Romford Circuit bring vitality to mission conversations

Romford Circuit have pioneered a way to bring vitality and joined up thinking to their Mission conversations with COMEFLY, their twice a year event.

On Saturday 22 October 2022, the Romford Methodist Circuit held their 12th COMEFLY event.  Andy Dye, from the Global Relationships team, was a guest speaker and noticed the vitality and cross sharing of mission ideas from local to global and back again.

Janice Gowlett and Trevor Pugsley are the organisers of COMEFLY and shared about its inception and development:

"In 2015 the then Superintendent Minister of the Romford Circuit, Rev David Jebb, the Children’s worker, Mrs Suzanne Pearson and a few other people had a meeting to discuss mission and children’s work in the circuit.   We had two committees, the Mission and Ministries and the youth forum but they were poorly attended. The areas that these groups covered were Mission, Outreach, Children’s and Family work, Youth and Evangelism. A discussion took place on how they might be considered throughout the circuit. The idea for a morning event was formed and as always food needed to be available so Lunch was added.   The initials for these areas formed the acronym COMEFLY.

Just before Christmas 2015, a letter was sent to each of the circuit churches announcing the new forum and in early 2016 a follow up letter giving the date and details of the first event was circulated. The purpose was set out as follows “The purpose of this get together is to create a fresh informal space where representatives of the Circuit Churches can come and over coffee, worship, workshops and lunch, share, plan and return to their churches equipped with ideas and/or dates of circuit-based activities”. After the first event, and taking feedback into account, a team was set up to plan for the future. We have continued to ask for feedback after each event to ensure we provide talks on issues that matter to the churches.   We also take COMEFLY to a different circuit church each time.

The format of the events has been refined during the early years and we now have a tried and tested timetable which starts with refreshments and registration followed by short time of worship. The event then begins with a guest speaker or circuit discussion. This is followed by 3 workshops where the attendees pre book a place. We try to ensure that one of the workshops is practical and have had the use of Drama, Gospel Illusions and puppets in worship and also art and banner making. The other two workshops cover topics connected with mission and outreach such as working with the homeless, foodbanks, dealing with a disaster, street pastors, pioneer ministry and “messy church”. After another time of worship, we have lunch (provided on a bring and share basis) which is always a lively affair with lots of talk about the morning sessions. The hope is that those who attend will take back helpful ideas and information to their churches to encourage mission and outreach in their areas."

Why not think about something similar in your area?  How could you bring together people for a day of learning and sharing in mission?