Biblically rooted & enabling participation
Right Revd Lynne Cullens, Bishop of Barking and presenter of the Growing Good Toolkit films responds to the evaluation:
When I met with the CUF team in Stockport Town Centre to do some filming for a project called Growing Good back in 2021, I didn’t in any way realise the consequence of what we were doing. Nor that over the next few years I would introduce myself to certain people at events and they would respond ‘yes, I recognise you from Growing Good’.
In the creation of the Growing Good Toolkit, borne out of the findings of the 2020 GRA:CE report - three years of research exploring the relationship between social action, discipleship and growth - the Church Urban Fund planned a resource, but God has turned it into a phenomenon.
Those churches who have journeyed with Growing Good have seen a growth in their leadership capacity, in the confidence of their local mission and in the quality of their hospitality and relationships. They have been able to focus with greater understanding on the local, with the lens of gift and asset instead of deficit and lack; looking on their neighbourhoods and parishes as God looks on them, as rich and diverse communities filled with kingdom possibility.
And it has been accessed by over 1600 separate users and 36 dioceses, as well as by colleagues from across the spectrum of denominations, evidencing impact in many and varied contexts, from rural and coastal communities to inner urban and estate neighbourhoods.
And that spread of interest results from Growing Good being biblically rooted and enabling of the gifts and participation of all, as well as being supportive of churches’ vision to think longer-term, with a confidence that their trajectory is both practically informed and prayerfully discerned.
I welcome the encouragement of this evaluation to the wider Church to take up the Growing Good challenge; to be a Church which has looked inwards, in order to focus outwards; a Church with prayer at its heart; a Church which serves and cares, but also evangelises and challenges; a Church which is a voice for the oppressed and a light to the lost.
Will you join in this movement of kingdom growth? Will you join us in Growing Good?
