Some 80 Transforming Church consultants will be commissioned at a special service on Saturday September 12th at 11am at St Martin in the Bull Ring church.

 

The team of transformers have been drawn from local churches and include a wide range of experience and skills from a management consultants to community workers.

 

The 200 Anglican churches in the Diocese of Birmingham are each being given a consultant to help them work out how they can influence their local communities, develop healthy relationships and welcome newcomers to worship.

 

Churches have also been given a toolkit for Transforming Church which outlines seven areas of transformation and 10 Diocesan goals for the initiative. Churchgoers will all be give a credit-card size prayer card and a booklet featuring stories of local Christian disciples whose lives are already having a transforming effect in their community.
 

The Rt Revd David Urquhart, Bishop of Birmingham will commission the consultants and preach at the service on Saturday.

 

He said: “Transforming Church is not about asking people to work harder but to work sharper - being proactive more than reactive, focussed on what we believe God wants us to do.
 

“Growing churches at the heart of each community’ is a vision of church for the 21st century. Our city and region is a wonderful context in which to discover what it means to be Christians who are ready, able and willing to be both transformed by God and to play a full part in God’s work of transformation.  This affects the whole of creation, from global structures to individual’s hearts."

 

Transforming Church will be implemented throughout the rest of 2009 and 2010. It is an initiative of the Diocese of Birmingham which includes Birmingham, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield and parts of Sandwell, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.