Growing Forward Together

An encouragement to parishes, deaneries, and the diocesan groups to reflect on their priorities and strategies in mission.

Isaiah’s Vision of God (Isaiah 6.1-9)

The Lord’s vision

At his Installation, Bishop Stephen focussed on this text:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’" [Matthew 22.37-39]

At his welcome service, Bishop Graham focussed on God’s mission through us.

"The love of Christ compels us" [2 Cor 5.14] "We are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us." [2 Cor 5.20]

Living the Vision

  • In all that we do with and for God we shall seek to be
    • loving
    • collaborative
    • flexible
    • prepared to take risks
    • generous
    • wanting to say Yes

Growing with God - a holy people

  • Our priority will be to make our relationship with God active, vibrant and exciting. So we are looking for SPIRITUAL REVIVAL and RENEWAL
  • that is personal
  • and corporate
…. bringing new enthusiasm
commitment, and vision

Growing with God - a holy people

  • Our first aim will be
  • to encourage people to pray regularly
  • to help that prayer to
  • deepen our relationship with God in Jesus
  • affect and be affected by our daily lives
  • to know Scripture better and use it more imaginatively

Growing with God - a holy people

  • We shall try to achieve it by
  • making better use of existing resources
    • the cathedral and other holy places
    • weeks of accompanied prayer, retreats, pilgrimages, religious communities, Cursillo, renewal groups
    • Bible study notes
    providing schools of prayer

Growing with God - a holy people

  • Our other aim will be
  • to make our worship
    • a spiritual and uplifting experience
    • a welcoming experience
    • a realistic experience

Growing with God - a holy people

  • We shall try to achieve it by
  • using imaginatively the wide range of opportunities offered by Common Worship and doing them as well as possible
  • developing services aimed at particular groups and needs - e.g. "all-age services", school eucharists, Prayer Book services
  • ensuring that within the area people have access to a range of worship and sacramental opportunities … seven days a week
  • making best use of music in worship

Growing as disciples - a learning people

  • Our priority will be
  • that we should be a learning people, committed to understanding our faith and equipped to minister

Growing as disciples - a learning people

  • Our first aim will be
  • to learn more about the Faith
  • to grapple with the complex moral issues we face as human beings
  • and to relate them to our life and our world

Growing as disciples - a learning people

  • We shall try to achieve it by making full use of Alpha, Emmaus and other educational resources in small groups
  • ensuring that our ministry among children inside and outside the Church is properly resourced and the leaders supported
  • looking afresh at how we help people prepare for baptism, confirmation, marriage etc. and the support we give them afterwards

Growing as disciples - a learning people

    to call out and train people for Christian ministries both lay and ordained
  • to provide on-going education and training for those engaged in ministry

Growing as disciples - a learning people

  • We shall try to achieve it by
  • ensuring that there is a focal minister for every congregation
  • working within a formal or informal MLT by 2006
  • making increasing use of Authorised Lay Ministries
  • developing the ministry of Readers and Deacons
  • providing focussed help for stipendiary clergy to equip them to be
  • confident leaders of a missionary Church

Growing in the world - a missionary and evangelistic people

  • Our priority will be to become a Church that is involved in, with and for the World
  • in our daily lives
  • in our worship and prayer
  • in our mission
  • in our social action

Growing in the world - a missionary and evangelistic people

  • One aim will be that by 2003 every deanery will have a clear Mission Plan in place spelling out
    • the vision and strategy they have agreed
    • the structures they need, including minsters and clusters, both geographical and by tradition
    • encouraging mission through cells and small groups
    • planting new churches and developing new forms of Church
    • the ministries they need
    • the skills and resources they need
    • the support they need from the wider Church

Growing in the world - a missionary and evangelistic people

  • We shall try to implement these plans by
  • Bishop Graham and colleagues spending significant time with deaneries and parishes, helping and encouraging
  • Area Deans and Lay Chairmen sharing experiences and ideas with others in the diocese
  • ensuring that clergy and lay people seek to share ministry with each other and with others

Growing in the world - a missionary and evangelistic people

  • Another aim will be to make our work with children and young people a priority

Growing in the world - a missionary and evangelistic people

  • We shall try to achieve it in our places of education.
  • We will work with Church schools and colleges
    responding to the Dearing Report
  • We will help clergy and lay people minister more effectively in all sorts of school
  • We will encourage those who are teachers
  • We will encourage people to become teachers
  • Growing in the world - a missionary and evangelistic people

  • We shall try to achieve it in our towns and villages and networks:
  • We will support and encouragechildren and young people who are in our congregations
  • We will develop new initiatives
    • holiday clubs, Kidz Clubs, After School Clubs etc
    • worship that speaks to young people
    • centres of excellence to help train and envision others
  • We will support and encourage youth ministries
  • We will seek ways of making contact with disadvantaged young people

Growing in the world - a missionary people

  • Another aim will be to seek to serve those in need in our own locality and to continue to provide ministry in the most deprived areas of the diocese

Growing in the world - a missionary people

  • We shall try to achieve it by
  • working ecumenically wherever possible
  • working with other partners (e.g. the local authority)
  • providing advice and help in attracting external funding for initiatives in the community
  • ensuring that ordained and lay ministry is provided in deprived areas of the diocese
    … and in places of missionary priority

Travelling Light

  • Our priority as a pilgrim people will be to seek
  • to hold on to all that is important
  • to let go of what holds us back
  • to have sufficient resources for our journey

Travelling Light

  • Our aim will be to seek ways of lightening the burdens that hold us back by
  • interpreting structures and rules flexibly
  • reducing the bureaucratic demands on parishes and clergy
  • seeking solutions to the problems posed by our buildings
  • finding more efficient and cheaper ways of supporting and resourcing our work
  • working more closely with Rochester Diocese

Travelling Light

  • We shall try to achieve it by
  • looking at our diocesan and deanery structures to seek to reduce the number of committees and meetings by the end of 2002
  • continuing to encourage the use of electronic communication and the web
  • working nationally and locally to loosen up restrictive issues to do with buildings, deployment of clergy etc.
  • encouraging diocese and parish to budget carefully, focussing resources on priorities

Travelling Light

  • Another aim will be to seek ways of encouraging a new vision leading to new giving of
    • time
    • money
    • energy
    • enthusiasm
    • enjoyment

Travelling Light

  • We shall try to achieve it
  • by concentrating on our priorities
  • by providing human and other resources to help parishes tackle stewardship issues
  • by ensuring that the distribution of Parish Share is determined in each deanery
  • by seeking always to be hopeful, encouraging and joyful

    Be of good courage!

    Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4.4

    It is God who gives the increase!