What might a healthy deanery look like?
Many of the points below reference the Anglican Communion's Five Marks Of Mission.
Discipleship
Communities growing more like Christ through:
- Worship, prayer and personal spirituality.
- Study and theological reflection.
- Nurturing new disciples (2nd Mark of Mission).
- Spiritual direction and mentoring.
- Stewardship.
- Diversity, inclusivity and community.
- Relating to the wider church.
Vocation
Communities living out their calling to be Christ’s body transforming the world through:
- Exploring and nurturing everyone’s vocation.
- Collaboration between lay and ordained in leading worship, prayer and study.
- Encouraging and caring for volunteers.
- Supporting whole-life vocation, Monday - Sunday.
- Care and loving service in the wider community (3rd Mark of Mission).
- Working for justice and peace (4th Mark of Mission).
- Care for creation (5th Mark of Mission).
- Encouraging specific vocations and ministries.
Evangelism
(1st Mark of Mission)
Communities proclaiming the Kingdom of God and making new disciples of Christ through:
- Understanding of God’s holistic mission.
- Developing approaches to evangelism that are sensitive to different traditions in the church and society.
- A culture of invitation and relationship building with those on the fringes of church.
- Building personal relationships in the wider community that can lead to faith.
- Creating confidence in sharing personal faith.
- Creating a missionary presence through digital media.
- Creating spaces to deepen relationships and explore questions of life and faith.
- Discovering and releasing those called to be evangelists.
- Sharing good practice across the deanery.
- Planting fresh expressions of church.
Examples in each area
Discipleship
Communities growing more like Christ through:
- Worship, Prayer and personal spirituality. Signs of this might be:
- Participation in regular church based and online worship events that energise people.
- Regular prayer and worship meetings – in addition to the weekly meeting.
- Adoption of a personal rhythm of daily prayer.
- Churches open and other sites made as places of prayer.
- Use of resources for prayer and spirituality.
- Membership of dispersed religious communities like the Community of Saint Chad or Third Order Franciscans.
- Study and theological reflection. Signs of this might be:
- Good levels of participation in bible study or small groups.
- Online learning and discipleship available on an ongoing basis.
- Clergy and others reflecting together on the church’s ministry and ongoing discipleship.
- Deanery learning events.
- Growing faith initiatives with a focus on young people and families.
- Discussion of sermons.
- Theological libraries in churches.
- A welcoming of good questions and undefended leadership.
- Nurturing new disciples (2nd Mark of mission). Signs of this might be:
- A nurture course anyone can attend (Living Faith, Pilgrim, Alpha etc).
- Baptism and confirmations – linked to ongoing discipleship courses.
- People acting as mentors to new disciples.
- Spiritual direction and mentoring. Signs of this might be:
- Use of Spiritual Directors or mentors one to one.
- Exemplary people who inspire others.
- Teaching on Christian living.
- Discussion of ethics and lifestyle issues.
- People making the connection between their faith and everyday life.
- Good Stewardship. Signs of this might be:
- A good rate of Average Weekly Giving.
- Regular stewardship campaigns and stewardship lessons/teaching.
- Use of resources to aid giving like online or electronic giving.
- Good budgeting.
- Giving to the world church and mission agencies.
- Stewardship of non-financial resources – offering time and talents and sharing of goods and services.
- Diversity, inclusivity and community. Signs of this might be:
- Church membership activities and worship reflects the diversity of the community.
- There is an inclusive attitude to others and to enabling others to become disciples.
- Christian provision for 0-5s, 6–10s, 11–16s, 17–21s.
- Capacity for young people to worship and develop their discipleship together.
- Ministry amongst older people.
- Parenting courses and welcome of families.
- Churches geared to welcome those of different abilities.
- Dementia friendly churches.
- Relating to the wider church. Signs of this might be:
- Ecumenical activity – good relationships with other churches. Working with other churches as together the church in that place.
- Engagement with the global church based on partnership.
- Collaboration on some mission and outreach (for example street pastors, mission events).
Vocation
Communities living out their calling to be Christ’s body transforming the world through:
-
Exploring and nurturing everyone’s vocation. Signs of this might be:
- Nurture groups and retreat days in which there is discussion and teaching to enable people to discover their gifts and callings.
- People are helped to understand that God calls all of them whoever they are and whatever age they are.
- People get to hear about lay vocations like pioneering or children’s and youth work and develop these as volunteers.
- A way in which people can explore vocation online (and perhaps explore online vocation).
- Those with a particular passion (e.g. for creation care) or a vocation (e.g. pioneering) able to connect for collaboration and support.
- Identifying the 'charism' of the deanery.
- Collaboration between lay and ordained in leading worship, prayer and study. Signs of this might be:
- Opportunities for all ages (lay and ordained) to be involved in developing and leading worship and prayer.
- Lay and ordained workers come together as a team'
- A wide variety of people lead and facilitate church activities and groups.
- A focus on partnership and corporate identity rather than individualistic efforts.
- Encouraging and caring for volunteers. Signs of this might be:
- A culture that supports volunteering opportunities, drawing on their gifts and calling.
- Regular contact with volunteers, including training and review of roles and accountability.
- programme of nurturing new leaders involving training and shadowing others..
- A healthy turnover in all sectors so people stand down after a fixed period and new people replace them.
- Skills gifts and talents recognised and shared around the deanery so that those who have a vocation can develop them.
- Supporting whole-life vocation, Monday – Sunday. Signs of this might be:
- Teaching discussion and study to enable people to discover their vocation in their workplaces, homes and other relationships.
- Use of resources like those of LICC (London Institute of Contemporary Christianity).
- People honour and support all types of calling whether in the workplace, home, or church.
- Care and loving service in the wider community (3rd Mark of Mission). Signs of this might be:
- Church members are active in community groups that are not church run seeking to meet needs.
- Church run groups are created to meet unmet needs.
- Things like a help service for the housebound, a foodbank, debt support service, neighbourhood watch, pastoral care and support, prison visiting, various forms of chaplaincy etc.
- Active involvement in the local schools through initiatives such as Open the Book, Prayer Spaces in School, Pray for Schools etc. Also, through worship, supporting of RE/spirituality, governorship etc.
- Working for justice and peace (4th Mark of Mission). Signs of this might be:
- Church and church members active in campaigns and activities that seek to change society to make it more just.
- Awareness of issues of injustice, prejudice, the causes of poverty and suffering and Christian responses to these. Participation in groups that pursue such aims.
- Christian participation in politics
- Care for creation (5th Mark of Mission). Signs of this might be:
- Participation in activities that encourage this as well as the way church members have this as a lifestyle priority.
- Membership of ‘God’s Acre’ and green churchyard management.
- Eco Church status.
- Participation in Christian and non-Christian environmental groups.
- Encouraging specific vocations and ministries. Signs of this might be:
- Information about different sorts of ministry made available.
- Formal vocations as ministers, readers, Church Army evangelists, lay workers, youth workers, children’s and family workers encouraged and results in seeing such vocations.
- Encouraging openings for services overseas and cross-cultural contexts for formation.
Evangelism (1st Mark of Mission)
Communities proclaiming the Kingdom of God and making new disciples of Christ through:
- Understanding of God’s holistic mission. Signs of this might be:
- Awareness of a holistic gospel that involves loving service, seeking justice and care for creation
- Teaching, discussion and study of mission relating to things like the 5 marks of mission and the concept of God’s mission as primary.
- People able to talk about God’s vision for the world and expect to see God at work in people’s lives
- Developing approaches to evangelism that are sensitive to different traditions in the church and society. Signs of this might be:
- Appreciation that there are different ways of doing evangelism and support for these
- Awareness of issues in evangelistic ethics and the call to treat people as those God loves rather than those to be converted
- Promoting ways of understanding different faiths and ways to have good interfaith relationships as an evangelistic community
- Awareness of how the gospel needs to respond to context and culture
- A culture of invitation and relationship building with those on the fringes of church. Signs of this might be:
- Having in place methods and structures to intentionally re-engage with new members such as baptism families, attendees to one off events etc.
- Has a culture of ‘Invitation’ - Intentionally inviting people, creation of come-back activities, encouraging others to invite.
- Building personal relationships in the wider community that can lead to faith. Signs of this might be:
- Chaplaincy in schools, community venues, groups, local business and partnerships etc.
- Facilitating spirituality and things like Open the Book in schools
- A clear expression of God’s love for individuals and communities is evident
- Actively involved in local community events e.g. fairs, carnivals, fund raisers…
- Being aware of local needs and helping (working in partnership) to address these needs e.g. foodbanks, community cupboards / wardrobes etc.
- Being a voice within the community e.g. parish news / local politics
- Community visiting
- Groups within the community that have little or no Christian contact are identified and ways to enable relationships to be forged in these places are created and implemented.
- Extend invitation to those met through the church’s activities and groups to other activities and groups.
- Seek as much as possible to have non-Christians working with Christians in meeting community needs.
- Evidence of proclamation of Good News of the Kingdom in communities, media, hospitals, prisons, schools, residential homes, local politics
- Recognition of environment as critical context for faith decisions
- Creating confidence in sharing personal faith. Signs of this might be:
- Church congregations are encouraged and given confidence and opportunity to tell the Jesus story as they know it
- Use of courses that help people do this like Talking Jesus and Faith Pictures etc
- Creating a missionary presence through digital media. Signs of this might be:
- Well publicised regular online worship and spirituality events
- Church and its activities accessible via good internet pages.
- People equipped to share faith on social media.
- Church has presence on social media
- Creating spaces to deepen relationships and explore questions of life and faith. Signs of this might be:
- Open meals to which communities are invited as safe spaces to explore big questions
- Discussions and events in community venues and pubs perhaps using resources like table talk or Jesus Deck
- Halfway points created. these could be book clubs, communal sports sessions, film groups, parenting groups, meditation classes, self-help groups, dog walking groups or other walking groups, craft groups, mechanics sessions etc
- Running courses such as Alpha which enable people to find Christian faith
- Discovering and releasing those called to be evangelists. Signs of this might be:
- People with gifts in sharing faith identified, given training as appropriate and given support for their vocation.
- Creating opportunities to tell people directly about the Christian faith and are invited to make a response
- Sharing good practice across the deanery. Signs of this might be:
- Sharing things that work amongst churches
- Making Deanery Synod a sharing ground for work and vision sowing good agendas locally and deanery wide.
- Good mission statistics!
- At least one place in the deanery that is a beacon for evangelism, where people can see, explore, enjoy and share in the task of evangelism
- Planting fresh expressions of Church, Signs of this might be:
- Identifying communities were fresh expression are likely to be needed
- Fresh expressions of church that know how they belong to the deanery and have appropriate involvement
- The deanery understands why it’s missionally appropriate for them to be separate, but also why they are properly part of the deanery.