Church planting and revitalisation

Make church a destination – a place people want to come to and stay at.’ It was a throw away line from one of the CPR team but sparked excitement, discussion and the decision to invest money in making the church hall a destination – like an attractive cafe you don’t want to leave.

CPR funding has enabled us to upgrade the interior of St Mark’s in order to make it a much more adaptable, multi-purpose, future-proofed and attractive space, for worship as well as mission-focussed events. We noticed the benefit at our recent Children’s holiday club, when we were able to use the full extent of the building, with the chairs being so easily moved

It’s been great to reach out in our town and villages with the good news about Jesus in new and exciting ways, not least the Sports and Youth Ministries. We’re grateful for our partnership with the Church Planting and Revitalisation Programme in resourcing so much of this – and supremely we’re grateful to God for all he’s been doing in our churches and communities.

The Well is reaching people to whom regular church buildings or services wouldn’t, the barista cafe in the church hall, a neutral space, offers confidence in people coming through the door. We look forward expectantly to how God will continue to use the The Well in Ingoldisthorpe to further the Kingdom

We have been rediscovering the fact that our God is a Creator who loves to do new things. Taking time to stop and look at what’s going on around us has made us realise that there are new opportunities appearing all the time. When we take away the barriers we perceive to be in front of us almost anything becomes possible. Being part of the CPR programme over the last couple of years has been the most exciting, and scary, journey in faith for us so we continue to walk in partnership with the one who makes all things possible for those who dare to believe. (Isaiah 43:19)

The CPR project has been an amazing catalyst to enable us to stop and listen to church leavers, ‘post-church,’ ‘unchurched’ and ‘rechurched’ in our culture today and go back to the future to pilot simple sustainable and sociable patterns. We are so grateful for what God has done and we look forward with immense hope at what He is opening up in the future.

Being part of the CPR programme has given us some really, really amazing resources, one of those is standing next to me, Paul [North Breckland Youth for Christ]. We’ve also got new AV equipment in one of our churches, Great Dunham, and it has built up the congregation already in that little church”. “Being in a huge benefice like this - we have 17 parishes and 19 churches and a couple of ruins - when I came to the benefice we wanted to put energy where the energy is. God is working in this area.