Published on: 13/10/2026
Growing our parish churches was the subject of both the summer Diocesan Conference and last week’s Development Day. Both were led by the national LyCiG team which includes our very own Fr Grant, and Sarah Maughan and our very recent Harry Steele and Bishop Sophie. We want to enable churches to engage with growing their churches and so, if you are interested in that, read on…
LyCiG is a process used by many churches and dioceses to help churches think about how to grow. LyCiG comes in seven steps but its principles and practices can be used effectively outside the process as well. These seven steps are Understanding our context, Inviting people in, Implementing a rhythm of growth, developing Engaging worship, Witnessing to our community, Creating discipleship pathways and Planning a journey of growth.
To help you to focus on LyCiG, we are not going to be sending out the next round of Mission Action Planning booklets, due in 2027. LyCiG incorporates a degree of forward planning so you might want to maintain your current MAP cycle into LyCiG but with a light touch or switch over to the LyCiG model instead. The main thing is to keep engaging with planning ahead for mission 😊.
There are two main ways that the national LyCiG process can be accessed. The first is the national conference which runs twice a year and is residential. We have some funding to enable churches to take a team of four to a national conference and would encourage you to consider this. The second method of engaging is LyCiG local which is designed as a non-residential course to run over several weeks at the level of local church, Mission Area or Deanery.
If you would like to think about how to approach MAP / LyCiG planning, or would like to find out about funding for national conference or would like to explore hosting or taking part in LyCiG local, do email me john.marsh@sheffield.anglican.org.
This week’s Blog post was written by John Marsh, Mission Development Adviser