Mike

Planting trees might not seem like the most obvious mission opportunity, but in Hungerford, where St Lawrence’s Church has so far planted 840 trees (given to them by the Woodland Trust) in their community, this was one lady’s route to church. She first connected with St Lawrence’s as a tree-planting volunteer, then started watching their online service during lockdown. As restrictions have lifted, she has been coming along to church in person.

A year-round missional focus

Reverend Mike Saunders explained to Hope Together that planting trees is not just an opportunity to save the planet, but it’s also a part of a rhythm of mission, suggested by Hope as a great way to help make Jesus known, that the church has adopted. 

‘We think people belong first, and then we invite them to come onto Alpha so they can believe, then we invite them into a small group so they can go on learning,’ said Mike. ‘We then invite them to serve in the life of the church and serve in the life of the community, then we encourage them to pray, invite and bring their guests to special events.’

For St Lawrence’s, this involves a focus every autumn on encouraging the church to be outward-looking, where they are encouraged to be praying and inviting guests to services at Harvest, on Remembrance Sunday and at Christmas. Recently-bereaved families are also invited to an All Souls Day service, where they are given the opportunity to join in with the Bereavement Journey course. The last session of this 6-week course contains some gentle Christian content and the participants are then also invited to join the church’s Christmas celebrations. In recent years, around 1000 people have attended their Christmas services and each of those people receives an invite to an Alpha course in January. The church has run Alpha for the past four years and each year, a new small group has been born as people have come to faith. Spring and summer are therefore times for learning and for service in the community, including tree planting and working on the local towpath.

Making the most of a challenging season

One of the ladies who came to faith through an Alpha course in fact became the lady who helped the church move their services online during lockdown. Rev. Mike acknowledged that this has been a challenging time for the church’s mission, but also recognises that there are things to celebrate.

‘Loving our neighbour has become a core value, hasn’t it? And I’d like that to continue,’ he said. At the beginning of lockdown, a local project manager who had been furloughed rang him up, keen to offer his help to the community. This led to the church recruiting 200 volunteers within Hungerford to ensure that no one was left stranded without shopping or the help they needed.

‘Again and again and again we’re inviting people to ask their questions about God. No question is too trivial!’ said Mike. ‘I’d really like to encourage people to try this rhythm of mission, where you come up with a pattern that works for you through the year – and hopefully others will find it as fruitful as we have!’

You can find plenty of ideas to help your own church adopt a rhythm of mission that works for your town, village or city on Hope Together’s website