Updated mission plan (2006) for the Deanery of Elham

The main points for 2006

We believe that we are called in 2006 to focus prayerfully on the following points.

During the next twelve months we will develop:

...Our mission.

We will encourage parishes to explore:

How can resistant soil be prepared to receive the seed of Christian witness?
How can this seed be sowed?
How can this seed truly grow?

Behind these general questions lie key issues of context, personal relationships and witness, quality of welcome and teaching. We believe that the following four points are important steps on the way.

...A strategy for ensuring that each church has appropriate, sustainable, leadership.

Thus we will know what we do if:

a new church (perhaps resulting from a church plant) needs a new minister
a church cannot afford a stipendiary minister

This has implications for our sharing, encouraging and training of ministers, lay and ordained and for good communication between Diocese and Deanery.

...Opportunities for deepening our Christian life: especially to encourage thinking on personal spirituality and on shared responsibility for ministry.

The quality of our discipleship is central to our mission. It is a key deanery responsibility to encourage growth in Christ-centred spiritual life. The Spirituality Group will continue its excellent work in setting up events. We will explore how best we can provide further opportunities for sharing and teaching.

...Support and encouragement for Christians who work in schools, as a central part of our commitment to education

Christian influence in schools is a very significant factor in the church's witness, in the wellbeing of young people and of society as a whole. One church already provides a prayer network and events for teachers; this could be extended across the deanery.

...Our work among younger people.

Any child or teenager coming to a church should know that this is a place where they are welcomed and nourished. We hope that every church will assess the strengths and weaknesses in its work with young people. We will see what help can be given and received. We will find a means of sharing good practice and of helping to resource youth work.

These are the points that we plan to achieve in 2006; they are significant in their own right, but also lay the foundations for further aims in 2007. They complement our ongoing ministry in parishes and we hope to approach them with a spirit of unity and ecumenism. The full Deanery Mission Plan will continue to be a key resource. We will seek to be a people of prayer and of love, listening to God's guiding voice.