Church Life Review Group
The Church Life Review Group was set up in 2020 to review the life, structures, resources and work of the URC to enable a faithful response to the challenges presented in Paper A1 Toward the Future of the URC. This paper reflected that the pandemic has become a moment that has revealed strengths, weaknesses and possibilities in the life of the church we maybe were not aware of.
The CLR Group is now moving into its second design phase, with the formation of three Task Groups that will help design future arrangements for support services, paid lay ministries, and financial and legal systems.
The task groups will be responsible for:
- Identifying/designing options for future ways of operating relevant to their group’s remit
- Undertaking feasibility studies for possible models
- Testing models against the values and principles agreed by General Assembly
- Consulting widely upon potential changes
- Producing recommendations for General Assembly in 2025
![](https://urc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/A4RGB-Church-Life-Review-Logo-2024.png)
The presentation from the Church Life Review group, from General Assembly 2024, can be downloaded below.
- Church Life Review Update – GA 2024 (PPT | 6mb)
You can also view the Church Life Review session from the GA in the video on this page, or from our YouTube channel.
In the presentation there is mention of a ‘living lab‘, this may be a new term for some people.
A living lab, in this context, is essentially an on-the-ground trial of a new way of working delivered in collaboration with a synod or synods, covering a pre-defined area which has been judged to be suitable for the trial. They will allow us to rapidly gain feedback about how innovative models work for local churches and synods, i.e. whether they ease the burden, or add to it.
2023
- Church Life Review Report – General Assembly 2023 (PDF | 198kb)
- Church Life Review Structures – General Assembly 2023 (PDF | 209kb)
- Synods and General Assembly: Combined Financial Analysis ( | 396kb)
- Local Churches and Good Governance (PDF | 566kb)
2022
- Church Life Review Report – General Assembly (PDF | 55kb)
- Initial Update from the Church Life Review (PDF | 85kb)
- Church Life Review Report – Executive Assembly 2022 (PDF | 98kb)
- Church Life Review Session Presentation (PPTX | 924kb)
Other Church Life Review Group Papers
- Towards a URC Theology of Money (PDF | 338kb)
- The URC: A Paradoxical Church at a Crossroads (PDF | 13mb)
Church Life Review Group - financial information webinar from MKS
The United Reformed Church has lacked good quality, consolidated, and comparable financial information across its Synods and General Assembly with which to take decisions for its future.
The Church Life Review Group, General Secretary, and Chief Financial Officer selected Moore Kingston Smith (Non-profit Advisory) to collect information from URC Synods and then to consolidate this information for the CLRG.
This webinar provides an understanding of the work that MKS has carried out on behalf of the Church Life Review Group.
For a full list of papers being presented at this year’s General Assembly, visit GA2023