Thursday 14 July 2011

An Away Day Programme

When it comes to developing Tailored Mission Strategies it is probably best to plan two Away Days about a month or two apart.  Events organised by Rural Mission Solutions are carefully organised and sensitively led with the aim of making them enjoyable experiences.  They are interactive and will combine times for individual quiet reflection as well as working with small groups of friends. It is really important that, if at all possible, 100% of your regular congregation come on the Away Day.  The reason for this is not only that it makes the day more effective but it also ensures a greater sense of ownership of the outcomes.  After all it will be your members who will be doing the tailoring.

Rural Mission Solutions combines pastoral sensitivity, an understanding of rural community and church life, and contemporary management skills.  All of these are subject to theological reflection, for unless the Lord builds the house we will labour in vain.

The key to effectiveness in this process is keeping it flexible.  The process itself is as important as the outcomes it produces, and has often proved to be spiritually enriching.  However there are some basic elements that are worked through and which are outlined below.

The venue needs to be reasonably close.  It is possible to do it on church premises (e.g. a church hall) but often a change of scenery is helpful.  Small conference centres or another host church might be available to you.  You will need to ensure that any children can be looked after so having a suitable team from another church to run a programme for them at the same time is ideal.  Coffee on arrival, a light lunch, and some afternoon tea will need to be provided.  Avoid any of this having to be done by your church members as we want them to be fully available.

If only a half day can be managed then it will need to start at 9.00am and conclude with lunch.  A full day usually starts at 10.00 and concludes in time for departures at 4.00pm.

Each session starts with an appropriate Bible reading and brief reflection so that the whole day is grounded in scripture.  Often the first session will begin with a slightly longer act of worship, and the day will end with worship before the final refreshments. Here is a brief description of some of the elements:

What is mission?
The purpose of the session is to ensure that there is a common understanding of different elements of mission (including evangelism).  A series of interactive elements help the participants to relax, laugh, and to reflect on this important issue.  We have yet to find a congregation that has a common, clear and concise understanding of mission.  The processes in this session enable everyone to contribute confidently without embarrassment.

Where does mission fit in?
This is a group activity called organisational mapping.  They will be working in small groups in a two-step simple exercise.  This is not a long session but will produce some highly visual results and identify some of the key questions that the church members will have to tackle later in the day.

Understanding our patch
This is another interactive group session exploring the nature of the local community, its people groups, life-style, social activities, cultural norms, etc.  This also involves various forms of 'mapping'.  Against the outcomes we will also plot the presence of the church within the community.

Understanding the resources
In this session we will be looking at the church's resources, especially the people.  We will look at who is on the team, their natural abilities, life experience, and spiritual gifting.  Once more it is interactive with some small groups leading into a plenary session.  The results are carefully cross-checked as we seek to understand how God can use just who we are.

What is God Saying?
All too often we come up with great ideas and then ask God to bless them.  This is a highly reflective session as we see if we can discern what God is saying and doing, and perhaps understand why he is doing/saying these things.  This too is fed into the mix and we explore together how this relates to previous sessions.  This is often one of the most exciting elements.

Putting it Together & Managing Change
A number of organisational and marketing tools are employed in this session including a specially adapted form of 'SWOT Analysis', explore image issues, and work together to create the tailored strategies everything else has been leading to.  As we do so it will become obvious that change is inevitable.  What will have to change, and how that change will be managed requires careful consideration.