Churches

Diocese of Lichfield

One of our two main partners is the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield. They second a number of staff members to TCT - including our full-time Chief Officer, as well as providing Finance, HR, IT and Comms support to TCT.

This allows TCT to provide help and support for any church in the Diocese to enable them to reach out to their communities.

It also enables us to work with churches of other denominations, as well as other faiths, charities and local authorities / NHS.

TCT is delighted to be working with the Diocese of Worcester to support churches in the Greater Dudley Deanery. Our role here is to:

* Provide advice and support

* Acting as a ‘critical friend’

* Helping with fundraising support and information

The Five Marks of Mission

The Five Marks of Mission have been developed by the Anglican Consultative Council since 1984. Since then, they have been widely adopted as an understanding of what contemporary mission is about. The marks were adopted by the General Synod of the Church of England in 1996 and many dioceses and other denominations used them as the basis of action plans and creative mission ideas.

Some churches abbreviate the five marks to five words: TELL – TEACH – TEND – TRANSFORM – TREASURE.”

The Five Marks in full are:

1) To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom

2) To teach, baptise and nurture new believers

3) To respond to human need by loving service

4) To seek to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and to pursue peace and reconciliation

5) To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth

Read more at www.anglicancommunion.org/mission/marks-of-mission.aspx

TCT can help churches with a number of the marks, especially 3 and 4.

Our online events and trainings help with the teaching aspects of mark 2.

Churches in other denominations

TCT has been blessed working with a number of different types of churches, including:

• Methodists
• Baptists
• URC
• Roman Catholic
• Free Churches
• Pentecostal Churches
• Wesleyan Holiness Church.

Our Vision

TCT’s vision is to support people and communities to thrive and flourish.

This is rooted in John 10:10b:

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.“ (NRSV)

We are all too aware that many in our communities do not experience this abundant life, due to the Web of Poverty that they can so easily become trapped in.

Poverty of resources – when there aren't sufficient resources, such as income, skills, qualifications or health to achieve a good standard of living. Where resources are limited, so are people’s individual's choices and opportunities.

Poverty of relationships – when there aren't the strong and supportive relationships on which individual, family and community life are built, loneliness and isolation can all to easily result.

Existing relationships can come under intense pressure and can fragment and become hostile, making human thriving very difficult.

Poverty of identity – often people can have feelings of low self-worth and a negative belief in their own ability to respond to challenges. Where these occur, it can lead to low self-esteem, a lack of resilience and aspiration, poor mental health and even drug and alcohol misuse.

These issues are complex and closely interlinked, easily trapping individuals and whole communities.

Church Social Action

There are around 2,000 verses on poverty and justice in the Bible! Almost every page of the Bible speaks of:

• God's heart for the poor.

• His concern for the marginalised.

• His compassion for the oppressed.

• His call for justice.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free"

Luke 4:18New Revised Standard Version

We believe that it's important to approach social action with four values:

1) Listening: This is the most import place to start. Enabling people to be heard is at the heart of our work. We believe that residents have to best ideas in knowledge to enable their communities to flourish.

2) Partnership: This is key to everyone thriving and flourishing, as no one person or organisation has all the answers and resources.

3) Celebrating: Excellent things are happening in communities and we can be a voice to magnify this!

4) Empowering: People want to be part of making the change happen, so we can provide training and encouragement, advice and support to encourage this to happen!

We find this wisdom from St David to be really helpful:

'Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things’

Recent reports have demonstrated the impact of church social action and how it grows churches:

Living Theology Forum

Our other main partners - CUF (Church Urban Fund) have created the Living Theology Forum, which is meeting place for the mutual exchange of shared theological ideas about Christian social action. TCT staff have been delighted to contribute to this.

Got and idea? Want to make a difference in your community?

Why not contact us to chat it through?

info@tctogether.org.uk

07946 771 495

Created: 20th October 2021