I learnt a long time ago that a quick four day blast of ‘Leading your Church into Growth’ does not achieve very much. Yes, it can wake us up, tell us we are on the right road or get us onto the road, but if we want to see our churches really growing then we need more of a long term journey, or process. And we need others with us on the journey - colleagues, companions and friends who we can talk to, share with and be supported by. If you put together the long term journeying into sustainable growth and the experience of being part of a wider community then you get, not so much a course, but a movement.

'Movement'

So I hope you like the sound of the word, because it is the name of a new monthly newsletter we are launching this year. The purpose of the newsletter? To network us all, (or all those of us who want to be networked) and to enable an ongoing ‘moving forward’.

For any spiritual movement to work, be it in the context of a national denomination, of a diocese or of an individual church, it needs three key characteristics. It must be:

• Doable
• Continual
• Prayerful

Over the years, I have come across lots of schemes, plans and ideas for growth that were developed by exceptional people in exceptional circumstances and which, if the truth were known, only a few exceptional people would ever get to work.
LyCiG is all about a doable plan which any reasonably hungry, Godly and trying church can put into action. In reality, which church can’t:

• Pray regularly for growth?
• Invite a bunch of people to the church at Easter?
• Improve their weekly service?

Like lots of Yorkshire school boys I had an early, inspired and passionate falling in love with playing the cornet. My dreams and vision for the future all fell away however because my ‘stickability’, my regular practice, my turning of a love affair into a long-term journey fell away.

All the best disciples, plans and new beginnings in life need to become long term and continual, if they are to bear real fruit.
Of the three - doable, continual and prayerful - the last that I really grasped (or began to grasp) was prayerful. Because I have such a strong tendency to operate in my own limited strength and have such a doubting of prayer in general and of my prayer in particular, it took me a long time to catch on. Since I have caught on and am still catching on, I am becoming more and more aware of the effectiveness of prayer for growth. I simply keep discovering that the more I pray, the more people come and the more they seem to be impacted.
Movements are brilliant. Every institution needs one and every individual needs to be part of one. Movements get us excited, keep us young, put us in touch with other movement people and give us a great goal to aim for.

The best movements are doable, continual and prayerful. Welcome to the movement, not so much the LyCiG movement because LyCiG is only a toolbox. Rather, welcome to the 'growing of God’s church movement', to the growing of your church, to the transforming of individual lives and the impacting on the world movement.

 
News and future events.....

This year there are two national conferences!

June 25th - 28th:  A LyCiG for ‘Estate Churches’. This covers all denominations and is is our attempt to help those churches which need the most help.

Sept 24th - 25th: The LyCiG National Conference. Always a very special time and event. We are bringing it forward this year so hopefully more daylight and sunshine.

Our most effective publicity campaign is to invite those who have been on LyCiG to mention it to friends or colleagues. Often clergy who came one year invite their lay leaders or deanery neighbours to come the next year.

Perhaps you could think and pray about being one of our ambassadors.

And this September, because we want to encourage more lay leaders, we are doing a 'three for the price of two' scheme.  Hopefully this makes it more affordable for your PCC to get fully involved.  
 
Ignite - ‘Leading your Young People into Growth’

Evangelism, discipleship and group building amongst older children and teenagers seems to be at a very low ebb, and the ‘low ebb’ is clearly widespread.

Over the last couple of years, we have talked about ‘Ignite’ in just a few dioceses but have found an immediate response.

So this coming year we are planning to roll out the concept, teachings and strategies of Ignite on a wider front, so keep looking here and on our website for more information.
 
Our Beloved Tracie

After 10 years of great service to LyCiG the wonderful Tracie has stood down. Many of you will remember her sitting at the back of the hall, unflappable, knowing the way to solve every little problem and with a wonderful testimony.

So thank you Tracie, we love you and may God go with you in all your future travellings.
 
A gripping thriller about Science and Religion from the author of the Da Vinci Code

We all read the Da Vinci Code. We were spell bound, worried about the religious bits and then went to see the film. Eventually we calmed down and decided it was all a bit far-fetched.

Over the years most of us have given up on Dan Brown, his books are a bit formulaic, page turning yes, but very samie. His latest book ‘Origin’ follows the usual patterns but is the most intelligent and profound of all the ones that I have read.

A brilliant, world famous futuristic computer programmer has discovered the answers to the two great questions, ‘Where do we come from?’ and ‘Where are we going?’ As a committed atheist with a sharp axe to grind he will use his discovery to put an end to religion. Dan Brown is, to my mind, surprisingly sympathetic to the spiritual voice of creation.

Coming soon after the death of Stephen Hawking, there is a timely relevance to the story.

It could be a great book to take into sixth forms, inform a few sermons or just for us privately to sort out a few issues whilst entertaining us along the way.
 
So, we, the team at Leading your Church into Growth, pray that God will continue to encourage you as you take steps to lead your church into growth, and hope that you will sign up to receive future newsletters from us.  May God bless you in your ministry.
- Robin Gamble and the LyCiG team