Welcome to Church

I would like to take the opportunity of exploring the thinking behind the Welcome to Church course.

After coming up to 38 years in ordained ministry, I am delighted to see that there is now a clear consensus within the Church that we need to move from maintenance to mission. The idea that we do things because we have always done them this way is exactly the attitude that has brought us to the situation in which the Church finds itself. We have to do things differently if we are to move beyond just staying alive, to the abundant life which is ours in Christ.

"I came," says Jesus, "that you might have life and have it more abundantly."

The first Welcome to Church course will begin in February 2026 at St Michael's and St Teilo's, Pontarddulais, and St David's, Penllergaer. Read the full story.

Every Christian, and every congregation, needs to work out what our response is to the Great Commission from Jesus: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

One of the big challenges in ministry areas is to work out how we respond to Jesus' challenge in mixed teams which, in keeping with the inclusivity which is one of the hallmarks of Anglicanism, include those of Catholic, Liberal and Evangelical views.

The Welcome to Church course will be four weeks long, and each session will last for just an hour. We won't cover everything in that time – the key objective is making contact with people who are willing to begin to explore.

Let me go through the sessions in turn:

First session – Any Questions?

We recently held a similar session with Bishop John in Pontarddulais Comprehensive School. It was a remarkably lively discussion that included both church members and representatives of the local community. The main rules were related to each other:

That this should be a safe space for discussion.

That we would take any question, as long as it was asked in a friendly spirit.

We had the opportunity of talking about some very serious issues, but there was a great deal of humour and laughter as well. Some years ago, I was chatting to two members of the local choir after a carol service. "Vicar, would you answer any questions which we had?" "Yes, of course I would."

I believe that at the heart of mission lies the establishment of good conversation, of genuine dialogue. If we as a Church are expecting people to listen to us, and to the wonderful Good News which has been entrusted to us, then we need to be prepared to listen just as hard. I believe that Christ has the answer to the world's need, but that answer needs to work within the world, not just within the church bubble.

One of the interesting things that happened in that original Any Questions was that we – all of us in the group that night – ended up sharing our stories, saying something of our own journey. If we want to share our faith stories with others, let's listen to their stories too.

Second session – thinking about prayer

As we engage in mission, we need constantly to be thinking about what the Church has that couldn't be got elsewhere, what is (in secular terms) our unique selling point. There are so many answers to that question, but it includes the whole tradition of Christian spirituality down the ages, both in its Protestant and Catholic forms, what Brother Laurence, a seventeenth-century Carmelite friar, described as 'the practice of the presence of God'.

There are more people who do pray than we often imagine. In 2022 a Savanta ComRes survey of 2,073 adults for the Church of England found that 48% said that they had ever prayed, while 25% had prayed within the previous month. If everyone who has ever prayed turned up to church, we'd be very busy indeed. But they don't, so this part of the course will explore why people find prayer difficult.

There is rich material within the tradition about how to deal with periods of aridity in prayer. We will be looking at the awfully painful questions which arise when people – often at the point of greatest need – pray and do not feel that their prayer has been answered. We will be thinking about how prayer includes, but is far more than, asking God for things; it is rather to do with who we are in God's presence.

I am very mindful of the acute pressures which people are under in the modern world: it is a busy world, which is both troubled and troubling. I'll be trying to show how, by revitalising our prayer life, we can find peace in our own souls, and be made ready to share that peace with others.

Third session – how do we get the best out of reading the Bible and out of shared worship?

I read the Bible because it is, to me, God's life-transforming Word. As the 39 Articles of Religion, one of the foundational documents of Anglicanism, says, the Bible contains all things necessary for salvation. But many people have picked up a Bible, read a passage, found it difficult to understand, and given up. The intention here will be to help people not give up on the Bible.

We'll explore the context, particularly of the New Testament documents, which so much bring them to life and show that they are about real people. We'll look at the different ways in which Christians down the centuries have interpreted the Bible. We'll realise that the Bible isn't just a book but a collection of books, that it is a library in which there is so much to discover.

I go to church not just because I am the Vicar, but because some of the most awe-inspiring moments of my life have taken place as I have either led or taken part in public worship. There's a well-known phrase, sometimes used to justify not going to church, that you are nearer to God in a garden than anywhere else on earth. For many people, their faith is taken to be an intensely private matter. Yet in shared public worship we realise that – in faith – we are not on our own. I've already talked about the practice of the presence of God. In worship we rejoice together in God's presence.

But we will also be keeping it practical. There will be a bit of advice about how to negotiate your way round worship if you've never been to church, or haven't been for a while. We will also be exploring the different styles of worship and, however different from each other they are, what they have in common: that longing for the awe-inspiring moment of God's presence with us.

Last session – how can I get involved if I want to?

The title for this session is very deliberate. I don't want anyone to think that just by turning up they are committing themselves to anything. The only commitment is to shared exploration, and if after four weeks someone decides that this isn't for them, that exploration has been valuable in itself. There are no strings attached.

Of course, we would love to welcome people into a connection with the local Christian community, and to a continuing journey with Jesus. There will be an opportunity to discuss how people can give of their time and talents to enrich the life of the local church. That help is much needed and will be much appreciated. But we are not sitting here thinking about what we can get out of people. The aim here is to share the Good News of Jesus.

If just one person has a life-changing experience as a result of attending this course, that will be quite wonderful. I know that the congregations of St Michael's and St Teilo's in Pontarddulais, and St David's, Penllergaer, are ready to extend a warm, inclusive, hospitable welcome. The message is: come on in, and make yourselves at home.

The course will run for four consecutive Tuesdays, beginning on Tuesday, 17 February.