A Bold Future
0 comments | Posted by Steven Layson on 21 Jun 2009 in From Steve's Study ::
Some of you will be aware that St Peters has been hit quite hard by the global financial crisis. As a result, Parish Council decided they had to make some hard decisions about our staffing levels for 2010. This decision was made all the more urgent by the news that Rob Hughes would be moving on in July and that Matt Davies would end his two years with us at the end of the year.
Last Tuesday week, we met to discuss the strengths and weaknesses in our church and what direction we felt God wanted us to go in the future. It has become an opportunity for us to really think carefully and prayerfully about the future of St Peters and what staff we needed to help that future unfold.
The major strengths we identified were the children’s and youth ministries, and thereby our ministry to families. This has been a great strength of St Peters for many years now and is due in no small measure to the efforts of Rob and Shauna in particular, as well as the loving and sacrificial input of their leadership teams. We’ve also been encouraged by the way the 8am and 9.45am congregations have been growing and supporting one another. It is important that we make sure all these ministry strengths continue to be so.
The one area that we felt was in need of greater focus is that of young adults. The 7pm service has been running for 4 years now, and though it has grown to some extent, is in dire need of some more focused attention. Matt Davies and his predecessors (Seumas & Mike Smith) have done a great job in establishing this congregation, but the fact that they are only able to put in 1 day a week has left this service under-catered for.
As a result, Parish Council has decided that we will seek to get a full-time assistant minister for 2010 who will have overall responsibility for youth (taking over Rob’s role) and young adults (ie school leavers). We believe this will open up exciting new opportunities in both these areas.
The reason this is such a bold venture is that, instead of reducing the cost of staffing, it is actually an increase of some $20k for the year! No doubt you will be aware that this money does not come from “central fund” in the diocese (in fact we put money into the diocese), but only from the givings of parishioners. We would like to ask all members to prayerfully consider their level of giving to help us meet this exciting challenge.
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