what happens when we bring together the Gospel of Jesus and the needs of our community. In Community Ministry we aim to bring about social transformation through working in partnership within our local community, sharing a vision of healthy, holy community, and seeking to build up the capacity of the community to enable people to live life in all its fullness.

Community Ministry is rooted in three principles identified by Ann Morisy in her book “Beyond the Good Samaritan” 1. Celebration: we celebrate the Good News of Jesus Christ, God’s care and continued presence with us in our communities and the image of God in each person.
2. Struggle: God is present in the struggles of our lives and we grow through struggle; like Jacob we wrestle with God in our faith; we struggle with the principalities and powers of the world to bring justice. 3. Marginalised people: God is to be found wherever people are marginalised, through poverty, exclusion, prejudice or in whatever way.
3. Marginalised people: God is to be found wherever people are marginalised, through poverty, exclusion, prejudice or in whatever way.

Raymond Fung identified three actions that typify Community Ministry 1. Worship: to help people to identify the presence of God in their lives, through the real life situations they face, and to create apt worship that connects God and our experiences.
2. Partnership: knowing that relationship and partnership is at the very heart of the Trinity, we seek to work with others in order to achieve God’s will. We seek to recognise God working through others.
3. Discipleship: responding to the needs of our community and working in partnership also changes us, and our understanding of God, it deepens our discipleship. Churches that put the community at the heart of their life find their purpose at the heart of the community, and so open many opportunities for growth.

Community Ministry also values the Community Development approach to working with communities This approach includes:

Participation – enabling all to be included, building bridges of trust between diverse groups so that people are willing to work together to bring about change.
Equality – working in a way that challenges injustice and promotes equality for all involved.
Education and learning – that builds up people’s ability to identify the power structures that are at work in a given situation, and the confidence to address them
Co-operation – a commitment to work together, developing the skills of working as a team, to bring about change.

Community Ministry has also been influenced by Liberation Theology

It listens for the cries of God’s people, the places where people are longing for change, and offers the resources of the scriptures to desperate people.
It asks the key questions in analysing the structures of power: Who wins, who loses, who decides?
It works with local communities to challenge the status quo, to bring about a more equable distribution of resources within the society.