Richard Fisher, our chief executive, looks back at the huge contribution Bishop Colin Fletcher made to the development of BRF Ministries in almost a quarter of a century as chair of trustees, and then looks forward to the arrival of our new chair, Mark Sheard.
5 January 2025
Happy New Year!
May I begin by wishing you all a very happy and blessed New Year.
It seems a fitting moment both to look back and to look forward. In looking back at the key developments in BRF Ministries since the beginning of the new millennium, I want to pay tribute to Bishop Colin Fletcher and the huge contribution he made to those developments in the almost 25 years he served as our chair of trustees, before stepping down in November last year.
For me, what marked Bishop Colin out was that not only did he care deeply for the ministry itself, he also cared just as much for the people involved. He has had a genuine pastoral concern for staff and trustees alike. He has always been a great listener and we benefitted often from his wise counsel. He is also a true visionary: time and again, he quickly caught the vision for all the new things we have done over the years. He has recognised the opportunities and has encouraged and supported us to explore them further. All in all, he has been a significant figure in the development of BRF Ministries.
What marked Bishop Colin out was that he did not only care deeply for the ministry itself, he cared just as much for the people involved.
The power of the unexpected
That development has been diverse and impactful in ways that none of us actually planned. Messy Church, Foundations21, Who Let the Dads Out?, Anna Chaplaincy, Parenting for Faith and Holy Habits were all unexpected opportunities emerging from unexpected conversations.
Messy Church came about because Lucy Moore told me one day about an initiative she had started in her own church, and how to her surprise it had really resonated within the wider community. We thought it sounded a great idea and asked her to write a book about it for our range of children and family ministry resources. The book was published in 2006 and rapidly Messy Church became a core part of what we do.
We do not hear much about it now, but in 2006 we launched Foundations21. Foundations21 started with a couple of people coming to tell me about a vision they had for a discipleship resource that would embrace the opportunities that the internet provided. That was in 2002, and we launched it in 2006.
I look back on that now and smile because we were way ahead of our time. It was a truly visionary project and Bishop Colin was involved in evaluating it with our board of trustees right from the beginning, until we brought it to an end in 2015.
In 2012 Who Let The Dads Out? joined BRF Ministries, and was with us for just over six years. Anna Chaplaincy became a core part of the charity in January 2014 and Parenting for Faith in April 2016. So almost everything that we have done, other than our Barnabas in Schools ministry, which had started just before Bishop Colin joined us, has been on his watch.
Messy Church, Foundations21, Who Let the Dads Out?, Anna Chaplaincy, Parenting for Faith and Holy Habits were all unexpected opportunities emerging from unexpected conversations.
Photo © Mother Kate Hudson
God-given opportunities
But for all the unexpectedness and lack of a grand plan, these were never random developments. We never followed up any opportunity without a clear sense that it was God-given. And time and again, along the way, God also provided us with the resources to take up those opportunities.
The common thread was that all these ministries began in local churches as initiatives that were simply trying to do something to meet a need on their doorstep. Our role has been to be the catalyst that enabled them to grow and to be structured in such a way that they could be replicable and transplantable. As a result they’ve all grown into national, if not international, ministries, embraced by churches from a wide range of denominations and in a variety of different contexts.
Another common thread is that each of these initiatives has become part of the BRF ministries because they absolutely deliver on the same charitable objectives as the organisation as a whole. Over the years, we’ve had lots of people approach us to say they would love to talk to us about their ministry and the possibility of it becoming part of BRF Ministries, but so often it has not been the right fit because their underlying objectives were different.
One of the things that was reinforced for me during our centenary celebrations is the enduring relevance and inspiration of our founder Leslie Mannering’s original vision. He wanted to help people ‘get a move on’ spiritually and in January 1922, The Fellowship of St Matthew was launched with the aim of encouraging spiritual growth in the areas of prayer, Bible reading and Communion. We now use the phrase: ‘inspiring people of all ages to grow in vibrant Christian faith’ but the meaning is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow.
All these ministries began as local initiatives simply trying to do something close to home, to meet the needs there.
Photo © Kate Powell
A delicate balance
As a Christian charity it is, rightly, an ongoing challenge to balance being responsible, strategic and pragmatic with being open to the movement of the Spirit. I remember distinctly a discussion with the trustees about Foundations21 back in 2002. They said ‘this is a fantastic vision, but it is quite a daunting one. It’s going to take a lot of money. If we can find and secure the funding to make it happen, then let’s do it.’
There is an inevitable tension between thinking about things from a worldly perspective and from a spiritual perspective, but we try always to be very, very careful with our resources. We have never been a charity that has taken major risks and speculated on a project or initiative in the hope that it might come off.
But on the other hand, the trustees have been very prepared at times ‘to put our money where our mouth is’ and to invest from our reserves to make things happen, rather than simply saying we won’t do things unless we can secure new funding for them. So, it is a balance.
The trustees have been very prepared to put our money where our mouth is and to invest from our reserves to make things happen.
The challenges of growth
Related to that balancing act, some of our key challenges have been very much to do with capacity and resources: both financial resources, and people resources. In other words, the challenges of growth.
When we started Messy Church, for example, we had absolutely no idea how it would take off. It just felt that it was the right thing to do. We thought if Lucy writes a book, shares the vision, shows people how it works, offers some advice and some session material that they can use in their own churches, that will unleash their creativity and enable them to get on with it. Job done! Of course, that didn’t happen at all. More and more people wanted Lucy to come and talk about Messy Church and to offer training. They wanted more content, more sessions, more training, more of everything. At times it was almost overwhelming.
But the learning was huge, so when Who Let The Dads Out?, Anna Chaplaincy and Parenting for Faith came along we were much better prepared. Although each of those ministries was very different, we had a very good idea of what was going to be needed as each ministry developed and grew.
So, managing growth has been one challenge. Another challenge has been trying to discern what to say ‘yes’ to and what to say ‘no’ to, because there is such a plethora of opportunities within each of the ministries and we can’t do everything. Our instinct is to be ‘can do’ and responsive when people say, ‘What about doing such and such?’ but we need wisdom in deciding what to take on. It is a positive challenge, but it is a challenge nevertheless.
A third challenge has been to do with our identity. As we have grown and evolved from being a publisher of Bible reading notes, books and resources, into the BRF Ministries that we are today, there has been a constant challenge to help people understand how we fit together: who we are and what we do as a whole. That has been helped massively by the change of name to BRF Ministries in September 2023 – a repositioning that was planned and executed with Bishop Colin’s full involvement and support. However, we still have to work hard to explain how Messy Church, Anna Chaplaincy and Parenting for Faith are all core parts of the same charity.
We still have to work hard to explain how Messy Church, Anna Chaplaincy and Parenting for Faith are all part of the same parent charity.
Photo © Emma White
And the satisfactions
In terms of satisfactions, where do I start?
The biggest satisfaction for me, and for the whole staff team, is knowing the impact our ministries have on people all over this country and in many places around the world. People are very good at feeding back to us, and we hear almost daily from those whose lives have been touched by one or other of our ministries. In many instances it’s no exaggeration to say it’s been transformational.
The other main satisfaction has been in enabling these very small, local ministry initiatives to take flight. That has been such a privilege for me personally, and to have had a ringside seat as they have evolved and grown, to see them becoming recognised and established, has been wonderful.
Lucy once said to me that one of the things we are quite good at is enabling other people to shine. I think we do that through our ministries and also through our staff: our ministry leads and our teams, everybody who is involved. I love the fact that we are at heart an enabling organisation, enabling through our ministries countless people in local churches and communities to exercise their gifts and talents.
Lucy Moore once said to me that one of the things we are quite good at is enabling other people to shine.
Photo © Lesley Baker
Welcome to our new chair
And speaking of gifts, we are excited to welcome our new chair of trustees, Mark Sheard. Mark is hugely gifted and brings to BRF Ministries his wonderful blend of experience and skills, his knowledge and understanding of the church, his deep heart for the gospel and his passion for ministry.
As with all those past conversations which led to unexpected places, I don’t know where Mark’s involvement will take us. Just having his expertise and fresh perspective will be incredibly helpful. But I know he also sees us as a charity with so much potential still, and we’re looking forward to exploring this with him, to see where and what that potential might be.
I cannot think of a better person to help us navigate into and through this new season.
Mark brings his wonderful blend of experience and skills, his knowledge and understanding of the church, his deep heart for the gospel and his passion for ministry.
With thanks
As we stand on the threshold of a new year my fundamental message is one of thanks: deep, heartfelt thanks to the myriad of people who stand alongside us, work with us, partner with us, enable us to do what we do, and who believe in us. I have always taken the view that, for some reason, God has chosen to entrust these ministries to us and it is our job to nurture them and enable them to grow and flourish. But at the end of the day, they are God’s ministries. It is not our ministry or our kingdom that we are building.
It’s really important that we remember that, and who knows what God is going to do in and through BRF Ministries as we go beyond the first quarter century of this new millennium?
