We are on a continuing journey
We are on a continuing journey
The question is where next?
It is now a year on from when I started and a lot has happened. Whether you are part of a ministry team, a fellowship or house group or none of these – please read this through, please pray it through and please respond in person, in writing, by email. We started 2008 with our Parish Day where many dreams and ideas were shared. What has happened to these?
1. Outreach to families and young people, plus using the family service to involve more young people. We have started an afternoon service BREAKOUT for families, invited people to book their baptism by coming to this service and started a home baptism visiting team, plus having a cake made for the baptism service itself. Plus dedicating 2009 to this dream for our church. Also we are making the All Age service more informal and making it more young person led with fewer adults up front.
2. Good PA system and better lighting. A new PA system is in place and we are currently looking with our electricians at better lighting alongside better electrics in the church.
3. Outreach to the community. We now have 3 community partners who between them support homeless and vulnerable people, MIND and their social group and Choice who support adult with learning difficulties to run a cafe out of our hall. Outreach lunches on Saturdays continue to grow and grow and grow!
4. Late night evangelism. Street Pastors – we have 5 churches working together funded by Kerrier and others to train and supervise over 20 volunteers (Stop Press – now 30! Ed.) to work as a pastoral care team on the streets between 10pm and 3am on the streets of Camborne every Friday night.
5. Welcoming church to all. We have given a new focus to our welcome team and are highlighting it as the most important ministry we have. This one we as a whole must work on every year. Go back to dream number 1 and put that one and this one together for 2009!
6. Church reordering so outside groups could use it, draughts reduced, heating upgraded. It’s all going ahead and the builders are provisionally booked for 2009. It’s all in God’s hands now.
7. Look at the Cecil Norman building. We have taken a leap of faith and have begun the work. We will soon have the best small hall in Camborne and then we can double our outreach and community work.
8. Bell Ringing Team. We now have the offer of a Tower Captain to train up a new team of ringers. Yes!
9. Church open 24/7. Mm, an interesting problem, but I wonder if we achieve dream number 6 will outside groups using the church actually make this possible for us – at least some of the time?
10. Press officer. Still praying for someone!
11. Children’s choir. I am advertising as I write this for children to join the adult choir who will be paid a small honorarium for it. Please pray for this.
12. Organ. Awaiting quotes for this to be repaired and upgraded for us and for future generations. Again in God’s hands.
13. Interactive sermons. We have tried this a few times and I’m up for it again. So watch this space!
So that’s all that we shared as our dreams in January 2008 and so far a number of them are either achieved or on target to be achieved next year. Some, like being a welcoming church, are ongoing and always will be.
Where Now? What Is Our Destiny?
What is the path that I believe God has laid out for us next year? The scriptural focus for 2009 is ‘love your neighbour as yourself’. This is a huge theme and therefore needs a tighter focus. So taking from our last Parish Day I have picked out the dreams and hopes you shared about reaching out to Children and Families. Or put another way ‘Becoming a Family Friendly Church’ which is not as easy as you might think. Families today and children especially want such different things from even ten years ago. Life has changed for families and the pressures are different from even ten years ago. For example, now, over 40% of all children live in single parent families. How can we support single parents who now make up nearly half of the families that we could serve? How can we show all parents that we care about them? Not an easy answer, but one we must because we are called to serve them.
What about others?
Yes we are called to serve every one equally whether young or old – absolutely. However, we can only focus as a whole church on one part of ‘Who is our neighbour?’ at a time. The vehicle through which we will explore this at our next Parish Day in January 2009 is in the form of a Mission Statement that divides into 4 sections:
1. Discerning God, What does God want us to do? Here we will explore Scriptures relating to children and the family.
2. Valuing People, How can we better demonstrate that we value children and their families?
3. Enabling Change, All Christians are called to be agents of change. How do we need to change and nor change?
4. Serving Community, How can we better serve children and their families? With this in mind I will send a short letter to all parents at our church infant and junior school asking them, ‘How can we better serve you?’
Moving Forward Together
Together we will be deciding what significant changes we will make in order to better demonstrate a desire to ‘love the child and their family’ – in order to grow into a ‘Family Friendly Church’. Together we will decide what to change and what NOT to change – together. Please be part of this – please help to discern what to change and what not to change.