At Tottenham Baptist Church, a four-week series based on the BUV Support Hub’s Flourishing Church Framework has inspired deeper faith formation, growth in spiritual disciplines and a renewed missional focus as the congregation spent time seeking God together.
Exploring what it means to be a healthy church, Built to Flourish is a series of sermons and daily-devotions designed by Tottenham’s Pastor, Adam Bamforth, to examine the character, anatomy and mission of a flourishing faith community. “We had been following a two-year plan post-Covid and the church leadership felt we needed to reimagine how to equip the church for the future, including an outward focus,” Adam said. “We decided to double-down on our time with God as a church and listen to what he has to say to us about how we can be good stewards of his church.”
Creating the series was enlightening for Adam, the leadership team and the wider congregation. “We’ve done the [BUV] Flourishing Church Survey many times before, but looking deeper into the connections between the different elements and seeing them come alive as we studied the Scriptures has been invigorating. It enabled us to develop a clearer biblical picture of why each element is important and how they all play together to deliver church life, vision and character.”
Some aspects of the framework prompted more searching reflection than others. Innovation, for example, was more challenging to identify in Scripture, but the Exodus story of Jethro advising Moses on a new approach to organising leadership, provided a valuable example.
Growing new spiritual habits can seem daunting, but committing to a four-week series can feel more manageable and has encouraged many to continue these disciplines beyond the four weeks. “There has been a lot of engagement from the congregation, particularly with the daily devotions,” Adam said. “A lot of people have said the Lord has really spoken to them during this time.”
Alongside the devotions, the congregation was encouraged to practise some form of fasting throughout the series. This could involve fasting from food, setting aside finances, or giving up an everyday activity like coffee or screen time. As Adam explained, “The purpose of fasting is to seek God for our personal lives, our church and our community.”
The series also created an opportunity for people to reflect together and consider how their learning might shape the church’s future. Some attended a midweek bible study to discuss insights from each sermon, while others attended 15-minute workshops after Sunday services to share new ministry ideas for consideration as the church develops its next three-to-five-year plan.
On the final day of the series, the church will facilitate table discussions supporting people to commit to a ministry or area of service for a certain period of time, and translate what they’ve been learning into practical action.
Built to Flourish has been an opportunity not only to explore the biblical foundations of a healthy church, but also to invite people to listen to God together and discern how they can faithfully steward the church into the future.
Adam hopes to make the Built to Flourish resources available on the Tottenham Baptist Church website, enabling other churches to draw from the material and develop a similar series in their own context.