St Andrew’s Church, Oxshott
St Andrew’s - Your Church
Building the Vision: The 5 workstreams
Having decided our Vision for St Andrew's, we now need to do something about it!
We will look at various aspects of life at St Andrew's in turn, and document how we measure up to our aspirations (a Current State Assessment). We then decide what we are going to do about it (an Action Paper).
We are looking in turn at 5 'workstreams': Mission, Worship, Teaching, Unity and Social Action. An update on each appears here - scroll down the page to see the latest news:
Mission
Our Mission both to the immediate community of Oxshott and beyond to the wider world.
Our Vision is to reach out and spread the news of the redeeming love of Jesus Christ, so that people in Oxshott come to know God and make a personal commitment to Him and doing His work. Our Vision is for a welcoming church in which anyone can feel at home.
We looked at this important topic with a Working Group under Valerie Pitt, our Curate at the time. Their Current State Assessment was agreed by the PCC in March 2009, and the Action Paper was approved in May 2009. Implementing the Actions was delayed by Valerie's departure, but the Outreach committee have picked up the topic and are working through them, as part of how we enhance the Mission activity at St Andrew's.
Worship
Our Worship of God together in spirit and in truth, in a variety of different services and musical styles.
Our Vision is to speak to a wide cross-section of the community, wherever they are on their journey of faith: committed, enquiring, unchurched; meeting in the church buildings and in groups large and small around the village.
A Working Group had been set up under Rob Stansbury, which evaluated the pilot Sunday morning services that were held during May and June 2008; a full report on the feedback was presented to the PCC.
The church leadership, having taken this into account, is managing the changes to our services, and the Working Group was therefore stood down; the pattern of our morning services change in February 2011.
Teaching
The Teaching that we do within St Andrew's - because our mission to proclaim the gospel must involve a strong foundation of biblical teaching, in the main services, Junior Church, the network of housegroups and throughout the church community.
Our Vision is to help people take the first steps in committing themselves to God in Christ, in deepening their faith and in maturing to become teachers themselves; all with Bible-rooted teaching and learning.
This Working Group is operating under Carl Jackson. Their Current State Assessment was agreed by the PCC on 12 February 2008, and the Action Paper was approved on 12 July 2008. A small group is now working their way through an interesting series of Actions to enhance the Teaching at St Andrew's.
See also the webpages on Teaching.
Unity
Unity, being one church family, putting God’s will first and working together to resolve differences and work around them, because God’s work will not be thwarted.
Our Vision is to serve God willingly as one, in humility, putting aside personal preferences and celebrating our diversity while all striving for a common goal with single purpose.
We have not yet started this workstream.
Social Action
Social Action, meaning reaching out to our community and the wider world with practical and financial assistance, as an expression of the love God has for us all.
Our Vision is that we actively identify and respond to the variety of needs in our community and the world, because loving our neighbours is an essential ingredient of the life of every Christian.
We will kick off this workstream in 2011, and Pat Dickin has agreed to lead the work. The first steps will be to form a Working Group, and then do a Current State Assessment, setting out what social action we currently do at St Andrew's!
Also see what is happening with the Vision Enablers
Go back to the Vision Statement
Office Address:
Oakshade Road
Oxshott
Surrey
KT22 0LE