R2 Listening to the Local Church

Welcome to the R2 Listening to the Local Church Weekend web page. This page is designed to provide useful resources relating to topics covered in R2 with WEMTC. If you have found useful resources or have questions you would like ask, please do contribute.These weekends are linked to the Home Church Reflection module

What is this Weekend all about?

The first weekend particularly explores why we need to listen to the local church and how we might do that.

Click here for:

• Full module description for R2
• Sample R2 Programme
• Residential Timetable for dates of the weekend
• Booklists for the weekend
• Handouts for the weekend

Books

• Bowden A Ministry in the Countryside London, Mowbray 1994
• Chauvet, L-M. Symbol and Sacrament Liturgical Press, 1995
• Davie, G. Religion in Britain since 1945 Oxford, Blackwell, 1996
• Dulles, A. Models of the Church 2nd edition Doubleday 1988
• Greenwood, R. Practising Community: the Task of the Local Church London, SPCK 1996
• Macquarrie, J. A Guide to the Sacraments London, SCM, 1997
• Warren, R. Building Missionary Congregations CHP 1995
• Williams, R. Lost Icons: Reflections on Cultural Bereavement Edinburgh, T & T Clark, 2000

R2 Listening to the Local Church Web Resources

The Internet is not 100% reliable and documents move, disappear and change their names. If you find a link does not work, try again in an hour, a day, or a week. But do feel free to email us to report a link doesn't work. Don't forget to tell us the name of the link!

Resources Generally
Most resources are American but the following site has innformation that proves fairly transferable to the British scene:

Hartford Institute for Religion Reasearch

Part of Hartford Seminary in the UK it includes research into mega churches, church growth, women and religion, congregational research etc.

Why not tell us of some sites you have found useful? If the webmaster agrees we'll list them here.

Go ahead - be the first to submit something

A sample R2 Weekend Programme

Preparation

Programme

Saturday
8:00        Worship
8:30        Breakfast
9:15        Session 2 How to Listen to the Local Church
10:45      Coffee Break
11:15      Session 3 Models of the Church
1:00        Lunch
2:00        Free
4:15        Session 4 Listening to your Church
6:00        Worship
6:30        Dinner
7:30        Session 5 Theological Reflection

Sunday
8:30        Breakfast
9:15        Session 6 - The Sacraments in Worship
10:30      WEMTC Forum
11:00        Coffee
11:30        Worship
1:00        Lunch

Preparatory Assignment

ASSIGNMENT 1 LISTENING TO THE CHURCH

A Journey of Discovery

Imagine that you have just moved into your area and you are hoping to find a local church where you can find a spiritual and worshipping home.
Find time to go to your home church as that 'stranger' imagining that you have never seen it before. From the moment you approach it (in the road outside) begin to note its characteristics.
Continue the tour by going to the porch or entrance and then inside. Make a note of everything you see from noticeboards to altars/communion table.

• What do the things you see tell you about the kind of activities that go on inside this building.
• What do your observations tell you about the core beliefs of the people who come to this building?
• What kind of people come here, with what kind of interests?
• Does the layout of the building emphasise some activities over others?
• What sort of conclusions do you draw from, for example, the seating arrangements or the presence of banners (or their absence) etc?

Keep a written log of what you notice and conclude.
At this stage you are compiling information and impressions of what you see which may include church information leaflets or photographs). At the next weekend residential in October you will be expected to share this material with others in small group, when we will begin the process of extended reflection.
It is difficult to be precise about how large this piece of work will look, especially if it includes photographs and leaflets, but you might expect to write about 1000 words.

Resources Addition Form

Contribution to this Page

Code and title

Tutor

Brief description

Level and Credits

Status

Type

Prerequisites

Restrictions

Content summary

• Sharing experiences of the local church in a number of different contexts, such as liturgy, local community, pastoral care, ministerial practice.
• Exploration of models of the Church in relation to the local church
• Developing tools for collecting and understanding church data
• Use of the Pastoral Cycle
• Biblical models and stories of Church and their relationship to the local church
• Reflection on liturgy and the local church
• The Church's role in the community with reference to the local church
• Reflections on the Church and pastoral care in relation to the local church
• An exploration of Missiological themes in relation to the local church
• Worship and Sacraments including: Worship on the Course; Learning from Tradition; Worship and the Senses; Recent experiments in liturgy

Learning outcomes

a) Knowledge and Understanding

• Be familiar with some of the significant theological models for the Church
• Have an understanding of different worship traditions and ways of being the Church within an ecumenical perspective
• Understand a variety of traditions and perspectives on the relationship between Church and Community
• Have considered a number of models of pastoral care as exemplified in the communities represented by the group
• Deepened their understanding of the nature of worship Have considered different understandings of the role and nature of the sacraments

b) Skills

• Have gained skills in working and theologically reflecting with a small group.
• Have gained a respect for the strengths of traditions other than their own
• Demonstrate an understanding of the pastoral cycle
• Be able to theologically describe and reflect on their home church
• Be able to connect scriptural insights to their home church context
• Be able to apply theological insights in practical situations
• Be equipped to organise and lead worship within WEMTC and have developed the confidence to explore worship within the home church

Teaching and learning

Assessment

Indicative resources

• Bowden A Ministry in the Countryside London, Mowbray 1994
• Chauvet, L-M. Symbol and Sacrament Liturgical Press, 1995
• Davie, G. Religion in Britain since 1945 Oxford, Blackwell, 1996
• Dulles, A. Models of the Church 2nd edition Doubleday 1988
• Greenwood, R. Practising Community: the Task of the Local Church London, SPCK 1996
• Macquarrie, J. A Guide to the Sacraments London, SCM, 1997
• Warren, R. Building Missionary Congregations CHP 1995
• Williams, R. Lost Icons: Reflections on Cultural Bereavement Edinburgh, T & T Clark, 2000