MAPping News
Mission Action Planning forms continue to arrive in the office, and there are some good and imaginative schemes in evidence. Some parishes are just beginning to make a start, due to arrivals or departures of clergy, and recently I have been invited to help get the whole process off the ground in a couple of parishes. One parish has found that a helpful way into MAPping is to try and write a description of their church in five years time: what would be going on and what it would look like. You could try producing a copy of your parish magazine for April 2013, with details of your services and activities.
I hope that those of us who are now engaged in turning our dreams into reality are finding it an enjoyable and exciting process, and that you are not being too ground down by the day-to-day pressures of parish life to look at the bigger picture.
Now that we are around half way through our first year, may I remind you of the next stage, the end-of-year review. The MAPping folder gives full details and suggestions of how you might carry this out, but the basic idea is a reality-check to see how far you’ve come, and what have been your successes and sticking points. Only as we reflect on the past do we learn important lessons which will help us into the future.
Parish Renewal Days
One parish recently invited me to lead a Parish Renewal Day. This was on a Saturday (although it could have been on Sunday instead), and through a comfortable mixture of group discussion, quiet, prayer and worship we aimed to deepen our faith and to encounter God through one another. I would love to run similar days for any parishes which might be interested: please get in touch if you would like to talk about that possibility. Only as our personal faith is renewed and our relationship with God is deepened can we take forward the plans we have sensed are God’s purpose for us.