Though Open the Book is designed as a stand-alone programme for work in school assemblies, one Anglican multi-parish benefice in the rural West Midlands is using it as a springboard for further work with school children and their families: We have kept contact with the children and their parents ... starting up a ‘Messy Church’ in the school as a follow-up to Open the Book. Not in any way rural-specific, Open the Book still provides an excellent example of how small rural churches and lay people can be enabled to engage in mission by use of appropriate, simple material.
d. The New Testament for Everyone
Tom Wright’s New Testament for Everyone series is rated very highly by members of all but one of the lay focus groups, with the response widespread among most of the participants. One individual sums up the general feeling: Most of his [more popular] books are very clear and challenging, and the New Testament ones are especially good. They have helped me understand passages for the first time, and see how some things can actually be put into practice. That doesn’t happen very often! Clearly there is nothing about this resource that ties it to rural, but it illustrates two things: (a) the sorts of resources that articulate lay people find helpful for their faith development in the rural context, and (b) the apparent surprise that there are resources that enable this to happen. Not a single minister or training provider has highlighted this resource.
e. Local Introductory Training Experience
The URC have a national 3-year Training for Learning and Service (TLS) programme. The Local Introductory Training Experience (TLS-LITE) version offers five local modules for ordinary church members, equipping them for greater local congregational involvement. Ministerial respondents feel this is well-received by the lay people and particularly relevant for small and rural congregations because of the local delivery, and limited focus and time-span of each module. One West Midlands training provider recognises it is not without problems: In some rural areas there is little take-up or promotion; and there can be very little monitoring of what is being done, by whom, for whom and how.
f. Integrated Training Course
Similarly the Congregational Federation has a national 3-4 year Integrated Training Course (ITC), the first year of which is offered as a Foundation Programme. Available for any congregation member, much is provided locally, delivered jointly by local and national facilitators and with an element of local contextualisation. One minister talks
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