annual review 2018/19 - psalms€¦ · trac was also tremendously appreciated. ... attendance from...

“2018/19 has been

another landmark year

for us, in part due to the

surprising but exciting

developments in

Gloucestershire and

nationally.”

Annual Review 2018/19

“What does the LORD require of you? To act justly and

to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Micah 6:8

PSALMS Annual Review 2018/19

2

Chairman’s report

“We have sought God’s leading,

inspiration and power at all times

and our focus remains around

introducing young people to

Jesus.”

Could any of us have possibly imagined 14

years ago, when PSALMS set out in faith as a

small project in Painswick to use sport to reach

local young people with the gospel message,

that the journey would lead to PSALMS being

acknowledged nationally (by Scripture Union

and then by Professor Andrew Parker of the

University of Gloucestershire) as the first

recognised Centre of Excellence for Sports

Ministry in the country? Or that the Church of

England centrally affirms the impact that

PSALMS has had, and is having, on the

national scene?

“The PSALMS project is leading the way

with and in Gloucester Diocese for using

sport to plant new churches and reach new

people. They have been part of our national

discussions in Church House to develop an

integrated strategy to encourage dioceses

to use sport as one of their priorities for

evangelism and mission. Their input and

experience have been invaluable. I look

forward to continuing our partnership with

them.”

Revd Canon Dave Male, Director of Evangelism

and Discipleship - Archbishops’ Council.

Or that both the Diocese of Gloucester and

Scripture Union acknowledge that they have

only become involved in Sports Ministry to the

extent they have now because of the impact

PSALMS has made in its ministry with young

people, the work they have pioneered and their

success in influencing those organisations to

build upon that knowledge and experience?

“As the Diocese embarks on a youth and

sports project that envisages nine sports

centres across the Diocese staffed by

sports pioneer ministers and youth

workers, with a mandate to both establish

new worshipping communities and to

transform diocesan thinking about what

constitutes church, we believe that this

vision has the power to transform the

national conversation about church growth

and youth engagement, moving the focus

out of church buildings into the community

and third liminal spaces. The work of

PSALMS over the past 13 years has been

foundational to this vision, and as we get

ever closer to ‘launch’ the expertise of

PSALMS is required ever more… without

PSALMS there would be no diocesan vision

which carries with it the potential to

transform the nation.”

Revd Tim Hastie-Smith, at the time National

Director, Scripture Union, and now leading the

Gloucester Diocese Onelife Initiative.

2018/19 has been another landmark year for

us, only part of which is due to the surprising

but exciting developments in Gloucestershire

and nationally. You will see from the area

reports and the review of our objectives that we

have not allowed ourselves to take our eye off

the ball. We have sought, and are seeking,

God’s leading, inspiration and power at all

times and our focus remains around

introducing young people to Jesus and offering

them the choice of starting a life-changing

relationship with him.

Cover photo: Club Pulse in the Beacon Benefice

PSALMS Annual Review 2018/19 3

Whether this is through our regular youth and

school clubs, our residentials, our sports camps,

our Active RE lessons, Prayer Spaces in

schools or Pulse Games, that is what we are

about!

I want to pay tribute to our wonderful team of

Sports Ministers, Trainees and Interns who

work so passionately and tirelessly to do this.

They would be the first to acknowledge that

they couldn’t do this without our local church

partners and many faithful volunteers (which

includes our very wise Board of Trustees) and

my thanks go to them.

People come and people go, but we have

certainly felt the impact of the loss of our two

longest-serving ministers during the year.

At the end of March Fiona Gill, our General

Manager, left us to pursue fresh opportunities

and at the year end Sports Minister Andy Poole

took up an exciting new opportunity in Sussex.

We are extremely grateful to both of them for all

that they have contributed over the years. We

will miss them. Fiona was originally our

Strategic Children’s Advisor before she did an

amazing job of growing the work in Beacon and

then becoming our first General Manager. She

made a huge impact in each of those roles.

Andy’s work in Stonehouse, Nailsworth and

Beacon as well as leading our Residential

TRAC was also tremendously appreciated.

Fiona’s departure has led to Rob French

stepping up as Team Leader and each of the

other Sports Ministers taking on new areas of

responsibility to support him. Sue Shaw

provides excellent administrative support to

make this possible for Rob.

Do enjoy reading this report; be encouraged

and do let us know if you have any comments

or suggestions - we really appreciate them!

In closing, I should just record (as I hinted in

last year’s report) that, with all that is going on

in the Diocesan “OneLife “ Project, the precise

future and structure for PSALMS is unclear but

we continue to trust God that he will show the

way forward that will honour our longstanding

partnerships and, at the

same time, enable us to

resource the wider project.

Please pray for wisdom for

the Board and for those

leading OneLife as that is

worked out.

Chairman’s Report (continued)

Ian Marsh

Chairman

Fun times at Pulsar weekend away


4

Sports Director’s Report

“PSALMS’ vision remains very

clearly about equipping and

facilitating the local church to

reach children and young people

in their local communities with the

good news of Jesus Christ. “

The verse that appears on the front cover of

this Review has felt extremely relevant to us

over the course of the last year. ‘What does

the Lord require of you…?’ It’s a question that

each of us should be willing to reflect upon with

regards to both our own lives as individuals and

also as a wider part of God’s church.

PSALMS’ vision remains very clearly about

equipping and facilitating the local church to

reach children and young people in the context

of their local communities with the good news

of Jesus Christ. The language and activity we

do this through is sport - understood in its

widest sense. The purpose of this is that, as

people discover what it means to experience a

life-transforming relationship with Jesus, God

may be glorified and his kingdom may be built.

Over this year PSALMS has made significant

steps in developing our understanding around

various models of Sports Ministry. Our Sports

Ministers and many volunteers are now able to

clearly articulate key features of Sports Ministry

and guiding principles for working in different

ways. This allows freedom to apply shared

principles to specific contexts where people

may be working. One exciting development is

to have seen PULSE Games become available

this year as a national resource through

Scripture Union. This has been downloaded

36 times from the Scripture Union website.

Phase 2 of Active RE has also been

successfully implemented over the last year as

a wider pool of people have delivered the

programme in Primary Schools across

Gloucestershire.

During our secondary age residential at TRAC,

37 young people stated that the camp had

helped them move forwards in exploring faith

whilst seven decided to commit their lives to

Jesus for the first time. We’ve also seen 272

children attend non-residential sports camps

during the year across Gloucestershire, with

62% stating they would be interested in

attending church off the back of the camps.

It’s also been hugely encouraging to see

Gloucester Diocese become increasingly

excited about the possibility of Sports Ministry

for the long term. The work of the last couple

of years particularly has led to the point where

Gloucester Diocese has made a long-term

commitment to mission through sport as a key

part of the ongoing strategy for church life in

Gloucestershire. Part of the process for the

next six months will be to clarify exactly what

relationship PSALMS and the Diocese will

have together in the future. As we continue to

explore various options your prayers are

massively appreciated for this journey.

Rob French

Action from first ever sports camp at Cooper’s Edge


Beacon Benefice “Praise God for the growing

relationships and the increasing

opportunities to share Jesus.”

God continues to bless the ministry happening

in this area, both in building greater local links

and in deepening the faith relationships of some

of our young people.

We’ve continued to see a large number of

youth from our area attend residentials, with 15

attending our TRAC residential and nine

attending Soul Survivor.

Whilst Club Pulse continues to reach the

teenagers in our area, our work with primary

school children has often been structured

around schools. But this year we branched out

and now run a pop-in tennis session every

Friday at the local park, which regularly gets ten

kids (25 new kids since its start in March) and

where we also see parents watching and

getting involved. We also ran a non-residential

Sports Camp last Easter which 15 local kids

attended. So, praise God for the growing

relationships and the increasing opportunities

to share Jesus.

In July we brought to an end our latest Pulse

Leadership Academy which included five from

the Beacon area. It’s been fantastic to see

them grow not only in leadership, but also in

confidence in their faith. They are already

serving in a variety of different ways across our

area, and we are grateful for the giftings they

are utilising for the gospel.

From Sept 2019 all three local schools will be

running our Active RE programme, which

means I will have face-to-face contact with all

KS2 kids. Praise God for opening those doors

and pray that we will effectively seize the

opportunities for relationships outside of the

school walls.

Lastly, Club Pulse continues to present good

opportunities for faith discussions each week

with our teenagers, so much so that we are

thinking and praying about setting up a youth

club for KS2.

Primary school tennis session

Nathan Youlton


6

“Recommitments and new faith in

Jesus discovered were at the core

of our young people’s experience.”

My prayer for this year has been that the Word

of God would be a lamp for our young people’s

feet and a light for their path (Psalm 119:105).

Thameshead representation at residentials this

year was a confirmation of that prayer, with the

attendance from the Benefice at both TRAC

and Pulsar Weekend continuing to increase

year on year.

Recommitments and new faith in Jesus

discovered were at the core of our young

people’s experience at TRAC, leading to a

Thameshead young person sharing this news

at The Source, a monthly evening church

service in Kemble.

The year has been one of consolidation and

growth in depth of relationship with young

people in Thameshead - Pulse+ particularly,

with the group sharing openly, consistently

attending and exploring the Christian faith

together as we meet fortnightly. A real

encouragement from the past 12 months has

been seeing those who were attending

Pulsar as Year 6 pupils also attending Club

Pulse, meaning that as they move on to

secondary school they remain engaged and

connected with PSALMS.

We have also seen the start of new

ventures in Thameshead, Pulsar at Kemble

Primary School being one of those, taking

place weekly on a Tuesday lunchtime for those

in Years 5 and 6, to explore a Christian theme

over food and by playing games together.

It has been encouraging also to have delivered

Active RE at Rodmarton Primary School in

2018-19 for both Sapling and Oak classes,

with the curriculum being warmly received by

pupils and staff alike.

I’m so thankful to God for the ways in which he

has clearly moved in Thameshead this year

and I’m excited to see what he has in store for

us as we aim to build upon the foundations of

faith which have been laid over the past 12

months.

Thameshead

Thameshead Club Pulse

Pulsar Club at Sapperton

Ben Fudge


“God continues to work in greater

ways than we humanly thought

possible.”

Stonehouse has seen a lot of change this past

year, with Andy Poole moving on and John

Thompson starting as the LMG chair. Several

of the churches have also seen a change of

clergy, resulting in a new but exciting season.

We continue to have a strong presence in local

schools. Pulsar Club at Park Junior School

grew from 8-18 children with a real sense of

breakthrough with the group. This was followed

by the Pulse Games for Years 3, 4 and 6 with

the school giving it 10/10 and being delighted

by the pupils’ enjoyment.

At Maidenhill School the Year 7 lunch-time

multi-sports was successful in engaging with

the new Year 7s, with several coming to

PSALMSY football after school. A highlight was

taking the group to a Forest Green Game, gifted

to us by the club. We continue to run a sport

leaders’ programme, termly assemblies at

Maidenhill and Wycliffe Schools, and saw all

four young people from Stonehouse graduate

from the Pulse Leadership Academy in July.

Several new projects started, with Club Pulse,

a weekly youth club, beginning and acting as a

bridge between school and church. It’s being

supported by volunteers from all of

Stonehouse’s five churches and five young

people from the club came along to TRAC,

three for the first time. We also ran our first

non-residential Sports Camp in May, with 18

children attending, local businesses providing

lunch and Maidenhill School giving us the use

of their sports centre. In 2019/2020 this camp

will run in October and February half-terms.

PSALMS also ran its first ‘Active Prayer

Space’ at Maidenhill School, with over 400

pupils exploring prayer and reflection in a

creative way. This was supported by ten local

church volunteers and was positively received

by the school, leading to them inviting

PSALMS to run ‘experience Christmas and

Easter’ weeks to share the true meaning of

these events in an engaging way.

We are so thankful for the new volunteers who

have joined us over the past year, the open

doors created for us and that God continues to

work in greater ways than we humanly thought

possible.

Stonehouse

PSALMSY football trip to Forest Green Rovers

Emily Twigg

Stonehouse non-residential Sports Camp


8

“God continues to bless the work

in Nailsworth and truly is ‘adding

to our number’!”

‘And the Lord added to their number daily those

who were being saved’ (Acts 2:47) shares how

people had been coming together from different

walks of life to form community in praising God.

This has been the story for Nailsworth this year.

We have seen consistent growth across all

PSALMS activities this year, not just in number

but also in the depth of relationship and

discipleship with the young people.

In May we brought both local churches and

families from PSALMS together for an afternoon

of food and activities as one church in

Nailsworth. We had over 60 people attend in

total and it was encouraging to see people from

all backgrounds and generations coming

together. Another highlight from the year was

seeing our Club Pulse teenagers teaching a

‘Real Me’ session for Year 6 at Nailsworth

Primary school. They ran team games and

crafts, which taught the children that they

should choose to be themselves, because God

loves them for who they are.

Messy Church and Holiday Club continue to

be real places to meet with children and

families on a deeper level. We have had two

very successful holiday clubs this year. The

introduction of Active RE this year has helped

us reach more children at the school and has

contributed to a slight growth in numbers at

Messy Church and Holiday Club.

Residentials have been well attended this year

as we have taken away more people from

Nailsworth in 2018-19 than any other year.

Through residentials we saw three young

people become Christians. With all these

different activities going on, God continues to

bless the work in Nailsworth and truly is

‘adding to our number’!

Nailsworth

Nailsworth “Real Me”

Andy Poole

Nailsworth Holiday Club


Prayer We are instructed by the apostle Paul to ‘pray unceasingly, giving thanks in all circumstances’.

We are truly grateful to have seen God at work in the hearts and lives of many of the children and

young people we work with. At the same time our expectation is that we will see even greater

moves of God’s spirit at work across Gloucestershire as we journey through the next 12 months.

We believe there is more to come but this is only accomplished through the power of prayer.

We are hugely grateful for all of your prayer support over this year. It would be fantastic if you

could commit to praying for us each week. This is made easy by the prayer newsletters that we

send out, weekly vlogs that are posted and good news stories that are shared. Here are a few

specific areas to focus your prayers upon this year.

Please pray for God’s protection on the team of Sports Ministers as they lead the work in the

different areas.

• That Sports Ministry and specifically Project OneLife would bring glory to God throughout

Gloucestershire. That PSALMS’ role within this could be worked out.

• That more people may be motivated, inspired and trained to get involved with mission through

sport in Gloucestershire.

• That God would build his kingdom amongst children and young people in Gloucestershire

though the language and activity of sport. That there may be opportunities for people to grow as

discipleships of Jesus within Churches that may not even exist at the present time.

Finances

Once again we can affirm that our God has been amazingly faithful in providing for all our needs,

but especially with people and money. We budgeted this year for a significant deficit (£98,000)

as we continued to support the Gloucester Diocese OneLife Project with the equivalent of three

full time Sports Ministers. This was to be funded from our reserves which had been built up over

some years but also by recent trust grants (some of them front end loaded to cover the three

years of the project.)

At the time of going to print, our year end figures are not yet complete but we are confident that

the deficit will be considerably less than £98k and our best forecast is that it could be in the

£30-40k range mainly because of new grants received during the year and good cost control.

However, we are again needing to budget for ca £100k loss in 2019/20 as several of the three

year grants for the Sports Ministry project have now ceased. The Board consider that we have

sufficient reserves to manage that level of deficit for one more year by which time the ongoing

financial picture for OneLife should be known.


10

Review of Objectives 2018-19 MISSION AND MINISTRY

Sports Ministry

We have been pleased with the progression of Active RE during this year. It was delivered in a similar number of Primary Schools as the previous year, but was facilitated by a wider range of Sports Ministers than previously. Furthermore, schools also began to contribute towards the overall costs of Active RE as part of making the work more sustainable for the longer term.

Non-residential sports camps saw 272 children and 78 volunteers attending events last year. This is a significant increase from the previous year which saw 85 and 32 respectively. In areas where there is significant work amongst schools and in the community during term time the camps were judged to be more effective.

Encouragingly we saw weekly community sports sessions across Gloucestershire increase from six to nine. There has also been an increase in Health and Fitness-based models of Sports Ministry beginning to emerge which PSALMS has not directly been involved in but has actively encouraged.

The increase in influence is shown in the way PULSE Games has developed this year. For the first time this was available as a national resource through Scripture Union as part of our on-going partnership. The Diocese of Gloucester, which is recognised as having a key role, has been well represented as part of a national steering group that has been convened by the Church of England as they seek to develop a national strategy for Sports Ministry.

An international Mission through Sport Conference was planned to take place in Gloucestershire during June this year. Scripture Union were heading this up in partnership with PSALMS and other organisations. It was disappointing that the event was cancelled but helpful lessons were learned as part of the process. This was replaced by a smaller, Gloucestershire-specific training day that had 11 people come to it.

Conversations for developing fresh expressions of church have progressed in four areas over the course of this year however it is

acknowledged that these conversations are not as far forward as we would like. There is also an element that these things require a certain amount of planning prior to commencing but also a good deal of leaping out in faith at the right time without the ability to do detailed planning for everything. In some areas the issue is now capacity and gathering the right people to begin meeting together to worship God and encourage each other in faith.

Children and Youth Ministry

Leadership resources, non-residential sports camps, as well as specific schools’ resources, have all been developed this year which are all available for people to use.

Numbers who have attended residentials remained at around the same level as the previous two years. At TRAC (residential for secondary school age young people) 44 out of 49 young people reported that their view of God had changed by the end of the week with seven young people making commitments of faith for the first time. Follow-up is absolutely vital as we support these young people in their faith.

Godparent mentoring has stagnated a little this year. We have struggled to appropriately train and resource volunteer mentors to the level where they feel fully comfortable in the mentoring role. It has worked well where the mentor has had considerable previous experience of working with young people. Plans are in place to begin a review process for this as part of our renewed commitment to the importance of mentoring.

One of the biggest thrills from this year was to see young leaders helping to deliver PULSE Games who had previously been participants themselves as pupils. 4/7 were able to recall joining in previously as Year 6 pupils. To see such clear examples of long-term investment paying off is tremendously encouraging.

Overall we’ve increased the total number of volunteers involved with clubs and activities by over 50%. There is a continued need to help develop the confidence of volunteers who are involved in clubs on a regular basis.


Review of Objectives (continued) PARTNERSHIP

The Diocese of Gloucester has made a commitment to making mission through sport a key priority for the long term. This is as a direct result of the work that has been implemented through the three-way partnership. Currently the long-term role of PSALMS as part of this is still being clarified.

Work within Stonehouse has been hugely positive this year with over ten new volunteers coming on board to help with activities. Additionally some key members of local churches have come onto the LMG with plans now in place to bring more people into the wider vision as part of an effort to develop the long term sustainability.

All LMGs have either completed or are in the process of completing three-year plans for their areas. Although a new local partnership has not been formed this year, conversations are progressing positively in one area where we are now actively working towards establishing a formal partnership.

GOVERNANCE

All areas regularly monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and impact of their ministry through reports to Local Management Groups. These reports are produced at least quarterly and detail the numbers attending and progress of all the various activities organised or supported by PSALMS in the area. An important aspect of such reporting is an evaluation of the level of commitment of individuals to the discipling process. This evaluation enables the progress of individuals to be measured. Twice a year these figures are collated across all areas and reported to the Board, with any areas of concern being highlighted for debate. This process has been actively reviewed with Ministers during the year to emphasise its importance and ensure its consistency.

We have commenced a review of our communication needs and practices, aiming to increase effectiveness of marketing and promoting of PSALMS’ activities and one-off events, as well as seeking to ensure that stakeholders are kept fully informed and

engaged with the ongoing ministry. A template has been drawn up, and is now in use, to improve consistency and thoroughness of communications as part of the planning process for one-off events. Local Management Groups have been considering the local communications needs for their own areas, and the intention is to bring together these various strands into an overhaul of the PSALMS-wide communications and marketing approach.

As well as inducting two new Sports Ministers and two Interns, two new Trustees joined the Board during the year – Revd John Thompson as Chair of the Stonehouse LMG and Susan Mears as HR Director. A major restructuring took place when our General Manager left us at the end of March with Rob French taking on the role as team leader and the rest of the team taking on more responsibility to cover Fiona’s broad portfolio. Each area of her responsibility now has a designated Board lead, a team member lead and an administrator to ensure wider ownership and that nothing important gets overlooked.

At the same time, a complete review of our risk management procedures has led to each significant risk being overseen by a designated Trustee. Succession planning is always a challenge for small organisations but we are delighted with the satisfactory way that these changes were planned and are now working out.

RESOURCES

New three-year funding commitments were received from three Trusts (Allchurches, Mr Willats’ Charity and - for two years initially - the Hinchley Trust) totalling £107,500 which was a huge encouragement.

Meaningful discussions have been taking place as part of Project OneLife to secure a level of funding which would support the ongoing Sports Ministry work across Gloucestershire. This has led to some ‘bridging funding’ (£45k for 2019/20) being provided in the short term and a desire to fund the costs at a level closer to £200k pa beyond that as the project progresses.


12

Objectives 2019-20 Mission and Ministry

Develop one new worshipping community focused around allowing

young people and children to grow in their faith.

Enable children and young people to grow as a disciples of Jesus,

becoming more closely connected to him through mentoring,

leadership opportunities and residential experience.

Increase the impact and reach of residential activities throughout the

year which gives the opportunity to build upon week-to-week ministry

across locations.

Resources

Continue to refine and focus our communications with all

stakeholders and, by doubling the number of people who receive

communications from PSALMS on a regular basis, develop deeper

understanding of our work and more specific prayer.

Train and equip five people (not part of PSALMS staff team) and

three trainee staff members to enable mission through sport in a

variety of contexts.

For each area that we work in to increase numbers of volunteers

involved by 25%.

Governance

Support the OneLife Gloucestershire-based project, establishing

clearly what PSALMS’ role should be in the long-term delivery of

this vision.

Partnerships

Over the next 12 months build on a period of stability within

Nailsworth as we transition to allow a new staff team to continue

work alongside local churches.

Formalise a partnership with local churches to build a sustainable

ministry in a new location within Gloucestershire.

Putting Sport Alongside Local Ministries, Mynd House, The Highlands, Painswick GL6 6SL Registered Charity 1111077 Company 5505991

annual review 2018/19 - psalms€¦ · trac was also tremendously appreciated. ... attendance from...

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