Across our Diocese, something both ancient and new is quietly emerging. It is not a programme, not a strategy, and not an attempt to open up Christianity in a new way in the parishes and missions of the Diocese of Niagara. It is a rediscovery of a vocation – the calling of some lay people to be formed, commissioned, and sent as commissioned lay missioners into the everyday spaces of life where the Church is rarely seen and seldom expected, where this type of mission takes a long time to build, and is never quick!
We are calling this vocation the Commissioned Lay Missioner.
Our first cohort, which began in 2025, is already in training, and the signs are deeply encouraging. These committed followers of Jesus are not being prepared to replicate existing church activities, nor to support parish outreach projects that already happen within parish life as a bridge into the parish or mission neighbourhood. They are being called to deliberately be with those where church is unbridgeable, which, as we know in our post-Christendom post-secular context, are the growing constituency of those who live and work in local communities. So Commissioned Lay Missioners are being equipped to cultivate relationships, communities, and expressions of Christian presence among those who are de-churched or who have never been churched at all — people who will not walk through our doors, not because they are hostile, but because church as we know it has little connection or relevance to the texture of their lives.
This is not a failure of faith. It is a change in culture.
We now live in a society where many are spiritually curious yet institutionally distant, open to meaning but wary of organized religion, searching for belonging while unsure where to look. The question before us is no longer, “How do we bring them back?” but rather, “How do we go to where God is already present and at work in their lives?”
The Commissioned Lay Missioner exists to inhabit that question.
This vocation grows directly from the vision of a mixed ecology Church — a Church that holds inherited forms of parish church life mostly on Sundays, alongside new, contextual, and relational expressions of mission. Mixed ecology is not about abandoning tradition, nor about innovation for its own sake. It is about diversification for the sake of the Gospel: recognizing that no single expression of church can reach the fullness of our communities, and that the Spirit calls us to cultivate many forms of presence, witness, and belonging.
Lay Missioners are formed to listen deeply to their neighbourhoods, to discern spiritual hunger, to gather people in unexpected places, and to nurture communities of loving action, prayer, conversation, service, and exploration that may never look like a conventional expression of church (particularly at the beginning) yet are authentically rooted in Christ. They are builders of new bridges between church and world, translators of faith into lived context, and companions to those who might never otherwise encounter Christian community.
Importantly, this is not a solo endeavour. Commissioned Lay Missioners remain grounded in, supported by, and accountable to their sending parish and Diocese. Their ministry flows from the worshipping life of the Church even as it reaches beyond it. They are not replacements for clergy, nor are they volunteers filling gaps. They represent a distinct, recognized calling — one that reflects the baptismal vocation shared by all Christians, now given particular shape through training, discernment, and commissioning.
What we are witnessing is less about creating something new and more about recovering something deeply traditional. The early Church grew not primarily through gathered worship but through networks of households, relationships, and daily encounters. Faith spread along the ordinary pathways of work, friendship, and hospitality. In many ways, Commissioned Lay Missioners are reclaiming this apostolic instinct for our own time.
For parishes, this moment invites prayerful imagination. Who among you already carries this missionary heart? Who is trusted in the community, attentive to others, spiritually grounded, and drawn to engage beyond the familiar patterns of church life? Often these individuals are already present — sometimes quietly at the margins — waiting to be recognized, encouraged, and formed.
Supporting someone to explore this vocation is itself an act of mission. It signals that the parish understands itself not only as a place of gathering, but as a community sent. It widens our understanding of ministry and allows gifts already given by the Spirit to be named and nurtured.
There will be an opportunity this summer for those sensing such a call to enter a process of discernment through a panel conversation, with training for the next cohort beginning in the autumn. This time of testing vocation is as important as the training itself, ensuring that those who step forward do so with prayerful clarity and communal affirmation.
We are not looking for experts or activists. We are looking for faithful, attentive disciples — people willing to listen, to learn, to accompany others, and to trust that God is already present in the places we are sent outside of church worship services.
If your parish knows someone who might explore this path, or if you yourself feel a quiet stirring of curiosity, we encourage you to begin a conversation. Leaflets and application materials are available from Jane Wyse in the Synod office by emailing [email protected]. For further discussion about the role, formation process, and how this ministry is supported, please contact Ian Mobsby, the diocesan community missioner, by emailing [email protected].
The future of the Church will not be shaped only by what happens inside our buildings, but by how faithfully we are willing to be present beyond them. The Commissioned Lay Missioner is one way we are learning, together, to follow Christ into the life of the world he loves.
Holding Things and Letting Go