Barnston with Pensby Vision and Aims

Christ Church Barnston with
St Michael & All Angels Pensby
Wirral, Merseyside, England

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Our Vision for our work

This Parish:

Studies the Bible to hear God’s voice and understand his purposes
Believes that God is at work in his world
Believes that God calls all people to new life in Jesus Christ

Has been put at the heart of this community to worship God and proclaim the Good News about Jesus
Reaches out in service to the community’s needs
Welcomes all who come to us, so that they may learn about Jesus

Cares for its members
Encourages all Christians to grow in discipleship, and to use their gifts in the service of God
Is open to the leading of the Holy Spirit to undertake new tasks, and to know when activities have run their course.

Our Parish Goals and Targets

This Vision Statement makes space for many different activities in the Church’s life. But within its broad statement, we want to focus on the matters which need special attention right now. Our present Goals and Targets are crystallized in our Growth Action Plan.

Growth Action Plan [GAP]
The GAP process has been developed by the Diocese of Chester to encourage each parish to develop its work. At a series of meetings in Spring 2009 the Diocese explained in detail how parishes can use this tool to best effect. For more information, click the link below:

Diocese of Chester GAP information

In the summer and autumn of 2009, our clergy, Parochial Church Council [PCC], Readers, Pastoral Workers and other parish leaders followed Chester's suggested GAP process. We reviewed the present life of our congregations, and the community and people who live within our parish. We summarized our strengths and weaknesses, and set out our priority areas. We took to heart the Diocese's insistence that the whole exercise of GAP plan-making must be surrounded with prayer. This is not bureaucracy; it is an attempt to listen to the Spirit of God.

We arrived at agreed Goals for the parish over the next five years, and specific Targets for the year ahead.

Parish Goals for 2009 - 2015 [agreed by the PCC, September 2009]

Engage with our local community by welcoming its members into the activities of the Church (including worship); and by encouraging and supporting community activities which reflect God’s purposes.
Turn Christians into disciples: deepening our understanding, obedience and experience in prayer, Bible study and worship. We want to identify and train new leaders, while ensuring that the whole congregation is “crew” not “passengers”.
Become effective in Jesus-centred evangelism among people of all ages, including children.

Parish Targets for 2009-2010
Each of these three Goals is expressed in a set of Targets. The Targets are SMART [Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Resourced and Time-limited]. They are set out in the grid below. There is also a link to a downloadable version.

What			Who	Time
Goal 1		Engage with local community by welcoming its members and by supporting community activities
	SMART 1	Run three events (performance, fair etc) in Church & Centre to which the public is invited	“Entrepreneurs” in congregation; PCC	By Summer 2010
	SMART 2	Have Shemmonds Room open 9.00am – 4.00pm, Mon-Fri	PWs & Evangelists	By Easter 2010
	SMART 3	Planning phase for playground at Pensby Church (research, permissions, funding)	Pensby warden & committee; Stg Cttee, clergy	By Easter 2010
	SMART 4	Recruit five new members of MU, each under 60 years old	MU Committee & members	By Summer 2010
	SMART 5	Explore the possibility of a church plant in Heswall Hills	Clergy, Readers & PWs, Home groups	By Dec 2010

Goal 2		Turn Christians into disciples
	SMART 1	Have Welcome leaflet in pews	Clergy	October 2009
	SMART 2	Monthly welcome tea/meal for newcomers in someone’s home	Clergy, Readers, PWs and others	By Christmas 2009
	SMART 3	Identify ministries for all current Growing Leaders participants	Clergy	By Easter 2010
	SMART 4	Increase by 20 the number of people involved in discipleship groups and house groups	DT, Clergy, Alpha Team	By Easter 2010
	SMART 5	Double the number of people involved in prayer triplets	Readers, PWs	By Easter 2010
	SMART 6	Run a prayer-focussed event such as 24-7, labyrinth or Windsails	Alan Johnston, Jean Thompson, Clergy, Readers	By Easter 2010
	SMART 7	Identify participants for Growing Leaders II	Ian, Paddy, Leadership team	By Dec. 2010

Goal 3		Evangelism among people of all ages
	SMART1	Run seniors’ Holiday at Home in Summer 2010	Marj Burden & team	July-August 2010
	SMART 2	Sustain Open the Book teams and schools’ visits to churches	GPB and OtB teams	October 2009
	SMART 3	Establish school assembly team, run regular assemblies	GPB, Hilary Bird	By Christmas 2009
	SMART 4	Run two outreach Courses, each with at least 8 guests who stay in continuation groups	Clergy, Readers, PWs, PCC	Autumn 2009 & Spring 2010
	SMART 5	Develop team to run “Messy Church” ten times in year	Messy Church team	To Summer 2010
	SMART 6	Review structure & leadership of children’s work & msn	Clergy, children’s & msn leaders	By Easter 2010

downloadable pdf version of Targets grid