Benefice Vision Day 2025 – Review
All three church families came together in Flitton Church Hall on 15 March 2025, to be thankful for what is happening, look with confidence to the future and help Rev Simon and Rev Louise shape the ministry and mission in the villages.
Rev Simon and Rev Louise summarised the morning as follows:
Over twenty of us came together to listen to God and discern what he was doing in our churches and what he may be leading us to do in the community. One thing is for sure, that it is impossible to do all that is needed to be done and at the same time please everyone.
Church has an unchanging message of God’s love to deliver in changing times. We are in a privileged position to do this in a variety of ways, it was ever so. The church organ was as revolutionary in its time as any modern innovations that help us in our worship, ministry and mission today. One consideration from the morning was how we may need to adapt to accommodate what is needed. That starts primarily with us! A brief review of the morning follows:
Exciting/Joyful Things to be Thankful for
Services, Messy Sunday, Midweek and Friday services, Reflect & Connect, Remembrance Services, Open Churches, Community Events, Prayer trail, Alpha, Quiet Day, Lent Course, Confirmations, New People, Olivia (our Curate to be), Sermons, Reordering Spaces.
Challenges
Young People, Finances, Wider Church of England, Safeguarding Issues, Connecting to the Community, Ageing Congregations, To Keep Going, PCC Recruitment, Communications, Holding the Inherited and the New together.
Mission Action Plan (MAP) Update
We reviewed our values and decided that we were working well at being Christ centred and hospitable, we were increasingly worshipful and united, but there was work to be done on being more prayerful and community focused.
Making New Disciples: We are raising awareness of family focused events but there is much to do. Newcomers are being invited to the Alpha Course and Messy Sundays. The Christmas Journey has run for two successful years. We need to produce a welcome card/pack for newcomers.
Going Deeper into God: We have regular small groups for courses and the Bible Book Club. A Quiet Day was held in September 2024. There are ongoing services and sermon series to deepen our faith. It would be good to have small groups meeting beyond the Vicarage.
Transforming Communities: We have successfully completed a community survey (much of the meeting focused on its results). There is a need to explore further how we use the spaces in our churches. Also to make the best use of the opportunities that open churches present.
Community Survey: The summary of the results is included at the end of this note. We spent a significant amount of time discussing how we may introduce a regular all age/family service, probably monthly to begin with. Flitton is free on a 4th Sunday but how might we move such a service around the Benefice? There was discussion about a parents and babies/toddlers group, provision for those who may be lonely, for young people and the elderly and how we might make our services more inclusive.
Other items raised were how we communicate across the Benefice and to the villages, that any MAP goals need to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Work with local events established already.
Conclusions
1. Be thankful for the journey we have made in the last three years.
2. Our Mission Action Plan will be reset with discussions in future PCC’s.
3. A monthly family service will be introduced this year.
4. We need to produce a welcome card/pack for newcomers.
5. Make our churches open and community ‘owned’
6. Continue to foster small groups and discipleship courses.
Summary of Community Survey
138 Responses: Flitton 81, Silsoe 42, Pulloxhill 13
On average the respondents have lived in the villages for about 20 years.
Their average age was 58.
¾ were not regular church attenders.
Sunday morning and Messy Sunday had the highest known profile of our regular services.
The most popular request 13/41 was for family services and the second most popular was for evening /compline services 9/41.
The sense of living in our community was overwhelmingly positive.
There was appreciation for what the church does and a desire that we can be even more community minded. Some were unaware of our role.
There is a need for better communication and open churches.
Some Headline Quotes
‘What does the church do exactly, besides look beautiful?’
‘I believe God has has very exciting plans for the church here!’
‘The visibility of the church needs to improve.’
‘Think they are really trying.’