Helping local churches learn how to make disciples

Helping local churches learn how to make disciples Chelmsford Cathedral – 1 st February 2014

The Diocese of Chelmsford Our Passion is Jesus - proclaiming and living out God's love for all people Our aspiration is to be a Transforming Presence in every Community, open and welcoming to all, and serving all Our Resources are faithful people, prayer and worship, visionary leadership, liberating gifts

• Every local church seeing people come to faith • Every local church making disciples

Growth Spiral Contact Growth Nurture Commitment Church membership

1 Corinthians 3: three images of the catechist

“I fed you with milk not solid food”

• Does your church have a maternity ward?

milk and solid food. . .

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth”

Why do only 40% of local churches offer any course for enquirers or new Christians? What should that figure be?

• Spiritual and numerical growth go together • God is the Evangelist • Could every church run at least one course every year?

I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium

A simple annual cycle

“Like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation and someone else is building on it”

• Where should a local church deploy its best and most skilled teachers? • With enquirers and new Christians or with established disciples? • Could every priest and every Reader or LLM make time to teach one group of adults every week?

• Who else can be part of this work of catechesis and evangelism?

• What is your strategy as a parish for encouraging catechesis and making disciples? • Which course suits you?