THINKING ABOUT MISSION

12 members stayed behind after service on 22 January 2012 to discuss with Anne Sardeson, URC’s Training Officer, the question of Mission.
Anne defined Mission as connecting with God and getting caught up with what God is doing. She suggested that a church’s activities fell under the following three headings:
“Making Love into Soup”: this involved concrete activities, e.g. drop-in centres, coffee mornings, clubs, etc;
“Catching People”: this meant drawing people into the faith community, nurturing people, etc;
“Creating Community”: this included connecting with other groups in the community, partnerships, etc.

Those present then split into smaller groups to discuss Trinity’s performance under these headings and then joined together again to voice their conclusions. The main points arising were:
Most activities within the church were organised by outside bodies on a commercial basis and organisers saw their activities as non-religious, e.g. the Chinese Nursery, Kumon;
Other activities such as counselling etc did not generate into catching people;
Little energy was dispensed by church members on these groups but the church was dependent on the income;
Energy was dispensed by church members on church maintenance and on nurturing (Sunday service, coffee after service, young persons’ teaching, creating a welcoming atmosphere);
Little, if any, connection existed with most groups and building users and with other groups in the community;
We were not drawing people into the faith community and, in fact, there had been a gradual decline in church membership over recent years;
This gradual decline put at risk the continued existence of the building by other groups;
We had a sustainability problem.
The main areas of concern were considered to be those of sustainability and lack of growth and it was agreed to have further discussions on these issues after service on 26 February when Anne Sardeson would be returning. Please do your best to be there.

John A Edwards

TAKE TWENTY

Take Twenty, Dot and Noel's choir who rehearse at Trinity on Thursdays, celebrated their "end of term" with a special Christmas Concert......... Don't they all look wonderful in their festive robes and the church looks splendid,  decorated for the festive season by MCC.