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Hope for the Church - contemporary strategies for growth

29 October 2002

In this his latest book, Bob Jackson, a government economic adviser before spending 20 years in parish ministry and now Research Missioner for the Archbishops' evangelism initiative Springboard, finds many signs of hope for future growth in the Church. By analysing reasons for the growth and decline of individual churches, he builds a menu of practical strategies for national church growth.

Hope for the Church 'urges Christians to use our God-given intelligence to analyse our situation logically, and so to seek out the pathways for growth that God has already excavated, and some have pioneered'.

Bob Jackson argues that 'quantitative growth is best not tackled directly - it will be a spin-off from qualitative growth. If we aim to improve the quality of church life in relevant ways, then the numbers will follow'. He sees hope, for example, in the growth of process evangelism courses, such as Alpha and Emmaus, the increasing numbers of church youth workers trained and the embracing of new technologies in sharing individual's faith stories.

'Evangelism,' says Bob Jackson, 'has become an acceptable concept across the board in the Church....If sufficient numbers of Anglicans decide that their priority is to share the faith and grow the Church through its own health and witness, then half the battle is already won.'

Hope for the Church is the first in an occasional series from Church House Publishing under the imprint Explorations providing a forum for church leaders, teachers, writers and theologians to stimulate debate.

Hope for the Church is published by Church House Publishing, price £10.95 and is available from all Christian bookshops and Church House Bookshop, 31 Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BN, tel. 020-7898 1305, e mail bookshop@c-of-e.org.uk, or on the web at: www.chbookshop.co.uk (mail order available).