Church 360 is a review and development tool for churches that seeks to:

• Enable leadership teams (or key lay leaders) to think intentionally about mission and discipleship in their own context.
• Offer a clear, visual representation of current strengths and areas for growth.
• Enable churches and local worship communities to reflect on these key priorities and produce an action plan for medium-term growth and development.
• Establish a persistent, intentional, pattern of review, planning and action.

The process is underpinned by a number of principles:

• enabling (not imposing) self-assessment and planning…a process where leadership teams are encouraged to evaluate themselves and form their own appropriate plans;
• development (not audit) tool…a process where leadership teams are very clear that they are being supported and not audited, the methodology is predicated on self-assessment and the transaction underpinned by trust;
• incremental (not seismic) change…a process that does not encourage quick, large, wholesale changes but regular, incremental, cumulative changes in key areas, underpinned by a consistent rhythm of review and regular accountability.  

Church 360 works by analysing and reflecting on different elements of Cultivate’s 5 Priorities (Community, Discipleship, Mission, Worship and Leadership), followed by an Action Plan. 

The reviews begin with an Overview, which presents the Church 360 framework and introduces the 5 Priorities.  There are three subsequent deeper reviews that focus on Mission, Leadership and Discipleship, before returning to another Overview review, which maps the progress made.  

The Church 360 happens every 6 months and each contains a couple of elements.  As a guide here is an outline of a 2 year cycle.

Year 1 January

• Church 360 review – Overview of the 5 Priorities (Community, Mission, Discipleship, Worship and Leadership).
• Action Plan meeting – the Cultivate Coach and the clergy take the information from the review and write an action plan with clear timescales and outcomes.

April

• Cultivate Coach and the clergy meet to see how the action plan is going and to amend the plan if needed.

July

• Church 360 review – Celebrate progress made and do the Mission Review
• Action Plan meeting – the Cultivate Coach and the clergy take the information from the review and write an action plan with clear timescales and outcomes.

October

• Cultivate Coach and the clergy meet to see how the action plan is going and to amend the plan if needed.

Year 2 January

• Church 360 review – Celebrate progress made and do the Discipleship Review
• Action Plan meeting – the Cultivate Coach and the clergy take the information from the review and write an action plan with clear timescales and outcomes.

April

• Cultivate Coach and the clergy meet to see how the action plan is going and to amend the plan if needed.

July

• Church 360 review – Celebrate progress made and do the Leadership Review
• Action Plan meeting – the Cultivate Coach and the clergy take the information from the review and write an action plan with clear timescales and outcomes.

October

• Cultivate Coach and the clergy meet to see how the action plan is going and to amend the plan if needed.

Year 3 January

• Church 360 review – Celebrate progress and do the overview of the 5 Priorities (Community, Mission, Discipleship, Worship and Leadership).
• Action Plan meeting – the Cultivate Coach and the clergy take the information from the review and write an action plan with clear timescales and outcomes.

The Church 360: Overview takes a look at the Cultivate 5 priorities: Community, Worship, Discipleship, Mission and Leadership.

How does it work?

8-12 people who are key leaders in the church (PCC, kids team, administrator – whoever is best placed for that church) gather together for a 2 hour session.  During that time we look at what there is to Celebrate, what is a Challenge and what we would like to Change across our 5 areas. 

What preparation is required?

There is no preparation required, the Cultivate coach will bring everything that’s needed.

Is it an assessment?  What if we say something critical?

It is absolutely not an assessment, we are not the Diocesan Ofsted!!  This is all about enabling a conversation that allows you to work out where you are and how you can develop.  This process only works when people can be completely honest and so the conversation stays in the room and is not passed onto anyone outside the church.

What happens to the information?

Everything that is talked about is written up onto a simple form by the Cultivate Coach as the basis of a conversation with the clergy person.  This conversation leads to an Action Plan for the next 6 months.  This action plan is shared with either the Rector (if part of a larger single parish) or the relevant Archdeacon.  This is to provide accountability and support as these actions are then worked on.

How have other people found them?

We often find that people enter a Church 360 nervous and expecting a challenging evening but after a lively discussion about a church community they love and care for leave with a smile on their face, saying comments such as, ‘that was brilliant!’  

The Church 360: Discipleship review aims to look deeper into what is happening to aid discipleship across the church community.

How does it work?

This review begins on a Sunday morning when the Cultivate coach ‘takes over’ a morning service.  Over an hour the coach will lead the congregation through a self reflection that looks at different elements which help to disciple us.  This includes ‘elements’ such as personal spiritual practices, learning, mentoring, mission and corporate worship.  There are 10 elements in total.  We encourage the congregation to decide on 2 actions that they will do over the next 6 months that will help them in their journey of following Jesus.  We also ask them for an anonymous copy of their individual review so that we can get an idea of what is going on across the whole congregation.

Following that Sunday morning session the Cultivate coach presents the findings of the review to the church leadership team for further discussion and that then leads to an action planning meeting with the clergy.  This action plan is then reviewed in the same way as the Church 360: Overview.

The aim for the Church 360: Mission is to create a mission plan for the next year.

How does it work?

This is run as a 2 hour workshop for between 10-15 people from the church community.  We begin by coming up with all the missional ideas we can think of and over the evening whittling them down to possibilities that have a sense of God’s calling in them, have a person / people willing to lead them and where resources are in hand or are available.  This involves lots of conversations and post it notes!

What happens next?

Following the review a mission plan is created for the following year with clear next steps and outcomes.  This is then actioned by the Church leadership team.

Is it a different process for the Larger Single Parish?

We use the same process but the group is usually between 15-25.

Coming Soon!

Fit for Mission is a project that is running across the Liverpool Diocese for 6 years. There are several elements to Fit for Mission, and for more information we suggest you look here: https://www.liverpool.anglican.org/fitformission