It is a requirement for any church property development that a parish ministry and evangelism plan also be provided. In the past, this has been seen by some as a necessary box to be ticked in a property process. For the Growth Corporation, this is the basis for any church property development.
Many parishes have vision, mission and values statements on their web page, but few have written strategic plans to shape the actions being undertaken in the parish, under God to move toward that vision and mission. Through the Urban Renewal Pilot Program and in meeting with Rectors in the Diocese, the Growth Corporation is starting to collect a bank of ministry and evangelism plans that we are looking to store on a Sharepoint page.
It is important that these plans be used as examples rather than documents to cut-and-paste. Their value is in the process of a ministry team developing them, taking ownership of them and most importantly, using them to implement the initiatives they develop. Good, robust plans are not easy to develop. We recommend that you engage with groups like MTD, CMD, Geneva Push and Reach Australia to help parish leadership teams to think through how to best minister to their congregations and to share the Gospel with their communities.
For more information, please contact Ross Jones (ross.jones@sydney.anglican.asn.au).
