I was almost as surprised three weeks ago to be announcing my departure from m2o as everyone else was to hear the announcement! From March next year I shall be working across the whole Diocese of Coventry as Healthy Churches Mentor. What is a healthy church?
A lot of research has been undertaken to establish what is the best environment for a church to grow in, to discern what makes for a healthy church. My new role will be sharing those insights and helping churches develop the 8 Essential Qualities found in healthy churches. And over the next 5 days we'll be looking together at these.
The first quality found in healthy churches is Empowering Leadership, that's not about the Vicar but about whether all those in leadership positions within the church empower others to fulfil their roles – to equip, support, motivate and work with others to help them become all that God wants them to be.
There are great examples of this in the bible – John the Baptist who prepared the way for Jesus (as we are remembering this week in Advent); Barnabas the encourager who enabled and supported Paul in his ministry, and of course we see it in Jesus in the way he chose his disciples, trained them up and then released them as the first leaders of the fledgling church.
Who can you empower by getting alongside them, supporting them, encouraging them and helping them to believe in themselves, so that they can become all God wants them to be? Pray for them now and how you can do that.
Martin Saxby
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