evangelism year thinking ahead about... how it came about replacing northern college worship days...

Evangelism Year

Thinking Thinking ahead ahead

about...about...

How it came about• Replacing Northern College Worship Days

• What might be most useful to churches?

• A prompt to start planning sooner

• ‘Thinking ahead for Autumn Festivals’ in Kirkham URC

• Materials hidden on the URC website

• ‘Thinking Ahead about Easter’ in three venues across NW Synod in January 2010

How might our churches

make fresh connections?

How might our churches make fresh connections?

1. By developing

who we already are

and what we already do


2. By using our existing special

events and special efforts...


3. By developing people’s existing

gifts and skills


4. By redeploying our time and effort

(not by asking everyone to do more –

unless it energises them)


5. By reaching further out

to more people and

digging deeper into

the story and meaning


6. By starting thinking far sooner to allow planning

ahead


7. By thinking outside our

regular organising boxes


8. By involving the usual people and

some who’ll be surprised to be

asked

How might we make that happen?


1. By organising prompting events

for clusters of churches


2. By trying to ensure that

churches hear about them and

want to use them


3. By encouraging churches to ‘bring

a car-load’


4. By trying to get a good mix of

people from each church to attend


5. By starting the time together with telling our stories

& sharing our ideas


6. By offering a chance for shared

re-engagement with the Bible


7. By encouraging everyone to start working on their

own church’s situation


8. By sending people back to their churches

to enthuse and involve others while there’s still time to

plan ahead

What we What we found when found when we tried it we tried it

out...out...

What we found when we tried it

1. People were stimulated by

hearing each other’s ideas

What we found when we tried it2. People greatly appreciated the prompt to think

ahead

What we found when we tried it3. Over 80 people came to our three

Easter prompt events in January

2010 –

despite the weather!

What we found when we tried it4. We keep hearing

of new things churches tried as a result of the prompt

What we found when we tried it

5. The event and the meeting with other

churches was central – not just the

materials

What we found when we tried it6. Rolling this out

for Vision4Life Evangelism Year

would mean running events for clusters

of churches

What we found when we tried it7. We could share

the idea, our enthusiasm and prompt events -

it would all depend on interested

Synods

What we’re What we’re asking you to asking you to

consider consider doingdoing

What we’re asking you...

1. Check what you and other Synod

movers and shakers think about the idea


2. Check whether running Thinking Ahead events in January and in

May/June would fit into the Synod

programme for 2011


3. Work out who in the Synod needs to

take enabling decisions


4. Work with others to identify a group of 4 or 5 to attend a 1-day

start-up event in September ‘10


5. Let the Synod’s Thinking Ahead

planning group plan –

but keep in touch

So, So, what do you what do you

reckon?reckon?

evangelism year thinking ahead about... how it came about replacing northern college worship days...

Documents

fresh connections

hearing of new things

easter prompt events

usual people

existing special events

good mix of people

synod movers

nw synod