Within the District we recognise the positive impact Jesus can have on an individual, family and community. We also recognise that many people have no idea what our faith is about or what goes on in our churches. We here in Liverpool have a passion to do something about this. As we have spent time listening to churches and people around the District we feel there is a sense that now is the time to explore doing something new in order to share Jesus wider than our walls. We have also recognised that in general churches are not equipping Christians for mission outside of the building or within their own contexts. Currently churches focus on what happens when people are gathered and less on what happens when they are scattered. We believe that if we are to connect with people outside of our churches we need to equip our members to share Jesus in all parts of their lives and to grow new places where those interested in exploring faith can authentically do so. Building on work done by the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity that explores the potential we all have to share Jesus in our everyday lives, we felt it was the right time to explore this idea within the Liverpool District, and so The Neighbourhood Project was born.
In concise terms The Neighbourhood Project is intended to:
1) Explore a new missional approach to being the church, outside of the church walls
2) Enable members to be missional in all aspects of their daily lives, with the people they spend the majority of their time
3) Develop new forms of ecclesial communities, rooted in the missional work of the project
The core of the project will be missional communities. A gathering of people with a heart for everyday mission and whole life discipleship. This will be a place where fellowship, worship, prayer, and equipping take place. Enabling Christians to be supported, encouraged and upheld as they live out this missional lifestyle, as well as being a place of accountability and challenge. Here conversation, prayer and listening to God are vital.
As we listen to God and our contexts together, we will help each member identify their own neighbourhood’s and where God might be asking them to join in. These will become the mission focus of the project. The practical ‘work’ of the project therefore will be relational, focused on connecting with individuals and groups. It will be carried out in homes, workplaces and community settings, by the members of the missional community. Taking the church outside the walls of the building and into the ‘neighbourhood’. It will also be shaped by the individual members of the missional community, their lives, giftings, skills, passions and contexts. In a missional sense, the project is going to look like a lot of different things. Each being led by a member of the missional community… creative spaces, giving plants to students, making bread, open houses, prayer spaces in workplaces, being interruptible, growing community, street chaplaincy, women’s groups, well-being support for co-workers, running. With the intention to love others, grow community and seek ways to enable people to encounter God and to form new Christian communities.
All of this is underpinned by our 4 values, that shape everything we do and seek to be.
Imaginative Practice - This involves using our imaginations to dream and explore what could be possible, without limitations of what is. We are committed to experimentation and play. To thinking creatively and exploring new ideas. Curiosity and consideration will underpin our thinking and doing. Asking the good questions of ‘why’ and ‘what if’ will allow us to see beyond where we are and to move into what could be. There will be a ‘dreaming’ quality to our gathered missional community in which we can discern the way forward, shaped by hope and possibility.
Prayerful Discernment - Prayer will underpin the whole of this project and engaging with this work will include a commitment to praying with and for each other, and the missional opportunities of the project; listening to God and discerning what is being said. Part of this process will be looking for where God is already moving and at work in our ‘neighbourhoods’ as well as identifying the ‘good’ within our contexts.
Intentional Community - Fellowship, relationship and hospitality are foundational to the missional community and also to the future worshipping community. We will commit to one another through regular gatherings, a focus on fellowship with each other – sharing life, praying together, studying scriptures, learning together and a community way of life. By encouraging honesty, integrity, vulnerability and trust we will be able to create an intentional community that supports each of us to be missional in our everyday contexts. Community is not limited to those inside the group, our missional focus will be to build relationships with those in our neighbourhoods and offer them community and hospitality. Eventually it will also involve working together to explore what an intentional worshipping community may look like in each context going forward.
Lifelong Learning - As a missional community and as a new expression of church we are committed to continue to learn and grow throughout our lives. Learning about ourselves, our communities, each other and mission. Exploring new approaches to church, worship and mission. This will be intensive at the start of the project but will also need to continue through the faith community’s lifetime. We are not inventing a new model for church for all time, we are seeking to develop a faithful relevant approach to mission and a worshipping community that will continue to grow, develop, multiply and reproduce new missional communities into the future. A commitment to learning and change as individuals and a collective will underpin all that we do together.
Watch a video about The Neighbourhood Project here.