Apparently it’s the 6th anniversary of Faithroots in this current iteration. I’d actually run a blog called Faithroots on wordpress about 5 or six years prior to that and indeed had experimented with a bogspot site back in the noughties. The reason behind the original site was that I wanted to start providing additional resources, primarily for our growing church family. I saw the value in the whole church family getting to grips with accessible theology and I also was aware that even if people came twice on a Sunday and then to a midweek life group that there was still much that we did not have space to cover. I started writing on what might best be referred to as “pastoral theology”, the application of systematic theology to everyday life. I also would comment from time to time on current affairs including controversies within the church and major events in the news (just as I do now).
However, what I realised was that our congregation wasn’t really accessing the blog, although a few did. I was getting plenty of visitors but they were looking in from around the world. Furthermore the stats suggested that they were more drawn to the hot potato topics than the theology and the Bible study. So in 2018, I stopped blogging and closed the site down.
It’s worth noting that something else had got my attention during that time. I was linked with a movement to see more churches planted in Birmingham and the wider West Midlands. However, at that time, much of the church planting focus was happening around the soutrh of the city in more middle class areas. I was concerned to see churches planted and revitalised into urban multi-cultural and working class contexts. We were beginning to see promising signs of what might be. We had multiplied congregations in our building and were open about the possibility of these becoming fully fledged churches in their own right which one did for a time. We were also being approached for help with revitalisation initiatives.
My observation was that the very people we envisaged leading such churches in the longer term were people who needed training but for all kinds of reasons would not be able to access it. So, I began to offer some of the Faithroots as an in house training option. I ran a weekly tutorial group for a couple of people and we had quarterly training sessions on a Saturday. I also hosted and mentored a learning community for Union School of Theology for a while. With other people, especially my friend Steve Kneale, I tried to encourage others including the traditional theological colleges to show an interest in developing accessible vocational training but no one really took the bait.
Fast forward now to 2020 and something called COVID-19 resulted in the country going into lockdown. In person contact wasn’t possible but lots of people who were clearly hungry for discipleship and teaching found themselves with time on their hands as they couldn’t go into work. Our church began providing online resources including Sunday services via Zoom and Facebook, 4 touch points for prayer and some teaching each day via a live stream and a weekly Faithroots Live lecture. I also thought that maybe it was worth giving the blog a go again as some people might find they had time to read.
So, Faithroots was relaunched first with the aim of making theological education and training accessible. Secondly, I realised that this might become a vehicle for the other cause on my heart, encouraging urban church planting.
I would love to hear from you if you’ve found Faithroots helpful with either or both of those things. I’d also love to hear from you if you would be interested in supporting the work or getting involved with urban church planting.
Faithroots 