Mission Matters workshop held 08 Feb 10.

The turnout at this meeting certainly proved that mission does matter in St Luke’s.  Our Church Rooms were packed for a lively interactive workshop.  It concluded that:

• St Luke’s has been faithful to its overseas mission commitments but they have rather fallen from sight recently as we concentrated on other activities.
• For the future we resolved to create a better focus on our overseas relationships within a structured plan, better communication in church, all underpinned with prayer. 
• A revitalised Mission Team is needed to make this happen – and there were many volunteers at the meeting – more would be welcome.  

To find out more read the summary outline below or to discuss mission matters further speak to John Pawson or Jonathan Elliott-Jones (682504).

John Pawson opened the meeting with some reflection on the current position on overseas mission, followed by prayer.

This meeting was held using the PinPoint system for ideas generation and capture. The main output has been recorded as images of the boards used in the process – these are stored on the internet and linked to the thumbnail pictures in the table below. Simply click on the thumbnail of the board you wish to view a readable image of the board.**[see note below]. Also some of the principal outcomes are recorded as text in the table below.

	Entry Board: Captured people’s expectations of this conference – and revealed some little known titbits from people’s life and background – unfortunately not all attendees managed to put their name on the board.
	As a church do we take our responsibility for overseas mission seriously?: A range of views were expressed: some suggesting we are successful but others feeling there is room for improvement. The overall conclusion was that St Luke’s has been faithful to its overseas mission commitments but they have rather fallen from sight as we have concentrated on activities closer to home and particularly our Youth and Children’s work. The link with Kisiizi has weakened with changes in personnel and the view was expressed that our support for overseas mission had reduced to one with too much emphasis on financial input and not enough on relationships.
	What would the ideal church be doing to demonstrate its commitment to overseas mission?: Each attendee contributed ideas on actions that would demonstrate commitment by a church to overseas mission in an ideal situation. Similar ideas were grouped together and each group was then given a title and priorities were established by a vote. In order of priority the following areas were identified for : 1. Focus The ideal church would focus strongly on a few links to avoid dissipation of resources and effort. These links would be with specific places, people, churches or projects, with an emphasis on personal relationship. 2. In church communication: Ideally overseas mission would have a high profile within the church and feature in regular and specific communications in differing delivery formats. 3. Prayer Prayer would underpin all overseas mission activities – and would be regular, focussed and varied. 4. Strategic structure An ideal church would have strong mission leadership and an active mission team working within a structured strategic plan. 5. Sharing our Skills People would use their skills and talents to further support mission activity 6. Partner communication Regular and varied two way communication would be a key feature of the mission relationships of the ideal church. 7. Commitment Commitment to mission partners should be regular, sustainable and of sufficient duration to make an impact. 8. Everyone involved All church members would be aware of mission activity and be encouraged to take a close interest in specific projects. 9. Stewardship An ideal church would always be aware of our Christian stewardship of the world and its resources. 10. Do it in Love Quite simply sharing God’s love with others in a practical way. 11. Crisis help When crisis’s occur, such as the Haiti earthquake or the2004 tsunami, the ideal church would respond quickly and generously. 12. Advocacy Support for those who suffer oppression. 13. Two-way visits Regular trips to and from mission partners would strengthen the relationship. 14. Church Based Ideally the relationship should be church based. 15. Cultural Awareness The ideal church would respect and support the culture of their overseas partners. 16. Plan the balance There would ideally be an agreed balance in the way resources were expended.
Groups developed recommendations for how St Luke’s could tackle the top four priority ideas: :
	Focus: We need to (re)establish a mission team to develop and take forward an overseas mission strategy. Options included pursuing a specific church-to-church relationship in Rwanda through our Deanery Link, review our relationships with Kisiizi (Uganda) and Caroline Gilmour-White (Paraguay) and consider other mission activities such as our support of Christian Aid. It is recognised we will need to take care with decisions on who to support.
	In church communication: A wide variety of communication approaches is needed to capture people’s imagination especially as it can be difficult to attract people’s attention through displays on notice-boards. Actions proposed included finding a communications co-ordinator willing to ensure a broad range of material is made available in differing formats, making mission a greater priority including a budget from the PCC and ensuring that people from across the congregation were more involved.
	Prayer: Prayer is seen as the foundation for our overseas mission activity and we should encourage prayer in a number of contexts such as inclusion in intercessions, in small groups, as prayer triplets, in meetings to specifically pray for our overseas mission activities. Work will be needed to ensure the prayer is fresh, informed and committed. Actions suggested included prayer for a vigorous mission team, encouraging testimony, linking with other churches and leadership to ensure proposals come forward for support.
	Strategic Structure: The need for a clear plan was identified and alongside that it was recognised that people are needed to lead and participate in organising the development and implementation of this strategy. It may be difficult to find people willing and able to commit sufficient time and effort to these activities. Actions proposed included: Deciding how to turn ideas into action to create clear goals and a road map against which we can chart progress. These will need to be clearly communicated and prayerfully supported, with biblical foundations stated from the pulpit.
	Conclusion: At the end of this workshop we have defined and prioritised key actions to improve our mission processes. A number of people volunteered to be part of the future processes – further volunteers would be welcome. Attendees were asked to rate their experience on a chart– On the horizontal axis, their personal viewpoint on how useful they rated the outcomes of the event. On the vertical axis a rating of how much they enjoyed the process. The vast majority rated the process highly and most were content with the outcomes.

** Please note that the pictures have been saved at a resolution that offers a compromise for web use – you should be able to view them in your browser reasonably quickly, also you should be able to make fairly sharp prints of the boards. If you need higher resolution images please contact Jonathan Elliott-Jones.(682504)