Creating Wellbeing: Churches as champions and enablers of wellbeing in the community

For centuries people’s overall wellbeing has been on a continual upward trend. Alarmingly, during this century, key measures of wellbeing have started declining and there has been a disconnect - despite advances in technology, medicine, etc. Despite wealth going up, wellbeing is not.

Jesus said "I have come that they are to have life and life to the full”. Taking this as a challenge to Christians, what can be done in our churches and communities to stop people falling in the river? 

A key factor in the 2011 riots, and again in summer 2024, was ‘general levels of disillusionment with life’. After the 2011 events, I was commissioned to lead joint strategic thinking between leaders in the public and civil society sector, chaired by Bishop Peter Selby, on what could be done to address the underlying causes.

I also started to question "What are the enabling factors for a positive experience of life?"

This raised a conundrum which perplexed and saddened those involved: that civil society structures, characterised by service-providing organisations, have structural limitations in giving the ‘wholeness’ that is key requirement (nutrient) for people to flourish. For example, opportunities to ‘bump into each other’, and to form lasting relationships where people do different things and share a wider range of life together.

As a result of these conversations, a group of us set out on a journey learning and experimenting with ways to re-enliven our ways of living and working together. We called the initiative The Civil Society Forum. The research question was:

'How can we move beyond a civil society sector that picks up the pieces; how can civil society be about the ways we live and work together that are conducive and enabling of thriving?’

In 2025, the first ‘Wellbeing Creating Church’ initiative - a partnership between IBEX and a church in Hampshire - will be launched.

I have been developing a resource framework which draws on disciplines including lifestyle medicine, positive psychology, counselling, coaching and system approaches; including human systems dynamics, social movements and ‘enabling environments’ (so such initiative can also be termed ‘enabling wellbeing’ or ‘enabling wellbeing creating community’).

This initiative builds on and extends the work and resources from the Civil Society Forum.

In all these things, a big difference can be made by small tweaks in what is already happening. To 'walk the talk', our intent is to support churches in enabling wellbeing in their congregations and wider communities by helping build inspiration and intent. One of key things we are keen to start is to co-facilitate forums for developing and sharing intent, inspiration and ideas, and for sharing stories and mutual support among participants.

We would love to hear from anyone interested in partnering with or attending a forum, The Wellbeing Creating Church initiative, or join the conversation of Wellbeing Creation.

Let us journey with you and together explore whether "the key to thriving is to find joy in the journey" (quote from an unknown source) or to find a way to make it true.

Look out for the first few of the seven strands of Wellbeing Creation in my next post.