Simply Church

When: Saturday 26th May, 10am - 4pm
Where: Horfield Baptist Church, Gloucester Road, Bristol, BS7 8NY
Price: £20 (unwaged £12) - includes lunch

Do churches need so many structures, processes, programmes and organisations? What is essential and what could we dispense with? What do we need to inspire faith, sustain mission and build community? and what do we have the energy and resources to sustain?

In post-Christendom culture, many believe church needs to be simple.

- That we can no longer maintain the kinds of churches that served previous generations
- That we need to prioritise mission and reduce maintenance
- That we need to recover the dynamism of a movement and streamline institutional dimensions of church
- That we need to plant churches that are reproducible and less dependable on paid staff and their own buildings
- That we need to concentrate on making disciples and incarnational mission rather than running churches

Simpler churches are a global phenomenom, flourishing especially where the church is growing strongly. Should we be developing simpler churches in western societies. where the church is in decline? What are the dangers and drawbacks? What are the losses as well as the gains? Does this mean planting new churches or can we just simplify the churches we already have? How do simpler churches network together and what kind of leadership is needed?

Simply church is an opportunity to explore these issues through a mixture of story-sharing, discussion and missional reflection.

Stuart Murray-Williams is one of the speakers, and UE one of the sponsors, along with various Baptist associations, and the Bristol Baptist College.
Trainers include Nigel Coles, Nick Bradshaw, Stuart Murray Williams

For further information, contact Stuart stuart a_t murraywilliams d_o_t co d_o_t uk or 0117 330 7826