SOUL SURVIVOR, WATFORD, can be one among three “missional engines” driving the church-planting and revitalisation strand of a programme within the diocese of St Albans which has been awarded £2.3 million by the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board.
The bid for “Growing Younger and More Diverse”, shown to the diocesan synod in October, sets out plans to concentrate on three “young and diverse” towns in the subsequent three years: Watford, Luton, and Hatfield. Funding was looked for “missional leaders to plant churches and latest worshipping communities (NWCs) and drive missional step change and discipleship”. This would entail “constructing on the Soul Survivor Watford (SSW) model, to be accelerated under latest leadership”.
SSW is the biggest church within the diocese, reporting a worshipping community of 1700 — of whom 526 were under 18 — in 2024. The bid refers to “continued growth under latest leadership”. It has produced 16 ordinands previously ten years and established three plants (one among which closed) and three revitalisations, with three more plants or revitalisations planned for the subsequent three years. As a part of the bid, Christ Church, Watford, which is described as “previously a dying church” that has grown for the reason that appointment of an interim minister, is to be “revitalised” with the support of SSW.
In Hatfield, the plan focuses on St John’s, which was “revitalised” by Soul Survivor in 2015, and is described because the fastest-growing church within the diocese, having grown by 55 to 130, with the support of a £145,000 diocesan investment. The aim is for it to grow to 300 and plant two churches in the subsequent five years.
Under the plans, the biggest share of the funding was destined for Luton, one among the youngest towns within the country, with a big Muslim population, and areas of deprivation. A “locally led revitalisation” of St Mary’s is planned, including the redevelopment of the bottom and buildings and the appointment of a “missional leader” to assist to ascertain “latest intercultural worshipping communities”. There are also plans to ascertain an extraparochial young adult church within the town — expected to have a worshipping community of 350 by 2036 — along with a latest worshipping community at Linmere, where 7000 latest homes are planned.
It is now just over two years for the reason that National Safeguarding Team concluded that allegations concerning the founder and former senior pastor of Soul Survivor, Mike Pilavachi, were founded, concluding that he had exhibited “coercive and controlling behaviour” that led to inappropriate relationships, the physical wrestling of youths, and the massaging of young male interns. It is 16 months since Fiona Scolding KC published her review of the scandal, finding that Mr Pilavachi’s abuse of power was enabled by a “wholesale” failure of organisational culture at Soul Survivor (News, 4 October 2024).
Church growth — faster in Evangelical and Charismatic churches — got here with a risk, she warned. “The larger the numbers, the greater the facility and the greater need to envision oneself and reflect upon the opportunities to abuse power.” Among her recommendations was that the diocese “consider what lessons will be learnt about future church plants and expressions of latest varieties of congregation and ministry to avoid repetition of the identical mistakes”. Soul Survivor required a change of culture.
The director of mission and ministry within the diocese is Canon Tim Lomax, who was the Bishop’s Visitor to Soul Survivor. This week, a diocesan spokesman said that the Scolding review had “shaped our plans by embedding stronger governance and accountability into all mission initiatives”. A latest Bishop’s Mission Order for Soul Survivor, Watford, got here into effect in January 2025. Changes made in response to the review “be certain that future plants and BMOs operate inside clear diocesan structures and robust supervisory frameworks”.
The February papers for the General Synod include an update on implementation of the Scolding review, including a company apology sent to survivors and a revised Code of Practice for Mission Initiatives, designed for use pretty much as good practice by NWCs, besides having legal force for BMOs. “There are times when NWCs will be proof against being seen as a part of the broader Church as they wish to be latest and different,” it says.
Bishops and other leaders must learn “from the experiences of mistakes in governance, safeguarding and delivery in the broader Church”, in addition to positive stories. “If we proceed a Church of England culture which doesn’t, by its actions, show that it believes within the mixed ecology Church, we will proceed to run into the identical issues.”
Between 2018 and 2023, attendance of under-18s within the diocese of St Albans fell by 30 per cent. The latest plans include expanding The Alban Way, a discipleship pathway for kids and young people, and increasing the variety of paid youth and kids’s employees, to be targeted at churches “with thriving young and diverse ministries, or high potential based on demography”. The bid also refers to “historic overrepresentation of middle-class white” among the many diocese’s leadership and plans to “flood [the] current discernment process with younger and more diverse leaders”.
In 2017, the diocese was awarded £1.75 of Strategic Development Funding towards its Reaching New People project, which set objectives including “8000 latest people growing in faith in Jesus Christ” and “300 maturing fresh expressions of Church or mission-focused congregations”. It concluded in 2021. An evaluation carried out by the Church Army Research Unit was not made public, however the bid states that the initiative “produced c. 2000 latest disciples” and a “shift of culture”.
Targets in the brand new bid over a five-year period include a rise of 1684 in the overall Worshipping Community and “305 people [to] come to faith”. The bid speaks of the “opportunity to succeed in over a million people — 53 per cent of our diocesan population — with the love of God” in the subsequent nine years.
This week, the Priest-in-Charge of St Andrew’s, Luton, said that he was “troubled” by the plans and “staggered” by the mention of Soul Survivor with no reference to recent history. While the bid referred to “extensive grassroots consultation”, and there had been many meetings and visits, no “clear consensus” had emerged, he said.
He expected his parish — young, diverse, and economically deprived, with one half-time priest for 23,000 people — to receive little or no under the plans, he said. Furthermore, “the culture of measurement doesn’t really align with our missional goals. . . I find it absolutely abhorrent, the concept that you could plumb a number into an algorithm and it would inform you what number of souls can be saved.” He disputed the bid’s claims concerning the effectiveness of church-planting and suggested that it was “nonsense” to report that the Reaching New People project had led to 2000 latest disciples.
The bid lists as “root causes of decline” “Too few churches with missional energy, vision and capability; complacency and inaction with current decline; clergy and native leaders content maintaining the established order”. This was hurtful to clergy and laity “working their guts out”, with hundreds of individuals coming through their doors every 12 months and “so little to work with by way of resource”, Fr Larner said. The original purpose of Queen Anne’s Bounty had been to support parishes that had a poor living. “I believe it’s unsuitable that that has been became this bid system. . . I just don’t think these items will work in the long run.”
