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Thame or Wild?

Multiple congregations

Planting multiple congregations can be a very effective way for a church to see significant growth. Its strengths have shown to be the way it can bring back the lapsed, evoke a strong sense of mission and group spirit and the way it can allow for change while keeping the familiar. It is an almost impossible task for one service to attract different kinds of people so a multiple congregation approach asks the sharper and more honest question, who is attracted by what kind of service? 

Encounters on the Edge no.8 Thame or Wild? tells the story of St Mary's Thame, Oxfordshire. A middle class church in middle England, St Mary's have seen their membership treble in the space of 5 years through planting new congregations. Their approach has allowed for a diversity that draws and holds more people, created a greater mission resource to tackle further challenges and provided a framework in which more of the laity can exercise ministry. Through the quality of relationships nurtured across the united staff team, this story illustrates the unity across diversity that can be discovered and lived out to great effect and maturity in mission and ministry.