You might remember earlier in the year we told you about a new NECN resource that was in the pipeline – Living in Estate Ministry: Your Questions Explored. Researcher Martyn Casserly has been hearing the stories of estates practitioners around the country to help others learn from what they have to say, to try and answer questions or concerns that people might have when thinking about estate ministry and perhaps even encourage those of you who have many years of experience.

We are really excited to be getting the book ready to print, it will be a fantastic resource, it’s a 60 page book full of grassroots wisdom and you’ll be able to get your hands on a free copy at our conferences in the autumn so make sure you have booked your ticket!

Read on for the introduction and the list of questions to get a taste of what is covered in the book.

We would like to thank Hayley Humphreys, Dan Holland, John Wheatley and Revds Jonathan Macy, Sarah Northall, Kat Gregory-Witham and Lis Goddard for sharing their stories with us as well as Martyn for bringing everything together and we pray that this research will be a blessing and inspiration to you.

Living in Estate Ministry: Your Questions Explored

Introduction:

Setting up or working with an estate church can be an incredibly rewarding experience. It can also be demanding and challenging at the same time, so it’s a good idea to know what you’re getting yourself into. Most people have plenty of questions and apprehensions when approaching the idea of an estate church, so we thought it would be a good idea to address these and enable you take make a more informed decision about whether this is the route you’re being called to.

Now, it should be noted that there is no ‘how-to’ guide when it comes to estate churches, as they vary so much. Instead, we canvassed a wide selection of experienced people across our network to see what the most common questions or worries they had before starting out on this adventure. We then used these questions to interview a cross-section of those working on estates around the country to hear their answers and benefit from their wisdom.

If you feel God is calling you to estate-based ministry, here’s what you might find is waiting ahead.

Here’s the questions we’ll cover:

1. How do you know this is what God is calling you to?
2. Will my family be safe?
3. How do we bridge the gap between cultures?
4. How do we develop local leaders?
5. How do we survive financially?
6. What does success look like?
7. How can you protect yourself emotionally and spiritually?
8. What’s the best thing about working on an estate church?
9. What’s the worst thing about working on an estate church?
10. What do you wish you knew before starting out?

Martyn Casserly

The research will also be up on our website in the autumn so keep an eye out and we’ll let you know when it becomes available.