Our Mission Statement

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Our general aims

As God's love for us fills our hearts and lives we want to live

We aim to serve God corporately as a church, sharing the Good News of Jesus in this locality. We also aim to encourage, strengthen and equip our members for their individual Christian lives, in all their different settings.

We acknowledge that the Gospel is unchanging, and that we are called to persevere with the tasks God has given us. At the same time we recognize the need for forward-looking vision in the life of our church, and for us to embrace the changes such a vision will bring.
 

Current priorities

In particular we have identified a number of priorities, the three most important being:-

We anticipate that these priorities should affect many areas of church life over the next two years as described in the paragraphs that follow. Specific targets are shown in italics.
 

Areas covered in this statement

The areas considered in this statement are:-

For details of our aims for each area, please click on one of the above links.

Our worship

Our worship is to reflect a Christ-centred intimacy and a sense of adoration. It should allow the Holy Spirit to move among us as he wants and should also enable us to express our spiritual gifts for the building up of the body.

We shall continue to explore how we can best develop aspects of our worship in order to make our church services as helpful as possible to young adults and children, (while still being mindful of the needs of other groups).

We shall seek to make imaginative use of the new Common Worship services as they become available. (NB Since the writing of this paragraph, we have implemented the full range of Common Worship services).

We value the special nature of the evening service, but are aware of the need for growth.
 

Our learning together

Our learning together through preaching, homegroups, etc, is to equip us to live for Christ in our homes, work places, communities and in wider society, expressing the goals, values and standards of the Kingdom of God.

We will provide the resources to train and equip those who are in positions of leadership in the church, and will encourage leaders to take up suitable opportunities for training.

We will seek to encourage the role of the homegroups within our church, and will ensure all new members of the church are given the opportunity to join a group.
 

Our work amongst children and young people

Children and young people are to be valued for who they are. We wish to see them taught the faith and challenged to a whole-hearted, sacrificial, life-long commitment to Christ. We will listen to their questions and concerns.

We commit ourselves to exploring ways of reaching those from families who do not regularly attend church, while also supporting the existing Sunday groups and their leaders. In particular, we will actively and strongly pursue the possibility of starting an after-school club. (NB Since the writing of this paragraph, we have tried running an after-school group, but sadly problems of discipline have meant that we have had to close it, at least for the time being).

We recognize that future availability of leadership is a major concern.

We will encourage our older young people to a deep sense of Christian vocation, including the possibility of involvement in various areas of specifically Christian service.
 

Our witness, service and profile in the local community

We commit ourselves anew to evangelism in its various forms, with a fresh concern for the people of our neighbourhood and an emphasis upon finding new and imaginative ways to build relationships. We acknowledge that we must find ways of going out to people, rather than seeking to pull them in to our buildings and our services. We will aim to be an active presence in the local community, involved in local issues and local needs. By good attractive publicity we will make known the work we are doing.

We will seek for ways of making effective contact with young adults.

We will continue to explore the best ways of using the Emmaus course and the visiting with the Jesus video. (NB Since the writing of this paragraph, we have moved to using the "So, who is this Jesus?" video and the Christianity Explained course).
   

Our support for the world-wide church and our involvement with wider world issues

We are world Christians, linked with other churches and other Christians world-wide through our support for mission societies at home and abroad. We value these links and wish to foster and develop them. We believe mission also embraces wider issues of care for those in need, of justice, and of concern for the environment. Where possible we shall seek to be involved in such issues, working on the basis of faith in God, adherence to the truths of his word, and compassion for those in need.

We will encourage all members of our congregation to be on the mailing list of a mission agency.

We will encourage our mission agency reps in their work, including where appropriate giving support to enable them to attend events run by their society.

We will continue support of the Jubilee 2000 Campaign. (NB This has now been replaced by the Make Poverty History Campaign).
 

Our organizational structures

We want to travel as light as possible, but we acknowledge the need for good administration and internal communication.

We shall seek to ensure our committee structures etc are geared to the fulfilment of the targets in this mission statement.
 

Our prayer, undergirding all the areas above

In all these things we are totally reliant upon God's strength. We therefore commit ourselves to seek through heartfelt prayer for his blessing upon all we do, trusting that as we delight ourselves in the Lord, he will give us the desires of our hearts. This will involve our intercessions in services, other opportunities for prayer together, and our prayer as individual Christians.

We commit ourselves to build on progress made in our corporate prayer life through the "Prayer Vine" and prayer meetings on 3 or 4 Saturday mornings each year. We will seek to encourage further growth and development in this area of our church life.

We will support the whole life of the church in prayer, including particularly the three major priorities and the other targets as set out above.
 

Conclusion

It is intended that this Mission Statement, launched at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting in the Spring of 1999, should be reconsidered at subsequent APCMs. This version was slightly amended after the 2000 APCM (with some later adaptations and updates).

The following areas of church life, which are not included in this statement, may subsequently be given targets and be brought into a revised Mission Statement: 

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