Come to the Table

Devised by the Revd Paul Bradbury, our Pioneer Minister in Poole, ‘Table’ is designed specifically for New Missional Communities.

It is a bespoke training tool that uses conversation as a way to engage and teach.

As Paul explains, it was important to find something that would work in such unique settings:

“For some time I’ve been trying to find a way to pass on the principles of missional community to others. It seems to me that pioneer ministry needs a different approach to training than a course.

“It is so context-specific. You can’t train people in what they might do. Instead it is about handing on some principles about how to be, and then give people scope to apply those in their context.

“I was inspired, by a visit to the Christian design consultancy Matyroshka Haus, to develop the idea of a more conversational way of growing and developing missional community teams.

“So instead of training material being taught from the front by an ‘expert’, the material is presented on a conversation sheet.

“We’ve designed a series of 5 of these conversation sheets that takes a team through some key theology of mission and helps them to make some key decisions about vision, values and strategy.

“The idea is that the team meets for a meal and uses the sheets like a tablecloth. The material on the sheets create the content for a learning conversation as the team eats together."

And as Paul explained, while the Poole Missional Community is currently piloting this resource, it is hoped this can be used in lots of other places:

“We’re really excited that 14 teams from across the country are going to be trying it out, including 3 teams from the Diocese and another team from the Baptist church near Amesbury.

“We will be gathering the feedback from these teams and then revising the sheets with the aim of making them available to the wider church by the autumn."