Our Congregational Development Learning Community is a one-year process, run by CTC and Citizens UK, for church leaders.
Participants have come from a wide range of denominations. The programme harnesses the potential of community organising to change their internal culture as well as to take action in the wider neighbourhood and society. Our Hallmarks of an Organised Church describe the fruits of the programme, as churches grow in number, depth, impact – and deepen relationships with their neighbours.
In the first four months of the programme, the primary focus is on encounter and listening: teaching clergy and key lay leaders the practice of the one-to-one relational meeting.
Clergy on the programme are asked to commit to undertaking three one-to-ones a week. It is a very simple but fundamental aspect of the programme, and the impact of the work across time is strikingly correlated with whether or not these one-to-ones occur.
In Learning Communities church leaders discover, precisely by sharing the details of one another’s contexts and pressures, that carving out the space for this intentional listening is challenging yet possible. On each new programme, testimony from previous participants describes the fruit which this commitment bears across time.
Each parish has around two to four days of time from a trained community organiser (from CTC or Citizens UK) accompanying them on this developmental process. Experience suggests this amount of time needs to be calibrated carefully; it must be enough to catalyse a genuine process of relationship-building and culture change, but not so much that the wider parish thinks community organising is simply the job of the paid professional.
A key aspect of this accompaniment process is ensuring one-to-ones are about listening for leaders not activities. The one-to-one should not lead to a new set of tasks for an existing (and usually over-stretched) team of leaders at the heart of parish life. Nor is it about recruiting new leaders to an existing set of rotas or predetermined plans. To be truly fruitful, the one-to-ones need to be understood as a process of discernment – which is why the Cycle of Prayer and Organising is such a central teaching tool.
The Learning Community is accompanying clergy and lay leaders in discerning where the Holy Spirit is already at work, stirring up new gifts and life – in the confidence that God has already provided the parish with all that is needful for their next step on their journey.
Usually around the fourth month of the process, parishes begin to make this move from listening to discerning – gathering a group of lay leaders who have emerged through the one-to-one process for a “house meeting” which begins to discern an area on which action could be taken.
The initial action taken by a parish, with its wider community organising alliance, does not need to be large. It might be the securing of some lighting for a park in which people feel unsafe (which were the first actions at St George-in-the-East and Holy Trinity Leytonstone), or new signage on the road pointing to the church (which were the first actions at the Catholic Parish of Manor Park and St Martin’s Church, Plaistow). What matters is that the process is undertaken with a focus on the development of the agency, confidence and trust of grassroots leaders.
Across the range of churches engaged in community organising in east London, their common experience is that it is precisely when they stay with this slow, patient process – a long period of one-to-ones followed by a small-scale action which develops previously overlooked or disengaged lay leaders – with leaders developing not only social action campaigns but new spiritual and catechetical activities.
Once leaders have been part of such a cycle of action, many have gone on to benefit from CTC’s lay leadership courses and (more recently) our apprenticeship programme.
Working across the Christian tradition
Lay Leadership Development
From Moses and Miriam to the Woman of Samaria, we see in the Bible that God raises up leaders from all walks of life, particularly those who have been overlooked. We firmly believe that the Church’s greatest asset is its people, each with a unique story of faith to tell, and a unique set of gifts to offer their congregation and community. In our experience, the community organising method, when practised alongside prayerful theological reflection, is a powerful catalyst for unlocking the passions, potential and vocations of God’s people.
Our approach
We are committed to developing lay Christians connected with our partner churches in the following ways:
- Supporting individuals to confidently articulate and share stories of faith and journeys of God at work in their lives with others
- Creating spaces to explore purpose, calling and how individuals can see themselves as part of what God is doing through the local church
- This might include developing new skills and talents (from leading bible studies to chairing meetings with the local council)
- Supporting lay Christians to be more intentional about connecting with their neighbourhood, building relationships across difference and taking action for justice/the common good
1. Training opportunities
We run several courses each year for lay Christians interested in putting their faith into action and growing in leadership and discipleship. These courses, which you can read more about on the pages in this section, are based on the methodology of community organising, but aimed for a church context and rooted in prayer and biblical reflection. We are currently exploring how to make our training more accessible to churches in different contexts, including shorter courses, online/ hybrid training, and courses in languages other than English.
2. Tools
CTC has developed a number of resources inspired by the tools of broad-based community organising to support the development and discipleship of lay Christians exploring faith and action. These are available through participation in Congregational Development and other training programmes.
3. Mentoring and coaching
provided by CTC community organisers as part of Congregational Development and Neighbourhood Organising.
4. Further vocational formation opportunities
Harnessing Assets for Growth
This is an pilot project which builds upon our Congregational Development programme – accompanying churches in developing effective and sustainable strategies for generating income and a process of leadership development which will generate patterns of ministry which are sustainable within the financial resources which are available to it.
Our approach
1. Money
Understanding what a good, sustainable level of income five like for the longer term. Most congregations and parishes have four types of income open to them – congregational stewardship, buildings income, social enterprise/investment,support from the wider denomination and external fundraising (e.g. grants) – but often need help to work out what is possible.
2. Mission
The vision is to develop a three-stage journey by which parishes and NWCs can move towards sustainability:
Firstly, CTC will work with the churches to identify and develop lay leaders, and to change the culture of the church so that power and responsibility are shared more widely
Secondly, CTC and its partners will work with the churches to a) develop options for a more sustainable approach to income for that parish and b)- develop a good understanding of what a sustainable long-term funded ministry looks like
Thirdly, CTC and its partners will together accompany churches in discerning the right option to pursue, and on implementing the necessary changes to make it a reality
We are working closely with Beautiful Enterprise in this exciting pilot project.