Last Saturday (21 July) the leaders spent an away day at the Holy Cross Convent in Bunny to think about our church vision. We’ve been there before for leaders’ away days and it’s a lovely venue.
But we weren’t there just to enjoy the peace and quiet (even if that was one benefit of being away from the kids!) We began with Helen and Jamie Culy guiding us through thinking about what vision is and why we need it.
We spent some time thinking about what we are currently doing as a church – all the various activities and groups.
Then we tried placing these things against five key elements of church life: worship, fellowship, ministry, discipleship, and evangelism.
When we did this we noticed that while we seem to be very good on worship, fellowship and ministry, we could do more in the areas of discipleship and evangelism.
We are good at social events and looking out for one another, which are important aspects of fellowship together. But we are less strong on accountability to one another within our fellowship – an essential part of discipleship.
We are good at building relationships with those outside the church (Kidz Club, Little Fishes, Splash, Coffee Mornings and so on) but we are less strong on taking the next step – explaining the gospel to these people and inviting them to make a commitment – the heart of evangelism.
By the end of the day we had a lot threads going through our minds, but the phrase that seemed to connect them was “going deeper”.
The church has come a long way since the summer of 2012 when Martin started as minister. We are stronger more confident. We think the next step that God has for us is to deepen our roots in him.