Join The Conversation

Refreshed perspectives from the global church to the UK

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Your church is powerful to bring change.

Restoration of relationships. Unlocked potential. Thriving communities.

Why?

When it is given a vision, mobilised and equipped, the church can bring deep, lasting and whole-life, whole-community transformation, empowering people to be released from both spiritual and material poverty.

What?

The Conversation provides a place for the UK church to learn from the global south; to be inspired and challenged into a refreshed way of thinking about the position and power of the church in the community.

Holy Communion at St Etheldredas, Hatfield | Image credit: Aaron Koch, Tearfund

‘The Conversations...are a mutual exchange of the worldwide church which spurs those who take part to consider how our churches can live out our calling to be places of worship that...transform the world around us.’

Bishop Michael of Hertford

We’ve seen time and time again how the church can be a catalyst to help individuals and communities have the mindsets, skills and motivation to lift themselves out of poverty.

Find out how The Conversation has brought the church closer to the community in Hertfordshire:

Could your church transform your community?

We believe that churches have the ability – and mandate – to bring solutions to the problems their own communities face, and we call this work Church and Community Transformation (CCT).

Tearfund partners with churches around the world to help them realise that they are part of God’s plan for hope – called to be salt and light in their communities.

Through the CCT work, local church leaders are trained and equipped to build good relationships between the church and the community; to empower people to realise their God-given potential; and to recognise the resources that are available to them locally which can provide solutions to the challenges they are facing. In this way, the church and community are empowered to work together to overcome poverty holistically and sustainably.

‘The engagement with the UK church is mutually rewarding. I’ve learnt so much from their context and realised that Tearfund’s global experience is encouraging UK churches to reimagine their relevance in transforming their own communities.’

Prince David, Tearfund Country Representative, India

Join The Conversation and share in the knowledge, growth and learning that has come out of communities being successfully transformed through local churches around the world.

FAQs

Your church network! Let us know you want to find out more here.

Your church network! Let us know you want to find out more here.
Tearfund works in over 50 countries and has over 50 years experience of working with local churches in some of the most challenging contexts on the planet. Throughout that time, we’ve seen that this CCT method really works – and what we’ve learnt is too good not to share with the UK church.

Tearfund works in over 50 countries and has over 50 years experience of working with local churches in some of the most challenging contexts on the planet. Throughout that time, we’ve seen that this CCT method really works – and what we’ve learnt is too good not to share with the UK church.
This is a collaborative process, led by you and the needs of your network, diocese, church or hub. We will meet to hear where you are in your mission to reach your community and look at scripture together, and our in-country staff will share some profound and transformational experiences of CCT work through churches and communities in the global south.

Then, through four or five 60 to 90 minute conversations, we will work together to start developing a local strategy for your context that is engaging, empowering and envisioning for you to use in your own community.

This is a collaborative process, led by you and the needs of your network, diocese, church or hub. We will meet to hear where you are in your mission to reach your community and look at scripture together, and our in-country staff will share some profound and transformational experiences of CCT work through churches and communities in the global south.

Then, through four or five 60 to 90 minute conversations, we will work together to start developing a local strategy for your context that is engaging, empowering and envisioning for you to use in your own community.
Yes! Here’s a real life example

Pastor John Sakala leads the Faith Tabernacle Believers Church in Mangena Village, Chipata District Zambia. He helped set up the church over ten years ago, starting with just eight members. As the membership grew, there wasn’t enough space inside, so they had to move the meeting outside. They chose a big tree in the village to meet under, but when it rained, not surprisingly, the congregation would scatter. Soon, the outdoor setting posed enough of a problem that people stopped attending. Pastor Sakala explains, ‘I almost gave up because it was difficult for me as a pastor. People advised me to leave the community and move somewhere else but I still felt the spirit of God telling me to hang on and wait upon God.’

Then, a friend invited Pastor Sakala to a CCT training organised by Tearfund. There, he started to read Bible studies on subjects like ‘Resource Mobilisation’, and started to realise that the church had the potential to solve their own challenges using the resources and skills they had around them. They could change their own future!

Pastor Sakala explains, ‘We organised men and women to start moulding bricks, and that is how the church building project commenced. It was a coordinated project, some fetched water while others dug the foundations and utilised their building skills. It was amazing because it was like a dream seeing a community coming together like this. We did not receive anything from anyone outside the community. The CCT process brought such a oneness among us.’

His church is now a shining light to the community. Membership suddenly grew from 28 members to 135 members – who are now involved in different activities in the local community such as local savings groups, setting up new businesses, delivering agricultural training and building new village toilets.

Pastor Sakala is now a Tearfund facilitator for this CCT process in his local area and he has led the process in seven churches and trained 21 church leaders.

Yes! Here’s a real life example

Pastor John Sakala leads the Faith Tabernacle Believers Church in Mangena Village, Chipata District Zambia. He helped set up the church over ten years ago, starting with just eight members. As the membership grew, there wasn’t enough space inside, so they had to move the meeting outside. They chose a big tree in the village to meet under, but when it rained, not surprisingly, the congregation would scatter. Soon, the outdoor setting posed enough of a problem that people stopped attending. Pastor Sakala explains, ‘I almost gave up because it was difficult for me as a pastor. People advised me to leave the community and move somewhere else but I still felt the spirit of God telling me to hang on and wait upon God.’

Then, a friend invited Pastor Sakala to a CCT training organised by Tearfund. There, he started to read Bible studies on subjects like ‘Resource Mobilisation’, and started to realise that the church had the potential to solve their own challenges using the resources and skills they had around them. They could change their own future!

Pastor Sakala explains, ‘We organised men and women to start moulding bricks, and that is how the church building project commenced. It was a coordinated project, some fetched water while others dug the foundations and utilised their building skills. It was amazing because it was like a dream seeing a community coming together like this. We did not receive anything from anyone outside the community. The CCT process brought such a oneness among us.’

His church is now a shining light to the community. Membership suddenly grew from 28 members to 135 members – who are now involved in different activities in the local community such as local savings groups, setting up new businesses, delivering agricultural training and building new village toilets.

Pastor Sakala is now a Tearfund facilitator for this CCT process in his local area and he has led the process in seven churches and trained 21 church leaders.

Perspectives on The Conversation

Three personal reflections on how The Conversation is bring change and challenge

If you are a church or church network leader, this is for you. Please fill in the short form to let us know we can get in touch – we’d love to tell you more about The Conversation.

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