Grants

If you are looking to start a new worshipping community or mission-focused congregation we may be able to help you with a one-off grant or a grant offered over three years. There are two kinds of grants available depending on if your gathering will meet on a weekly or monthly basis.

For the development of new new worshipping community or congregations meeting monthly, we can give grants of up to £1,500 spread over three years:

Year One: up to £750
Year Two: up to £500
Year Three: up to £250

For the development of new new worshipping community or congregations meeting weekly, we have grants of up to £5,000 spread over three years:

Year One: up to £2,750
Year Two: up to £1,500
Year Three: up to £750

Our hope is that a number of groups who begin meeting on a monthly basis will, in time, grow to meet weekly in which case we are happy to review funding as things progress.

If you are interested in applying for a grant please read the guidelines and complete and return an RNP Grant Application Form.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL GRANTS ARE AWARDED ON THE CONDITION THAT THE NEW COMMUNITIES AND LEADERS INVOLVED COMMIT TO:

1) Pray:

Pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to lead and inspire us to reach out to new people and enable them to grow in faith in Christ as part of God’s church. We have an RNP prayer that the team prays at 9 a.m. every Monday morning. We would be delighted if you joined us wherever you are to pray with us at that time – it takes less than 1 minute! If you would like prayer cards then please do get in touch with Linda Watson the RNP Administrator to request them lwatson@stalbans.anglican.org. We will also be holding termly prayer events so please watch out for further details of these.

2) Accompany a team of core leaders from your new community/parish/benefice to a Vision Day:

These events are very much the entry point of the RNP project to enable you and other leaders from your church to explore how your new worshipping community might develop in your context to make disciples of Christ. You can book and find further details here

3) Adopt the RNP Indicator Pack – This is to monitor progress of your new new worshipping community

When we piloted this earlier in the year leaders found that this was hugely encouraging, as it helped new worshipping communities know what they are working towards and to track growth and engagement – it really was good news for them. It also helps highlight areas for development. Tricia Humber the RNP Monitoring Coordinator will be in touch to enable you to get started with this within the next three weeks. fxprojects@stalbans.anglican.org

4) Join a learning community:

This will be alongside other leaders of new communities. These are based on a coaching model to enable you to assess where you are in the development of your new worshipping communities and to identify next steps to develop the new worshipping communities’ to maturity within a supportive and inspiring environment. Your Development Officer will be in touch very soon with a Doodle Poll link to arrange for the Learning Communities to meet.

5) Ensure that key leaders or teams from your church/parish/benefice/new worshipping community attend the excellent RNP Training:

Our training consists of three modules on three days, spread over three months:

Explore training covers the first two steps on the RNP development cycle: ‘at the beginning’ and ‘learning to listen’.

Integrate training covers the next two steps on the cycle: ‘loving and serving’ and ‘building community’.

Engage covers the final three steps on the RNP cycle: ‘evangelism and discipleship’, ‘church taking shape’ and ‘doing it again’.

6) Attend the Transforming Conversations entry level coaching course:

This is to equip you further as a leader of leaders in your local context and to equip you to facilitate learning communities of  leaders within the RNP project where possible. This is heavily subsidised through the project and is a fantastic training opportunity not to be missed. To book your place on the next course please do get in touch with Sue Hughes the RNP Training Coordinator ASAP: shughes@stalbans.anglican.org

7) Make good use of the expert and informed consultancy

Available from the Development Officer in your archdeaconry. This is to enable you to identify where you are in the development of your new worshipping community, next steps and to discuss progress. Your Development Officer will be in touch this term to discuss this further.

• Mark Dunwoody (Beds) – mdunwoody@stalbans.anglican.org
• Alison Jackson (Herts) – ajackson@stalbans.anglican.org
• For those in the St Albans archdeaconry, please contact Helen Neville who will direct you to an officer – hneville@stalbans.anglican.org

You may well have engaged or be engaging in some of the above already which is wonderful but I would be very grateful if you could look into engaging with all these modes of supportive work as they have been designed to enable you to develop your new worshipping community and leaders to reach new people and to make new disciples of Christ. So that you are aware, the RNP Governance Group has paused the grant-making process so that a review of existing grants and new applications can take place. We will be in touch soon with further information regarding this. Thank you so much for all the commitment and hard work you are putting into the new worshipping communities in your local community. Please do get in touch if you have any queries. We look forward to working and learning with you further over the coming months. Whilst these are significant commitments we feel sure that they will be a tremendous encouragement and help to you as you look to grow disciples.