Lay Ministers from across the diocese gathered at St Paul’s in Bursledon for a celebration day, focused on encouragement, ministry and sharing faith in everyday life.
The event brought together Licensed Lay Ministers, Licensed Lay Workers and those training for Bishop’s Permission to Preach, offering a chance to reflect, pray and learn from one another.
Revd Dr Hannah Steele from St Mellitus College was the guest speaker and encourage those attending to recognise that anyone can share the good news, working in partnership with God.
She said, “I want people to take away the idea that we don’t have to be spectacular, we don’t have to be a certain personality type or have a certain set of gifts and skills, that God can use us all in our ordinariness and in our day-to-day life to be a witness to Him.”
Throughout the morning, she encouraged the group to think about how they could witness for God and share the message of hope and love within their communities. In small groups, they studied passages from the bible, exploring how Jesus engaged with people from all walks of life, how he communicated with them and what they could learn from his example in their own conversations and relationships.
Hannah highlighted several themes from Jesus’ ministry:
- Jesus related to many kinds of people, creating time to build connections in the community
- He treated people individually and varied His message and actions to take into account the different people He met.
- Jesus started from a place of love and was prepared to be vulnerable.
- Jesus listened and asked questions. Listening enables us to discover the leaps people have to make towards faith.
- Jesus’ conversations were always full of grace and compassion.
She reminded the group that witnessing is not about having all the answers but about walking alongside others in faith. She said, “God grows his kingdom by ordinary people telling ordinary people that God’s love is extra-ordinary.
“I think the encouragement is that God is already at work. We talked about this idea that God is the great evangelist, that God is issuing his invitation to people to follow Jesus, and we need to become better at discerning the voice of the Spirit and noticing where He’s working and join in partnership with Him. We’re not on our own.”
She added, “Sometimes we think we have to get people the whole of the way in every conversation, but sometimes it’s helping people take one little step along the road.”
The day also gave lay ministers the opportunity to share their own stories of calling and ministry.
Ellie John, 23, from Sway, is training to become an LLW. She feels called to support children and young people in schools: “I had a calling from God to go and work with children and young people in a secondary school context, linking churches to local schools and vice versa, and trying to make God as accessible as possible to young people.
“If you would have told teenage me that I’d work in the church, I would never have believed it, but God has His ways. I’d like to encourage young people to seek God and to seek a church community. There are so many ways to worship God and to meet with God. There’s a whole wide community, and it’s really important.”
Carol Kidd was licensed as an LLM in 2016 and serves as co-ordinator of the pastoral team at St James West End and as an Anna Chaplain. She said, “With five care homes in our parish, the focus of my ministry is with older people, mainly in care homes, leading worship, and being available for the staff and the residents.
“I had to walk the journey of dementia with my dad and so my call to Anna Chaplaincy became my focus, coming alongside those with dementia, their families, their carers. Small things mean a lot – being invited in to be part of people’s lives, often the end-of-life journey, or to lead a funeral. You become part of their life as they become part of yours. They share so many stories of their faith journeys, and it’s an amazing privilege.”
Ali Watts, training to be an LLM at St Paul’s, Throop, has been called to work in ministry to women. She said, “We have a little phrase which is, ‘walking our stories together’. That’s the heart behind the women’s ministry. It’s pulling us together as a community of women and saying you don’t have to walk this story on your own as there are so many women in the church who’ve walked that story before you. Whether it’s the loss of a child, whether it’s miscarriages, whether it’s a difficult marriage, whether it’s facing pressures of work, whether it’s menopause, there’s going to be a woman who’s probably walked that story. We’re going to walk as women who know the riches that we have in Christ.”
Simon Day, Lay Minister at St Paul’s Tadley shares faith in the workplace.
He said, “I work for a national accountancy firm and I’m part of our Christian Network there and through that, I support people in my team. Ultimately all work is for God, and I think sometimes people lack something they can turn to when they’re going through hard times at work. It’s allowing people to have a place where they can express their faith and be part of a community of others.”
Diocesan Head of Mission and Ministry Revd Dr Amy Roche hoped all those attending the celebration day would leave feeling encouraged in their ministries. She said, “I hope they’ll take away a massive encouragement, a massive affirmation of the way that the diocese and the bishops appreciate lay ministers and that they are the rock of our churches, and that encouragement that we are all witnesses to Jesus, that we’ve got a good story to tell.
“There are diverse ministries here and everybody’s focusing on something different, but essentially the message from today is that we are all able to share the good news and to shine that light for Jesus. “
