The Parish Development and Stewardship Department
The Parish Development and Stewardship Department brings together financial and practical expertise to enhance parish development. This new department also draws on expertise from within other boards and departments and is keen to work with area deans and ecumenical partners, and with members of other faiths as appropriate.
Bishop Nicholas said: "This initiative is an imaginative response by our diocese as it plans to contradict global recession with further growth. What we are seeing here is the best possible use of available resources - no new current costs but a valuable investment in the future. This revised department is a creative Christian answer and shows a realistic understanding of church and community needs."
The new team is led by Archdeacon John and staffed by Mary Smith, Diocesan Stewardship and Funding Officer and The Rev Tim Horobin, Parish Development Officer. It is based at St Mary's House, where Andrea Dewhurst provides administrative support.
The team is seeking a close relationship with parishes and parish clergy, especially in urban priority and rural areas, and with those who welcome support in developing a 'servant' model of mission and ministry within their communities.
 Archdeacon John said: “This is about putting together areas of work that we have all been involved in for some time, all of which are about helping parishes to be better resourced for mission and ministry. This initiative is designed to get alongside a parish and its clergy, who may be struggling for one reason or another, to accompany them and help them. It will try to get them into Mission Action Planning, and to go beyond MAP to the delivery of mission and ministry with a focus on serving the community. We will respond to parish requests to ‘get involved’ but we are aware of parishes that we might need to approach who have found life difficult. But we can only go in with the blessing of the clergy and the church council. We may be used by Bishop’s staff over a wider area, too. This could involve PCC visits, vision days and the use of community audits, applying know-how and experience and helping church councils to discover for themselves God’s way ahead for them.”
Recession is a good time to bring together already existing diocesan resources and use them more effectively and efficiently together, and to model team working. Part of the work will involve finding further outside funding, and prayer support will provide its spiritual core. One aim is to encourage a vision of financial giving moving beyond ‘balancing the books’ to identifying and funding mission. Recession threatens to detract Christian attention from mission to finance. Having stewardship and parish development in one department will greatly benefit parishes, allowing them to access more easily the resources they need to look at and develop their mission and outreach to the community.
 Contact details for the department:
The Rev Tim Horobin, Parish Development Officer
Telephone: 01254 503070 ext 230
Mary Smith, Stewardship and Funding Officer
Telephone: 01254 503070 ext 225
St Mary's House
Cathedral Close
Blackburn BB1 5AA
What is Parish Development?
Over a period of time it has been identified that there is a need to work alongside churches, encouraging them to look out into the community they serve, to look at the needs of this generation. The Parish Development team will work with parishes over a period of time as they look at addressing that need, and offer new tools of engagement.
The aims of the Parish Development Team are to:
- Look at new ways of the church engaging in the local community and meeting its spiritual needs, therefore to have a vision that relates to the needs of this generation and the next
- Seek to work with parishes, encouraging and enabling them as well as providing new tools to facilitate effective mission in the community
- Be fully supportive of the MAP process and aim to provide resources to enable and support parishes to deliver their mission strategy in relation to the community. There will be an emphasis on creating a servant-heart ministry for mission
- Work alongside incumbents and lay leaders to look at ways in which they can further resource and encourage parishes to engage in issues relating to community
- Recruit and train a team of volunteers within the area of Parish Development who would work with parishes through out the diocese
- Work with parishes at creating a vision for the Church that relates to the community it serves.
How does Parish Development work?
Various groups are working across the whole Diocese:-
Rural Focus Group
This group meets around four times a year, its main aim being to look at the issues facing the rural church and the community. The group is not just a talking shop, but has become an action group.
UPA Group
We are in the process of setting up a UPA group which will have the same mandate as the Rural Focus Group but from a UPA perspective. This will also be an action group.
Think Tank
A group of clergy come together on a regular basis to take on topics that are raised by various groups and to spend some time thinking about them outside the box.
Parish Engagement Team
This group works with the Parish Development Officer and alongside parishes, helping them to engage with their communities.
Ground Team
A group of Diocesan officers who will work with a parish or deanery to share ideas and encourage closer working.
Parish Development Church Support Network
This is a series of open meetings to bring together churches who are engaging in parish development, to share stories and ideas. The first meeting was in June 2009 at Blackburn St Luke. The subject was ‘Leaky Pipe’ and we heard the story of how they had opened their building to the community for multifunctional use. The next meeting is at 7.30pm on Tuesday 15 September 2009 at Blackpool Holy Trinity and is entitled ‘Partnership Working – Good or Bad?’
Church Development Workers Support Group
The aim of this group is to meet three times a year to bring together church workers who are working in the community, to share ideas, stories, ways of working together, and fellowship.
Additional Information
 Christian Stewardship pages
 Climate Justice Fund
How to Carry Out a Community Audit
 Parish Development
What is Parish Development? - part 1
What is Parish Development? - part 2
What is Parish Development? - part 3
What is partnership working?
Training Events
Crossing the Threshold flyer
Crossing the Threshold booking form
Crossing the Threshold further information
Parish Development Support Network
 Partnership Working - Good or Bad?
The Story of the Leaky Pipe
Economy of Abundance or Scarcity - the story of an ordinary parish
Useful Websites
 Church Urban Fund is a not-for-profit organisation supporting social action in the poorest parts of England. Through our work we support local organisations working to tackle the effects of poverty in their communities and make a real difference to the lives of those around them
 Icons of England. The parish church has been at the centre of town and village life in England ever since the first wooden churches began to be built on former pagan sites of worship
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