God for All Junction - resources for your journey
Welcome to the God for All Junction! We're so glad you're ready to go on a journey with God somewhere new.
Here are our suggested challenges for each of the 12 badges. Or you could set your own challenge - but please come back and tell us what you did! You can find ideas for each of the 12 practices at methodist.org.uk/mwol.
UPDATE 📣 Have you been sitting at home, watching #MethodistConf, taking part in #badgewatch and wondering if you can be part of the challenge? Now you can! Take a look at the stations of A Methodist Way of Life - 12 commitments we live out as disciples. Which one is your home station? The place where you spend the most time, feel the most comfortable, and connect most deeply with God? Explore the 12 commitments at methodist.org.uk/mwol then add a badge to your Twitter or Facebook profile pic by clicking the link for your home station from this thread on Twitter or our pinned post on Facebook. To collect more digital badges, simply undertake one of the challenges below, and then follow the instructions on Twitter here or Facebook here.
After you return home, we hope you will be energised to carry on your adventure with God somewhere new. Here are some resources to help you on the journey.
A Methodist Way of Life
Discipleship is a bit like a lifelong train journey around twelve stations - one for each of the twelve Methodist Way of Life actions. We've got to actually get on the train, and try to go to all twelve stations, reflecting on how God has been with us on the journey. As church leaders we need to be good travel buddies, and we need to make sure that all of the stations are open and ready for our people. There might need to be some construction work! And each station can be a way into discipleship for new people, so let's make it as easy as possible for them.
Find out more about A Methodist Way of Life
One of the stations is prayer. The God for All strategy notes: “prayer is about more than making requests to God: it is the source of our life in God… we commit to intentional, unceasing prayer, so that our commitments to evangelism, church growth, mission with those who are poor and those who are young, and pioneering and church planting will flow from a deep, contemplative orientation to God’s grace, movement, and will for us and the world”.These prayer cards have been developed to help people of all ages to pray creatively and in different ways.
Order a set of Intergenerational Prayer Cards
Evangelism
The 'share', 'tell' and 'live' stations are all about evangelism - but these may be stations you or your church avoid. Everyone an Evangelist is a course from the Methodist Church designed to help groups from local churches and circuits explore the ways you and your church community are called to share your faith and to grow in confidence as evangelists. The process will help demystify evangelism and build sustainable, intentional rhythms of both personal and shared evangelism.
Order the Everyone an Evangelist Leader's Pack
Transformational Leadership Learning Community (TLLC)
Sometimes you may get stuck on the journey, finding it difficult to make progress. Or perhaps you're moving along, but wish to increase your speed, or to travel to stations you haven't visited before. The TLLC is there to help. Bring a team of 4-7 people from your circuit, church or mission project to this reflective community of practitioners who are all committed to seeing positive transformation in their churches and communities. Click the button below for more information or to apply to join from January 2023.
Mission planning
In most churches, some stations will be more ‘developed’ than others. You might think of mission planning as creating a schedule of works: discerning which one or two stations you will develop over the next 12-18 months. As you consult your congregation/s and the wider community during your mission planning process, you will discern which one or maybe two stations need to be developed. A new, revised and expanded edition of Our Church’s Future Story takes established churches through the process of discerning, writing and putting into practice a really useful mission plan.
Starting a New Place for New People
Sometimes the best way for new people to get on the train is via a New Place for New People (NPNP). As part of equipping districts, circuits and local churches to begin NPNP projects (including Church at the Margins projects), we have written Starting new Christian communities: A practical guide. This guide contains a range of materials including a Methodist theological foundation of NPNPs and the core practices which we believe are crucial to developing an NPNP.
Download Starting new Christian communities: A practical guide
Church at the Margins
There is a special place in God's heart for economically marginalised people: they need ways in to the journey too. To complement the 'Starting new Christian communities' guide (above), you can download a leaflet giving the theological foundations and core values of Church at the Margins.
Download Church at the Margins leaflet
Young leaders, pioneers and evangelists
Young people are invited on this journey too, visiting the stations and maybe doing some construction work themselves. Explore Evangelism is a resource that we would love for youth and/or children’s workers to trial with their groups and provide feedback as to how useful they found it. Please contact Richard Oppong-Boateng to request this resource.
Request Explore Evangelism by email