CHURCH WITHOUT WALLS PLANNING GROUP MAY 2007 PROPOSED DELIVERANCE The General Assembly 1. Commend the Planning Group for the success of the Re-energise and Energy Boost Conferences 2. Urge ministers and motivators to take advantage of the opportunity to experience a CWW conference. 3. Commend the prayer partnerships that have been established through the CWW events. 4. Note the contribution CWW has made to the establishing of NEXUS Scotland 5. Commend the idea of a CWW event for HM Forces in 2008 6. Commend the proposed National Event planned for 2008 and encourage congregations and Councils to participate 7. Commend the plans which seek to involve the wider Christian Community in the 2008 CWW Celebration. 8. Note the opportunities that the year of Homecoming will bring the Church and encourage the Planning Group to develop a creative strategy for mission in 2009 in consultation with the Council of Mission and Discipleship 9. Commend the creative vision of sending people from parishes to the developing world during the year 2010 to celebrate the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910. 10. Commend the work of partnership that is being developed between the Planning Group and St Andrew’s Multimedia Youth Project What is Church Without Walls all about? Church Without Walls (CWW) has become an effective brand name that has allowed congregations to access, or at least think about, an alternative way of being church. For many this has been a liberating experience allowing Kirk Sessions the opportunity to focus on what is core to their ministry and function. As a Planning Group we wish to emphasis that CWW is not a movement that congregations join. It is a mindset that we believe every effective church leader already owns. Church Without Walls is not about a programme or a new kind of church. It is nothing more or less than a description of what it means to be a group of disciples effectively making Christ known within the community in which they work or live. If you are seeking to do just that then you are Church Without Walls. CWW aims to encourage diverse congregations to share with others their stories of faith and renewal. It is as local stories of hope and endeavour are told that expectations begin to be raised. We therefore urge every minister and congregation to take advantage of the opportunity to experience a CWW conference. In many ways these gatherings are proving to be of great use because of the fellowship and network exchange that happens. The term Church Without Walls is not peculiar to the Church of Scotland. Indeed if you google the phrase you will find it is a title that has been used by many writers to describe churches and movements that desire to move the church from behind closed doors to engage the community. Jim Petersen is one of a number of authors who have used the title to challenge Christians today to make church more relational, relevant and responsive to an ever changing world. The purpose of Church Without Walls for the Church of Scotland is to focus the church on Jesus Christ and not primarily on buildings. Background It is some six years now since the Special Commission anent Review and Reform reported to the General Assembly of 2001. It was seen by many as an authorising and empowering Commission, encouraging the Church to become more decentralised. The content of the report was widely acclaimed throughout the church. It became known as the Church Without Walls Report and it invited congregations to take responsibility for their ministry. The establishment of the Parish Development Fund was a signal to congregations that the Assembly saw great potential in resourcing the local as a focus for mission. (The fund has shown over the years that when local parish based initiatives are resourced for mission they can do extra ordinary things. Read some of the amazing success stories being reported in the Parish Development Report.) Every parish was encouraged to enter into a period of reflection before acting upon the report’s many recommendations. Kirk Sessions were invited to select a few of the recommendations and begin to implement them into the life of the congregation at their own pace. Finally, the Commission invited the church to begin to plan in faith an event for 2005 that would embrace and celebrate the initial green shoots of renewal and hope that they believed was evident in the Church of Scotland. Such an event was deemed important to help encourage a spirit of expectation and inspiration throughout the church at large. In 2005, over 3500 people gathered in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), representing around 44% of all our parishes. The event was so successful that it was hailed by people from all theological perspectives as being uniquely inspirational and influential. By allowing church members to engage with a vision of church that was centred around the importance of the local church, many found themselves returning to their parish with a new “can do” attitude. Many of these delegates have managed to keep in touch and a true spirit of friendship and expectation continues to be fostered. Follow Up The real achievement of a national event is to have the message taken back to the parish church. This is a much more difficult task and calls for strategies that keep reminding congregations of the focus of their ministry. Journeying with the congregations has been the key follow up strategy since the 2005 National Event. The Assembly of 2006 recognised that there was a definite sense of expectation and vision among the leadership of congregations and that CWW was one of the contributing factors in this change. The number of commissioners who spoke of their personal experience of CWW and how they had been enabled to have a changed mindset was humbling and encouraging. While we have documentary evidence of personal testimonials, we welcome the research proposed by the Panel Review and Reform into the long term effect of our strategy. We would especially welcome feedback into the effect individuals returning to their congregations are having in motivating change in their local situation. We feel such research would also be wise to take into effect the role the parish development fund is playing in the renewal of the church locally. In the Council of Assembly Supplementary Report of 2006 the work of the Church Without Walls Planning Group was commended and it was proposed and agreed by the General Assembly of 2006 that the group be continued for a further three year period. The Planning Group was instructed to operate within the Council of Mission and Discipleship’s policy of resourcing and supporting the local church. Developing our remit Our remit is to continue to encourage renewal of the church by modelling, motivating and inspiring the people of God through events and conferences, and to network across Councils and Presbyteries to enable a coherent strategy of renewal. The work of encouraging implementation still continues, indeed some congregations are just discovering the content of the CWW report for the first time. We believe it is part of the Planning Group’s function to continue to promote the original recommendations of the Commission. We seek to do this by highlighting some of the lesser known recommendations during the CWW conference sessions. Re-Energise and Energy Boost. During the past year we have offered every Council and congregation the opportunity to consult with us either by correspondence or by attendance at our conferences or consultation meeting. These conferences continue to make history and are some of the largest residential conferences the Kirk has seen for many a year. By the time our second Re-Energise conference has finished, we will have engaged with around 400 congregations within one year. This represents over 800 people who have been identified as leaders and motivators in their local situation and have attended at least one conference. It also represents around one third of the congregations in the church. Our strategy is to continue to dialogue with all those who attend the three day conference. We do this through the e-mail and our resources web page www.cwwresources.org.uk and a 24 hour conference which we call Energy Boost. Everyone who attends a Re-Energise conference is invited to continue to attend Energy Boost events. In December 2006, the first Energy Boost conference covered the theme “Transitions”. Around 180 people made the return trip at the beginning of December to engage with the challenge of being a church in transition. Our challenge is to continue to encourage those who have not yet attended to do so. We plan another Re-Energise conference around late October, early November 2007. The next Energy Boost event will take place in the SECC from 23-25 August and will be part of NEXUS Scotland 2007. NEXUS is an example of how the CWW events of 2005 have continued to be developed. Following on from the Clyde Presbyteries’ CWW event known as Big Saturday, the organisers have teamed up with the organisers of the Christian Resources Exhibition to bring about an event that will be focused around three themes, Church Without Walls, Education, and Youth. We plan to make Thursday 23 August 2007 an Energy Boost Day. Once again, we intend to engage participants with some of the challenging recommendations of the CWW Report. These follow-up conferences at Aviemore in 2006 and 2007 help to develop networks of friendship and prayer throughout the church. At present we have around 170 congregations who have entered into prayer partnerships as a result of the Aviemore experience. (An appendix outlining the programme of the Re-Energise conferences and of the Energy Boost events is attached to this report). Commissioners can also log onto the resources web page mentioned above and down load all the key note speakers. Future events We have had some preliminary discussions with the Rev Peter Mills Chaplain in Chief to HM Forces exploring the potential of a CWW Event for HM Forces. We look forward to the concept being developed and hope to report more about this at the General Assembly. We have sought to enlarge our Planning Group by co-opting a variety of people from within and outwith the church to advise us on the best way forward when planning for our next National Event in 2008. Finding a venue for a large gathering during the late spring and early summer of 2008 has proved to be challenging. However, we hope to be in a position to give a date and venue at the General Assembly of 2007. Our enlarged Planning Group encouraged us to think about a three year cycle of events due to the fact that 2009 and 2010 have already been earmarked by the Scottish Executive and the Council of World Mission as significant years. For the Executive, 2009 is Year of Homecoming, while 2010 is the 100th Anniversary of the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference. We are aware that the Council of Mission and Discipleship have been looking at the opportunities that the Year of Homecoming might bring to the Church and we hope to be able to share ideas and perhaps work together to make the most of the national profile such a year will bring. Starting with 2008, we intend to call our national event “Gathering” or “Travelling Light”; these are simply working titles. The big idea is that CWW is all about a people on the move who gather together in order to move on further. The shape and style of the event will be determined by the venue. Nonetheless, we have a number of exciting ideas based around the theme of a people on the move. We want to gather God’s people together to dance and to celebrate our common faith in Christ. We want to pray for the nation, and we feel it is time to do it in partnership with other denominations and to reach out to those churches and fellowships which are regarded as independents. In 2009, we propose promoting a creative national mission strategy entitled the “Home Coming”. This we hope to be able to develop after consultation with a wider group of interested parties. Although our remit for the present group will end in 2009, we propose that we work in partnership with other agencies to develop the idea of “The Sending”. This would involve congregation being given the opportunity of sending one or two of their members to visit an overseas project to enable them to become ambassadors for the poor. Already one major Scottish Overseas Development Trust involved in sending volunteers overseas is interested in partnering us with this idea. Saying thank you As a group we are most grateful for the support and encouragement we have been receiving from all quarters of the church and beyond, especially for the generosity of the MacDonald Hotel Group. We would like to thank everyone who has made the effort to attend the conferences and for the letters of support and encouragement. We are delighted that the Councils are seeing the value of our work, and at their participation in the events. We are especially grateful for the synergy that has developed between our Planning Group and the work of Mission and Discipleship. Our thanks go to all those involved in prioritising budgets. We realise that their job is not easy and we are glad to report to the Assembly that the budget we asked for has been agreed by the Council of Assembly after a period of consultation during October and November 2006. We wish to record the generosity of the Council of Mission and Discipleship in picking up the lion’s share of the costs. Our group would also like to thank Guy Douglas for his input in managing our project and Aileen MacLennan and Val Cox for the admin support. Finally we wish to record our gratitude to all those who have given us technical support in the past year especially Rae Manger and Bryan Kerr. Over 50% of all our conference bookings are now being made and paid for over the internet. This is due to the technology made available to our group by St Andrew’s Multimedia Youth Project, Bo’ness, under the direction of Neil MacLennan. This project also gives us administration and technical support at the conferences, records all the main sessions, updates the web pages and has produced publicity material, including making our promotional videos. We see this as yet another aspect of modelling a new kind of partnership between an Assembly Committee and a Parish Church. We look forward to serving the Church during the next two years and pray that our work will prosper under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the name of the Planning Group ALBERT BOGLE, Convener APPENDIX – RE-ENERGISE AND ENERGY BOOST PROGRAMMES RE-ENERGISE 2007: PROGRAMME 4 - 7 MARCH Time Sunday Venue From 4.00pm Arrivals Main Reception 7.30pm Dinner Osprey Arena 9.00pm Welcome and Opening Worship Auditorium Time Monday Tuesday (where different) Venue 7.00am – 7.30am Prayers for the ‘Larks’ Strathspey 1 & Morlich 7.30am – 8.30am Breakfast Osprey Arena 9.00am Worship Auditorium 9.30am Introduction to the Day Auditorium 9.45am A Church Shaped by …Friendship Liz Henderson A Church Shaped by …the Gospel Elaine Storkey Auditorium 10.45am Prayer Buzz Auditorium 11.00am Coffee Osprey Arena 11.30am Group Discussion Workshops Breakout Rooms 12.15pm – 12.45pm Talk-back Auditorium 12.45pm Lunch Osprey Arena 2.00pm – 3.00pm Storytelling A chance to hear local stories and share your own. A Church Shaped by …the Neighbourhood John Miller Auditorium 3.30pm – 4.30pm Open Spaces Separate programme 5.00pm – 6.00pm Open Spaces Separate programme 6:30pm Dinner Osprey Arena 8.00pm A Church Shaped by …the Gifts of God’s People Kenny Borthwick Adrian & Bridget Plass Auditorium 9.00pm Prayer Buzz Closing Worship Auditorium 9.15pm – 10.00pm Worship Auditorium 10.30pm – 11.30pm Late Spot Peregrine Suite Time Wednesday Venue 7.30am – 8.30am Breakfast Osprey Arena 9.00am Departures Main reception RE-ENERGISE 2007 – ‘OPEN SPACES’ PROGRAMME Monday Tuesday Venue 3.30 – 4.30pm 5.00 – 6.00pm 3.30 – 4.30pm 5.00 – 6.00pm Overseas Partnerships Carol Finlay, World Mission Council Climate Change – Time to Act or Panic? Eildon Dyer, Christian Aid Turbines, Trees, and Going Carbon Neutral Eleanor Todd, Eco-Congregation Scotland CrossReach in the Community Hugh Brown & Scott Hamilton Alvie Room Why pursue a Doctor of Ministry Degree? Susan Kendall, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Presbytery Planning Process – Blessing or Curse? John Jackson & David Clark Priority Area Partnerships Ian Galloway Open Sanctuary – Being church in & outside of the building. Elaine Hain, ICC Morlich Room AIDS - a priority for the church? Nigel Pounde Keeping Body & Soul Together Blair Robertson, NHS Chaplain, & Chris Levison, Spiritual Care Advisor New Resources, New Direction, New Youth Work for a New Millennium Sandra Blair, Youth For Christ Refreshing your Life with God Dorothy Neilson Glenmore Room Enjoying Christian Art [No experience needed] Fiona Campbell Reaching your Local Community thro’ the Alpha Course Fiona Marks, Alpha Scotland Using Art in Worship [Includes communion] Fiona Campbell Griefshare Bereavement Support: From Mourning to Joy Peter Johnston Strathspey 1 Parish Development Fund Consultation Ruth Boreham Don’t be an ostrich – as Christians we need to speak out. Irene Crosthwaite, Church & Society Multimedia Worship – Fake or Faithful? Albert Bogle Multimedia Technical Consultation Neil MacLennan Strathspey 2 When Tension Surfaces in a Congregation Richard Gibbons Pastoral Care & Self Care John Chalmers Peregrine Suite Explore the Labyrinth Susan Brown Explore the Labyrinth Susan Brown Osprey Arena Prayer Room Prayer Room Dalwhinnie Prayer Walk - Experiencing God in Creation Douglas Wallace Meet in reception ENERGY BOOST – PROGRAMME (3-4 DEC 2006) Time Sunday Venue From 4.00pm Arrivals Reception 7.00pm Dinner Food Court 8.30pm Worship Auditorium Time Monday Venue 7.30am Prayer for the ‘Larks’ Strathspey 1 & Morlich 8.00am Breakfast Food Court 9.30am Opening Worship Auditorium 10.00am Church in Transition – Peter Neilson Our society is changing more rapidly now than at possibly any other time in its history. How should we adapt? What processes of change do we need? How can we cope with the transition within ourselves? Auditorium 11.00am Coffee Peregrine Suite 11.30am Praying and Story Telling Trios Auditorium 12.30pm Lunch Food Court 1.45pm ‘Earthing the Energy’ workshops – see separate programme Breakout Rooms 2.45pm Coffee Peregrine Suite 3.15pm ‘Earthing the Energy’ workshops – see separate programme Breakout Rooms 4.30pm Closing Worship Auditorium 5.15pm Departures Reception Energy Boost (3-4 Dec. 2006) ‘Earthing the Energy’ Programme Monday 4th December Venue 1.45pm – 2.45pm 3.15pm – 4.15pm Remember the Kids - Children’s Ministry and Resources Vicki Shaver Transitional Church – from Maintenance to Mission Jim Stewart Alvie Room Conversations on transition With Peter & Dorothy Neilson Conversations on transition With Peter & Dorothy Neilson Morlich Room Small Church Iain Sutherland Invest – Equipping Pioneering Church Planters Alan McWilliam Glenmore Room Overseas Partnerships Carol Finlay Partnerships beyond the Church Dane Sherrard Strathspey 1 Multimedia - Technical Neil MacLennan Multimedia – ‘How-to’ Tips Iain Cunningham Strathspey 2 Ministry in Transition Gordon Reid Discovering Your Gifts John MacKinnon Peregrine Suite Emerging Churches Doug Gay Worship in transition Albert Bogle & Ross Mitchell Auditorium Praying through Transition Jim Robertson Equipping Churches for a Changing Climate Margaret Warnock Kincraig Prayer Room Prayer Room Dalwhinnie Arranged Discussions Arranged Discussions Garten Boardroom ?? ?? ?? ?? 1