Around 50 guests were present for the unveiling of a training course aimed at busy church lay leaders with a passion for community outreach.

"Why are some churches effective at engaging with their neighbourhoods while other good churches are not?" asks Howard Webb, a CViC board member. "We have found that a church having a ‘go to' person who makes it happen is the most important factor."

CViC has enlisted the help of church-based community practitioners from around the country to come up with a training course that is relevant and practical.

"We know that most of the people who would be interested in doing this training are already busy and have a limited amount of volunteer hours they can give," says Mr. Webb. "We don't want to swamp our ‘Community Links' with so much coursework that they no longer have time to do the very thing we're on about, which is getting into the community."

Over the two years of the course the person receiving training can expect support from their home church, from CViC itself and from the mentoring programme that CViC is putting in place. "We will be doing everything we can think of to ensure that our ‘Community Links' succeed," says Mr. Webb.

For those who want to know more about becoming a Community Link, CViC has arranged a free ‘scratch ‘n sniff' afternoon 2-5pm on 19 November at Eden Community Church in Mt Eden, Auckland, where the course will be explained and all questions answered.

To learn more visit www.cvic.org.nz or contact Howard Webb, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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