Events
Vision Letter 2011
St Andrew’s Church Commitment Sunday – November 6th 2011
What has been happening over the year:
• Growing numbers of people coming to the church
• 24/7 Week of Prayer held during Easter & Christmas
• New Disciple Groups starting – now over 200 people in groups
• Two Challenging Issues series
• Bible Fresh E100 bible reading initiative
• 50th Anniversary in March
• Two Noise events reaching out to our community
• Two Alpha courses
• Parenting Course and Marriage course
• One Can Trust started
• Jonny Hedges arriving as the new Youth Pastor
• New Partnership with East Side Community Centre
• Lighthouse developing and growing
A Vision for the coming year
‘We hear much these days about the need for revival in our time. But revival is not enough. Our nation needs transformation’ Loren Cunningham
Our vision is to see our community transformed. We want to be a church that is passionate, growing Christ-centred disciples that does not exist for itself but for Christ and the world.
So how do we see this happening through St Andrew’s Church?
Radical Love
Motivated by God’s love for us we want to grow in our worship and prayer to be ever more passionate. As we spend time with the Father we gain something of his heart out of which everything else flows. We will seek to provide and model:
• Prayer that deepens our faith
• Times of worship that flows into our whole lives
• Opportunities for thankful hearts to celebrate and praise
• Hearts that expect revelation of God’s presence and power
• A town wide event “Love Wycombe” in partnership with other churches
Intentional Discipleship
We recognise that Jesus’ primary call on our lives is to be disciples who make disciples who make disciples. This is not just for the spiritual elite but each member of His church. We want to orientate our lives around the teaching and life of Jesus. This means we will seek to:
• Develop mentoring to enable personal growth
• Invest in training more disciple group leaders
• Plan to see new disciple groups started
• Multiply our morning service in February to create space to grow
• To train more people in prayer ministry
Dynamic Action
As we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, we want to step out in generosity and service to demonstrate God’s heart for people through compassionate action. We will:
• Develop the Noise Day events
• Send teams on short term mission trips
• Develop our community activities to support the vulnerable and weak
• Launch ‘Starlight’ – A new initiative for young families
Your personal response
For our vision to become a reality, each of us needs to be involved and play our part with all that God has given us: our time, relationships, skills, experience and money. All of our giving of ourselves flows out of gratitude to God who has given us everything. We want to be a local church, giving of ourselves and sharing our resources with a generous and open heart. Our gratitude can be shown in many ways.
One key area that we are looking to build on is our regular giving through Standing Orders, so we have a strong financial basis to plan ahead. The Bible often calls this our ‘tithe’. To put God first in our lives we also need to put God first in our finances.
Some practical steps in your personal commitment.
Review your giving of your whole life in keeping with your resources and with your commitment to Jesus Christ and His church.
Pledge to give if you are not already, regularly supporting the work of the church.
Use Gift Aid to enable the church to benefit an extra 28%.
Prayerfully fill in your Financial Commitment form – how can you give generously to the ongoing mission of St Andrew’s Church.
Get involved by serving with your gifts, skills and time in some way by signing up at our Ministry Fayres in November and January. (The Ministry Fayre will be an opportunity to learn more about the variety of opportunities to serve in the life of the church.)
You can download a Financial Commitment Form from our useful downloads page and return it anytime to the Church Office – address at the bottom of this page, or on Commitment Sunday which is 27th November or to the Church Office.
If you would like any more information about how you can contribute financially to the life of St Andrew’s – look at our Giving page. Or if you would like to also give your time, gifts and skills have a look at our Serving page.
Thank you so much for your continued support in the ministry and mission of St Andrew’s Church.
Simon Dust
Vicar
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