St Giles’ Mission Action Plan
St Giles Church: MISSION ACTION PLAN
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Strengths
- Beautiful building with interesting history and new facilities
- Strong links with church school and school services in church, well attended by parents and other adults.
- A tradition of interesting and unusual services e.g. Bread Service and Sermon in the Black Horse
- Parish Paper produced by church for whole village
- Village people regard the church as theirs
- Churchyard still open, local people visit to tend graves.
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Weaknesses
- Ageing congregation
- Village people regard themselves as belonging to the church but few are committed to attending regularly
- Most of the children in school are from other churches.
- Opportunities The new kitchen and toilet allow more flexibility for social events
- The people attending the school services can be encouraged to come to our special services
- Threats People being drawn to larger town churches
- Few children coming to our Sunday services
- Abuse of the church building & churchyard by vandals
Our Vision
St Giles Church seeks to be a lively welcoming Church Community reaching out to the population of South Mymms and encouraging them to be part of our witness
Our Goals
- To build on the relationships we already have locally.
- To encourage people to see the church as central to the community and the activities that are part of the community life.
Our Plan
1 To encourage the people in the village to come into the church for special events
- Step 1 Advertise all our special services, such as the Bread Service and Harvest, really well
- Step 2. Have good receptions/gatherings after the service to ensure that people feel welcomed and part of the congregation
- Step 3. Make sure that the liturgies for special services are accessible to all, that hymns are well known and service books easy to follow
- Step 4. Always ensure that children from the school take an active part in special services.
- Step 5. Invite guest preachers so that there is extra interest for regular worshippers.
- Step 6. Develop other types of worship, such as non-Eucharistic services
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2. Make the church part of village activities
- Step 1 Organise concerts, quizzes etc. avoiding clashing with other village events
- Step2 Advertise activities well and giving plenty of notice.
- Step 3 Encourage members of the congregation to take part in other activities in the village
- Step 4. Work with the school and village hall on joint activities.
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Black Horse Sermon Easter 2015
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3. Encourage people in the village to become involved in church life
- Step 1. Encourage people to get involved in the production of the Parish Paper which is distributed throughout the villages.
- Step 2. Advertise opportunities for people to try bell ringing
- Step 3. Encourage people, including parents from school to get involved in flower arranging in church.
- Step 4. Start a parent & toddler service and a midweek praise service for older people, with refreshments & social time