THE JOURNEY OF THE CHURCH If the requirements and needs of the church family to find God in Christ Jesus through the working of the Spirit, and that includes its work and witness and place in the community, are not met then there is dissatisfaction, disenchantment and disengagement. Where there is dissastisfaction, disenchantment and disengagement it will damage the church family. Further, it will influence adversely the perception of the church by those who view it from outside. People ‘buy into’ the church based on their perceptions, what they see of and think about the church. Therefore, every step will be taken to protect the church against dissastisfaction, disenchantment and disengagement. Only when the three have been eliminated is the church able to satisfy the needs of: (1) the church family; (2) the communities in which God has placed members of that family; and, (3) the world for justice and peace.
VISION & MISSION STATEMENTS The vision and mission statements must be no ‘pie in the sky’ or ‘motherhood’ statements. However, the ‘final destination’, where the church wants to arrive at, may always be tantalising out of reach or changing and drawing the church family ever forward to reach new heights and new achievements. Furthermore, the elements of the statements should be measurable because if you can’t measure ‘it’, whatever ‘it’ is, you can’t manage ‘it’. Additionally, when there is a need for action if the procedures, processes or steps are not written down they will not happen and if they cannot be written down they cannot happen.
VISION (being the destination of the Fleetwood church) The Fleetwood church shall be perceived as one:
1: Meeting the declared and agreed requirements and needs of the church family in terms of worship, work and witness;
2: Reaching out into the community responding to the needs of the community.
3: Supporting initiatives to remove injustices and cause world peace.
The definition of the vision recognises that a primary demand is to meet the requirements and needs of the church family. Get that right and all else follows. Further, the second and third elements demand the church family be outward looking. God has placed it where he has, with all its gifts and talents, for a purpose.
MISSION STATEMENT (being the ‘how’ the vision is to be achieved). The Fleetwood church shall achieve its vision by:
1: The church meeting and elders’ meeting, as servants of the church meeting,identifying and agreeing what are the requirements and needs of the church family and the community the church serves.
2: Being a learning community and one unafraid to experiment and be prepared to learn from mistakes.
3: Progressing by incremental steps toward satisfying completelythe agreed requirements and need of the church family and the community served.
4: Engaging all the people in a ministry of all the people.
The three element mission – the how – statements have been and are critical to the success of the Fleetwood church.