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Introducing the diocesan Transformation Support Hub Team

Published: 14th August 2024

Worcester diocese Transformation Support Hub team
From L-R are: Ian, Simon, Andrew, Jo, Damian, Clare, Ellie and Kim 

Thanks to funding from the national church, the Diocese of Worcester has been able to create a new team to support parishes as we work together towards achieving the outcomes of our diocesan vision and Transformation programme.

Our vision is to help ensure that by 2030 churches in our diocese will be healthier and more sustainable. The Transformation Support Hub team is supporting churches so that across the diocese, we can: 1) Double the number of children and young people worshipping in our churches. 2) Create 100 new worshipping communities (NWCs) offering a range of accessible expressions of church. (eg Forest Church / Café Church / Walking Church). 3) Bring about the renewal of a dozen churches in major areas of population to ensure large congregations of at least 150 people, enabling them to support and resource other local churches.

The team also works closely with the Mission and Ministry team which provides training and development opportunities, so clergy and lay leaders feel supported and equipped for mission.

The Transformation programme recognises the individuality of churches and so the team will come alongside church leaders and work with them to explore what health and sustainability might look like in each of their individual contexts. This will help inform what might be the best focus for their mission plans, in order to create thriving communities. This could be a focus on growing congregations, nurturing disciples, connecting with local communities, increasing engagement of children and young people or strengthening leadership teams and pathways, for example.

The overarching aim of these changes is to create flourishing communities, with the church playing a central part, and ultimately, bringing more people to know the glory of God and the love of Christ.

Transformation Support Hub team members

Other than Simon Hill, who has been employed by the Diocese since 2014, all of the members of the Transformation Support Hub are externally funded and are not paid for by Ministry Share. 

As Diocesan Lead for Transformation and Change, Archdeacon Nikki Groarke oversees the work of the team alongside Transformation Programme Director, Damian Herbert.

Damian Herbert - Transformation Programme Director

Damian is responsible for supporting team members and ensuring plans stay on track. He is available to have conversations with churches about mission planning and how to shape funding applications as well as advising on the various funding streams available. Before joining the Diocese, Damian worked for the Church of England in Birmingham helping parishes develop their vision and strategy for mission. During his career, Damian has also been involved in different types of church plants and started a new worshipping community when he was working as a Children and Families Missioner.

Simon Hill - Programme Lead: Children, Young People and Families

Simon’s background is in youth ministry having served for 14 years in two parish roles before joining the diocesan team in Worcester. Simon’s role in the team is to help parishes find ways of reaching out to children, young people and families, either individually or by working with other churches in their benefice or deanery. In time, Simon’s work will mean that every deanery and cluster, has a mission and ministry plan for work amongst children and young people.

Simon also helps parishes recruit and support their employed children’s and youth workers and is also developing a network of employed workers and key volunteers across deaneries to serve parishes and schools in their area, and to form a community, sharing experiences and supporting each other.

Simon has a Master’s degree in Theology with research into hybrid youth ministry, using social media as a discipleship tool alongside ministry programmes.

Kim Brown - New Worshipping Communities Enabler

Kim comes to us from the Diocese of Gloucester where she was a vicar of five rural churches and villages to the east of Cirencester. While working as a team vicar, her churches started two new youth clubs, a community meal and an outdoor eco-friendly family service. Before that Kim helped to open a drop-in centre in Cirencester called The Upper Room, which grew into a New Worshipping Community, and saw many people come to faith and be baptised and confirmed. 

Kim’s role is to provide help and support parishes across the Diocese who have started or are thinking about starting a New Worshipping Community (NWC), helping them explore what model might work best in their context. This will help ensure that alongside more traditional services, churches feel able to offer services that are more informal, creative or take place outside or in other venues that some people may find more accessible.

Clare Ashworth - New Worshipping Communities Administrator

Clare works part-time to support Kim with the logistics of organising the Myriad Learning Pathway to aid with the development of New Worshipping Communities (NWCs) within the diocese. Together, with this first cohort, they are providing support to teams aiming to create 12 NWCs over the two-and-a-half-year programme.

Clare is also responsible for gaining the ‘wider picture’ of NWCs within the Diocese, which involves speaking with every benefice leader to listen to their plans and offer support where it is required. As the project moves forward, she will also be responsible for some data analysis.

Andrew Blount - Renewals Programme Manager

Andrew works part-time with the diocese. His role is to work alongside, monitor and support all the Renewal churches (currently that’s seven churches) in delivering their five-year mission plans.

Each plan details various new staff posts and for some, improving their building, so that each church can deliver against agreed set targets with funding partners, to see more people becoming actively involved with each church.

Andrew has many years’ experience working in project management, strategic development and governance of organisations across the business and not for profit sectors.

Ellie Jones - Transformation Communications Officer

Forming part of the diocesan Communications team, Ellie’s role two days a week is to share the journey and successes of the Transformation Support Hub and the churches whose activities will work towards achieving the new diocesan vision and priorities. Ellie can also support any church team needing help to improve their current website or looking to get a new website. She offers assistance with strategic planning, content creation and training on website content management systems.

Ellie has extensive experience of working in a variety of marketing, PR and communications roles in the public and not-for-profit sectors including the adult training and education sector. Ellie also has qualifications and comprehensive experience in website maintenance and project managing website builds.

Jo Burr - Project Finance Officer

Jo joined the Diocese in April 2018 and works four days a week as Project Finance Officer. She supports the resourcing churches and the renewal churches with their funding claims and processes the drawdown from Church Commissioners. 

For smaller church projects, she helps parishes access their approved grants from the Healthier Churches Fund. Jo also provides financial management support to those running diocesan strategic projects.

Before coming to the diocesan office, Jo worked in healthcare finance. 

Ian Thompson - Team Administrator

Ian provides general administrative support across the whole team but will focus primarily on capturing data (both qualitative and quantitative) to monitor and evaluate the transformation programme and its priorities.

Ian has experience of running his own business, and in addition to being an active member in health & sustainability projects at his own church, this has given Ian a wealth of experience to bring to the table.

Damian Herbert, Transformation Programme Director said:

“We’re grateful to have received national funding to increase our capacity to support churches on their journey to becoming healthier and more sustainable, as we continue to grow as Kingdom People.”

“We want to see communities that are transformed by the presence of their local church, challenging social injustices and strengthening connections.

“It’s great to be overseeing the team that’s supporting parishes to help that vision become a reality, building flourishing church communities and ensuring more people come to know the love and hope of Christ.”

We hope that churches will feel like they can get in touch with members of our team to let us know how we can support them effectively.

Page last updated: Wednesday 14th August 2024 12:30 PM

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