Winter Newsletter 2015: Article

Dear Friends

As always, time seems to move forward far faster than it possibly should! Winter is upon us, marked by late rains in June; half the year has passed and yet seemingly only just begun. Since our last Newsletter we have journeyed through the Seasons of Lent and Easter, entering now into the extended Season of Sundays after Pentecost that will take us through Winter and Spring and into early Summer. In terms of Church activities, Lent was marked by our Parish Camp in early March and our Lent Course that focused us on the Apostles Creed, asking us to reflect on the relevance of ancient beliefs in our 21st century world; the Season of Easter was marked by The Marriage Course.

The Parish Camp

This was a really good time away together, and my thanks to all who were able to join us. There was lots of time for fellowship and relaxation together. We did spend some time, though, applying our minds on the Saturday morning to Acts 2:42-47 while reflecting on the theme "serving each other; serving the world". We drew on the links between teaching,  fellowship, the sharing of meals, and prayer in terms of serving each other;  and on signs and wonders, the sale of property and possessions, giving to those in need, and generosity in terms of serving the world. Out of these reflections we moved into discussion groups, which highlighted the following as needing to be priority for us at St Andrew's:

Priority One

Preaching (the present quality and variety was affirmed); Home Groups (that the present Groups should be supplemented with new groups, for which leaders need to be identified); Young People (identify needs, create opportunity for volunteerism, and explore a supper club)

Priority Two

Regular multi-generational "Coffee Afternoons"; teaching on Contemplative Prayer and on "Being Anglican"; Newcomers (create room to be involved beyond the superficial); Programmes (Alpha, Renew, The Marriage Course, etc)

Priority Three

Worship (forms of worship, a review of service times, opportunity for quiet); Men's Breakfast; Ministry to The Needy (fewer, bigger projects with more opportunity for active involvement); Prayerfulness (prayerful support, being a "voice of hope"); Evangelism Training (how to market our community, attract visitors to belong; impact on our communities for Christ)

Parish Council has noted these priorities, but the key to implementation is finding people who will have the passion and time to help further interrogate, and then implement, these priorities in practical ways.

What of the above has warmed your interest? If you are sensing a gentle pressure from the Holy Spirit, please come and chat with myself, or a member of Council, or a Layminister,  and we can explore this prompting further. God generally prompts more than one person, so while one needs to take that step of Faith and speak to someone, often God already has a partner lined up. But you'll never know if you don't ask... and I look forward to a conversation with you.

The Marriage Course

You may have noted (above) that one of the items noted under Priority Two in our group discussions at the Parish Camp were programmes such as Alpha and The Marriage Course, both of which have their origins at Holy Trinity, Brompton, in the UK. Just as the Lent Course was an offering to us during the Season of Lent, so The Marriage Course has been an offering to us during the Season of Easter. The Easter Season reminds us about the essentials of our Christian Faith (death, resurrection, renewal), and The Marriage Course likewise does this in terms of our marriage relationships (the essentials of strong foundations, artful communication, resolved conflict, the power of forgiveness, the impact of wider family past and present, good sex, and putting our love into action).

Nine couples participated this year, and all completed the course strengthened in these essentials. Dawn and I were privileged to be able to participate (and I must admit to Dawn being keener than I was to start with). I must also admit to being surprised! It really was good, and enabled us to talk through numerous aspects of our relationship in a fresh and life-giving way in our twenty-fifth year together. And, of course, the weekly suppers... delicious!

This course took place (and will again next year, hopefully) because of Graham and Margie Michael's passion and commitment to facilitating this ministry. And also due to their willingness to draw others into the team (Waitrons Richard & Debbie Emery, and Edgar & Beryl Ruiters). My thanks to them all for their gift of ministry to us. And they are not alone in setting this example.

Participation

One of the huge challenges any volunteer organisation faces is ensuring people always feel welcome to participate in leadership and facilitation spaces, and the Church experiences this, too. I encourage you to look around: how often do familiar faces reappear in different settings at St Andrew's? There is comfort in seeing a specific face at the altar, then in the kitchen,  then on Church Council; but is it good for us as a community? There is a danger that we rely on the goodwill of the few, and take their availability and passion for granted. Or, as in the case of the Layministers, for example, there seems to be a large group, but we forget that there are five services a week at St Andrew's and not all Layministers are available all the time, or during the week, due to work or travel or illness.

A number of our coordinators and facilitators of key ministries have indicated a need to step back after numerous years of active and faithful service, but Council is finding it difficult to identify people willing to accept appointment. Among others, we are looking for new coordinators for the Morning Market, Children's Church, and Flower Guild. We're needing to grow the Layministers team, find additional Children's Church teachers, Home Group leaders, flower-arrangers, people to serve tea, sidespeople, readers. We need to add to our team of available people to help with various Ministry to the Needy projects, and people to participate in the Fundraising Committee for our new building project.

The temptation is to see people busy and active and involved and to say either, "They don't need me!" or, "There's no space for me!" I wish to suggest that neither statement is ever true... we need your participation, and we need more than just your help (although help is valued). If I may be so bold, "participation" is about being proactively willing to either lead or support depending on the need; it is about taking "ownership" of our community life. The nature of the Church (in the broadest sense) is that even if you don't belong, you do!

What are your gifts? What are your interests? What is your passion? How can you participate in the St Andrew's call to serve each other  and to serve the world?

I look forward to our next conversation, you and me.

Love and Blessings
Mark

Spring Newsletter 2014: Article

Dear Friends

"Serving each other; serving the world"

On Saturday 30 August 2014 thirty-two St Andrew's Church members met to workshop together around our vision for who God is calling us to be as a Christian community in the wider Newlands context. This group was broadly reflective of the Parish as a whole, with each of our three Sunday congregations well represented.

While acknowledging that possibly our biggest strength is our outreach programme via Ministry to the Needy (MTN), feedback from our group discussions highlighted the need for "inreach": a need to caringly reach out to each other that we may then reach out to the world as an engaged, inclusive and welcoming community of Christian disciples.

We recognised the need to build on our Anglican identity and tradition, acknowledging that who we are today as St Andrew's Church is built on the legacy of those who have gone before us over more than a century. Additionally, we recognised that there are aspects of who we already are that we wish to preserve: our three Sunday services with their varied focus; our Ministry to the Needy (MTN); the various Home Groups; our intercessor prayer ministry; our fellowship activities (the St Andrew's Amble, Shrove Tuesday Pancake evening, and our Curry Supper) and tea after our services; the Morning Market; and our strong revenue stream.

Importantly, we noted a number of things we would like to see enhanced or added to our Church life with a focus on creating opportunities for broader engagement and participation by all who belong to, or seek to join, our Christian community here at St Andrew's. This requires a loving, caring and non-judgmental space where people of all cultures are able to grow as disciples of Christ and in width and depth of Faith. In this regard:

- Become a "24/7 Church", not just a Sunday-focused Church. Our building plans are important here, as they will offer us greater weekday access to our Hall and other facilities.

- Strengthen and expand our Home Group structure as a primary space to belong, where caring relationships can be formed, ministry encouraged, and Faith shared.

- Include our children and young people more fully in our worship: have them begin in Church before going down to Children's Church and Teen Church; provide opportunities for participation in music; develop a Servers' Guild.

- Build relationships through fellowship: a regular (quarterly?) combined morning service; review service times to allow for tea after the early service; and weekends away together.

- Provide opportunities for Spiritual development: revive courses such as Alpha, Renew, the Marriage Course; have regular Quiet Mornings; and build prayer partnerships.

- Create focus groups for Mothers and Toddlers, and for those who have been divorced or bereaved.

- Be more intentional about the Sunday evening service: vibrant music and liturgy; outreach to local schools and the university.

- Consider supporting a mission worker.

- Develop an "Info Central" around our website so that information about our various activities and community life is easily accessible.

We also reflected on what we wish to eliminate from Church life. This included the noise the Children's Church make coming for Communion, cliques, judgementalism and negative criticism:

- In terms of our children, there is an excitement about coming in for a blessing or to receive communion, and after the long trek up from the hall, that excitement is difficult to contain, although the teachers do their best to settle them down at the door (another reason why our Building Project is so important); our children need to feel welcome, and some noise is unavoidable!

- One is rarely aware of being in a clique. The best way of ensuring one's friendship group or Home Group doesn't fall into this definition is to be constantly on the look out for those on the margins of Church life, and invite them in. It can be educational to occasionally step out and view your group from an outsider's perspective.

- Criticism can be positive and valuable. We wish to avoid criticism that is judgemental and destructive.

In closing we noted that we wished to avoid the following: losing our Anglican identity; losing members through lack of caring; burnout of the few due to underinvolvement of the wider Church membership; complacency (especially in terms of our Dedicated Giving); and lack of follow-through towards engagement of new members.

Moving forward: we need your input! Please give comment on the above as you may have a perspective we did not consider at the workshop. How can you do this? A conversation with a Churchwarden or Parish Councillor, or the Rector; an email via the Church Office; a comment on our Facebook page. It will also be helpful, if there is any area above that excites you, that you indicate your willingness to be part of a team that develops that specific area in our Church life.

A concurrent process alongside this opportunity for further comment, is the review of our mission statement, the defining of our vision, and a list of priorities in terms of the issues identified at the workshop.

And finally, please hold the ongoing process in prayer. We seek to be about God's work and the purposes of God's Kingdom in our world. It is critically important that our mission, our vision, is aligned in this way.

Blessings
                      Mark

Parish Vision Workshop

Dear Friends

I wrote quite extensively about our need to revisit our mission and to explore our vision in the most recent Church Magazine (see http://thelongviewza.blogspot.com/2014/06/winter-newsletter-2014-article.html) and in this regard wish to invite you to join us for:

The St Andrew's Parish Vision Workshop
Saturday 30 August 2014, 09:00-12:00
in the Church Hall
77 Kildare Road, Newlands, 7700

The morning will be divided into three parts:

We will begin with some input around mission and vision, what defines and differentiates these concepts, along with the role of core ministry practices in implementing our mission and helping us embrace our vision. This will be a plenary session.

We will then spend some time in groups reflecting on three questions:
- Who is God calling us to be?
- What is God calling us to do?
- Where is God calling us to go? 

Our final session will also be in groups, this time focusing on a revised SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats) exercise where we will explore the following four questions:
- What is intrinsic to whom we are which we wish to maintain at all costs? 
- What would we like to add that is not presently part of who we are/what we do? 
- What do we need to stop doing/excise from Parish life?
- What do we never want to see at St Andrew's (under any circumstances)?

What is the outcome we are hoping for from the morning together? The plan is to gain sufficient input that with further consultation we will be able to elucidate a revised mission statement, give flesh to a Parish vision, and identify a number of priorities for our mission and ministry going forward. We would wish to finalise this process for acceptance at our next Annual Vestry meeting in February 2015.

So please make the effort to attend and participate in this process, and please feel free to already begin thinking and talking around the above questions.

There will be a sign-up sheet at the back of the Church, or you can register for the morning via Bev in the Church Office.

A reminder that our present mission statement says:

St Andrew's aims to be a loving, worshipping, Christian community which encourages everyone to follow Christ as disciples through being obedient to his Word and Spirit, and as a result taking God's love to the local community, to the poor, the needy and the world. 

Blessings
Mark