Our Vision - where are we called to go?

‘Vision’ answers the question, ‘where are we called to go?’. Vision looks to a destination and focuses on the future. While the church’s purpose is enduring and doesn’t change, vision changes every few years as the circumstances of the church changes and as the vision is realized.

Our current vision statement was agreed in 2006, and we have embarked upon a process to discern where God is calling us in the next few years: our direction of travel and what sort of church God wants us to aim to be. We have set up a working party to discern a renewed vision, and the group will also articulate it in a form that is short, accessible and memorable. It is our intention to complete this process by the end of 2011.

In 2006, the leaders of St Paul’s agreed the following ten-point vision statement to which we believe God is calling our Christian community:

Building on our purpose we see a church community rejoicing in the Father’s love, living under the authority of Christ and led by the Holy Spirit, which is increasingly:

• spiritually renewed, where we will experience a greater desire for intimacy with God so that we are overflowing with the life and love of Jesus Christ;
• helping people come to faith in Jesus Christ by faithfully sharing the gospel and developing different ways of making church accessible and culturally relevant;
• deeply committed to the presence and participation of children and young people in our midst, so that they feel they belong, can contribute and are growing in their faith;
• celebrating and valuing the presence of everyone, whatever their age, or social and ethnic background;
• nurturing disciples, where we teach and train one another so that we are growing in faith, expressing a stronger commitment to Jesus Christ and viewing our faith as integral to our lives;
• committed to discerning the callings and identifying the gifts of its members and encouraging and equipping one another for leadership and service, so that the ministries of the church are well resourced;
• convinced of the importance of caring relationships so that all will feel welcome and loved, hurts will be healed, spirits lifted and lives transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit;
• wholeheartedly engaged with the local community, so as to be active and creative in reaching and meeting the needs of those around us so that they have a greater awareness of the care and compassion of Christ;
• globally involved, where we will be contributing to the health and well-being of the worldwide church and be receiving ourselves through our membership of the universal Body of Christ on earth;
• developing the facilities to meet the needs of a growing church so that our various ministries are well accommodated, can function effectively and continue to bear fruit.