Community Matters

Ideas for Action – Community Matters

Ideas to help Churches work with, through and for their local Communities

Boy with a litter picker

The church, at its best, is the local community meeting together to worship God, listening and exploring God’s word and responding by bringing to life the prayer ‘thy Kingdom come’. Churches have a long and honourable tradition of working for, with and in the local community.

Some of the work is motivated from the teaching and ministry of Jesus, including the call to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick and visit the imprisoned. Today this missionary role continues through national organisations and, most importantly, through the mission and ministry of local churches who seek to promote social inclusion and wellbeing in their local community.

It is not possible to prescribe a general solution for, or to legislate against, every local problem. Community matters are often most effectively dealt with from grassroots initiatives, where enthusiasm and zeal, commitment and collaboration, and local knowledge and understanding combine to make the biggest difference.

Accordingly, this Module doesn’t attempt to provide off-the-peg solutions. Instead, the main part of the Module consists of stories about local initiatives in different places. These are retold in the hope that they will inspire churches to seek out the problems and opportunities in their own communities and develop their own partnerships and initiatives in response. The stories also illustrate the mission opportunities of working on environmental issues with local authorities and other statutory and faith groups. In many instances the churches are able to share Christian values through their words and deeds and achieve recognition as a valued and vital part of the community.

Download the latest version: Community Matters

Note on using the Ideas for Action

Ideas for Action have been designed to fit into church life and support and enhance church mission. They were designed collaboratively with churches to provide a resource that is not a textbook, but a toolkit, to suit all the different varieties of church life represented in the Eco-Congregation programme.

All congregations using our Ideas for Action should first register, and registered churches can also order printed copies. Find out how to register, or contact us if you’d like to know more.

All our resources may be freely copied and distributed within your church, but please accredit Eco-Congregation.