Mission Report
Year ended 31 march 2023
“Pray that the LORD your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.”
Jeremiah 42:3 (NIV)
It’s not all about looking backwards, though. We can also move forward knowing that God will continue to guide us as we continue to reach the youngest generations with the gospel! As we reach out further to these children and young people that are hungry for Jesus, we continue to be blessed beyond measure by your invaluable support. I thank God for the committed and faithful volunteers, staff and supporters like you who open doors of possibility and forge lasting relationships as together we reach out to the 95.
While you pause in these pages for a while, I hope that you will be just as encouraged by God’s goodness and grace as we grow into all that he is calling us to do together. I am so thankful for this incredible journey and look forward to stepping out in faith with you as we stride into all that God has prepared for us to do in the coming year.
Myles MacBean, National Director
On the ground
Revealing Jesus
Supporting churches in mission is the main thrust of our work at Scripture Union England and Wales. It has been so encouraging to see such an increase in the number of Faith Guides using the Revealing Jesus mission framework to help them journey into faith with children and young people.
Faith Guides
98 Faith Guides signed up during the year.
(taking the total to 316 Faith Guides)
77 new churches came on board to support Faith Guides.
(taking the total to 237 churches)
Mission pioneers
We engaged 7 new part-time Pioneers, working within major cities, to help even more churches get on board with the vision.
We also saw the launch of:
5 Revealing Jesus pilots within an urban, ethnic minority church context.
3 pilots with Local Mission Partners.
As I pause and take stock of all that has happened through Scripture Union’s ministry this past year, I give glory to God for all that he has made possible.
MISSION PARTNERS
The benefits of working together are huge! That’s why we work with 59 Local Mission Partners (separate local charitable trusts who share our heart and vision) and 1 National Partner. 120 workers are employed between them. 2 new Local Mission Partners came on board during the year.
Resources
Providing high-quality tried-and-tested resources for mission remains a big part of what we offer at Scripture Union. Here are just some of the resources making an impact this year…
it’s your move
This much-loved resource continued to help children take the daunting step to secondary school, impacting the lives of thousands. 134,804 copies were ordered, along with 1,814 copies of its Welsh counterpart, Y Cam Nesaf.
Growing in faith
During the year, groups led by Faith Guides regularly connected with over 33,000 children and young people in the connect-explore-respond phases of the Revealing Jesus mission framework, with 225 under-18s part of 20 separate Grow Communities.
Faith Guide Clusters
We introduced Faith Guide Learning Clusters (hour-long, online sessions run by SU staff on a topic to equip Faith Guides in their work). 78 Faith Guides took part.
The faith Guide hub
The online Faith Guide Hub continued to equip Faith Guides with dedicated resources to help them develop in their role and to create the best faith journey with the 95.
We continued to develop our existing resource collections while preparing 2 new ones for launch in summer 2023. Our existing collections – SeeKing Jesus, SHOWTIME! and Be More Micah – were downloaded, at least 674 times.
Find out more at su.org.uk/RevealingJesus
Seasonal resources
Halloween: Jesus is The Light?
20,830 books were ordered for alternative Halloween events, with 1,229 people downloading the accompanying animation. 620 copies of the Welsh translation (Lesu Yw’r Goleuni) were also ordered.
Christmas: God Became Like Me?
24,230 books were purchased to give away to children at Christmas plus 160 copies of the Welsh translation (Ac Fe Ddaeth Duw Fel Fi?). 416 people downloaded the accompanying animation.
Easter: Jesus Died for Me?
23,320 copies were ordered along with 170 of the Welsh translation (Bu Farw Iesu Drosof Fi?), with 826 downloads of the animated version.
This means a potential 69,330 received a seasonal, gospel-sharing gift!
The Restoration Station
192 copies of the leaders’ guide for our latest resource to help churches run a holiday club were sold, along with 1,800 accompanying children’s activity books and 1,061 accompanying digital resources.
Rooted
Our Rooted resources to help create safe spaces for children and young people to explore and grow in faith remained popular. Just over 1,000 Rooted resources were bought or downloaded during the year.
Holidays and Events
We ran 46 holidays and 11 missions, with 7 of the holidays being brand new for this season. We also ran 5 Faith Guide holidays, designed for groups of children and young people to attend with their Faith Guide(s). Around 1,600 children attended a residential event and, although things had become more normal after a few Covid-affected years, we ran 3 online events.
We love our volunteers!
Our amazing volunteers are the lifeblood behind our events programme, and we couldn’t do it without them! There were 1,383 known volunteer opportunities. This is equivalent to 2,612 working weeks or 56 full-time staff !
Mission through Sport
There are now 5 people in the SU Sports Team, helping churches make the most of the amazing opportunity sport presents for making connections and sharing the gospel. The team’s sports sessions, including residential sports camps, reached over 300 children.
Building community
The 95 campaign
233 people signed up to The 95 Campaign during the year, showing their support for the vital task of reaching the 95. This takes the total number of campaign members to 15,250!
Social Media
We continued to engage current and potential supporters on social channels, with a combined follower count (on Facebook and Instagram) of over 10,000 and a reach of 500,000+
We posted over 400 times during the year with 2,158 interactions (likes, comments, shares).
Local gatherings
Local gatherings were held in 5 locations across England and Wales, which brought together over 100 Faith Guides, Local Mission Partners and staff for days of reconnection, worship, teaching and equipping.
Our quarterly news and prayer magazine, Connecting You, was sent to more than 16,000 supporters during the year, with some getting it by post and others choosing email.
Bible reading guides
We love helping our supporters engage with God’s Word daily, and our Bible reading guides continue to be enjoyed by thousands. Almost 12,000 people are subscribed to our printed notes with around 7,000 people receiving the daily Word Live email.
Giving thanks Tuesday
On top of the regular thank you messages we send to our wonderful supporters, we dedicated a whole day to saying thank you in November. While we couldn’t thank everyone on that day, 7,000 supporters were thanked by post, email or over the phone.
Going Global
Scripture Union England and Wales is just one of over 130 independent Scripture Union movements operating in around 120 countries around the world. Although each movement is autonomous, each Scripture Union Movement is committed to the same aims, beliefs and working principles. To find out more about our joint mission, visit www.scriptureunion.global.
Committing to the future
Supporters of the future
We hired a communications assistant to help us introduce a younger generation of potential supporters to SU. Look out for more on that project soon!
Research
We partnered with national youth charity Youthscape on a new piece of research – ‘Translating God: Making sense of Christianity with Gen Z’. The results will be published later in 2023 and will help shape our ongoing mission.
Hybrid mission
Should mission be face to face or online in this day and age? Or perhaps both?
To help us answer this question, 2 hybrid mission pilots (relating to sports and online games) were started. A practical guidelines documents is in the process of being published, and a research study in partnership with Liverpool Hope University is underway.
