James' Jottings

Vision 2020

The Parochial Church Council (PCC) of St Andrew's is the group charged with leadership of the church. It has three roles: vision building, load bearing and policy making. We have been working hard over the last few months to keep these three dimensions in balance and we spent some time recently thinking about our vision for St Andrews's in 2020. Trying to peer twelve years into the future is not easy! We were helped by two things: [1] the knowledge that the Lord holds the future in his hands and longs for us to follow him faithfully in his mission to his world, empowered by his Holy Spirit, and [2] the work that many organisations (especially governments) do to map out likely future trends in society.

Following the Lord in his mission is the whole business of the church! We discern the Lord's future through paying attention to Scripture, our prayers and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. That's followed by radical obedience to what we believe he is saying to us. Often, as the early Christians discovered in the book of Acts, the Lord's will is discovered by doing as well as by waiting and being. Doors open or shut as we try to move forward in faith. We take risks, move out of our comfort zone and discover that the Lord is there ahead of us or, conversely, that he is not and we need to redirect our energies. This is a matter of humility, discernment and learning to embrace the new things that the Lord is doing among us rather than simply going round on the treadmill of the tried and tested.

The second area, of future trends, is fascinating and challenging, By 2020 we will be more aware than ever of the effects of climate change. The population of Britain will have grown to 67 million people and the over 85 population will have increased by 50%. The world population will have grown by 1.2 billion and there will be huge pressures on global resources. These factors and others will mean that pressure on health and social care services will increase significantly. Families will be smaller, with women delaying having children or deciding not to have them at all, and there will be a greater need than ever to support community life.

In our time of prayer and discussion we identified the following key areas that we need to explore in order to be where God wants us to be in 2020:

Care:
We want to care for one another better and meet the challenges of an ageing and needier population. How do we model the life of a community that is built around our common faith in Jesus Christ and reach out with his love to our fellow Christians? How can we communicate better with one another?
Community:
We want to engage with the wider community and gain the community's trust through our sacrificial service. How can we become a more credible voice in caring for the poor and the needy and building up the community?
Church:
Sundays are changing! We want to think about how we can renew our times of worship, learning and fellowship perhaps through re-imagining what we do together on Sundays. In the future it is likely that we will meet more often in small gatherings (that are focussed on tasks, service, fellowship and learning) and less often in large ones; how can we make that work? What opportunities are there for doing church on weekdays?
Cross:
We recognise that the cross of Jesus needs to define the conversation about these matters as well as their final shape. Faithfulness in prayer together is vital, central and crucial.

Please do think, pray and talk together about these things. The PCC is keen to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit who can speak through each and every member of St Andrew's.

Other matters...

The process of appointing an architect for the St Andrew's Centre project is now well under way. Four architects have made submissions in response to the brief. Please pray for Kevin Holmes and his team who have taken on the appointment task.

Essence, our midweek church on Wednesdays, is thriving and growing each week with 25 people now attending regularly. Let's praise God for that and all the new things we are learning, and please pray for wisdom as we think about other new forms of church that can reach out effectively to those who long to know Jesus for themselves and grow in faith.

Over the last few months we have increased the number of monthly services in local care homes.sheltered housing by 50% (and another possibility is being explored). If you would like to be involved in these services please get in touch as it would be great to have more people on the team. And please pray for this key area of our ministry.

Coming up on the horizon is our church weekend away/houseparty. This is shaping up to be a really worthwhile and exciting weekend with great opportunities for learning/chilling/growing/eating/chatting and quite a lot else. Do make a note in your diary: 27-29 March 2009.

This is the first of an occasional letter from the vicar - the title is a take-off a previous incumbent's equivalent! The idea is to keep us all in the loop about what's going on, stimulate prayer and conversation, and invite responses. Hope it works!

With my best wishes and my prayers

James

Home Please contact the Church Office or telephone 01223 232255 with your comments or if you would like further details.