St Nicholas’ Cuddington

Mission Action Plan

Context

St Nicholas is a church in a rural setting and has been blessed over many years with an active congregation, strong lay leadership and collaborative support from the Benefice Ministry Team. It has developed a thriving ministry to young people and families, in addition to serving the older members of the church family.

As young families have moved into the village, the numbers of children and parents in church have increased dramatically in recent years. At the same time the longer term congregation is generally ageing. Weekly attendance figures are good.

Services are a mixture of Common Worship, relaxed Family Services and traditional BCP communion with teaching and activities for young people available each Sunday.

Action Points:

1. As a rural church , we seek to be inclusive in all we do with an accessible worship style that meets the needs of all age groups.

How:

• Carrying out regular reviews of our services to ensure they meet our objective.
• Maintaining and encouraging our welcoming team
• Building teams of volunteers by enabling people to recognise their gifts

2. We aim to enable children and young people to learn about our Christian faith and to share in worship.

How:

• Ensuring adequate support for those involved in children and youth work
• Providing and funding resources to enable the work
• Providing greater support for our Family Service team
• Maintaining and improving where possible existing links with the school
• Ensuring regular prayer support for those involved in ministry to young people

3. We wish to create additional opportunities for the congregation to interact with those in the community who are not members of the church.

How:

• Home Groups to have regular social times when friends and relatives can be invited
• Increased use of meals
• Provision of occasional alternative services
• Implementation of regular single issue discussion sessions

4. We wish to provide pastoral care for those outside the church family as well as for those in the church.

How:

• Identifying and training those with pastoral skills to form a team of lay pastoral carers
• Creating a confidential communication system for the team
• Encouraging Home Groups to take responsibility for the care of their members
• Setting up a local prayer chain

5. We recognise that prayer is fundamental to our Christian life and needs to be further encouraged.

How:

• Greater use of teaching and preaching opportunities on the subject of prayer
• Encouraging prayer within Home Groups
• Developing corporate and personal prayer

6. The church has a long history of involvement with external mission and considers it important that this is continued.

How:

• Developing and growing links with mission partners
• Having a commitment to mission work further afield in this country and abroad

Training needs flowing from Action Points

1. Gift discovery
2. Pastoral care
3. Bereavement
4. Prayer
5. Leading groups

Practical needs flowing from Action Points

1. Allocation of financial and other resources
2. Creation of support/communication networks within the community
3. Advanced planning for events to ensure purpose clear and speaker/teacher available may require a PCC sub-committee
4. Opportunities to preach/teach on specific aspects of Christian life and faith
5. A regular review of the MAP to be undertaken by the PCC

MAP Strategic Objectives

1. Discernment of gifts and training in their use.
2. Development of a Pastoral Care Network.
3. Development of outreach opportunities within the community.
4. Growing a deeper level of spiritual and biblical understanding.