Thanks to all who came along to our ‘Recasting the Vision’ planning day on Saturday 7th May. 17 of us joined to reflect on what we value about MCC, what our mission is – and should be – and what we’d like to be in five years’ time.
Highlights from the things we value included:
-
our gentle approach to ministry where there is no pressure to conform,
-
our radical acceptance of different people and ways of life,
-
our focus on God not on individuals in worship,
-
the fact we’re encouraged to work out our faith in our own context rather than blindly follow what someone else has told us to believe,
-
the opportunities that exist for everyone to be involved in various aspects of our life and ministry and
-
our ordered, stable, approach to worship.
When thinking about mission we realised that:
-
whilst many other churches may tolerate our people, no other church empowers and uses us unconditionally in all levels of ministry,
-
there is a specific need for an lgbt-based church which isn’t tarnished by institutional homophobia and where we don’t have to worry about what others think or how they act.
-
we’re called to present the Gospel to lgbt people – both those who have been disenfranchised by the Church and those who are un-churched.
-
we have an open questioning Christian spirituality
-
we need to do more to sustain and nurture our faith.
-
We break the stereotype of what church is in that we have a traditional understanding of Christianity but we present it with contemporary values and in a spirit of radical inclusivity,
-
we also break the stereotype of what an lgbt church might be – we’re real not wacky! we may be a parallel church for some and a transitory place for others – a resource for the journey not an end in itself.
-
We’re proud of the way our people have held onto their faith despite much adversity. We are glad we engage in social action,
-
we like the fact children are attending and want to do more for them and to attract more families,
-
we enjoy the links we’re building with other churches particularly with our hosts.
We looked at various areas we’d like to improve over the next five years, these include:
-
being better networked so as to attract more people,
-
being better funded so we can finally pay a full time stipend,
-
offering a greater variety of worship experiences through the week,
-
being more lgbt-family friendly,
-
offering more electronic resources including podcasting our worship,
-
engaging more with those who are “spiritual but not religious”,
-
being more integrated with Wilbraham St Ninian’s,
-
developing the skills of our congregation so we’re better equipped,
-
continuing to engage in social action,
-
offering greater training and nurture to our people,
-
using better advertising and
-
continuing to assess the utility of our denominational affiliation.
In the next few days we will email out the full details of our day together and invite everyone connected with our church to comment on them. We’d like to check that the ideas about what we value, what our mission is and where we’d like to be in five years’ time resonate with the rest of the congregation (we understand not everyone was able to be with us yesterday) and to include more ideas and perspectives.
The Board will then draw up a statement of values, mission and vision which we will, again, put out for consultation based on all the feedback and develop specific plans for each of the areas we want to work in.
