THE Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (SMMIB) has agreed £4.8 million of partnerships to date in 2025, and for the primary time is funding a web based gaming initiative.
Emmaus Gaming (EG), which explores digital evangelism and discipleship through online gaming, has been awarded £468,637 this yr. The funding doesn’t involve the event of an app, but will facilitate live streaming on existing platforms, in-person tournaments, and training for churches in digital discipleship.
SMMIB hopes that the investment will connect with 100,000 people across EG social media channels, in addition to develop a community of 300 young people on the messaging app Discord. The aim is to succeed in the net gaming community in evangelism and discipleship.
A complete of £11 million has been agreed by SMMIB across 2023, 2024, and 2025 and centres on partnerships that support “parishes in sharing the Christian faith with their communities” and are “particularly focused on children and young people”, they are saying. The funding is anticipated to succeed in 5500 parishes.
Bubble Church is one other recipient of funding this yr. It is an initiative arrange by the Ascension, Balham Hill, which uses puppets, easy liturgy, songs, and Bible stories to introduce families to faith. The £1-million funding grant will “train 250 recent local churches to run Bubble Church, having already grown from 4 to 75 churches with previous investment”.
In 2023, the charity Youthscape, which supports disadvantaged young people, was awarded £1,292,595 for its Launchpad scheme: an initiative that helps clergy to formulate plans to work with young people of their parishes (News, 21 May 2024).
SMMIB reports that this funding has already enabled Youthscape to work with 18 dioceses: “85% of churches which have accomplished the programme have began youth work where previously there was none.”
The charity has been granted £1,987,152 this yr, which is able to give Youthscape the “capability to work with all dioceses within the Church of England, supporting an extra 950 clergy to start out youth work, training 2,300 volunteers and providing materials to disciple young people in 3,500 churches”, SMMIB reports.
Alison Coulter, an appointed member of SMMIB and Vice-Chair of the General Synod’s House of Laity said: “These organisations are working with parishes on initiatives which might be contributing to the Church of England’s mission to double the number of youngsters and young energetic disciples by 2030. We look ahead to seeing how God continues to make use of these programmes and projects to bring the Good News of Jesus to many more young people.”
SMMIB hopes that the partnerships will strengthen local mission through “providing training for outreach and engagement with children, young people, and their families; establishing recent worshipping communities; enhancing the effectiveness of digital evangelism and discipleship; addressing pressing missional challenges; and collaborating with networks to increase their reach and share learning and resources”.
 has agreed £4.8 million of partnerships to date in 2025, and for the primary time is funding a web...){kind=link}