Maidstone Deanery Mission Plan INTRODUCTION This
Mission Plan has come about following the publication of
the Canterbury Diocesan Vision document ‘Growing
Forward Together’. In that document deaneries
are encouraged to build on what is already being achieved
by individual churches and to plan for mission in the
best possible way. For many medium sized and
smaller congregations this will be within a deanery
grouping or by working with other parishes in clusters.
The Maidstone Plan, which does not preclude individual
parish initiatives, is designed to enable parishes within
the deanery to support one another and share resources
together; to complement the important work already going
on in individual congregations; and to help us all
realise our Vision for the deanery. Our
Vision: That
everyone in or, To
witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ in Our
Purpose Statement: To
debate such local and national issues as are deemed
appropriate, and for our recommendations to be passed on
to both Diocesan and the General Synod. To
encourage one another in our mutual and particular
mission and ministry. To
discover ways of working together which will release the
potential locked
up in the whole Church and enable the constituent
churches to grow and prosper. To
cooperate together so that both corporately and
separately our constituent churches may in word, work and
witness present to the people of Maidstone the riches of
our living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit as seen in
the unity and diversity of the Church. To
create a meeting of genuine sharing, worship and bible
study
aimed at creating a corporate mindset of faith and
positive expectation for the future of our Church. Our
Values: We
acknowledge Christ as head and strive to live Christ like
lives. We
strive to teach God’s Word with integrity so that
seekers find
Christ and followers grow in Him We
desire to acknowledge God’s supreme worth in our
personal
lives and in our corporate
worship and service We
believe that God desires and calls his people to pray and
rely on
private and corporate prayer in the development of our
life and ministry together We
value all people aiming to care for those outside the
church, spiritually and materially, and equipping and
training those within the church to become
effective disciples. WORSHIP To
continue to offer a variety of worship across the town
expressing the breadth of Anglicanism and the different
traditions we represent. To
acknowledge and affirm different styles and traditions
and encourage one another in them. To
worship together as a deanery at least once a year and
introduce deanery services at a variety of venues. To
develop worship at meetings of deanery synod. To
create a Deanery Directory to include lists of musicians
/ organists etc. EVANGELISM To
become visible as Anglican churches in the town, as a
deanery and
as individual congregations. To
encourage one another to reach out in evangelism and
social
concern in local areas, pooling resources where necessary
by forming a deanery
evangelism group who would consider
evangelism across the deanery and co-ordinate
resources/help to those churches
who needed it. To
particularly target areas of new development for
evangelism and arrange joint visiting to areas of new
development particularly
new
housing in Tovil, Loose, on the site of the
Oakwood Hospital, in Allington, Barming and along the
river Medway. To
use our existing resources to provide tools for
evangelism, pre-evangelism and nurture. To
have available tools for evangelism: welcome leaflet for
new homes, invitations to Alpha courses etc and develop
publicity for evangelism
if necessary. To
work ecumenically where-ever possible in evangelism. To
encourage individuals in their day to day witness. SOCIAL
ACTION AND CONCERN To
have congregational and deanery participation and
involvement in the development of Local Community
Partnerships in conjunction with Church in Society and
report back on the progress of these to Deanery Synod. To
listen to the needs of the town and respond when
appropriate. To
continue to encourage church and individual participation
in social action and concern throughout the town. To
continue to work with all people living in To
particularly support parishes in areas of social
deprivation and
give priority as a deanery to their needs. Consider
deanery links with business/public service community including
the Fremlin’s development. NURTURE
AND SPIRITUALITY To
run programmes of nurture throughout the deanery and
consider the development of joint events/courses To
continue to offer opportunities to explore Anglican
spirituality
within To
pool resources when appropriate particularly in offering
training in prayer, spiritual direction etc. To
support and monitor the work of the Night Club Chaplain
and others
in exploring and developing possibilities of
‘Emerging
Church’ To
pray effectively for one another as churches and develop
a system of communicating prayer needs across the
deanery and using
deanery synod and chapter more effectively for prayer. To
develop a system of information exchange between churches
on events. BUILDINGS To
Undertake an audit of all our buildings/houses and their
use. To
make the best use of all our church buildings, pooling
resources where
necessary and, as and when vacancies occur consider
the appropriate use of our
buildings/houses in the light
of our mission (using the best resource for a particular
ministry). To
support one another in the upkeep of our buildings. To
contribute to the life of the town through the use of our
church
buildings. To
maintain sacred spaces and holy places within the town
and amongst our church buildings PASTORAL To
pool resources for particular areas of pastoral care
within Maidstone
e.g. Residential/Nursing homes. To
support the work of our sector ministers within Maidstone
hospital, the hospice, the prison and enable
their work to feed into
the parish system through participation in
the deanery and
volunteers from local churches. To
consider channels of communication/concern between
agencies SCHOOLS To
encourage further participation of local churches in
local schools and vice
versa, particularly in the teaching of RE and the
use of our resources. To
continue to work with The Family Trust in extending the
work in
primary schools across the town and the development of
after school clubs. To
support the work of church schools in Maidstone and work
together as a
deanery and with the diocese in their development. To
liaise ecumenically with those involved in Maidstone
secondary schools
and support and encourage this work. To
build on the important schools work taking place at All
Saints, perhaps
augmenting the education work offered at Canterbury
Cathedral and possibly developing All Saints as a
diocesan resource
and developing and supporting its current
musical work. To
consider how we build on current links for joint ventures
(See
children and youth). MINISTRY
TO CHILDREN AND YOUTH To
have all churches in the deanery offering some form of
children’s
work. To
offer support and encouragement for those working with
children in our
churches through regular forums To
work together to offer opportunities for young people to
meet across
the deanery, encouraging joint ventures across churches
and in clusters. To
monitor the need for children’s / family workers
across the deanery and look to plan for these. MINISTRY
TO FAMILIES To
develop together deanery training in baptism visiting and
ministry to
families. To
support the work of the Mother’s Union and others ministering
to families and involve the work of the MU in
deanery planning. To
contribute to the ministry of parenting and support those
struggling in the
community. MINISTRY
TO THE ELDERLY To
continue to develop our ministry to those in residential
and nursing homes. To
create a directory of all that is being undertaken for
the elderly
in our churches (and with other agencies). Link
with work of the Board for Social Responsibility and
their Older Person’s Officer in service provision,
perhaps developing a
tape ministry, discussion groups etc. ECUMENICAL
LINKS To
support the work of the Diocesan Ecumenical Officer. To
establish formal channels of communication between
Maidstone for Jesus, Maidstone Bible Convention, Churches
Together and the work of the deanery. To
explore the future working in partnership with the
Methodist
Church in Maidstone. RESOURCES
AND TRAINING To
share personnel/equipment across the deanery and develop
a database
of skills across the churches (Deanery Directory). To
offer training and guidance for laity within the deanery
in a range of Christian disciplines. To
nurture those who may have a vocation to a particular
ministry in the local or wider church, and develop local
training provision for accredited
ministries. To
have a leadership strategy across churches involving
clergy, assistant ministers, readers and accredited lay
ministers which resources all
areas of population and sustains areas of growth. To
consider the future of individual parishes (and staffing
requirements) as and when they become vacant. To
consider the deployment of Readers across the deanery. To
consider the future deployment of those in training
(NSMs/OLMs and Readers), in liaison with
neighbouring deaneries. To
increase the number of OLM/NSM ministers and Readers in
the deanery by encouraging vocations and developing
Ministry
Leadership Teams, building
on the work of the Assistant DDO in the
deanery and the St Luke’s Vocations
Group. To
work to increasing the number of stipendiary curates in
the deanery by at
least one in the next 4 years To
appoint a deanery training co-ordinator to work with the
Board for Ministry
and Training to provide the best training for parishes/deanery
following on from the Springboard event in
2004. To
work towards increasing the number of
children’s/youth ministers
in the deanery.
To form clusters of parishes to share staffing, resources
and
mission, these will naturally relate both geographically
and according to similar church
tradition. A starting point for these
would be:
1.
All Saints Loose/St Martin’s/Christ Church/St
Luke’s 2.
St Nicholas/ St Michael’s/St Andrews 3.
St Faiths/St Paul’s/All Saints FINANCE
To
become financially self-supporting by 2008. This means:
Pooling parish share as a deanery and giving generously
to deanery
/diocesan mission.
Distributing subsidy between needy parishes (and applying
for subsidy from diocese)
Using surplus deanery share to consider deanery needs. To
consider the needs of parishes and areas of mission in
financing and deploying assistant ministers across the
deanery. To
increase the role of parish treasurers and churchwardens
in deanery finance by holding regular meetings. To
set up and administer a transparent appeals process to
assist
one another in paying the parish share. To
plan for the reduction of one/two stipendiary post(s)
within the next five years if finances do not increase. To
promote Christian stewardship within the deanery as a
model of good practice. To
mutually agree a system of allocating parish share which
is reviewed bi-annually.
COMMUNICATIONS
To
consider deanery communications. Creating a central
hub to
share information, perhaps by developing a deanery
website. MONITORING
AND REVIEW
To
set up a Deanery Pastoral Group to oversee the
development
of this plan and make recommendations to Deanery Synod.
To
monitor progress of the plan at each meeting of Deanery
Synod.
To
review this plan and our mission in 2007.
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