Looking upon the diminishing congregation in churches, it seems as though the church can not advance without investigating new ways to reach out to a more extensive variety of people. The United Reformed Church (URC) published a new video and action pack entitled “Assets for Life” in June. These resources introduce the extensive work of the URC in providing facilities, education and networking to the neighbourhood as part of its mission and ministry, which aims to testify the Christian faith to all walks of life through social actions.

As all these social actions contribute to improving the quality of lives of the neighbourhood in various aspects, hence the resources pack has been named “Assets for Life”.

For instance, through organising groups and informal meetings, the URC ministries encourage people to build up healthy social relationships that are fostered by confidence and trust, especially for those who experience similar problems such as debt or bereavement. This process is referred to as building social assets.

The ministries also help in building human assets and financial assets by improving people’s education and financial opportunities respectively. In addition, the provision of physical infrastructure like halls, transport and playing fields can be referred to as building physical assets.

Most importantly, the motivation of the URC ministries to engage in community development work comes from the social teachings of the Church and from a personal decision to love God and your neighbours. Therefore, some of the community development work carried out by the ministries has resulted in individuals finding a new spiritual dimension to their lives, even though it may not have been the original intended outcome. It is a process that could be described as building spiritual assets.

Jenny Rossiter, who works as a consultant carrying out research and project assessments and evaluations, commented that “Assets for Life” has revealed the essence of success for URC’s resourceful memberships.

Even though the United Reformed Church does not have a long standing history compared to the other churches, Rossiter attributes its abundance of membership to “the sheer extent and nature of its community development work”.

“Most of the people who benefit are not church members but people living in the neighbourhood. The Church is acting as a beacon of hope for many rather than a bastion of faith for a few,” Rossiter continued to explain. In ratio to its size the United Reformed Church touches the lives of a disproportionately large number of people.

The resources pack “Assets for Life” is designed to give church groups an idea of what can be done. The video consists of inspirational conversations and stories from church and community groups. People talk about the vision and motivation behind the initiatives, the approaches they used, as well as their successes and disappointments. The Action pack which consists of over 40 pages, provides a large number of ideas, resources and funding opportunities to enable churches and community groups to get involved in the neighbourhood. It also includes a snapshot of a wide range of activities being carried out in England, Scotland and Wales.