PCC Update - June 2022

Tracy King writes ...
Jacqui started us by encouraging us to think about discipleship and our own responsibility for our spiritual growth. Do we really want to grow? We then brainstormed the ways our own faith grew and deepened. We included-relationships, accountability, books, inspirational speakers, small groups, podcasts, Christian camps, prayer partners…
 
Paul used previous data to introduce the idea of our values being Courage, Passion and Expectancy. The discussion then included opinions on the words but mainly on how they would be used. A quick poll was taken by Dan on how we felt about the words and Paul is now going to do some more work with Dan and the new information to try and move the ideas forward for the next PCC meeting.
 
We also looked at the vision for our church; the Church of England’s 2020 vision statement is very helpful and fits St. James’ well. We fed back our thoughts on this vision statement. Dan will use the feedback to refine our statement to better reflect our own vision. We will discuss it again at the next PCC meeting.
 
The diocese is carrying out a Safeguarding update/review and at this first stage we have done well. The PCC noted their huge thanks to the safeguarding team.
 
We agreed terms of reference for 4 of the PCC sub committees; there will be more to come.
 
David Phillips had sent through draft accounts for us to look at. Things are stable at the moment which is good. However, Dan acknowledged this situation may change.
 
We then began to think about the pattern of our services as we continue to emerge out of the pandemic and into a new phase. Dan, very helpfully, put a number of issues on large ‘jigsaw pieces’ and we engaged with how some seemed to contradict others. The challenge will be how can they all fit together to form a complete jigsaw.
 
The issues Dan had identified were;

• The service pattern should flow out of our vision.
• Service timings: young families tend to prefer early starts, older families tend to prefer later starts.
• What does God want us or not want us to do?
• Being inter-generational is vital for discipleship.
• People are coming less often because there are less services they like.
• What can we resource? Service leaders, musicians etc.
• Some would like a more regular (pre-covid style) 9 a.m. service.
• The building is beginning to feel full again. 80% rule says a church doesn’t grow once it reaches 80% capacity.
• Which way round to do services? Taking into account the needs of tech teams and musicians.
• A consistent pattern is needed for attendance, visitors and discipleship.
• Different styles appeal to different people (eg outdoors)
• What can we resource for our music?
• It’s good to create opportunities for emerging preachers.
• Who are the online congregation? What style feeds them best?
• What about hospitality and food? This is vital for building community.