What's New?
Welcome to What's New? The Giving in Grace website is intended to be a changing and evolving resource for the local church which reflects feedback from churches. We are keen to ensure that it remains fresh and creative and so will be looking to add new material on a regular basis.From this page you will be able to keep track of any additions or significant edits to the site.
New Bible Study
Seasons of Giving is a new four week small group study, available for free download from Stewardship and included here with their kind permission.
New Case Study: Digmoor
Christ the Servant was originally a mission church serving the Digmoor area of the new town of Skelmersdale. A lot of the housing surrounding the church building falls in the top 5% of areas of Multiple Deprivation. This case study looks at how they used Giving in Grace to help resource new mission opportunities.
Diocese of Virginia (USA), 2009 Stewardship Conference
Revd Kath Rogers, from the diocese of Liverpool, was warmly invited to speak at the diocese of Virginia's Stewardship Conference. Her two presentations have been made available here, by kind permission of
Revd Rogers.
- Main Address
- Leadership Address
New Annual Review Sermon - Heroes
Who are the real heroes and heroines in our churches? This latest Annual Review sermon considers a few characters who are, to put it simply, unlikely heroes.
New Case Study: Norris Green
Located in an outer city housing estate and in an area of high Multiple Deprivation, Christ Church, Norris Green, is a church without a building. This case study looks at how the mission focused congregation of
Norris Green made use of and responded to Giving in Grace.
Global Recession: Discussion Materials
An address by the Rt Rev David Jennings picking up the Recession as its subject is now available. His address is both useful reading for church leaders looking at the issues of the Recession and for house groups discussing their response to the Recession.
Site Map now Available
Finding the information you want, on a return visit to the Giving in Grace website, has just got easier. A site map containing direct links to all 200+ web pages has now been released. Access to this new tool is available through the 'Site Map' link shown at the top of every page.
Global Recession: Church Resources
The global economic recession has had an impact on almost every church. To help church leaders consider their practical response, alongside the pastoral, prophetic and theological obligations they face, the following pages and downloadable documents have been made available - The Recession. The two new sermon examples made available, consider the issue 'Giving in Recession'.
Will Aid goes Annual
Up until recently, Will Aid has only run its campaigns biennially. From 2008 Will Aid campaigns now run annually, during the month of November. See also the legacies page on this website.
Acts: Then and Now
Notes based on the talk given by Bishop James (Bishop of Liverpool) during the National Stewardship Conference are now available for download.
New Annual Review Sermon
A brand new all age drama entitled 'Fair Deal, or Not Fair Deal' has been added to the Annual Review section. This new Annual Review resource complements our steadily increasing stable of sermon materials.
NSN Conference 2008 - Presentations
Following last month's national conference, some of the presentation slides are now available for download. Some snapshots taken during the conference have also been shared with this website.
National Stewardship Network Conference 2008
Culture, Context & Change is the title for the 2008 National Stewardship Network Conference to be held in Liverpool from 9-12 September 2008. Brochures and booking forms are available for download from this website.
Liverpool Story Update
Giving in Grace continues to be a blessing to the Diocese of Liverpool. An update, following the recent release of the 2006 national overview of giving levels, has been added to the Liverpool Story page.
Musical Ideas!
It can be difficult to pick the right hymn or song for a particular theme. In order to help, a brand new page has been added to the Giving in Grace website that gives suggestions for music that can be used as part of a church service.
Easier Access to Logo
The Giving in Grace logo file has now been added to the downloads page to provide easier access.
New Case Study from the Diocese of Chichester
All Saints, Patcham, is four miles from the centre of Brighton and also covers a portion of the South Downs. This new case study looks at their experiences of the Giving in Grace programme.
Revised Preaching Section
The revised Preaching section is now available and completes the reorganisation of the website into the more user friendly format.
Revised Communication Section
The Communication section of the website has been revised and reorganised into a more user friendly format.
Tithing in the 21st Century
A series of new pages have been added to the Leadership section as part of its recent revision. These new pages consider the sensitive issue of tithing and its introduction to the church family. The biblical basis of tithing and its relationship to the principle of differentiation are all discussed.
Revised Interaction Section
The revised Interaction section of the website has now been released. To aid ease of use, additional printer friendly Adobe Acrobat downloads (pdf files) have been added. For example A Money Autobiography.
Revised Prayer Section
In line with the improvements being progressively introduced across the whole Giving in Grace website, the Prayer section update has now been released.
New Annual Review Sermon
A second Annual Review sermon has been added to the Annual Review Preaching page. This brand new resource considers the topic of 'trust': how much do we trust God? As well as adding an additional sermon, a complete revision of all the Annual Review pages has also been completed.
New Improved Timetable section!
A full review of all Planning Group agendas, checklists and workload distribution has now been completed. The Timetable pages have all been completely revised and updated into the new easier to use layout, originally launched with the Annual Review section.
Additional Preach Luke! Sermon
An additional sample sermon has been added to the Preach Luke! track, looking at the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax collector.
New Preaching Series
Four new sample sermons and five new small group sessions, all based on readings from St. Luke's Gospel, are now available. We would like to thank the Diocese of Winchester for donating these new preaching resources.
Annual Review
The Following On section has been renamed Annual Review and significantly extended, with many new pages now publicly available. The Annual Review section has been created to partly answer the question of 'what next?', asked by those who have already undertaken a full Giving in Grace Programme.
A Rural Case Study
A new, extended case study is available which outlines a Giving in
Grace programme in the rural community of Egton-cum-Newland in Cumbria
Following On
It's been a while since we flagged up a new resource! Behind the scenes we have been working on an entirely new section which is being piloted in four churches. For more information see Following On.
Legacies
A new legacies page has been added to the Communications section which offers guidance on responding to additional requests for information on leaving a legacy to the local church. Note the link to the excellent new web site for church legacies from this page.
Financial presentations
2 new presentation are on the site. The GEMS presentation prepared by John Roberts of Durham Diocese and amended with Liverpool information, and a new presentation prepared for use in one of the small deprived parishes in Liverpool.
New Case Study
A new case study of a rural church has been introduced on the Case Studies page - All Saints Rainford.
Handling requests for additional information
New pages have been added which expand the material around
Handling Requests for Additional Information. The page Planned Giving reflects on the importance of planned giving as the key to generosity. Three additional pages provide more material on planned giving envelopes, standing orders and Gift Aid. The restructuring of these pages should also make for easier access to the supporting literature that can be used for responding to requests for envelopes, Gift Aid or standing orders.
New Prayer resources
The Prayer section of the site has had a gentle revision. Some minor changes have been made to the liturgical material but the main change is the introduction of a new case study. Ormskirk Parish Church in Lancashire have generously shared the newly created prayer material they used in preparation for their Giving in Grace programme in 2005. Links to their material can be found at the prayer case study and from the Prayer Options page.
Church Urban Fund
Established in 1998 the Church Urban Fund has been making a difference in some of the most deprived parishes in the country for nearly 20 years. In Liverpool we have benefited richly from the Fund which is an expression of sharing and concern in the body of Christ. In 2006 the Church Urban Fund is launching a new fundraising initiative to secure its future. We are delighted to include a new Church Urban Fund page and three case studies of the work of the Fund in the Diocese of Liverpool. Our hope is that churches blessed by their Giving in Grace programme will make a gift to the ongoing work of CUF.
Differentiation made easy!
We are grateful to Rev David Gavin of St Cleopas church in the Toxteth, Team Ministry, Liverpool for contributing a simple sketch for three voices which illustrates the principle of differentiation. There is no copyright on this sketch and churches are free to edit as required. It's not necessarily a sketch for use in church; we suggest that it might be used to introduce the idea of differentiation to the PCC in a relaxed and humorous way. It might be creatively reworked in the fashion of the classic comedy sketch Upper, Middle and Lower Class with John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. The sketch was first aired on the BBC's The Frost Report in 1966. If anyone does rewrite this sketch we'd love to see a copy so please forward it to Resources in Liverpool.
A new case study and Godly Play
The Case Studies page now has an additional case study. The parish of Holy Trinity Wavertree ran their Giving in Grace programme in the autumn of 2005 and they tell their story in this new case study.
Now Holy Trinity also had a really positive experience of using Godly Play materials as part of their Preach Exodus materials. So we are delighted to launch a new Godly Play page and to feature a special
case study of Godly Play in action at Holy Trinity Wavertree, including pictures of the Godly Play tableaux shared with the church. New material also features a case study of Godly Play in action at
St Andrew's Kirkby.
Here's one I prepared earlier!
The web site now features a new web page, Case Studies. From this page you will be able to read a number of short case studies from parishes that have completed Giving in Grace programmes and have a story to share with the wider church. Initially there are three case studies from SS John & James, Bootle, St John, Birkdale and St Mary, Halewood. Further case studies will be available shortly.
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