Facts
- Nationally, the church has long suffered from a dwindling and ageing membership who struggle to maintain ageing buildings. This has been exacerbated by the impact of Covid and increasing energy and running costs.
The church, however, also benefits from local connections, memories and knowledge. Management of estate may seem a burden to volunteers, but this emotional exhaustion obscures the fact that the church has a legacy of valuable property which could maintain presence, enhance income and support the delivery of Mission. We aim to do this by producing:
A Circuit (specific) Health Assessment and Forecast
3 Trees is a manifestation of the desire to assist the Methodist Church to be more sustainable; to be more confident and assured moving forward, and to reduce the escalating burden of management.
CONCEPT
- 3 Trees – concept developed by John Pickup and Dr Amy Binns in 2023. Avoiding church closures.
- Focus:
- Highlighting the importance of legacy.
- Addressing head-on the financial and managerial pressures faced by Methodist Church Circuits.
- Aim to safeguard church buildings.
- Future-proofing the church estate
- Addressing financial and management concerns head-on.
- Maintaining local connexions.
- Enhancing financial income, addressing building condition, highlighting potential.
- Creation of sustainable church estates.
DELIVERY
On-going.