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Jeremiah 29:5-7 (NLT)
⁵ “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. ⁶ Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! ⁷ And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”

 4. Make Disciples: Clearer voice in society

“Work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you[1]. We do not feel we are as well connected to the issues in our society as we should be[2].

By 2020, we will be a church with a greater awareness of what is going on in the world around us, a clearer understanding of God’s heart for these issues, and we will be more proactive together and as individuals in speaking and acting accordingly.

What are the priorities?

We need to be a church who have informed ourselves about core community and society issues so that we can take a more active role in valuing justice and acting accordingly.

We should seek to be involved in all strata of society, standing out for clear Christian values. We need to influence for good our work places, our community and our nation.

Locally, we will do everything we can to help people see that the church community is a welcoming, inclusive place undergirded by clear Christian values.

What’s the path from here to there?

We will educate people on issues to do with economics, government, and ethics. We will draw attention to changes in ethical and social changes and encourage people to act. What are the issues? What does God think about the issues? How can we support each other in this?

We will encourage people to be involved more with local secular groups (as a preference to an equivalent church activity).

We will take opportunities to gauge the view of the church on issues in society.

We will take opportunities to pray for our government and issues in society.

We will actively promote acts of random kindness

How should we (re)allocate time, people, plant and money do this?

Using people with experience, we will provide more information about issues in society and about action options which can be taken using teaching on Sunday morning, Sunday evenings and small groups.

 

[1] Jer 29:7

[2] We should explore the view expressed on the Vision Day that the sense of “Christian” at GBC has declined.  From when to when might this have happened? Is this good or bad? Is this primarily about a greater use of the building by hirers? Or is it the case that the positive views about the building and some of our programmes are not matched with great positivity and interest in the Christian faith.