Kristina Kettleton
7 October 2024
In July, the diocese ran its first local Leading your Church into Growth conference in Geelong.
LyCiG has been adopted in the diocese as a tool for parishes to engage with as they seek to fulfill the diocesan mission to make the Word of God to be made fully known in their area. The content has no specific size or style of church in mind, but instead gives principles that can be applied to any context.
Those who completed the Geelong conference have immediately implemented their learnings into their local context. Some churches are praying for growth weekly, others are looking to better integrate the programs they already run to create discipleship pathways. Through it all, there is an energy that growth is possible!
Read more: Faith in action has encouraged me in church growth initiatives
Prior to the Geelong conference, the conference was presented twice by the Reverends Peter Leech and Sue Cooke who travelled to Melbourne from the UK. These visits have been used to train and equip a local team who were then able to present this most recent conference.
A great strength of the LyCiG program is that it encourages teams of lay and clergy from a parish to engage with the learning materials together, to canvass and review ideas and methods and to then apply these in their parish.
Bishop Brad Billings selected Geelong as the location conscious that some members of the Oodthenong Episcopate had been interested in joining but their location meant that attendance in Melbourne was difficult. This sentiment was fully supported by participants and the format was embraced by the parishes in Geelong with 15 parishes attending.
The in-person day was generously hosted by the ministry team at St Cuthbert’s Grovedale who ensured that the attendees were bodily nourished.
The conference content, presented by the Reimagining the Future team, provided more spiritual nourishment. Topics included ‘Developing Engaging Worship’, ‘Creating a Prayerful Culture of Growth’, and ‘Creating a pathway for seekers to become disciples’. Participants were able to immediately apply what they were learning into their local context as they discussed with their team.
Read more: Planning, prayer and implementation: how this church is working towards growth
The shorter, local format was praised by attendees who appreciated being able to gather with people from other churches and receive the same excellent, usable content as was delivered at the February conference.
Leading your Church into Growth continues to be a great tool available to churches across the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne. The content makes it easy for parish leadership to investigate and discuss what is needed for parish growth in their context, and enables participants to develop simple, relevant steps to lead their church to growth.
The next conference will use the same format, with an online session ahead of gathering in person on Saturday 26 October on the north side of Melbourne.
Kristina Kettleton is Reimagining the Future Project Officer for the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne.
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