The book Towards the Conversion of England suggests that a parish can put on an evangelistic mission to its own community. Apparently several of these were held in the first few years after the book was published, although I can’t find any record of how successful they were. Here are the basics:
First, plan both the preparation for the event and the follow-up to it. ‘It is worse than useless… unless the “follow-up” has been carefully planned and the promoters have answered the question, “What do you plan to do with those whose hearts are touched?”‘
The first preparation event is what we would call an every-member canvass, but for the purpose of explaining the need for an evangelistic mission rather than the need for money. ‘Every house in the parish should be visited twice, and the visitor should make personal contact with the household.’
The main preparation event is what the book calls a teaching convention, to which parishioners are invited in order to prepare them to participate in ther mission itself. Parishioners must be able to summarise and explain, in ordinary language, the main outlines of the Christian faith. The teaching convention will be spread over several sessions, and should continue until those attending feel that they can make such an explanation. ‘The convention must be prepared for and followed up both in the pulpit and in the parish.’ To the extent possible, lay people should do the teaching.
The preparation should also build up the sense of fellowship in the church. ‘It would be of little use to to hold a mission unless those who are converted by it and, perhaps, brought to church for the first time, find within the Body of Christ a warmth of welcome that breaks down the natural barriers between man and man… This intensification of fellowship will develop from the sense of responsibility in the common task.’
The mission itself should bring in someone with experience of or at least a perceived call to evangelistic preaching, and should last long enough to reach everyone in the parish. There might be five or six talks over two or three days, in different places in the neighborhood where a different audience might be found. ‘The missioner must be able to build men up in the faith and fellowship of the Church; for a Parochial Mission which ignores the intellect and relies on emotion is not likely to have lasting results.’
Towards the Conversion of England does not say more about follow-up than the above remarks about fellowship and welcome in the church. Follow-up was apparently the subject of a pamphlet published later. The book also recognises that small-group campaigns may be the wave of the future, ‘as the age of big public meetings seems to have passed, at any rate for a time’, but it seems to me that the need now is something unmistakeably associated with a local Church. Unless local churches really don’t have a future.
Still an Evangelical in the Episcopal Church 
January 14, 2012 at 9:20 pm
This all sounds very logical. It’s really no different than the work I need to do in my profession as a church musician. Prepare and study your material, and engage competent colleagues to assist. And in our fast-moving society, I would add one tip: don’t waste people’s time. All seems to be in good order Father Wainwright, for you to continue on this Anglo-catholic pilgrimage. Now just remember that the teaching conventions are to supplement the Sunday liturgy, where sermons need to be wholly focussed on the propers for the day. No “sermon series” please, and we’re totally on the same page.
January 15, 2012 at 5:07 pm
If the readings are in series (as the Gospel and Epistles are most of the year, and the Old Testament can be), why wouldn’t the sermons be? I’ve done plenty of sermon series, and hope to do more eventually.
January 15, 2012 at 10:48 pm
Yes, of course the lectionary forms a series. We only need to guard ourselves from the allure of creating a reason for our own specially-designed series. Such as if I were to spend the next ten Sundays going through Gibbons’ verse anthems. Or worse yet might be something like a series of anthems that I composed (soon to be available on the Its-all-about-me Press.com) Now here we might converge: The lectionary is nothing sacred. But within it are contained the wisdom of generations of Godly scholars, while inviting a discipline to follow along. (but a little bit of Anglican common sense is helpful; I doubt you could have tackled all of the thorny little details of fornication in this morning’s sermon)
January 16, 2012 at 3:04 pm
Some us dealt with chastity on Sunday :)
January 31, 2012 at 9:39 am
The one clear biblical command in regard to music seems to be that it must glorify God. So perhaps answering the broader question on what brings glory to God can shed more light than analyses of performance v. participation, or familiarity/contemporaneity v. obscurity/antiquity.
May 28, 2012 at 7:32 am
[…] opportunities to share the gospel during the coming week. A parochial mission of the sort described here is planned for the fall, and the person invited to lead it is preaching next Sunday at all […]
January 15, 2013 at 8:59 pm
[…] book and matters arising therefrom have been discussed before on this site, here and here and here and here. I’ve read some useful and interesting discussions on Richardson’s own […]