By Hilary Taylor, published by Thankful Books (c) 2007
Today through the post came my complimentary copy of this book, as one of the contributors of a 'snapshot' story, which features in the chapter on buildings.
I was quite impressed by what I wrote way back in spring/summer 2006.
With chapters headed
- Worship
- Following and Serving Jesus Wholeheartedly
- Being God's People
- Mission, Growth and Change
- Vision and Leadership of a Small Church
- Children and Young People in a Small Church
- Working Together
- Places to Worshipand Witness (with a fantastic case study by a certain minister from Dibley)
- Help and Resources
There ought to be something useful for many or most smaller churches.
It's quite humbling to find my words in there with those of other people who I'm sure pray better, read their Bible more earnestly and pastor more effectively than I do.
Available from Associations price £7.95 - ideal Christmas gift for your local diaconate!!!!
Blue text added 20/11/2007. Having now read through the book - not thoroughly granted - I'd offer a few criticisms of it, notably the very male language in many of the 'snapshots' especially where written by non-ministers - such as referring to 'the preacher' exclusively as 'he'. I am a little surprised that the editting has not addressed this, since the BU Small Churches group are actually pretty hot on this, and my understanding is that a disproprotionate number of small church ministers are female, so if there is any generalisation maybe it should be to 'she'!
There is a good resources section at the back of the book, but one or two of the organisations listed represent very specific constituencies within the church, and others are perhaps equally conspicuous by their absence.
There is even what appears to me to be either an error in, or London-centric approach to, Baptist structures as a layer of associating I don't recognise is included (What's a District?).
Overall, a useful book for small churches, which affirms their value whether they grow numerically or not. There is an underlying apologetic that 'small can be beautiful' even though there are stories of churches aiming to reach mega-status.
Comments
Not sure what a district is, but HEBA has groups with convenors (who convene ministerial thingies and form part of the Strategy Group wotsit). So basically churches associate most frequently within counties and other sub regions (e.g. Worcestershire, Coventry and Warwickshire, South Birmingham, etc.). All in addition to local clusters which may or may not exist.
I'm not an anorak yet, but give me time!
Please can you tell the anorak where to obtain this as I can't find it on the EMBA, HEBA, BUGB, Amazon or Thankful Books websites (unless I can borrow yours when you've read it).
Also does it say anything about how to get grants or subsidies for luncheon clubs?
Dear Anorak...
Maybe my copy was early and it will be formally launched next week at the Small Churches Day @ Didcot? If so, I'll pick one up for you.
I haven't spotted anything on grants or subsidies for lunch clubs - but you can talk to us as we are experienced in this! If you want grants for capital costs, then yes, it kind of does cover that. If you need fairly small scale capital costs you could try Green Shots/Against the Stream which certainly give grants to toddler groups... If you are looking for meals and miles subsidies, try your local authority social services (food and transport or whatever they call it in your neck of the woods) - we get our subsidy from the meals on wheels budget but there may also be things like social inclusion you can tap into.
Does that help?
From my recollections of being a church member in LBA, districts are the smaller grouping (above cluster but below association). Ours I think went from Southwark out to the further reaches of Bromley - weird as it combined inner city and rural churches in one long wedge!
Yes please to picking up a copy of the book. I was going to come to the small churches day but it was oversubscribed with a waiting list (so I turned down a friend's offer of one of his spare places - stupid or honest? I never know). Hopefully they'll run it again.
You give the people what they want and they turn up in droves!
To save boring the rest of the blogsphere, I'll try to speak to you over the next week or so about subsidies.