13 participants from eight congregations met at Kingswood on Saturday 17th February, for a training day on Building Resilient Congregations. The main guest speaker was Mr Simon Bland, the General Assembly’s Ministry and Congregational Support Officer. He explained what resilience is – the ability to bounce back in adversity, and spoke about it in relation to both individuals and congregations.
He suggested that healthy congregations have three elements: a clear sense of purpose and mission; clear policies on acceptable behaviour; and knowing when to ask for help. He also spoke about constitutions and policies, and the implications of the new Data Protection Act, which the District is currently studying.
Rev Ant Howe, Kingswood’s minister, contributed an inspiring session on how to build good relationships with the wider community, and challenged those present to come up with a concrete plan of action for one way to reach out to their own communities.
All in all, it was a most interesting day.