More than 25 percent of our parishes have engaged with Barnabas: Encouraging Confidence since we were granted national funding just over a year ago.
Barnabas: Encouraging Confidence exists to offer support to every church to move forward in their mission in a way that is prayerful, intentional and with God’s grace possible.
It offers one to one help (mentoring and coaching), places to learn from each other (learning communities is the term we use) and courses that aim to encourage confidence in line with our diocesan vision.
Personal Growth and Leadership is one such course. PG and L is homegrown, starting in Bradford but now available to many churches. Last year 16 churches and 65 individuals were able to take the course which works with teams of clergy and lay people from churches to grow in confidence. By confidence, we mean growing in a sense that God can do something in and through our church and that we (or I) have a part to play in it.
A woman, Steph, who took part said: “Thinking about how I am valued and loved by God, and really getting a deeper understanding of that, has really built up my confidence.
“It has given me the confidence to suggest things in church, and to start a prayer triplet, which is something I wouldn’t have dreamt of doing.”
The Personal Growth and Leadership course is built around six three-hour sessions.
The sessions involve discussions and group work while looking at the Bible, rooting ideas of personal growth and church development in scripture.
Laxmi, another participant, said: “The one principal which has impacted me most is the principal of the mirror.
“It is a concept of ‘you must see value in yourself to add value to yourself’.
“I am a person who tries to see good in other people, no matter who they are, but I am very bad at seeing good stuff in myself.
After this year’s success, a new course begins in September.
If you and your church are interested in participating in this, please click here to find out more.
The Revd Jude Smith, Director of Church Revitalisation, said: “We have always wanted Barnabas to be something that offers concrete help in parishes. Over the course of the last year I have been encouraged again and again as I hear about places where what Barnabas offers has made a difference.
“Very early on we got a very excited message from a churchwarden who had come across the policy bank on the website. For her Barnabas had saved her hours of time by providing a template policy to work with rather than starting from scratch.
“We have been able to encourage churches to have a go at starting something new by offering small grants for new congregations (next deadline is Sunday, September 1). This has led to more people hearing about the saving love of God and being offered a place to explore faith further.
“Through courses like Personal Growth and Leadership we are seeing significant numbers of people taking the time to consider how they might grow in their faith- and how in turn that might help them to work together to do something different in their church. Hearing stories like Steph and Laxmi’s reminds me that Barnabas is doing exactly what we had hoped."