Why Commissioned Lay Missioners Matter
One of the greatest privileges of my ministry as the community missioner over the past year has been accompanying the discernment, formation, and commissioning of a new and first generation of volunteer Commissioned Lay Missioners within the Anglican Diocese of Niagara. Looking back, I can honestly say that this has been the most hopeful and life-giving aspect of my work. It has renewed my confidence that the Holy Spirit continues to call ordinary Christians into extraordinary participation in the Missio Dei. Where mission is understood in terms of restoration. Restoring all things back into relationship with the Triune God.
The Anglican Church stands at a significant moment in its history. Across our diocese we long to see our parishes renewed, not simply by attracting those who already have some connection with church, but by learning again how to participate in God’s mission among those who have long since left Christian communities and those who have never had any meaningful experience of the Church at all. Many people today carry deep misunderstandings, painful memories or negative stereotypes about Christianity. Others simply regard the Church as irrelevant to the questions and longings of contemporary life.
Such people are not reached primarily through programmes or publicity. They are reached through relationships.
For too long, much of our energy has understandably been focused on what might be called the “bridgeable”, those who remain open to attending a traditional church service or responding to familiar invitations. This remains an important ministry. Yet the vast majority of our neighbours now belong to what missiologists increasingly describe as the “unbridgeable”: people for whom the cultural, emotional, and spiritual distance from church has become so great that they are unlikely ever to walk through our doors unless Christians first learn to cross the threshold into their lives outside church buildings, engaged in local parish neighbourhoods.
Contextual mission begins precisely here.
It asks us first to listen before speaking; to become students of our neighbourhoods before attempting to change them; to recognize where God is already at work beyond the walls of our churches; and to cultivate relationships of trust that make the Gospel visible long before it is articulated in words. This kind of mission cannot simply be added as another parish programme. It requires people who are deeply rooted in prayer, emotionally mature, curious about others, and willing to spend time building authentic relationships within their local communities.
This is why, for me, Commissioned Lay Missioners are becoming strategically important to the future of our diocese.
My hope is not simply to appoint volunteers with another title. We hope that every Commissioned Lay Missioner becomes a catalyst for helping a parish rediscover its neighbourhood relationally. They encourage congregations to move from maintaining church life to participating more intentionally in God’s life already unfolding within their communities. They help parishes notice where loneliness, isolation, spiritual hunger, and spiritual need already exist, and then accompany local people in ways that are incarnational, relational, and deeply attentive.
This is not about creating another committee. It is about nurturing missional disciples who can help cultivate a missional imagination throughout the whole parish.
Over the past year our formation programme has intentionally embraced a praxis-based approach to learning. Rather than simply studying mission in theory, participants are learning by engaging in contextual mission, reflecting theologically on their experience, receiving supervision, mentoring in collaboration with the parish rector and clergy, and returning again into practice with greater wisdom and confidence. This rhythm of action and prayerful reflection echoes the pattern of discipleship we see throughout the Gospels, where Jesus forms his followers not simply by teaching them but by sending them.
The result has been deeply encouraging. I have watched individuals grow in confidence, theological depth, spiritual maturity, and practical wisdom. They have become more attentive listeners, more discerning practitioners, and more courageous witnesses to Christ’s love within their own communities. Their generosity, humility, and commitment have continually inspired me.
The challenge, however, remains significant.
Jesus’ words remain as true today as when he first spoke them: “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.” (Matthew 9.37)
The opportunities for contextual mission across the diocese are immense. Every parish sits within a unique mission field rich with relationships waiting to be formed and stories waiting to be heard. Yet we need more labourers. We need Christians whose faith is deep enough to move beyond maintaining church structures and who are passionate about joining God’s mission in the neighbourhood beyond the colonialist focus of getting more people ‘in’. We need people with emotional intelligence, humility, resilience, theological imagination, and the interpersonal gifts necessary to build genuine relationships across difference. We need women and men who recognize that mission is less about having the right answers and more about faithfully accompanying people as they discover God’s presence already at work in their lives.
My hope is that many more lay Anglicans across the Diocese will prayerfully consider whether God might be calling them into this vocation. Not everyone is called to ordained ministry, but every baptized Christian is called to participate in some role concerning God’s mission. For some, becoming a Commissioned Lay Missioner may be precisely the way in which that calling can be recognized, nurtured and fully deployed in collaboration with the rector and the wider diocese.
As I reflect on the past year, I feel profound gratitude. It has been a joy to accompany such gifted and faithful people. Their courage, generosity, and commitment have continually reminded me that the future of the Church will not be secured simply through better strategies or more efficient structures, through ensuring that we just have ordained priests, but rather, through communities of disciples willing to leave familiar ground, listen deeply, love generously and join Christ where he is already present in the life of the world.
That, surely, is the heart of contextual mission. And it is why Commissioned Lay Missioners are not simply an optional addition to diocesan life, but in my view, an essential part of how we faithfully participate in God’s renewing mission in Niagara today.
The Harvest is Plentiful
Why Commissioned Lay Missioners Matter
One of the greatest privileges of my ministry as the community missioner over the past year has been accompanying the discernment, formation, and commissioning of a new and first generation of volunteer Commissioned Lay Missioners within the Anglican Diocese of Niagara. Looking back, I can honestly say that this has been the most hopeful and life-giving aspect of my work. It has renewed my confidence that the Holy Spirit continues to call ordinary Christians into extraordinary participation in the Missio Dei. Where mission is understood in terms of restoration. Restoring all things back into relationship with the Triune God.
The Anglican Church stands at a significant moment in its history. Across our diocese we long to see our parishes renewed, not simply by attracting those who already have some connection with church, but by learning again how to participate in God’s mission among those who have long since left Christian communities and those who have never had any meaningful experience of the Church at all. Many people today carry deep misunderstandings, painful memories or negative stereotypes about Christianity. Others simply regard the Church as irrelevant to the questions and longings of contemporary life.
Such people are not reached primarily through programmes or publicity. They are reached through relationships.
For too long, much of our energy has understandably been focused on what might be called the “bridgeable”, those who remain open to attending a traditional church service or responding to familiar invitations. This remains an important ministry. Yet the vast majority of our neighbours now belong to what missiologists increasingly describe as the “unbridgeable”: people for whom the cultural, emotional, and spiritual distance from church has become so great that they are unlikely ever to walk through our doors unless Christians first learn to cross the threshold into their lives outside church buildings, engaged in local parish neighbourhoods.
Contextual mission begins precisely here.
It asks us first to listen before speaking; to become students of our neighbourhoods before attempting to change them; to recognize where God is already at work beyond the walls of our churches; and to cultivate relationships of trust that make the Gospel visible long before it is articulated in words. This kind of mission cannot simply be added as another parish programme. It requires people who are deeply rooted in prayer, emotionally mature, curious about others, and willing to spend time building authentic relationships within their local communities.
This is why, for me, Commissioned Lay Missioners are becoming strategically important to the future of our diocese.
My hope is not simply to appoint volunteers with another title. We hope that every Commissioned Lay Missioner becomes a catalyst for helping a parish rediscover its neighbourhood relationally. They encourage congregations to move from maintaining church life to participating more intentionally in God’s life already unfolding within their communities. They help parishes notice where loneliness, isolation, spiritual hunger, and spiritual need already exist, and then accompany local people in ways that are incarnational, relational, and deeply attentive.
This is not about creating another committee. It is about nurturing missional disciples who can help cultivate a missional imagination throughout the whole parish.
Over the past year our formation programme has intentionally embraced a praxis-based approach to learning. Rather than simply studying mission in theory, participants are learning by engaging in contextual mission, reflecting theologically on their experience, receiving supervision, mentoring in collaboration with the parish rector and clergy, and returning again into practice with greater wisdom and confidence. This rhythm of action and prayerful reflection echoes the pattern of discipleship we see throughout the Gospels, where Jesus forms his followers not simply by teaching them but by sending them.
The result has been deeply encouraging. I have watched individuals grow in confidence, theological depth, spiritual maturity, and practical wisdom. They have become more attentive listeners, more discerning practitioners, and more courageous witnesses to Christ’s love within their own communities. Their generosity, humility, and commitment have continually inspired me.
The challenge, however, remains significant.
Jesus’ words remain as true today as when he first spoke them: “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.” (Matthew 9.37)
The opportunities for contextual mission across the diocese are immense. Every parish sits within a unique mission field rich with relationships waiting to be formed and stories waiting to be heard. Yet we need more labourers. We need Christians whose faith is deep enough to move beyond maintaining church structures and who are passionate about joining God’s mission in the neighbourhood beyond the colonialist focus of getting more people ‘in’. We need people with emotional intelligence, humility, resilience, theological imagination, and the interpersonal gifts necessary to build genuine relationships across difference. We need women and men who recognize that mission is less about having the right answers and more about faithfully accompanying people as they discover God’s presence already at work in their lives.
My hope is that many more lay Anglicans across the Diocese will prayerfully consider whether God might be calling them into this vocation. Not everyone is called to ordained ministry, but every baptized Christian is called to participate in some role concerning God’s mission. For some, becoming a Commissioned Lay Missioner may be precisely the way in which that calling can be recognized, nurtured and fully deployed in collaboration with the rector and the wider diocese.
As I reflect on the past year, I feel profound gratitude. It has been a joy to accompany such gifted and faithful people. Their courage, generosity, and commitment have continually reminded me that the future of the Church will not be secured simply through better strategies or more efficient structures, through ensuring that we just have ordained priests, but rather, through communities of disciples willing to leave familiar ground, listen deeply, love generously and join Christ where he is already present in the life of the world.
That, surely, is the heart of contextual mission. And it is why Commissioned Lay Missioners are not simply an optional addition to diocesan life, but in my view, an essential part of how we faithfully participate in God’s renewing mission in Niagara today.
Ian Mobsby has over 10 years of experience working as a lay pioneer/missioner, and over 20 years as an ordained missioner/pioneer practitioner, particularly with missional forms of new monastic communities and the renewal of parishes as mixed ecology contexts of the experimental alongside the traditional. Ian has lectured and spoken around various parts of the Anglican Communion in the USA, Canada, the UK & Europe, Australia and New Zealand. He has written a number of books on aspects of contemporary mission and spirituality, and recently completed a research PhD part exploration of the 'Spiritual But Not Religious' part theological response exploring a particular contemplative model of mission. A book was published in January 2025.
Ian was awarded the St Dunstan's medal by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2019 for services to the church in developing new forms of religious/spiritual communities, and in 2022 was made the Canon for Mission Theology in the Diocese of Niagara in Canada. In 2023, Ian moved to Canada to take up the senior position as the Community Missioner working directly to the Bishop of Niagara to develop mission and missional communities. Ian continues his work as a chapter member of the international new monastic Society of the Holy Trinity and as a Trustee of the St Anselm Community in Lambeth Palace and as a member of the Church of England's College of Bishop’s Advisory Council for the relations of Diocesan Bishops and Religious Communities.
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