It was just February 24 when we met for our Vision Day at Whalley Abbey and it was there we dreamed dreams for the future of JohnPaul Parish and put some key markers in place.
As a result of the Vision Day, we developed a Vision Statement with some follow up actions under the headings of Community Presence, Leadership Gifts and Talents, Prayer, Family Engagement, Being one Church, Welcome and how to include new people, Not dwelling in the past and Visibility of the PCC and decisions. See below for a reminder of our Vision statement and please see the Appendix to see the review of how we have done.
Vision Statement
REACH UP, REACH IN, REACH OUT
- To be a Worshipping, Loving, Caring Church
- To trust in and see the Holy Spirit flow throughout our Parish
- Spreading the good news of Jesus with expectation, enthusiasm, celebration and joy to embrace our community and those we meet along the way
In summary we have seen consolidation in many areas of our church in 2024
- we have a new fundraising team at St John’s
- we have a new children’s team at St John’s
- we have a new congregation at St Paul’s
- we have a new monthly mid-week communion service at St John’s
- we have done a lot of work on our Safeguarding
- we have a new health and safety officer
- we have new external noticeboards in both churches
- we continue to teach parents about our faith and baptise a lot of babies
- we have been part of the recruitment of a new head at Benjamin Hargreaves
- we have governors on both school boards.
- a wise retired Vicar joined the Ministry team.
- the Bishop licensed a JohnPaul Parish Evangelist.
- we developed our Vision and Mission Action Plan.
- we bid for Vision funding for new AV at St Paul’s and were promised £2000.
- we had a very successful Harvest Ceilidh
- we had a very successful Autumn Fair.
- we had one START course this year.
However, we have had some bumps along the way
- After two courses we had to stop the Kintsugi Hope well being group. People were willing to be on the team, but no-one wanted to take overall leadership.
- We had four Connect groups at the end of 2023. We now have only two, but they are both very active.
- We have a small, tired group of leaders doing most of the work across both churches. We need new leaders in order to grow.
- We hoped to put in the new AV at St Paul’s, but are awaiting money from the Diocese.
- Anna Grimes has stepped down from the Children’s team at St John’s after some sterling work to support children’s work at St John’s. However, we are pleased that Catriona Jones, who is already on PCC, has agreed to lead the team (under Janet Robinson’s oversight) in 2025.
- Our non-eucharistic services at St Paul’s have lost their way and need re-developing.
- We lost our All Age team at St John’s and, therefore, lost the All Age service. We are considering trialling a Families@5 style service on the fourth Sunday.
Looking ahead
The Ministry team* have been thinking and praying about the direction of the church. In January we will be spending a day out of the Parish to pray, review and plan for the next steps for the church.
However, we have noticed that as churches we have been struggling, particularly in the area of discipleship. Discipleship is all about how you grow in your faith. Most new Christians grow best in small groups where they can pray, read the Bible, encourage each other and ask questions.
Discipleship happens best in community, Christians who are discipled by older Christians, grow in their faith and have the confidence to share their faith with others.
As we chat to people, we find that most people in our churches do not feel confident enough in their own faith to be able to share it with others.
And most of our young families have extremely busy lives with jobs, activities for children, so they find it hard to attend small groups in the evenings.
Three significant actions
- Individual leaders are starting to mentor people one on one. If you want to know more, do talk to any of the Ministry team.
- We are hoping to start an Alpha course after Easter and will be consulting with families with children on how to involve them. Click here for the Alpha trailer. https://youtu.be/MzMWZHMLXE0?si=DelhcnrdOpOiNLej
- We will be re-launching Connect groups after Alpha and hope that we can offer groups for families with young children too.
I wish you all the best for 2025 and pray that we will see real growth in terms of our discipleship this year.
God bless
Amanda and the team
* We often get asked how the PCC and Ministry team are different, so I thought it would be helpful to explain it.
The Ministry team (six members representing both churches: Roger Longworth, Heather Pitman, Patricia Wilkinson, Tony Hindle, Carolyn Woodcock and Janet Robinson) meet twice a month for prayer and oversight of the following ministry areas in the church: Outreach and evangelism, Discipleship, Prayer, Children and Families, Pastoral Care, Worship and Preaching.
The PCC meet every two months and have legal responsibility for the finances of the parish and is responsible for the maintenance and care of the buildings and the day to day business of both churches.
PCC members are trustees of the churches and all the sub-groups, including the Ministry team, report into them.
APPENDIX
Vision Statement
REACH UP, REACH IN, REACH OUT
- To be a Worshipping, Loving, Caring Church
- To trust in and see the Holy Spirit flow throughout our Parish
- Spreading the good news of Jesus with expectation, enthusiasm, celebration and joy to embrace our community and those we meet along the way
Actions to follow from the Vision Day
Below are the actions identified at the Vision Day in February 2024 with the results.
Community Presence
- We had a really fantastic Ceilidh in September and reached over 130 adults/children
- Our November Fair was really well attended and raised a significant sum of money.
- We still need to have a new website that everyone can update. Action Comms team
- We still need to do a Litter pick around the parish – Ministry team to plan a date.
- We launched a Save our Steeple Campaign for St John’s and did a community survey and got over 50 responses back, many remarked that the church was ‘the focal point for the community’.
- A small, hardworking team have been learning about trust fundraising and are about to put in our second bid for funds from Benefact Trust.
Leadership Gifts and Talents
- Personal Invitation (to take on roles) – We have three younger members of the PCC and a new Safeguarding Officer. Experience suggests a personal invite to join a team works better than a notice from the front, but it means we all have to be getting to know each other to learn people’s gifts. Action – Ministry team to discuss at their away day in January and to identify the next Church Warden for St John’s
- Everyone to mentor someone else in their role – this is happening a little ie Janet with children’s work, Heather with Safeguarding, Amanda with Church Wardens. How do we develop this? Ministry team to discuss at their away day.
- We have not done a teaching series on gifts and talents. Action to do in 2025.
- One of our young Dads is doing the M:Power course (urban mission course).
Prayer
- Teaching and Modelling workshops – we had a very successful teaching series on prayer in services and Connect groups. The monthly prayer meeting has grown.
- More spontaneous prayer in services – culturally this is more of a St John’s thing, but we are not seeing an increase in this sort of prayer in either church. Action needed.
- A new prayer weekly prayer meeting started to support the Blackburn diocesese year of prayer in 2025.
Family Engagement
- Inclusive – our aim is to be more inclusive, especially at our toddler groups and outreach events. However, I think there is also more work to do to support children with special needs and people who are less physically able.
- Special Events – speakers – we have had speakers from beyond the Parish last Christmas and at Harvest and will continue to do so.
- Start a youth group – a lot of planning, training and work went into this, but it is stalled. We still hope to do it. Ministry team to discuss at their away day.
- Invite a special person in our life service – Ministy team to discuss at away day.
- We have had a number of really good outreach events for families at St John’s.
- Families@5 at St Paul’s goes from strength to strength, but hall has reached capacity.
- A number of parents have attended the START course.
- A number of parents have attended Baptism workshops – a group to review in Jan’.
Being one Church
- Refer to us as JohnPaul Parish – this is happening with leaders, but not widely within each congregation.
- Monthly joint service – this has not happened, the leadership don’t feel it’s right
- We only have joint services – a great aspiration, but not supported by the diocese.
- Language – one church, two buildings – as above: this is happening, but not widely.
- We have finally got new noticeboards outside both churches with our new logo.
Welcome and include new people
- Everyone knows how to welcome – this is starting to happen at both churches
- At every service people are encouraged to talk to someone new – still to action
- We are starting to see people come to church who have come to our community outreach activities like Dominoes, Busy Bees and Toast Time.
- Allison Worrall was licensed as our Parish Evangelist and is exploring how to improve our welcome across all areas of church.
Not dwelling in the past
- Challenge those who do – I have noticed a real improvement here
- Ponta Planti – we organised a ‘Line in the Sand’ healing service in both churches
- Banner in the foyer – don’t dwell on the past – we decided not to do this.
Visibility of the PCC and decisions
- Visibility of PCC and PCC decisions – we now have our minutes on the website and in both churches. Ministry team reports what has been discussed at every PCC.
- Smart Targets (for today’s actions) – this has been mixed. Some key ones had SMART targets, others were not picked up. We could do better here.