Local Church Review
Part 4 – Planning for the future
This section aims to help you to take what you have already written and use your reflections to plan for the future. Your planning should realistically take into account where you are just now, the resources available to you and your local context. As part of the planning, we are going to look again at the four areas of worship, community, mission and belonging.
Looking forward – moving forward
Thinking about
· your values
· your parish,
· the communities you already engage with or want to engage with
· worship, community, mission and belonging
What do you think God wants your church to look like?
How do you want to grow in each of these four areas over the next five years at least? Think too about what the Presbytery Plan says.
Although all the categories are here for ease of reference, you do not need to put something in every section. Focus on the ones in which you really want to grow.
Worship
· Where the Word is read and preached
· Where the sacraments of baptism and communion are celebrated
· Where there is inclusion and participation – barriers are removed to allow the involvement of all worshippers
· Where people are enabled to journey in faith and grow in wholeness
· Where there is relevance to the people of the parish
Community
· Where grace, love and unity are shown, where people are encouraged, gifts are developed and shared
· Where people grow as disciples
· Where ministries of service and leadership are developed
· Where hospitality is offered
· Where structures are ordered and organised in a way that supports mission and good practice
Mission
· Where the Good News of the Kingdom is proclaimed
· Where new believers are taught, baptised and nurtured
· Where there is a response to human need by loving service
· Where unjust structures of society are transformed, violence of every kind is challenged and peace and reconciliation is pursued
· Where the church strives to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth
Belonging
· Where local relationships - parish neighbours & ecumenical groups are nurtured
· Where churches engage with and mutually support each other as part of Presbytery
· Where the church engages with the Church of Scotland, its Councils and Committees
· Where the church identifies and connects with the worldwide church
· Where our relationship with the Church past, present and future, is recognised and celebrated
Looking forward – understanding the distance to go
Take a look at what you have written in Sections 1 and 2 and at the shapes the graphs have made.
Where are the main gaps between where you would like to be and where you are now?
What limitations are there at the moment that stop you or slow you down from being where you want to be?
Worship
On the positive side we hear the word of God and celebrate sacraments.
However, we don’t score well on being of relevance to the people of our parish and we are not doing much or anything to enable people to “journey in faith and grow in wholeness”.
A considerable number of our elders when visiting districts find that a majority of members in their district don’t actually attend church regularly or at all. In some cases the elder is certain that people have not attended church for over 20 years. However, those members who do not attend (whether infrequently or at all) still wish to be on the communion roll. Non-attending members and people living in the Parish “like” the church to be there for them
The church can be quite busy for parish funerals.
We don’t really know what it is that would make us “relevant”. We are aware that for many people, church attendance on a Sunday morning is well down any list of priorities. There are lots of activities for children on Sunday mornings – football training; dance classes; etc.. Sunday is a popular day for children’s parties. Families where both parents work use Sunday mornings for shopping, housework, gardening.
Community
We scored highly on “offering hospitality”.
However, we apparently don’t show a lot of grace, love and unity nor do we particularly encourage people to develop their gifts and share them.
We scored low on having structures which are ordered and organised in a way that supports mission and good practice.
We don’t appear to do much to ensure people grow as disciples nor develop ministries of service and leadership.
Within the last two years we have moved to a Unitary Constitution. We have established new committees with new remits; we are seeking new committee leaders and committee members. We have sought to make opportunities for serving and working accessible to all in the church.
Currently we don’t have minister – he/she may have significant input in these areas when he/she arrives.
The move to linkage / union – is likely to have significant impact on the ways in which we are organised and ways in which we interact.
We are developing a Stewardship culture – as this culture develops, structures of committees or ways of organising events will also develop.
We recognise that there is strong leadership within the uniformed organisations.
There is strong leadership within The Guild – but ageing membership within Guild. There is a need to bring in new and younger members to be actively involved in The Guild.
There are people in the “community” who do lots of things, e.g. transport to hospitals, which are not particularly “church organised” but are being supported (and organised) by church members. Good neighbours looking out for each other, visiting each other, assisting with shopping, transport, etc.. Church members are active in the Bowling Club, Stamperland Social Club, Williamwood House, etc..
Within the congregation there is a significant number of people who are able to lead worship at a main Sunday morning service as well as other forms of worship. There is also a fairly large number of members who are willing to read the Bible on Sunday mornings. We should also remember that within the congregation there are ladies who lead Guild Services, members who lead BB Bible Class worship, members who lead worship in the Sunday School and members who take services or lead singing at eventide homes / hospitals.
Mission
We are seen as a place where the Good News of the Kingdom is proclaimed.
To a large extent we are seen as a place where there is a response to human need by loving service.
However, we do not do well in relation to being somewhere where new believers are taught, baptised and nurtured.
We are not seen as being an organisation working to transform the unjust structures of society, challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation.
We are not seen as striving to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.
As a church we are not active in campaigning but we do tend to support “quietly” when needs are identified.
We have elders who attend the Eastwood Peace and Justice Forum – they report back on initiatives and, where appropriate, we do become involved.
We have involvement with Fair Trade, our local Foodbank (Barrhead).
We have good involvement with Christian Aid – Annual Art Exhibition, Annual Swimming Event, Annual Door-to-Door collection.
We support a wide variety of charities (including Glasgow Presbytery’s four Charity Projects) through third-party collections and retiring offerings. We regularly support Mary’s Meals (Backpack Project), Church of Scotland HIV Aids Project.
The Guild supports projects and charities which are related to speakers.
We do strive to be “eco-friendly”. We try to minimise consumption of gas and electricity; we recycle; we have removed paving slabs and created areas of plants and shrubs both to minimise discharge of water into drains and also to increase living plants.
Belonging
We score well on “Where local relationships - parish neighbours & ecumenical groups are nurtured”.
However, we score badly on:
Relationship with the church past, present and future;
Engaging with and mutually supporting other (local) churches as part of presbytery;
Engaging with the Church of Scotland Councils and Committees;
Engaging and identifying with the world-wide church;
Our focus in recent times has been on the future - where our church is going; the implications of the Presbytery Plan; and our links with others, particularly with Netherlee Parish Church.
Looking forward – working out the possible routes
There are usually a number of ways you could approach bridging the gaps you have identified and the challenge is finding the best one for you. It can help to ensure you are clear that you know what want to achieve by doing a certain thing and where it fits in to the bigger picture.
In addition, finding a way forward is often not just about the activities you would undertake but also about resources – people, buildings, finance - and constraints like the Presbytery Plan, your existing decision making structures, your own or other buildings or venues you are able to use, and the time people have to devote to the task.
Finally, things do not happen in isolation – how do the new things you want to do fit in with what’s happening already? Would you be overlapping with something that’s already happening? Is everything you are currently doing still effective? Would you stop or change some of the things you are doing?
Although some things you want to do may take longer than five years or be outside your reach just now, it may be good to note them as things you want to move towards.
What steps could you take to move forward?
Worship
We are currently developing new forms of worship at new times to inspire members and to draw in those who do not presently find current worship opportunities convenient or accessible. We are looking at different styles of worship; at providing opportunities to worship on days other than Sunday and at times which could range from early morning to late in the evening.
Netherlee Parish Church hold a short service on Wednesday mornings. Stamperland people are being encouraged to attend this service.
In Stamperland Church, we recently held our first “A Pie, A Pint and A Prayer” service on a Saturday evening. During the “service” we also ran a Children’s Cinema – so that parents could attend the service whilst their children were being looked after and entertained in a different way.
We are looking to work with Netherlee to further develop their “Messy Church” initiative.
A small group of elders from Stamperlande and Netherlee churches are developing a Sunday evening club for teenage youths which will be known as Y@K. (Youth at Kirk)
All of the above initiatives are being developed in conjunction and collaboration with Netherlee Parish Church.
Community
Our recent adoption of the UNITARY Constitution and creation of a new committee structure should allow more people to develop leadership skills and take on new leadership roles. It is envisaged that this could enable us to draw in new people and should enable further development.
We are endeavouring to develop a Stewardship Culture which is aimed at being inclusive and embracing and seeking to use talents and skills within our church membership.
Our future plans will be tempered by the views of our new minister and in developments in working with and alongside the members of Netherlee Parish Church.
Mission
Currently we are looking to identify areas of need and work out what we can do to take things forward. Specifically elders who are members of the Pastoral Care Committee are progressing with the vision of establishing a Dementia Lunch Club.
Belonging
We are continuing to develop links with churches in Clarkston Churches Together (CCT) – with both CofS and other denominations. However, our key activity has to be developing and growing the link with Netherlee
If you are due to go into a parish grouping, a linkage or union, what steps could you take to move forward together?
We are working on it ......
What resources do you have just now that will make a way forward possible?
Key resource is “People”. We have people who are committed to seeing a successful coming together of the two churches so that the people of both churches and their work flourish.
We have financial reserves in bank which will enable us to finance some of the new initiatives.
We are fortunate in having a suite of “modern buildings” which provide a range of accommodation and hall spaces suitable for hosting a variety of different types of meetings, events and worship services.
What wider changes might need to happen to facilitate these goals?
What changes could you make to your buildings to support the direction you want to take?