HeartEdge

‘At the Heart – on the Edge’ is a day exploring mission by sharing ideas, uncovering solutions and finding support. Starting at 10.30am (coffee from 10am) on 8 February 2017 at St Stephen, Walbrook, London we’ll finish at 3.30pm. The conference will launch HeartEdge, a new network for churches growing practices and patterns of sustainable mission, initiated by St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Hosted by Revd Dr Sam Wells, our focus on 8 February is on:

• Congregation – approaches to liturgy, worship and day-to-day communal life
• Commerce – activities generating finance and developing social enterprise
• Charity – addressing social needs while retaining congregational participation
• Culture – art, music and ideas to re-imagine the Christian narrative for the present moment

Interested? Sign up for this launch event and attend what we plan to be an inspiring and practical first conference here >> https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/at-the-heart-on-the-edge-heartedge-conference-2017-tickets-29792821130.

On the high street or in the market place, churches these days make for unusual spaces. Often busy – from community projects and the arts, to hospitality and social enterprise – they frequently engage a wide mix of people including those more used to feeling marginalised and excluded. And if the church hasn't got there yet, it’s probably an aspiration the congregation are working towards.

We think this unusual blend of creative, commercial and community activity that works to include all kinds of people makes many churches essential places in a neighbourhood. It means being at the heart of a community while encountering God among those on the edge.

HeartEdge:

• A network of churches initiated by St Martin-in-the-Fields
• For those working at the heart of culture, community and commerce
• With those at the margins and on the edge
• Building association, learning, development and resource

HeartEdge supports churches in blending their mission around four key areas:

1. Congregation – Inclusive approaches to liturgy, worship and day-to-day communal life
2. Community – models of outreach serving local need and addressing social justice
3. Culture – art, music and ideas to re-imagine the Christian narrative for the present moment
4. Commerce – Commercial activities that generate finance, creatively extending and enhancing mission and ministry through social enterprise

HeartEdge supports its members in finding their stories, sharing resources and connecting effectively with others developing their church and community.

We create spaces where members give from their experience and take from others – an exchange that's often inspiring, always compelling, and mutually useful for all participants.

We want HeartEdge to be an essential resource and a valuable community, as you develop your church and neighbourhood.

When you join HeartEdge you and your church get:

1. Connections: Access to all kinds of useful contacts and connections to help your church develop cultural, commercial and community activity
2. Information: Grow your knowledge and insight to help you in your work via the lived experience of others
3. Visits: Opportunity to meet those most relevant to you in situ, gaining understanding of their work and experience, live
4. Mentors: Via phone calls & meetings, appropriate learning and support from others
5. Events: Programmed with bespoke content useful for your context
6. Publications: An emerging range of resources based on approaches to ministry used by HeartEdge members
7. Projects: Support and resources to begin specific social justice initiatives
8. Emails and Online: We’ll keep in touch with you via a monthly email with links to useful resources via our website

HeartEdge is fuelled by its members. Members are people and churches who are makers and takers – people and churches that both give to the network and take from it.

When you join HeartEdge you give us:

1. Information – about your story and journey as a church. This includes information about what is working well and what isn’t
2. Money – via payment of a membership fee. We want to resource HeartEdge and this needs paying for. We tell you how we spend the money elsewhere in this pack
3. Time – to meet other members and participate in a useful and resourcing network
4. Resource – We think you will have one or more of the following that we think will be useful to others members: ideas, stories, experience, approaches, knowledge, relationships, tactics, strategies and resources. By joining the network you agree, where possible, to share these with others

Generosity is central to HeartEdge – it helps the network to become a useful resource. Your generosity enables members to generate new stories across other communities.

HeartEdge was initiated by the congregation at St Martin-in-the-Fields and will be formally launched early in 2017, but we are seeking founder members now. Join HeartEdge now and you become part of the network as we start out, developing relationships and growing this new resource.

For more information and a membership pack contact Revd Jonathan Evens, Associate Vicar for Partnerships on 02077661127 or jonathan.evens@smitf.org.

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Great Sacred Music - A Hymn for St Cecilia.