Back to the garden?

Author: The Revd David Lloyd

Published on: 20 May 2021

What might it look like if we saw more of heaven on Earth?

Restoration and renewal in every home? People worshipping on every street?! Church would and could be everywhere!

The Garden is a growing network of missional communities that have no specific building or centre. They are a network of communities or houses united by five core Biblical values and six simple practices, a rhythm of daily Bible reading, Bible project YouTube clips and prayer to enable everyone the opportunity to sample and live out a transformational rhythm and rule of life in Jesus Christ. Disciples that are built around the kitchen table for the off-road track, travelling light and hoping for much.

Garden Church is not a ‘new model’ of church. It is simply a reconnection with the movement and mode of the Church in Acts 2:42. It is a framework to provide structure and freedom to release simple church in the home and provide an accountability network and support for local mission. We work alongside and in partnership with all denominations, local churches of any tradition or flavour and we come in peace!

The missional communities help us to experience the best of ‘big’ and best of ‘small’ and being zero cost they are sustainable and replicable and can work in partnership with their local church. They provide a safe and friendly environment in which to test drive the call in Ephesians 4 to develop the gifts and skills of God’s people because they are small enough to allow everyone to play. They provide an environment in which to grow and ‘re-disciple’ disciples for this new era. The Garden also enjoys the encouragement that comes from being gathered on a monthly basis with faces from Stalham to Walberswick, a house boat on the river Waveney to an inner city estate in West Earlham, an ecocentred small holding in Loddon or new housing in Sprowston, The Upper Nar Villages and more recently the Tamil Nadu region of India! We have much to learn from each other. Young and old. A chance to be refreshed and for kids and youth to hang out. Garden Church in partnership with The Mitre Benefice and The Diocese of Norwich Church Planting and Revitalisation Programme is exploring this mode of ministry with new plants in Sprowston and The Upper Nar Villages.

Let us know if you would like to learn more:

uryyb@tneqra-puhepu.bet

www.garden-church.org


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The Revd David Lloyd

Licensed clergy - Assistant Priest, The Mitre (Benefice)

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