Please find below a short clip promoting the Unlocking the Growth Seminar (and attached a PDF) which I am touring from March through to July.

Unlocking the Growth Seminar

A word about the 1 million Tour

Whilst the Tour gives practical examples of how we can mobilise invitation it is much more than a Training event. It is a call to action. The aim is to mobilise 1 million Christians to invite 1 million friends. Currently eight out of ten members (Back to Church Sunday 2009 figures) of a congregation are not inviting their friends on an invitation Sunday, I am confident that using the ideas generated through the “Double your congregation in one day” pilot, that we can release that potential. The first dates have already happened, where I spoke to the leaders of Methodism in London followed two days later in Montreal Canada with a keynote speech to the House of Bishops. The tour begins in earnest on February 24th in Cardiff and then March 1st in Edinburgh, followed by Aberdeen and in the same week South West England Wrexham and Worcestershire. After a date in Lancashire, a flight to Australia and New Zealand with dates in Sydney Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Tasmania, Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. In April I return to Canada with dates in Ontario, Niagara, Toronto Moncton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver. In early May a tour of Ireland is followed by dates in the UK. In early June there are dates in Amsterdam and the American church in Brussels.

I had a wonderful time in Montreal with the House of Bishops and you can see from the following report from their own journal all the dioceses signed up for an invitation Sunday on September 26th 2010.

Let\'s focus on the positive

Let’s focus on the positive
Are you answering God’s call to help move the church forward?
Kristin Jenkins
Feb 1, 2010
Related Stories
Feb 1, 2010 - Featured Letter: ‘Welcome to my church’

I’m either a slow learner or a quick study, depending on your point of view. I say this because I’ve finally learned how the expression—What you focus on is what you get—actually works. Focus on same-sex blessings: you get frustration, anger, schism. Focus on how to revitalize the church: you get inspired, you get ideas, you get connected in new ways, you get energized.

And then you get busy.

There’s a lot of work to be done and as we all know, shrinking congregations and collapsing finances in too many of our parishes means time is of the essence. The good news? There is hope. And it begins with simple solutions that work.

Last September, I asked what it would take to get unstuck. Thanks to your emails, letters and phonecalls, I know that many of you feel very frustrated, clinging to your faith in a world that feels like some kind of parallel universe. You say you’re exhausted with the infighting; you want things to change even if you’re not sure how. People are asking over and over: What can I do?

In his letter to the editor in this issue [‘Welcome to my church’] John Morphet, M.D., talks about the importance of the church greeter. A firm handshake, a welcome smile, a personal introduction to the priest can make a powerful and lasting impression. I couldn’t agree more.

But let me ask you this. What are you doing to make newcomers to your church feel welcome? Maybe you like to be a “guest,” using the opportunity at worship to reconnect with friends and acquaintances. Or do you extend the hand of fellowship to someone you’ve never met and welcome him or her to your church? That’s what U.K. consultant Michael Harvey calls “hosting” and it’s part and parcel of a more missional expression of church.

Harvey is the fellow who came up with the concept of Back to Church Sunday. It was 2004 and he was having coffee with the communications director for the diocese of Manchester. What would happen, he asked her, if every single member of a congregation screwed up sufficient courage to ask just one friend to come with them to church? Is this what it would take to “double the diocese?”

They decided to try. Convincing people in the 160 Manchester churches to participate was a bit like “guerilla warfare,” he confessed to the House of Bishops last month in Montreal. Still, 800 people accepted a personal invitation from a friend. “We were surprised,” said Harvey.

Among other things, the experience revealed that a lot of people outside the church were curious but afraid to ask. On the inside, people were hesitant to extend an invitation for fear of being rejected. Back to Church Sunday is a way to break down the fear on both sides, points out Harvey.

Like all great ideas, Back to Church Sunday has taken on a life of its own. Fast-forward five years and it has grown into a worldwide ecumenical movement. Last year, 105,000 Christians around the world accepted a friend’s invitation to go to church. And in the U.K., where every denomination is now participating, an astonishing 10,000 people “stuck,” says Harvey.

The diocese of Toronto was part of that worldwide movement and the results, according to Suffragan Bishop Philip Poole, are stunning. Of the 2,650 friends who attended church on Sept. 27, some 250 people are still attending four months later.

Following Harvey’s visit to the House of Bishops, a total of 22 dioceses across Canada will participate on Back to Church Sunday (Sept. 26) this year. So it’s about to become a grassroots movement here in Canada, too, and the possibilities for church growth are truly exciting.

Who are you going to invite?

“The literature says 85 per cent of people are open to an invitation to come to church,” Bishop Poole told me. “It’s just a matter of asking.”

So how do you? Ask, I mean.

According to Harvey it’s simple. You just say: “Would you like to come to church with me and afterwards why don’t we have Sunday lunch together?” (Okay, so he throws in a little bribe.)

All joking aside, it is the personal invitation and attention that makes Back to Church Sunday so effective. But churches can also do their part—and let’s face it, this is huge—by offering a service that is “especially welcoming and user-friendly,” and connecting to resources such as prayer cards, posters and invitations.

What will people experience when they come to your church? Will it be welcoming? A newcomer decides in the first 30 seconds whether he or she will return, says Harvey. Are the greeters grouchy or talking only to other greeters? Is finding a seat difficult? Do guests have to go to the front or crawl over several people? “Sometimes we delude ourselves into thinking everything’s fine,” says Harvey.

There’s no doubt about it: Back to Church Sunday works. Harvey’s goal for Canada is nothing short of mobilizing every single Anglican in the country to invite a friend. With a stick rate of about 10 percent per year, well…you get the idea. “Think big,” he advises. “God is the God of the impossible.”

Can you hear the rumble of backlash as all the Doubting Thomases out there get busy shooting down the idea? Harvey has some things to say about self-defeating thoughts such as, “I can see it working there but not here.” He calls it “rubbish thinking” that stops us from believing. “We can spot everybody’s rubbish but not our own,” he points out.

It’s never too late to come back to church. Harvey tells of one parishioner who came back to the church at the age of 84. The last time John had been to church he was carried in the arms of his parents at his christening. John was a guest of Back to Church Sunday who stuck. Now, he’s a host. “The Bible has become my book at bedtime,” he told Harvey.

Back to Church Sunday is just one facet of an energized and inspiring global Christian movement known as Fresh Expressions. Endorsed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, Fresh Expressions is the incubator for fluid, open, limitless manifestations of faith. It is also based on the notion that we have something to learn.

Instead of cookie-cutter solutions to the question of church growth, Fresh Expressions provides inspiration by example. Then parishes work to creatively custom-design their own approaches to a more missional expression of church. It’s a process that transcends divisive issues and promises to help us work together.

In Ottawa, when skateboarders let themselves into a church hall at St. James and used folding tables as makeshift ramps, the parish council’s response was to put up signs telling youth to keep out. Then Rev. Christine Piper attended a Fresh Expressions workshop, and with the help of parishioners and a teen from a local skateboard shop, the parish council pulled its own 180.

”They saw that there was a potential to welcome kids into the church,” says parishioner Peter McCracken on YourOttawaRegion.com. In other words, a shift in perspective took place and the problem became an opportunity. (That’s evidence of God at work in my view.) Now there’s a new skateboard ministry every Tuesday evening and the parish is seeking donations of wood to build more ramps. “Christianity is all about reconciliation and moving forward,” notes Piper.

Stories like these act as beacons of light, guiding us to a greater understanding of the way forward. And when each of us takes responsibility for growing the church, we gain momentum. Sure, it’s easy to feel vulnerable. After all, we are being asked to move out of our comfort zone as the church prepares to emerge from a centuries-old chrysalis. We can’t see the future clearly and our wings are still wet and folded. There is so much territory to cover. But the knowledge of how to soar is in our DNA, God-given. All we need do is trust our faith to provide a steady updraft.

Transforming Churches:
A Nationwide NCD Process

TRANSFORMING THE NATION

Rainbow with gold at the endImagine what would happen in your church if you all became more enthusiastic about Jesus? If you enjoyed reading the Bible more, found prayer more inspiring, got more involved in sharing the gospel with friends and neighbours? Imagine the relationships both inside and outside of the church would be characterised by a higher degree of love? Imagine you experienced the presence of God more tangible and powerfully when you gather to worship? Imagine that as a natural consequence more people would be drawn into the fellowship of the church and they themselves experience all this?

Now imagine this happened not just in your church, but in every church in your area? Do you think it would make a difference in the surrounding community? In people’s lives? What if it did not just happen in your area, but in thousands of churches throughout the country? Do you think it would have an effect on our country, maybe even transform it?

It might sound like a nice, though somewhat naive dream, but experience from thousands of churches have shown that when a church consistently implements the principles found in Natural Church Development (NCD) the above scenario begins to happen. These churches also begin to

* Provide a healthier environment in which people can grow toward God and each other
* Connect with their community in increasingly natural ways
* Have a greater proportion of conversion growth compared to transfer growth
* Experience more manageable workloads amongst the leaders and lay workers
* Are considerably more inclined to plant other healthy churches

Add to this that after implementing these principles for just 31 months these churches experience an average increase in their growth rate of 51% and it begins to sound worth looking at, right?

The really good news is that these churches are not super or mega churches, are not led by extraordinarily gifted leaders, but are normal, local churches, with the same challenges and limitations as most other churches, and yet they are slowly, but surely being transformed themselves through seeing people inside and outside of the church transformed.

Based on these experiences NCD-UK is launching what is termed a Transforming Churches: a Nationwide NCD Process in the spring of next year and denominations and local churches all over the UK are invited to participate in the process. The goal is to see a multitude of churches grow in quality and experience the growth that come “all by itself”, to empower denominations and church groups to continually implement these principles and ultimately to see transformation in communities all over the Christian Schwarz NCD Internationalcountry.

The process will initially run over 18 months, with 3 2-day training seminars during this period. Here church leaders will be trained by Christian Schwarz and Christoph Schalk of NCD International in the implementation of NCD principles in the local church. In between the seminars the actual process will happen as leaders go back and implement the principles in their churches.
Christoph Schalk NCD International

NCD has helped individual denominations and groups to go through similar processes, but with the Transforming Churches: A Nationwide NCD Process the vision is to see many denominations and churches from different traditions joining together in the process and in that way create the basis for a much higher impact on the nation.

Neither nations or denominations will be transformed in 18 months, but the participating churches can expect to begin to experience some of the effects outlined above and as the process is continued and multiplied more and more churches will grow more and more in quality, and as a natural consequence see more and more people come to faith in Jesus Christ and into the fellowship of the local church.

This is what it is all about. It is not about some slick marketing gimmick, the newest management technique, or the latest imported church fad. Transforming Churches: A Nationwide NCD Process is all about making more and better disciples in more and better church, as Jesus commanded us, and doing it the way God intended: Through healthy, vibrant local churches reaching out into their local community with the gospel.

Imagine what could happen if your church joined the process!

Why don’t you? It is not a naive dream; it could be reality – even where you are.

Back to Church Sunday 2009 sees 71 per cent leap in returning churchgoers
by Charlie Boyd
Posted: Thursday, November 26, 2009, 11:38 (GMT)
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Back to Church Sunday 2009 sees 71 per cent leap in returning churchgoers
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The Church of England said around 53,000 people had returned to its churches on Back to Church Sunday 2009.

Some 82,000 people returned to church across the UK on Back to Church Sunday in September, according to figures from participating churches.

The Church of England said its participating churches had welcomed back 53,000 former churchgoers.

Head of Research and Statistics with the Church of England, the Rev Lynda Barley, said the statistics gathered so far indicated a 71 per cent increase on the number who returned on Back to Church Sunday in 2008.

“We know from local research that new attenders and the churches enjoy the Back to Church experience of church,” said Rev Barley.

“Not only has the number of participating churches increased between 2008 and 2009 so that approximately 20 per cent of Church of England churches are now taking part, but the average number of extra people per church has grown, with participating churches each having welcomed an average of 19 extra people compared to 14 last year.”

Research carried out by the Diocese of Lichfield after Back to Church Sunday 2007 found that six months later, between 12 and 15 per cent of returners had become regular members. The Church of England said that if even a conservative estimate of 12 per cent of this year’s returners continued into more regular churchgoing, Back to Church Sunday 2009 would have added another 9,900 people to pews across the UK.

This year, churches went the extra mile to hand out millions of personal invitations in the run up to Back to Church Sunday 2009. In parts of the UK a rap-style advertisement went out over the radio, while the Bishop of Doncaster, the Rt Rev Cyril Ashton, went out with a team of motor cyclists around South Yorkshire to invite people back to church. In Greater Manchester and Merseyside, a giant 20ft advertisement was driven through the streets of numerous towns.

The Rt Rev Jonathan Gledhill, Bishop of Lichfield, said: “Back to Church isn’t rocket science. It is, however, a way of putting a booster behind the welcome we offer people, and turning mission into less of a specialism.

“It turns evangelism into a simple invitation that any churchgoer can ask their friend or neighbour – ‘Will you come to church with me on Sunday?’

“What’s really encouraging is the way that Back to Church is becoming a core part of the Church’s DNA. Now a regular event for many churches, the buzz is catching, across churches of all traditions, and I expect to see even more churches getting involved in 2010.”

The figures have been released as church representatives gather in London to celebrate the success of Back to Church Sunday and start planning for next year’s event on 26 September 2010.

Back to Church Sunday was first held in the Anglican Diocese of Manchester in 2004. It has since spread to each of the Church of England’s 44 dioceses and congregations from Churches Together in Scotland, the Church in Wales, Baptist, Methodist, United Reformed, Salvation Army and Elim Pentecostal Churches nationwide. Internationally, the initiative is now held by Anglican churches in Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and Canada.

Based on feedback from 193 churches (nearly 1/3rd of the total) an estimated 12,000 people were invited to church in Australia, which is an average of 20 per church.

I felt that it provided an opportunity for people to break the cycle of missing church (doing something else on Sunday mornings) Melbourne church
We actually had to start the service 10 minutes late (something I hate to do) as people kept coming in! Melbourne church
I think one of the great benefits of the day is the way that St Aidan’s parishioners see themselves and the way they can see God at work in our midst in many ‘ordinary’ ways. People know we are a welcoming church and that we have much to offer.
Every face in church was smiling. Melbourne church
We took the theme – Come As You Are- and invited parishioners to come dressed as something that represents who they are. We had 2 doctors with stethoscopes, a safety worker with his bright vest, football fans (very popular dress), a housewife in an apron, a teacher in an academic gown, a Girl Guide leader in her uniform, a Scottish Piper in his kilt. It … gave the day a festive and fun feel. Melbourne church
I thought the idea was great. It was a very good opportunity to encourage the parishioners that inviting a friend/relative to church was not such a hard thing to do. The material to advertise was great and encouraged people to pray for family and friends was a positive experience – looking forward to next year. Melbourne church
Over all, I felt it was worthwhile doing BTCS. It is a chance for people to have a good look at themselves as a parish, and to think about what is welcoming, what may not be. One extra parishioner is positive, but numbers are not the be all and end all of what we do. Our own people have grown, and begun to look outwards more. That is potentially more important, because it educates and leads to future outcomes. Melbourne church
I feel it was encouraging for the congregation to see how the simple effort of a personal invitation doubled our congregation size…We are slowly seeing some of the people returning again. Bunbury church
It did show our regulars that with little effort, they themselves can increase the size of congregation. Bunbury Church
I believe this has given them confidence to invite people in the future. Bunbury church
Yes, Back to Church Sunday was a success. Yes, it was worth the effort. I hope you feel that way too. Bunbury church

I can truly say that BTCS was the highlight of my entire ministry. It is probably the most successful single venture I have ever undertaken as a priest…What really stood out for me was that, as one of our members accompanying their guest entered the church, they had the hugest grin on their face and said proudly, “This is my friend whom I brought to church today!” Their face said it all for me. They were excited that they had accomplished the Great Commission of Christ. Bunbury church
BTCS was easy to implement and advertise. Parishioners and potential guests could easily understand what it was about. Canberra and Goulburn church
The follow-up has been left to the people who invited the guests – they are the ones who have the relationship with the person. Canberra and Goulburn church
We had many guests including a mother who had been brought along to church because her daughter was asking questions about God and wanted to get involved in Sunday school. We had people inviting all their office colleagues. We had people saying they wanted to come before an invitation had been issued. Canberra and Goulburn church
The whole thing is good news. A small church that doesn’t do ‘program mode’ easily and whose members are shy about sharing their faith found that inviting someone to church was easy. Canberra and Goulburn church
(The most successful aspect of BTCS was) seeing the delight on the faces of regulars when the people they’d invited came: inviting them was an uncomfortable/novel experience, so their courage paid off. A small step in being overt Christians, in speaking about their faith, and significant. Canberra and Goulburn church.
Many who felt daunted by the thought of asking someone to come to church were surprised by the positive responses they received when they plucked up the courage. Newcastle church
BTCS was simple, it demonstrated the effectiveness of personal invitation. Newcastle church
BTCS compels us – as regulars – to ask ourselves some difficult questions: What am I asking this person to? What will they think of what we do? What do “I” think of what we do? How do we “welcome” the stranger well? To that end alone I think BTCS is worthwhile.. If we (as a congregation) can answer those questions, then we will be much more comfortable and capable of inviting others to join us. BTCS, then, is an exercise in challenging and changing a culture of complacency, and even helplessness. I definitely support BTCS as an annual activity; the blessing will flow as we continue to change the culture of a church/congregation drifting along and declining. Newcastle church

FROM GUESTS
‘Thank you,’ shaking my hand, with a kiss and a hug with tears in her eyes as I had included an apology for those who felt betrayed and hurt by the church. Melbourne church
One guest who came with two small children reported ‘I wish this was on every Sunday.’ We told her it was and she came back next week. Melbourne church
One said, ‘I was thinking of coming back, but just needed a reason to do so.’ Melbourne church
One parishioner said she prayed about asking someone who used to come to church a long time ago and felt sure she would say no – what a lovely surprise she said yes. Melbourne church
One Chinese neighbour and family said that they wanted to come, and the invite made the first step easier. Their response was immediate. Melbourne church
This is so different to what I remember church being, its’ great. Melbourne church
“This is just what I needed to get me back to church” Newcastle church

New Zealand Results

Bucking the trend: early signs of success for Back to Church Sunday Ten to 20% more people in Anglican churches on Sunday, as distinct from
less: that’s a statistic with the potential to flummox the census-takers and media-pundits.
In some places, the picture that’s beginning to develop from Back to Church Sunday (held last Sunday, Sept 13) is more impressive still. Some
snapshots:
• St Barnabas, Fendalton – 100 more people, which is a 30% increase on the
average congregation, says John Day, the vicar.
• St John the Baptist, Dannevirke – “No one in the parish can remember
ever having more than a hundred in church at one time, for any reason. On Sunday we had 165,” reports the vicar, Tim Delaney
• St Luke’s, Havelock North – “about 50 to 60 extra in the congregation”,
reports Brian Dawson, Vicar
• St Mary’s Karori – “Our average attendance is about 100 – but we were up
to 130 something” says Ben Johnson-Frow, the worship leader.
• St John, Roslyn, Dunedin – “Today we had 136 at the 10am service… It was
great to see our little church more or less full again.” Kelvin Wright, vicar.
• Diocese of Waikato – about a 10 percent average increase in attendance
in both urban and rural parishes, says the Bishop, David Moxon.
• St Aidan’s, Remuera – 20 to 30 extra people at the main service, says Jo
Kelly-Moore, the vicar.
• For some smaller churches, the picture is even more impressive, with
reports of a fifty percent gain in numbers – small to begin with, admittedly – often heard. This mirrors a British trend, which shows that Back to Church Sunday (B2CS) works really well for small congregations.

In fact, it’s too soon to form a complete national picture of how this year’s effort went, says Tony Gerritsen, Wellington’s Archdeacon for Mission, and the man who last year introduced B2CS to New Zealand.

Data from around the country is being gathered at the moment, he says, and the full picture won’t emerge for at least another month.

The disarmingly simple idea behind Back to Church Sunday – that a friend invites a friend back to church – has caught on, big time, in the UK. By last year – just four years after the movement was launched – 3000 churches were running with it, and 37,000 British people came back to church on that day.

There are at least some signs that the B2CS movement maybe on a similar upwards trajectory in New Zealand, too.

Because where a single solitary diocese – Tony’s own – embraced the B2CS concept last year, this year, about 200 churches in six of the country’s seven Tikanga Pakeha dioceses took part.

What’s more, the net has been cast quite a bit wider still. This year, about 50 Baptist churches took part, says Tony, and the Baptist movement produced the resources that build awareness for the day – including posters and invitations that church folk can give to their non-churched friends.

And in March this year Tony and the B2CS movement founder, Englishman Michael Harvey, flew to Brisbane to speak to the Australian Anglican Bishops’ conference.

Result? Seventeen Australian dioceses are now on board with B2CS, and they too focused their combined efforts on achieving a successful September 13 outcome.

Archbishop David Moxon says the success of B2CS may, in part, simply be that people were, in effect, waiting to be asked.
“They think: ‘Oh gosh: I haven’t been to church for a long time – and yet I sometimes think about it. Now someone has, in a non-embarrassing way, actually invited me.
“I know other people will be coming back as well. And I know the church people are not going to say to me: Where have you been? Or: Goodness – you’ve been away a long time. They just want me back’.”
Kelvin Wright, who is an Archdeacon Emeritus in the Diocese of Dunedin, detected the same ‘waiting to be asked’ feeling in some of the people who showed up at St John’s Roslyn last Sunday.
In his ‘Available light’ blog http://vendr.blogspot.com/ he wrote: “I managed to speak to many who had come because of the invitations, and in most cases, they told me they were thinking of coming anyway. There were pressing life issues for some of them which were causing a rethink of priorities and an invitation to church was just the catalyst they had needed to make the move.”
Jo Kelly-Moore, who is the Vicar of St Aidan’s in Remuera, thinks one of the more valuable aspects about B2CS is the audit that goes with it: “It invites you,” she says, “to do a bit of self-reflection about how accessible you are as a community.”
“We had 20 to 30 visitors on the day – I would have loved a lot more – and we focused the address, and what we were doing, around there being visitors in the room, and we tried to make our publications and our liturgy more visitor-friendly.”
Tony Gerritsen thinks that hospitality audit is a key, too. Last year he produced a “Warrant of Fitness” kit – a step-by-step check list whereby churches can inspect everything from the state of their worship to the state of their toilets. These inspections are necessary, he says, because too often churches are “institutionally unwelcoming.”
The big issue now, points out Archbishop David, is whether B2CS is a oncer, a flash in the pan – or whether it’s a new beginning. Whether the churches can convert – no pun intended – those visitors into people who choose to stay and belong.
“The challenge – and it’s a good challenge – will be whether the churches can keep that Back to Church Sunday standard up.
“One of things about B2CS was not to do it too extraordinarily, because that’s not normal, and may not be sustainable.
“On the other hand, churches often do need to ‘up the game’. They do need to constantly look at the standard of their liturgy and hospitality.”
Kelvin Wright reckons that Back To Church Sunday has, on many fronts, been “a rip roaring success” for St. John’s Roslyn.
“Firstly, it has encouraged us to look at ourselves and make changes where necessary.
“Most importantly it has encouraged people to think about why they themselves come to church and to talk about those reasons with people they live and work and share bits of their lives with.
“Of course we will be signing up for next year’s Back To Church Sunday.
“But I hope we can translate the learnings into the other 51 Sundays until then.”

I have had the privilege of working with a wonderful group of people called Cornerstone who have three GP Surgeries in the Blackburn area. These guys are really working hard to improve the physical and spiritual health of the people they serve.

My job has been to assist them in winning the contract to serve a new area and then to promote them to the people of the area. See below the report from the Lancashire Telegraph.

Improving Healthcare

“A NEW GP health centre will bring more services into Blackburn and slash the number of patients per doctor.

Partners at Shadsworth Surgery on Shadsworth Road, Blackburn, who have formed a not-for-profit company will now provide an extra surgery for Blackburn in the Mill Hill area.

Cornerstone Community Interest Company, which was procured to run a new centre by Blackburn with Darwen NHS, says that in four years the practice will have achieved a doctor for every 1,500 people – five hundred people fewer than the UK average.

The new Bentham Road Health Centre opens on Tuesday, September 1 and as well as GP services, will offer contraception and sexual health services, clinics for asthma, bronchitis, heart problems and diabetes as well as drug and alcohol addiction services.

Health checks and support for those who want to stop smoking are also on offer. It is also thought to be the first surgery in Blackburn to offer weekend appointments.

Members of the public are also able to become members of the company if they wish to act as representatives for residents.

Medical Director of Cornerstone, Dr Alastair Murdoch, who will continue to work at his Shadsworth practice, said the centre would operate for the next year with one full time and one part time doctor, adding more doctors as patient numbers increase.

He said: “Myself and all the partners at the Shadsworth surgery felt very strongly that areas with the most problems should have the best doctors, but all too often they end up in leafy suburbs.

“We were delighted to have won the bid as we are a not-for-profit company which means we can plough our profits back into the centre.

“We hope people will view the company as theirs. Mill Hill is an area currently under-doctored and experiencing problems.

“Most ill health is not caused by disease, but by poverty, stress or depression, and there are limits to what traditional surgeries can do.”

Rob Bellingham, director of governance and engagement at NHS Blackburn with Darwen, said: “The opening of Bentham Road Health Centre is a realisation of a vision to give people in Blackburn with Darwen better care, better health and ultimately, a better and longer life.”

The new health centre will be open from 8am to 8pm on Thursdays, 8am to 6.30pm other weekdays and 8.30am to 12.30pm on Saturdays. “

The Abbey at St Malo set off the Brittany coast with wonderful views out to sea is a very special place and worth a visit if in that part of the world for its beauty, serenity and another of those thin places where one might experience the presence of God afresh.

The Archdeaconry of France consists of the British diaspora across France.
There are nearly 50 Anglican churches across the country from the major cities to the Cote d’azur.

Before I got up to speak the preceding debate concluded by saying that the problem in France is that we are in the most secular country in the most secular continent in the world. Before I started the presentation I wanted to challenge that mind set and so I said that “Christ was alive and active in this continent and especially in this country of France”

Over 100 clergy and church representatives were present and responded positively to the message of friend inviting friend and the renewal of the church. We laughed together and had a good time mocking ourselves as church and talking about the changes we could make. I expect Back to Church Sunday to happen across the country in Anglican churches and chaplaincies and my hope and prayer is that in 2010 other church denominations and this time French speaking will join in.

The trip to France followed a weekend in Bournemouth at the Baptist Assembly doing a seminar with my friend Mark Hope-Irwin who spoke passionately at our Welcome Workshop for more details see below the interview afterwards

Back to Church Sunday Baptist Assembly

Yorkshire Post
Published Date: 26 May 2009
By Michael Brown Religious Affairs Correspondent
A YORKSHIRE bishop is claiming there may be a “turning of the tide” in the supposed decline of Christianity in this country – or at least in his 920 square-mile “patch”.
Pointers to a boost are outlined by Bishop of Bradford David James in an upbeat message to his diocese of 130 parishes and 165 churches in Bradford, a quarter of North Yorkshire, and parts of Leeds, Lancashire and Cumbria.

The 63-year-old church leader, in an article headed “What’s the Buzz?” in the June issue of his diocesan news, admits that in Western Europe Christianity is in decline.

But even in that part of Europe he says there are signs that the situation is changing. And in the last few weeks as he has travelled around his area, he has been hearing encouraging comments.

Bishop James says the comments include: “Some new young families have started worshipping with us – I haven’t a clue where they come from”; “nearly everyone in the Upper Dale came to a carol service”; “we have more people in church during the week than on a Sunday – there are scores of mums and toddlers”; “we have a lot more weddings this year, for some reason”; and “baptisms are on the up”.

He added: “These are just a few of the ‘What’s the Buzz? Tell me what’s a-happening!’ snippets,” and concludes: “They suggest a turn of the tide”.

Bishop James, who has been at Bradford since 2002 and was previously Bishop of Pontefract, says that last September 130 of his churches took part in Back to Church Sunday – a Church of England scheme to get people going to church again – and from a survey in five deaneries it is estimated that over 1,000 people responded to the invitation.

He adds: “I have begun to confirm some of those who continued to come.”

This year’s Back to Church Sunday is on September 27 and his prayer for every church in his diocese “is that there will be something of the sense of ‘electricity crackling in the air’ because any one of the people you welcome could be an angel in disguise and any one could be coming with that sense of curiosity and expectation – What’s the Buzz? Tell me what’s a-happening! – and you will be saying to them in some way or other ‘The living faith, the God who brings life from death is for you!

In the air for 2 days and on the ground for six days, I am just back from speaking to the Australian Bishops Conference on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

I can report what they describe as a “miracle”. At least 21 out of 23 dioceses will take part on one date September 13th 2009 (the same date as New Zealand). What God accomplished in 4 years in England with roll out across the whole of the country He appeared to achieve within 90 minutes in Australia.

I was thrilled to hear of the impact of Back to Church Sunday amongst the cantonese and mandarin speaking congregations of St Paul’s Chatswood. Many invited friends who are now regulars, and none had ever been to church before
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We are now believing that thousands of Australians will now have an opportunity of rediscovering or discovering a relationship with their Heavenly Father in this concept called the “easiest form of evangelism”.

For more information on Back to Church Sunday and to see me on New Zealand Television you can access two weblinks. (Please note I made an error on NZ Television, I meant to say that ‘church’ is about Christ’s body His people and not the building or the service between 1030 and 1200)

Back to Church Sunday DVD
NZone New Zealand