Working together for a better future

As a Presbyterian church we believe mission begins with God. We do not have a mission; God has a mission for us. God’s mission is discovered by listening to God through the Word and one another within the context of a local community of people. The purpose of the congregational reviews is to help congregations reflect and review where they are at so each church can better respond to God’s calling for them in God’s mission.

The Survey – Local Congregational Conversations:
These will consist of a Congregational leadership, worship, life and mission survey and a facilitated conversation to follow things up.

The wider the group doing the survey the better as this will provide a richer source of data on which to inform discernment and planning. Each local leadership (Session or Parish Council) will discern their own action plan as a result of survey and the follow up conversation.

The survey: will cover four areas for reflection. All answers are anonymous:
1. Leadership: As a church we value the minister and elders exercising collective discernment and leadership within the local congregation. You are asked a series of questions that evaluate this.
2. Worship: These questions ask you to discern how you as a church collectively worship, evaluating ‘your’ way of being in relationship with God, self and others.
3. Culture: These questions look at the internal glue that holds a community together. This is an internal look in at what holds you as a church together and what makes you tick. Often unspoken, these are the taken for granted norms, values, ethos, that tell us how to be. Culture is the soil in which we grow.
4. Mission: As a church you have a purpose greater than yourselves. It is a sense of direction that drives you. Mission is love with hands and feet. Who are you being called in mission to and how are you doing?

Facilitated Conversation: Once the survey is complete (either written or online) a facilitated conversation will be held with the eldership (or the wider group).

You will be able to identify:
• Areas of strength that you can build on
• Trends
• Key areas of ongoing conversation and discernment

You will be able to discern:
• What actions need to be taken
• What improvements can be made
• What changes will you commit to
You will be able to create an action plan:
• That is SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.
• These goals will help focus your efforts and increase the chances of achieving that goal. SMART goals are well defined, clear, and unambiguous.