In 2009 the Presbyterian Church in Ireland asked each Presbytery to put together MISSION PLANS. Our Presbytery (Newry) put together a Mission Plan presenting the challenge of mission in South Down & South Armagh.
Here is a ‘flavour’ of what the Mission Plan says:
“So we need to think about what we do and why we do the things the way we do them. Have we become Churches that are insular in mind-set? Would we be confident and comfortable in inviting and bringing un-churched people to our Sunday services? We need to address our blind spots, evaluate all aspects of church life under the Word of God and remember that PCI is not only for Presbyterians, and that surely the desire of all our hearts is that we become churches that reflect the vision of Revelation 7.”
In light of this, each congregation in the Presbytery was then asked to put together their own MISSION PLAN.
Earlier this year, elders and others met to think, discuss and pray about what we believe God was putting upon our hearts as regards our mission in the community.
The following is a SUMMARY of what we believe God is calling us to do in mission….
As we have prayerfully reflected on the stories of God’s mission, the life and witness of our congregation, the needs of our community, and opportunities for wider involvement in mission we discern God challenging us concerning…
1. The need for the whole church to ENGAGE in mission with those around us.
2. Stirring up our communicant members to their responsibility in being part of this mission.
3. Renewed engaging with nominal members and people who have lapsed in their connection with our local Church.
4. Genuine engaging with the wider community as a means of seeing Christ’s Kingdom extended.
To rise to that challenge we believe that God is directing us to the following priorities for future mission…
1. Prayer for God’s enabling in our mission.
2. Training, resourcing and encouraging of professing Christians in both seeing their missional responsibility and acting upon it.
3. Encouraging our younger people.
4. Being more INTENTIONAL was a theme which kept recurring….
- More intentional in our prayer times and through the magazine & website as regards what is happening.
- More intentional in our inviting people to services and events.
- More intentional in our training and discipling of all professing Christians.
- More deliberate in our desire to be part of community events, eg: town festivals