CAPTION: Heidi Lewis began her Church Army training four years' ago
Dartmoor Music Teacher Commissioned as ‘Boots on the Ground’ Church Army Evangelist
A music teacher from Devon is among 15 people to have been commissioned as a Church Army Evangelist during a service at Sheffield Cathedral.
Heidi Lewis has been training part-time in the Church Army for the last four years, alongside her part-time role as a Mission and Families Development Worker with the Ashburton and Moorland Mission Community.
She also works as the Head of Music in a local school and has a teenage daughter.
The Church Army is the main evangelism and social action branch of the Church of England, with its evangelists described as “the boots on the ground,” particularly in areas of deprivation and need.
The commissioning service took place at Sheffield Cathedral
Heidi was commissioned by the Rt. Rev’d Tim Thornton, former Bishop of Truro and the Episcopal Visitor for the Church Army Mission Community.
After the ceremony, she said “I’m very excited about what is going to happen next.
“Being commissioned is a good way to officially recognise the skills, gifts and experience that evangelists and lay workers have.
Heidi’s journey to faith started when she joined the church choir as a child and attended church with her family.
She became a Christian after watching a documentary about John Wesley. When she heard he had described his heart as being “strangely warmed” by the Holy Spirit, she realised that this is something she had experienced too.
The former Bishop of Truro, Rt. Rev’d Tim Thornton is the son of Church Army Evangelists
As a teenager she felt a calling to ministry, but it was not until many years later that she contacted a local vicar to get his advice. She did not feel that ordination was for her. Eventually she was encouraged to consider the Church Army and, after attending a Discovery Day, knew it was the right place for her.
She said that anyone who is wondering whether the Church Army is right for them, should find out more: “Even if you are not sure, reach out and start to explore the possibilities, because as you push the doors, you will find out which ones are open and which ones are closed to you.
“Until you start the process you don’t know what God has got in store.”
Eli Wort, Head of Initial Training for the Church Army, said “Church Army evangelists are people who tend to work with people who are, what our founder Wilson Carlisle called, the last, the least and the lost.
“Those people who are often on the edges of society, who don’t have contact with a church, who can be quite lonely, people in areas of deprivation.
Captain Phil Baul (pictured with his wife Chris) is a retired Church Army Evangelist from Plymouth and also features in our This is My Story exhibition
“Church Army evangelists are the people who put the boots on the ground there and build relationships and share the good news of Jesus Christ in word and deed.”
The Rt. Rev’d Mark Rylands, who is Heidi’s Team Rector and an Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Exeter, travelled to Sheffield for the service and said afterwards “It was very encouraging to see so many new evangelists being commissioned.
“The Church Army is a pioneer of lay evangelists in the Church of England, sometimes it is a forgotten part of the church’s ministry, but so so important.
“Church Army evangelists can really encourage people to use their gifts to share their faith by what they do, what they say and who they are.”
Now that she is commissioned, Heidi will continue in her Mission and Family Development role, while being open to what God might have planned for her to do next.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to Devon and getting on with all the things we have planned for next year in our mission community,” she said.
