| September 1st, 9.30a.m., a rather nervous atmosphere in the Community Room at St Alban’s. Around 30 people had gathered to complete the Mission Audit Questionnaire for the Natural Church Development process. 20 minutes later, once people had done the questionnaires, there was a very lively discussion as we shared coffee and croissants.
A great relief for Gary and Kate - people had enjoyed completing the form and were in good spirits. Another 15 or so questionnaires were completed at home during the following week.
As I write, we are waiting for the results to be analysed.The Questionnaire is designed to measure the quality of eight important characteristics of any church:
"The quality characteristics of a healthy church: Empowering Leadership Gift-orientated Ministry Passionate Spirituality Functional Structures Inspiring Worship Services Holistic Small Groups Need-Orientated Evangelism Loving Relationships"
The belief is that a church can only grow up to the point of its minimum characteristic - improve that, and the church will naturally grow - in faith and numbers. When we get the results, we shall use our strongest characteristic to address our weakest - that is, of course, the tricky part of the process. We shall try to discern how God is calling us to develop our ministry, our worship, our prayer life or our outreach as we listen to his Word and reflect and pray together.It’s an exciting process - please continue to pray for it. |
