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Latest Update on LYCiG
At the Christ Church PCC meeting on Tuesday 28th January 2025, Rev. Catherine and Wendy shared the learning from the LYCiG session at Whalley Abbey, which they recently attended.
Just by way of context, members of Christ Church PCC were invited to participate in LYCiG and as such, some of us attended an enlightening three day course at the Christian Conference Centre in Swanwick in Derbyshire. This is all part of the Diocesan Renewal Programme led by Rev. Steve Haskett, who recently preached at Christ Church. I’m sure that you will have noticed the prayer postcards in church highlighting our “Growth Prayer”.
This particular session was entitled “Creating a Prayerful Culture of Growth”. We started by discussing the culture of our church. It was agreed that when our culture is empowered and guided by our prayers, then something positive begins to happen. We decided that we have a warm and welcoming culture and that by concentrating more through prayer, we may grow numerically in the future. There was chat about church attendance numbers and how they may grow over the next few years.
The next part of the session focussed on the DNA of church growth. These are just the headlines:
- DESIRE : Churches only grow when the leaders and members have a desire to grow.
- PLAN : Rather than doing lots of disconnected activities there needs to be a clear plan in place.
- ACTION : Churches need to act in order to grow. For churches to grow, this DNA needs to run through all the clergy, the leaders, volunteers and all activities of the church.
Whilst at the Abbey, Bishop Joe described this section as working smarter not harder. He said that Jesus doesn’t want us to be fearful of this work, he will not push us from behind into something that we do not want to do. Rather Bishop Joe described it as Jesus inspiring and enthusing us to do the right thing and being drawn lovingly towards Him.
There was then further discussion about what we should be doing as individuals and what we should be doing as a church. Our next session of the programme concentrates on growth through the 4 P’s of Prayer, Presence, Proclamation and Persuasion. I look forward to updating everyone in the future.
Wendy Walker (CCC LYCiG representative)
Seven Steps

Culture of Growth
Bible quotation which illustrates the aspect we are concentrating on at the moment.
Matthew 12:31-32
Jesus told them another parable:
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in the field.
Though it is the smallest of all seeds,
yet when it grows,
it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree,
so that the birds come and perch in its branches.
Leading Your Church into Growth
“If you’re not leading your church into growth, where are you leading it?”
Rt Revd Philip North
This one of the quotations in the materials we were given as we embarked on a three day national residential course as Swanwick in Derbyshire, and what a few days we experienced! Along with around a hundred others, Ian, Jill, Wendy and I, along with Linda from St Mary’s had a world wind tour about what this means in practice.
Thank fully this isn’t undertaken all at once but over the course of a year. The seven steps that lead to growth begin with a prayerful culture and lead to developing a planned journey for growth, with much in between. We will be looking at each stage with our PCC’s and deciding what suits us best and what may be of most use to us as a growing congregation. There will be opportunity for everyone to be included and we hope you will join us on this journey beginning in prayer that our churches may grow in the love of Christ.
Reverand Catherine Hale-Heighway
Mission Prayer
God of Mission who alone brings growth to your Church,
send your Holy Spirit to give Vision to our planning,
Wisdom to our actions, and power to our witness.
Help our church to grow in numbers,
in spiritual commitment to you,
and in service to our local community,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Our Mission
'Leading your Church into Growth' is the new Church of England's initiative.
We’ve spent much of the last six years taking forward the Diocesan Vision – Healthy Churches Transforming Communities and I don’t think we should underestimate the work that has been undertaken by so many members of our PCC and congregation at Christ Church over this time.
We have now, as a benefice, been invited to be part of the Parish Renewal Programme, ‘Leading your Church into Growth’ which will be our focus for the coming year and beyond.
David Ascroft and I attended the first induction session at Whalley Abbey along with Revd Judith, and a representative from each of the other three churches in our Benefice.
As with all good things in our church life, the key focus is prayer and how we can create an intentionally prayerful culture of growth. We learnt of the successes of other Parishes in developing this initiative in their churches and was given a brief overview of the programme for the year.
I am truly excited by what we heard and hope this will lead to more growth in all its aspects.
There will be an induction session for our wardens, treasurer, secretary and Vision Champion at the end of September 2024 when we will learn more. But in the meantime I ask that you pray intentionally for our church here at Christ Church and the other churches in our Benefice as we find new ways and develop those of our own, to lead our precious church into growth for both now and future generations to come. Jesus told us where one or two are gathered in my name, I am there among you.
God Bless,
Revd. Catherine Hale-Heighway.