Revd Paul Bayes

Everyone back to God's place

One thing that is obvious from meeting Revd Paul Bayes is that he really enjoys the role of National Mission and Evangelism Adviser - although that doesn't distract from his view that every churchgoer should be sharing in the Church's mission.

'What we think in the Church of England,' he says, 'is that all Christians should be doing mission and evangelism and so in a way my job is a long way off the cutting edge.'

In his three years at Church House in London, he has been rolling out the Mission Shaped Church report and its recommendations, taking care of the Youth Evangelism Fund, and networking with diocesan missioners around the country, to collect their good ideas so they can be shared out nationally.

One of his favourite projects is Back to Church Sunday - which started out in the Diocese of Manchester in 2004 with the members of 160 churches inviting their friends and neighbours back to church with a simple printed invitation; this year the initiative has grown to the point that 1,900 churches across half of the Church of England are taking part.

'We're asking each person just to invite one person, not to get a whole street full,' says Paul, recounting how many who accepted the invitation said they'd forgotten that church could be so good: 'What they'd forgotten was that Christian friends and just being alongside other people could really carry you along in your own faith.'

This time Back to Church Sunday, on September 30, is being promoted with the motto Everyone Back to My Place; it it hoped that up to 20,000 people will be invited back via an attractive new invitation that splits into two, half of which contains encouragement to pray for the person receiving it.

When he's not overseeing exciting projects, Paul - who previously served as a priest in Newcastle, London, High Wycombe and Totton - enjoys spending time with his wife and three grown-up children, and occasionally can be seen out and about enjoying a vodka Martini in the restaurants of his recently adopted hometown of Bath.

He confesses that one of his ambitions via mission and evangelism is to leave the Church of England 'shaken and stirred'.

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