Our deliberations confirmed the relevance of our mission, yielded possible solutions and strategies to be further explored and also revealed some urgent needs which must be addressed, in order to properly execute The church’s Mission. Three major objectives were identified that need to be immediately pursued:-
1. Greater interaction of the church with the immediate and wider communities, leading to an expansion of the membership of the congregation.
2. Attracting more youth and young adults into the membership of the church and reversing the tendency of our young adults leaving Ascension for membership in other churches.
3. Expansion & enhancement of the physical facilities of the church to adequately meet the needs of the present and future congregation.
Hmmm. The title “Christ” appears on that page in the context of the Great Commission, but in a quick tour of the website, I didn’t see the Name of Jesus.
Merely an oversight, I assume.
And, maybe everything else at that parish is already working so well that those are the only “major objectives” that “need to be immediately pursued.”
Oh – wait a second. I just reread Objective #2. Hmmm.
Its good they are facing up to the issue and trying to do something about it. I wonder what the “other churches” are that they are losing young people to?
Still stuck in the old idea that the church exists to attract people to it. A long cry from “Go into the world”. Until we begin to take responsibility for the communities in which we are planted, and learn how to take the Gospel out from our buildings, we will continue to puzzle about how to ‘attract’ people rather than how we ‘engage’ people.