Mission and Ministry

• An innovative way to enable isolated rural churches to engage in mission and ministry without the local presence of an ordained person
• A resource for the largest groupings of churches, benefices or team ministries, with shared and over-stretched trained leadership
• Training programme and information to assist practitioners wishing to develop this model

Why LCM?

Spreading clergy more and more thinly across rural areas is not a sustainable strategy for ministry and mission in the countryside – especially if the clergy are still operating the model of one priest per parish, or one minister per church.

The LCM model lets go of this unsustainable approach and places the responsibility for the mission and ministry of the church on to the community of lay people gathered in any one place – the ministry of the baptized.

What is LCM?

A serious and thorough process of ‘calling’ is undertaken through which a local ministry team is assembled and in which individuals are called to specific roles and tasks, according to their gifts and skills. Ideally this will be an ecumenical team but this will be determined by what is possible in each local context.

Critical to the LCM model is the role of the ‘Enabler’. The Enabler may or may not be an ordained professional but their role is to act as consultant - supporting, resourcing, training and equipping the local ministry teams and forging links with the wider church. It is preferable for the Enabler not to engage directly in ministry or mission in the local community as this can perpetuate the dependency culture.

Developing LCM

The ARC convenes an ecumenical Steering Group promoting the LCM model across the rural church. The Group has written a theological paper on LCM and is running two training days early in 2012 for rural practitioners in Yorkshire and East Anglia. These will introduce a pack of LCM resources and inspire a network of significant activists about the radical approach to ministry and mission which LCM offers.