Church Life
Supporting congregations
Three key workbooks have been produced specifically for rural churches: Seeds in Holy Ground; Presence & Making Connections. Here we provide guidance on how these might contribute as discipleship resources for local rural congregations. While none of these three key resources was produced intentionally as discipleship resources, they are important tools in the enabling & development of lay ministry and mission in rural churches. All three are themselves workbooks, that can be used on their own by individual rural congregations or small groups from within individual churches, or representing a number of local churches together. Both Seeds in Holy Ground and Presence are available to download for free at the foot of this page. Making Connections can still be purchased in printed format, as also indicated below.
* Seeds in Holy Ground (Seeds) is from the Church of England
* Presence is from the Methodist Church (and is currently being fully updated)
* Making Connections is an ecumenical publication from the Arthur Rank Centre
However, Revd Barbara Bridges – a former rural officer from the Diocese of Gloucester, and currrently a rural minister and community support worker in the Congregational Federation – developed Ready Steady Grow, an ecumenical Lent Course based largely on Seeds and Presence. This is a useful tool for discipleship in small congregations and groups of local rural churches. It has been used in different settings, by a variety of denominational groups (even with the Congregational Federation in very rural northern India). This has been adapted slightly and is offered here as a free tool for other rural churches.
The Making Connections workbook builds on both Seeds and Presence. It emphasises the engagement of rural churches with others: other churches, of the same or different denominations; other individuals or organisations within the local rural communities where the churches are found; and with other voluntary & statutory bodies. This is presented as a key part of affirming & developing the mission of the local rural church in its context. The areas on which it focuses are:
The main emphasis of Making Connections is mission; but it is a fundamental tenet of life-long discipleship that this involves practical action and the outworking of a developing faith. In this respect, using the workbook provides a second stage to the discipleship process grounded in Ready Steady Grow (or Seeds, or Presence).
Making Connections is available from the Arthur Rank Centre office – email info@arthurrankcentre.org.uk for more information.
The rural officer from the Diocese of Liverpool, Revd Pat Gray, has used Making Connections in her own work – both in her own congregations and with the diocese more widely. The diocese supplied multiple copies of the workbook to all their rural parishes.