The Church21 Programme
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Church21 is the Parish Development Programme for the Church of Ireland and possesses distinct values, concepts and strengths. It is:
- A two year process
- For parishes of all shapes and sizes
- A shared journey
- Designed to help parishes formulate a vision, devise an action plan and begin to put it into practice together
What will the journey require?
- A recognition that patterns of ministry which worked well in the past do not necessarily meet the needs of people today
- A willingness to think beyond the conventional
- An openness to share with and learn from churches from a wide variety of outlooks
- An acknowledgement that there is a cost to change which is at the heart of Christian discipleship
- A commitment to work together as a team
- A determination to persevere on the journey
It’s vital to ask the question “Is it right for us?”.
The story so far
Thirty-four parishes went through the first programme and the areas looked at included:
- World mission project links
- Welcome and integration
- Planned outreach
- Worship – experiments and training for involvement
- Using buildings creatively
- Pastoral teams
- Audits
The benefits of the programme included:
- A clearer sense of direction
- Focus
- A new sense of “shared leadership”
- Hope for the future!
- Motivation
- Energy
- More involvement from parishioners