What's our mission, values and vision?

On Sunday we had our "Vision Sunday" where - after a year of hard work - we presented the NEW draft Mission, Values and Vision.

Thank you for your great feedback! It has been very helpful and thought provoking. The leadership team is currently reviewing the feedback given and will present the final results when they are ready.

Our draft Mission, Values and Vision are:

Our Mission (2022)
Our mission is why we exist. It is what we believe God has called us to do. The group who spent time reviewing our mission thought it was appropriate for our mission to stay the same, but felt we needed to put more effort into "making" followers of Jesus.

Our draft 2022 mission is: We exist to make and grow followers of Jesus for God’s honour and glory

Our Core Values
Our core values are the things that are particularly important to us.

We value lots of things - and that's good and right. When we say a particular value is a "core" value, we are not saying we don't value other things. It is saying that, at this particular time, in our particular place, we believe that "these things" are the things that are particularly valuable to us. It helps us sharper what we are on about and what we are concentrating on. There is a real cost to this, as it means that we will put time and resources towards these particular things, which means there is less time and effort on other things. The reality is - as limited humans, we can't do everything that we would like to do, and if we don't decide on particular priorities - we end up loosing all focus and doing nothing.

Our 2022 values have changed. This is good and right, and reflects that our church is changing, and we are a dynamic and growing church. We also decided to reduce our core values from 5 to 3, as it will help us focus.

Our draft 2022 values are:

  1. All cultures, languages and backgrounds
    We live in an area rich in diverse cultures, languages and backgrounds. We desire to share Jesus with all these people and include them in everything we do

  2. Young People and Children
    Young people and children are precious to Jesus, and so are precious to us. We delight in reaching out and raising up the next generation of God’s family in our neighbourhood

  3. Each Other
    As children of God, and brothers and sisters in Christ, we belong to our Father and to each other. So we love and serve each other, and seek to see each other grow to maturity in Christ.


Our Vision
Our vision is, under God, how we would like to grow as a church over the next 3-5 years. The vision elements are made up of a combination of our values and how we think we can best achieve our mission over the next 3-5 years. The are "general" goals that we want to pursue. Exactly how we will achieve them (under God) will need to be worked out - but lots of good ideas were given on Sunday!

Our draft 2022 vision elements are:

  1. We desire to see our church overflowing with children and youth from our local area
    This may include doing things like holiday kids clubs, thinking of innovative ways to include kids from a non-church background, and including kids from non-church backgrounds in our Sunday activities.

  2. We will be a church that reaches out to our neighbourhood and invites them in
    This may include strengthening our visibility to and connection with the different cultural and community groups in our area, training our church members, and meeting people “where they are at”. This may include christ-focussed events that are as culturally accessible and comfortable as we can make them.

  3. We will be a church genuinely made up of the different language and cultural groups in our area
    All cultural and language groups should be reflected in all parts of our church life. This will include making everything we do as accessible as possible for people from different language and cultural groups. This may include highlighting different cultures and groups in interviews at church, celebrating different cultural moments and sharing food together.

  4. We will be a church that rejoices in the grace of Jesus
    This may include making our Sunday Services and weekday groups and homes as places of peace, to be released from haste and to recharge and look forward to. We will hear of God’s work in each other's lives. We will be thankful and pray.

  5. We will provide the resources to support the ministry of the church
    We will be a church that invests in resources to see we achieve our mission, values and goals.

Here's the video we watched on Sunday. Why not watch it and pause, and thank God for what he has done over the last 4 years.

Annual General Meeting: Monday 21st February, 7:00pm.
The AGM for our church will be held on Monday 21st February at 7:00pm. We will hear about the ministry of our church in 2022, look at last years accounts and this years budget, vote for wardens, parish council members (if we desire to have a parish council), and the nominators (those who will choose who replaces me).

It would be great if you could put this in the diary and join us then. It's an important meeting.

Prayer Meeting (Next meeting: Monday 7th March 7:45pm)
On the FIRST and THIRD Monday of the month (7:45 - 8:45pm), join us to pray to save the lost in our community. We meet remotely - here's the link to the meeting

Join us in person or online!
If you can't make church in person, you're welcome to join us online:

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

In Christ
Mike

Mike Doyle