Wednesday 22 December 2010

Putting the Community into Church-Community-Building

Hello,
I thought a word or two of explanation regarding the name of the Blog might be in order. I decided that the most important word for the blog beside Church Buildings was Community. To be sustainable in the long term churches need to be relevant to the wider community around them, not just those within the Christian Community. The parish church is more often than not the oldest community building in any place and of importance in helping people understand their heritage and identity and the story of the place they live in.

Many current funders require projects to address community needs in order to improve peoples lives. Churches are very well placed to help the poor and needy in every community and therefore engaging with the community can help the church keep their roof on as well as achieving their mission as a Christian congregation.

Within this blog I shall try to help you to engage with the wider community from conducting community audits to using social media to reach out to the widest possible audience.

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and I shall be back in the New Year.

Wednesday 15 December 2010

Welcome to my Blog

Hello and Welcome to my Blog.
The blog has been created to help update you about issues and opportunities for churches in the Ripon and Leeds Diocese. My role as Church Building Support Officer is to support congregations to understand the cost of keeping their churches in good order and helping them find a way to make their churches viable.

On this blog I will post funding updates, links to exemplary schemes elsewhere, ideas for better community engagement and events across the diocese. Initially I'm supporting 8 churches but I'm more than happy to deal with enquiries and requests. So feel free to comment on the things you like and don't like about the site and the things you'd like to find more about.