So what is pioneering all about? Well, essentially it is being and doing church but in different ways. At the heart of pioneering is a willingness by the pioneer and team to go and be present, be ‘church’ within a community, living incarnationally and intentionally building relationships with those unreached or dechurched by traditional models. Often there’s a misconception that new believers will simply join what is already existing to sustain the declining church numbers. However, pioneering is about creating opportunities to do church in new ways and being a catalyst for changing people’s concept of traditional church, so that church embraces and adapts to the changes in; culture, family lifestyles and pressures. Pioneering recognises people can struggle with connecting with the current patterns of church life and so instead brings church to the every day patterns of life. Pioneer ministry seeks to journey and ‘do life’ with people so that church just becomes an integral part of every day life and community. In essence it’s about reconnecting with a missional lifestyle that brings life and growth as a disciple of Jesus in a way that we read about in the Gospels.
Pioneering is risky and seen by some as radical, but it is about being sent, being with people on the fringes in our community, sharing God’s love in new and creative ways that look completely different to traditional church. We meet and eat together as a small missional community, sharing stories from the gospels exploring together what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. For us as a family it is about living on the Wood, being incarnational, intentionally building relationships, sowing seeds and telling the Jesus story in a way that connects and engages people where they are, rather than expecting them to turn up on a Sunday morning.
We love this community and would love to connect with you, if you want to get involved in any aspect of pioneering on the Wood. Then drop Andi an email, there are plenty of missional opportunities and a great team developing to be part of.