Equipping Lay Ministry
Equipping Lay Ministry
The Mission and Ministry Team has been helping God’s people to grow in their capacity to live the Kingdom message and to share the good news of Jesus in all of life by serving the world and the church.
Post Covid and in an era of economic and international difficulty and uncertainty more and more people need to find purpose, meaning and hope in their lives by encountering the love of God. People in spiritual need are very likely to find faith through contact with Christians who are family members or friends or colleagues in everyday life.
To bring life in all its fullness to as many spiritually hungry people as possible there needs to an upwelling at church grass roots level of confident and skilled disciples and lay leaders reaching out to meet the needs of the spiritually hungry.
We aim to support God’s people to grow and develop their individual ministries in their local context through an ongoing programme of training events.
In addition to our two commissioned programmes Bishop’s Commission for Mission (BCM) and Bishop’s Permission to Preach (BPP) there are many other opportunities to receive equipping and encouragement over the course of each year.
We offer days for children, family and youth workers, workshops to develop preaching skills, workshops on topics such as discipleship, workplace ministry, and our lunch & learn series which focus on exploring and building leadership skills.
All our events can be found here https://winchester.anglican.org/courses-and-events/ and this page is regularly updated as we open for bookings.
If you have any suggestions for training, have any questions about any of our training events or wish to book a place on any of our events, please contact our Team Administrator Wendy Atkinson: Wendy.atkinson@winchester.anglican.org.
Training Programmes
Bishop’s Commission for Mission (BCM)
This programme has been developed to support the work of parishes and deaneries by equipping lay people for service. We aim to do this by giving participants the skills and knowledge they need to pursue their vocation more effectively, whilst at the same time giving them a bigger vision for how God might use them to bring in his kingdom.
BCM is not an academic training course but a programme of formation. It is strongly relational based. We believe everyone who attends will already have some wisdom and experience to share which the training will draw out and enhance.
Find out more about Bishop’s Commission for Mission here.
Bishop’s Permission to Preach (BPP)
As a diocese we want to equip members of our church communities to live the mission of Jesus and to take the opportunity to share the love of Christ through the ministry of preaching. The BPP programme is a way of recognising and affirming the preaching gifts of lay church members.
The year-long programme provides the opportunity for training in biblical studies from tutors on the Winchester Licensed Ministry Training team as well as through participation in supervised regional preaching teams. It seeks to equip laity so that they “with care and sincerity can minister the word of truth for the glory of God and to the edification of the people” Canon B18.3.