Church Activities

Vision Day 2007

Held on 12th May in the Church

Erik wrote in the June 2007 newsletter :

"Thank you for praying for the PCC Vision Day in May. It took place on the Saturday at the end of our Wydale holiday. Those of you who have been on that holiday will know that jigsaw puzzles feature large. During the week there is a communal effort to complete a large and complex puzzle. Many people contribute by placing pieces so that eventually the puzzle is all finally in place. I felt we were engaged in a similar exercise in our Vision Day. What we did not do, however, was to get down to putting the individual pieces in place. We rather stood back to try to see what the bigger picture looked like. We asked ourselves the question, ‘where does God want us to be in seven years time?’ Just as we are guided by the picture on the box as we put a jigsaw together, so we tried to see the bigger picture – God’s vision – before we set about trying to decide on the important practical issues which face us today."

The process of building up this picture was by dividing into groups to focus on various themes. After each discussion session a spokesperson for each group gave a summary of the thoughts raised by that group. The notes below list the thoughts and ideas that came out of this. It should be noted that these are not all necessarily majority views - some may only be held by 2 or 3 people.

Purposes

Acts 2:42-47

	Health and growth
	Holy Communion and prayer
	Teaching
	Fellowship
	Giving to others

Matthew 28:19-20

	Go
	Make disciples
	Baptize
	Teach

1 Corinthians 3

	Build on Christ’s foundation
	His teaching
	Working together

1 Corinthians 12

	Body of Christ
	So that we might be Christ to the world

Hebrews 13

	Love one another
	Hospitality to strangers
	Remember those in prison and ill treated

Revelation 21:1-4

	God’s dwelling place
	God’s agent of re-creation

Luke 4

Healing

Luke 15

	Restoration
	A place where relationships with God are restored

Ezekiel 47

‘Life’ flowing out from the church

Values

Hebrews 12:2

Fixing our eyes on Jesus and persevering

Romans 13

Christ centred love

Mark 12:28, 1 Corinthians 13, Ephesians 4:2-6

	Humble
	Gentle
	Bearing each other up

John 14:6 and 3:16

Uniqueness of Jesus

Micah 6:8

Humility

2 Timothy 3:16

Authority of scripture

Philippians 4:4-7

	Christ likeness
	Gentleness
	Prayerfulness

John 15:5

	Serving others
	Humility

Philippians 2:5

Exodus 20

Ten Commandments

Ephesians 4:3

Unity in Christ

Philippians 2:2

	Like minded
	Core beliefs – Christ came – Christ died – Christ is risen

Hebrews 10:23ff

	No compromise/unswerving
	Meet together and breaking bread

Matthew 25

Stewardship

Ephesians 3

Church is a family – all ages – all of equal value

Where might God want us to be in 2014?

	Welcoming church – always open
	Within the community – do we have an attractive reputation? Want people to say, ‘see how these people love one another’
	How relevant is the Parish?
	Services in other places and at other times
	Develop NEXT, 9-30 Communion, Barneys, Uniform Groups, Link, Goals, Schools, Schools worker
	Building to be proud of that is crammed full of people of all ages
	Community use of the church building
	Community seeing that we are serving them positively
	Church at the centre of the community
	All growing in faith
	Looking outwards more than inwards
	Knock the walls down
	2X for a Linthorpe Road frontage
	Interfaith contacts
	Focused ministry – not trying to do everything
	Links/working with other churches
	Growing younger
	Double the numbers
	Might need to create ‘room’
	Greater flexibility in the building – toilets
	Building as a link to the community – eg Lydia/parent and toddler/uniformed organisations
	2X for demolishing the hall – link hall to church
	Leadership of church – future leaders – should we employ specialists – youth/family/pastoral?
	Retention of - - - young adults – effective discipling
	Varied worship – known as a praising people
	Adult Sunday classes to build on the work of Alpha
	Use of internet/contemporary methods of communication
	Service – everyone working
	Everybody to give up all their jobs except one, which would free jobs for others to do/become involved
	Communication
	Importance of social events

How can we turn our weaknesses in to strengths?

(The headings on the left hand column were identified by at least some as areas where we are weak)

Serving:

Encourage more people to be involved in serving thus sharing the load and using the gifts God has given

Growing

Encourage the welcomers in their valuable work

Set up a newcomers team whose job it is to integrate new people

Encourage fresh expressions/Lydia group/Tuesday group/NEXT

Cell groups will give opportunities for service which results in personal growth

Re-establish prayer triplets/partners thereby encouraging personal devotion

Maintain the emphasis on teaching

Inclusive

Work with 18-30’s needs leadership – what is to happen when Nick moves on?

More events like the Christmas Eve fun afternoon

Need to encourage mixing during after church coffee times – especially on Sunday a.m. when some noted people tended to stick to their own group each week

Unity

Need for better communication

Focus groups?

Use PCC members as conduits

Photos of PCC members in Narthex

between congregations at different services

Buildings

Nave project to go ahead

Sell hall land for flats and build on Linthorpe Road – with listening centre

Open church for prayer during the week

Hall groups to be encouraged to use church building

Concerts in church/films/training courses on e.g. parenting and marriage

Use 64 Queens Road imaginatively to draw those who would find going in to church alien

Services

Should be focussed on ‘target’ congregation

Have short services attracting families at time convenient to families – perhaps preceded by activities

Note : These were not voted on but were suggestions put forward by various groups