An introduction to Governance Models for Festival Churches

Welcome to "An Introduction to Governance Models for Festival Churches"!

The Festival Church Model is being widely adopted as a way of rejuvenating churches and parishes across the country. At its best, it has been shown to work as a "turnaround strategy" for rural parish churches. Established by the Church of England in 2015 the model is both simple and flexible and boils down to two fundamental changes in the way that the church operates:

1. Worship - doing less, but doing it better: Festival Churches no longer hold regular formal worship services but instead concentrate on pooling their resources into fewer "festival" services that need the needs and rouse the interest of local people.
2. Management - enabling more people to be involved: Festival Churches adapt their management structures to enable anyone with an interest in the building to take on an active role in its care and management, regardless of whether they are regular worshippers at the church or not.

This informal and informative session aims to introduce you to the different Govenance Models currently being used by Festival Churches to help you discover what might be the best structure for you. The sessions will include:

• An overview of what it means to be a Festival Church;
• The current legal requirements for your church;
• Setting up a Friends Group;
• Other mechanisms and structures for involving the wider community;
• Pros and Cons of merging PCCS;
• Alternative uses for your church building;
• Potential sources of funding for your church;
• Resources that can help you in your Festival Church "Journey";
• An exploration of where you can get further help;
• A chance to ask specific questions about your church;