Nunthorpe Exploratory Session 1 with Helle - 17/01/2024
District Mission Enabler Helle Sewell is helping us explore calling in this specific time and what steps can be taken to develop mission in our church.
The first session began with 2 questions:
1. If you knew you could not fail, what would you most want to do for your church?
2. What specific goal or project could you realistically aim to achieve in the next 12 months that would contribute to this?
Start more children's activities.
Help with transport for the elderly.
Have finance for a caretaker.
Restart services in the local care home.
Employ a youth worker.
Get young people involved and enthused.
Change the area for worship to be more flexible.
Create opportunities for using technology.
To have more opportunities to work with families and young people.
Work with young families.
Develop worship and discipleship
Christianity discovery and nurture courses.
Forms of worship that appeal to the missing generations.
Keep on attending church and encourage others to do so.
Encourage new people.
Recruit more younger people to join us for worship and make use of the large groups of parents and toddlers who come to the Wednesday morning group. Maximize their movement.
Fill it up with younger people.
I would like to get the younger generation back to join us again.
Encourage more people to come to church.
Rejuvenate the church. Have lots of families attend and become active members.
Bring the building into the 21st century as a community space during the week and fill it on Sunday for worship.
Encourage an even greater community involvement this encouraging a greater (numerically) congregation and enhance sustainability/presence in Nunthorpe.
Bring in a range (diverse) of new people to worship regularly.
Enlarge membership.
Create a youth friendly environment.
Reestablish and develop our Bible activity days with families and young children.
Build on contacts with toddler groups.
Restart ‘play and praise’.
Begin to look at forms of worship that appeal to missing generations.
Talk to neighbours and friends and encourage them to attend.
Put on activities that attract.
Don’t forget about the inherited church.
Join with other worshipping communities in our area occasionally.
Incorporate our own Mother and Toddler groups occasionally into our Sunday service.
Put on a community event like Carols on the grass etc.
More sessions like the craft morning which involves church members and the Play & Chat group.
Bring back events where the younger people were performing drama, singing etc.
Invite the community to share in Easter Service as they do at Christmas time – Carols on the grass on Christmas Eve.
Find out what young people and families need from the church.
Bring back Stewardship Campaign.
Begin to action removing the pews to create a flexible space that can be filled with people used during the week.
Rebuild the kitchen.
Find funding for family worker.
Restart Play and Praise sessions monthly.
Direct engagement with community Council to facilitate more community events.
Chase after 4 to 6 new people already in communication with the church.
Focus on younger generations.
Appoint a person (probably paid) to run youth groups and to encourage investment by current church members i.e. to participate and lead.
THEN we moved onto 4 more questions. This is because our ability to feel positive in the moment when we feel hope can sometimes disappear when we begin to chat about it to others who were not present at the meeting.
These 4 questions also help us to see what resources we say we have and what are the obstacles we are going encounter on the way to making a decision about our mission activity.
Money is available or could be raised?
A powerful prayer group.
Some (limited) funds left us from legacy (£'s).
Resources - people. We have people with talents.
We have good community connections e.g. Parish Council + they are very supportive.
Some committed folks with all sorts of skills and talents.
Keep on encouraging youths and consequent activities for them in church.
A willing but elderly congregation.
Support from community and church members help to raise money.
Great links with community and Parish leaders.
A great skill set within church and we know when to ask.
Ability to raise money ok. Asking people to do more - questionable as we are getting older.
'Friends' of church activities who will step up to help in other church activities.
Commitment and strong working relationship. Trust and reliability.
Engineering skills and knowledge.
Good pastoral system/links with the church. Good community footprint - highly regarded in the community.
Set up church job center = list of jobs + required skills = circulate needs in our sister churches.
Already have a significant/good community footprint. Need to develop this ore through community council etc.
Money. Commitment from members and adherents.
Power of prayer. Support from church members. Financial stability.
Other people.
Funding - dedicated project mgt resources.
More help with property and caretaking duties.
Need youth development officer for the area. To get community from toddler, to teenagers to church.
We need to know what our community wants (in church terms).
Set up youth clubs = fellowship of youth of those from local district.
How to apply for funding i.e. what gets people's attention.
People who can make long term commitment.
New skill sets. Social media skills, advertising etc.
Explore other forms of family worship.
We may require dedicated paid resources to drive activity (rather than relying on volunteer efforts).
Because the majority of our church membership is elderly, we would need to bring in resources (paid worker) to lead.
Need to acquire confidence in the church and in the gospel and ourselves again.
Finance. More bodies to develop links into secondary schools.
Finance in the long term.
A car park.
Support from the Methodist hierarchy. Help from local authority (councilors, parish council).
We need the younger element. Shared idea across generations and follow through and develop.
Have support of community. Be open to other possibilities in using church.
Need paid key workers to provide expertise in developing groups.
More financing.
A stewardship campaign would produce extra resources.
More younger people.
I am 90 years old.
Fear of failure, lack of confidence.
Lack of energy and belief we are too old.
Defeatism
Better parking facilities needed
Not have enough energy or able to commit much time.
Neighbours objecting to activities and lack of parking.
Rigid pews
Lack of support
Ageing membership.
Negativity
Lack of required funding for projects.
My age. At 86 I am restricted.
Lack of optimism
. I am 90 years old.
Fear of failure, lack of confidence.
Lack of energy. Spirit willing but flesh is weak.
The church worship area is inflexible - it is doing nothing for 6 days a week. It's a big space being under utilised. Waste of a resource.
Determination. The group supported one another throughout the process.
Try to look at the church from the perspective of the community.
Recognising that it's not all about 'bums on seats' on a Sunday.
Greater application to the task at hand……………………….Belief that we can do it.
Engage with community and neighbours.
Consult with community especially near the church.
Have faith.
We could explore redeveloping our worship space.
Support wherever I can.
Increased communication in consultation.
Positivity and prayer.
Cannot overcome age and infirmity.
Helle has some initial reflections:
I am hoping that when you are reading this document that you start seeing patterns. If you wish you can underline the common themes and share with others what you are seeing.
Through the 3 sessions I am offering you will see the process of moving towards fully understanding why we do what we do. Mission will affect everyone who comes through the doors at your church. We need to arrive at a place where we understand what the conditions are going to be when we do it? Do we feel safe doing it? What are the habits that we need to break?
