ST THEODORE'S WATTLE PARK
5 YEAR PLAN

(Note: this was the 5-year plan for St Theodore's. St Thomas' is still working on a new 5-year plan)

During the next five year period we will seek to carry out our strategy in the following ways as God directs:

  1. preaching, teaching and studying God's word;
    1. a 12 month preaching program to be prepared at the beginning of each year covering at least 1 OT book, 1 NT book, 1 Gospel and possibly a thematic series
    2. to form at least one new small group each year
    3. to run an annual Bible Sunday focusing on personal Bible Reading
    4. to offer, annually, the (Faith comes by Hearing) Bible on Cassette program to the congregation
  2. praying for one another and the world;
    1. to appoint a person to co-ordinate parish prayers
    2. to produce a quarterly prayer list to guide our prayers in a systematic way
    3. to assemble a set of prayer resources for use in worship service prayer times
    4. to provide training for those who are new to leading prayers in services
  3. worshipping as the people of God;
    1. to encourage people to see corporate worship as a church on a weekly basis as a high priority of our life together
    2. to maintain a traditional Anglican service at 8am
    3. to provide a service at 10am that incorporates both modern and traditional Anglican elements of worship with varying degrees of informality, family and youth participation and use of a range of creative ministries.
    4. to encourage people to share their experiences of God as part of our worship together
    5. to include drama as a regular component of worship
    6. to appoint a drama co-ordinator to find suitable material and form a drama group
    7. to incorporate a variety of music forms, both recorded and live, in quiet parts of the service, eg. during communion
    8. to make more use of silence during worship
    9. to establish a worship committee to plan, review and assess worship bi-monthly
  4. providing opportunities for training in ministry;
    1. to run in-house courses
    2. to provide on-the-job training where appropriate (eg bible study leadership)
    3. to encourage the use of external training/educational organisations (eg Ridley, SU, etc.)
  5. reaching the unreached or separated by means which are welcoming, challenging and relevant;
    1. to use modern music as well as traditional hymns in our worship services
    2. to provide a service card and News Sheet containing all service details
    3. to have a welcoming team to welcome people as they arrive and encourage them to stay for morning tea after the service
    4. to encourage members of the congregation to wear name tags
    5. to organise social activities including
      • cheap eats, bi-monthly
      • bushwalks
      • barbecues and lunches following family services
      • an annual progressive dinner or similar event
      • parish breakfasts
      • other events of interest to congregation members and others
    6. to run at least one evangelistic training course each year
    7. to run 'Christianity Explained' or the 'Alpha' course at least annually
    8. to be more intentional about using Theo's Market as an opportunity for sharing the gospel
      • by distributing evangelistic leaflets
      • by seeking opportunities to speak to people one to one about the gospel
    9. to use means such as letter drops, advertising banners, the Internet, etc., to raise our profile in the community
    10. to organise special seasonal events with an outreach focus - eg. Christmas Carols in the car park, St Francis' Day Thanksgiving for Animals, Mother's Day Family Service, Pancake Day, etc.
  6. caring for one another in a loving and affirming way;
    1. to organise regular visiting or telephoning of members
    2. to establish a pastoral care group to oversee the care of the congregation
      • to facilitate care for those who are ill or in need of pastoral support
      • to facilitate emergency care for those in particular need
    3. to create and maintain a 'Prayer Chain' to ensure that urgent needs are prayed for quickly
    4. to assign the care of individual new members to existing congregational members
  7. serving the needy, and disadvantaged, the sick and the elderly of our community;
    1. to organise a team of visitors to visit the sick and elderly
    2. to appoint a coordinator to organise routine maintenance for those unable to do it themselves
    3. to arrange cleaning and/or cooking (eg through a casserole bank) for those in particular need
    4. to continue to support the work of agencies such as The St Mark's Centre and TEAR Fund
  8. participating in the worldwide mission of the Church;
    1. to support at least one missionary/missionary family through ongoing personal contact and prayer
    2. to give 10% of our income to mission organisations
    3. to provide information to the congregation on the current work of worldwide mission to enable informed prayer by the congregation
    4. to have one person as the parish contact for each missionary organisation we support
  9. fellowshipping with one another in a spirit of encouragement.
    1. to provide training for small group leaders in running and facilitating small groups
    2. to encourage members in small groups to be open and welcoming
    3. to organise regular informal social activities of a variety of types
    4. to organise an annual Parish weekend away with the aim of encouraging one another in a spirit of mutual fellowship
  10. ministering to children and families;
    1. to develop our Sunday School ministry to cover three groups of children: pre-school to grade 3, grade 4 to grade 6 and lower Secondary
    2. to continue to work through Theo's Crew to reach non-church children and families with the gospel
      • taking opportunities to involve these families in worship services on a regular basis
    3. to establish a Kid's Club group for those in grades 4 to 6 by the fifth year
    4. to provide parenting training and marriage enrichment courses for parents and couples annually
  11. ministering to youth
    1. to grow our youth ministry to cover young people from junior high school to tertiary education
    2. to provide a program that caters for both those who have made a commitment to Christ and those who haven't
    3. to continue to employ a youth minister, aiming to employ a full-time youth minister within 3 years
    4. to start an evening congregation aimed at youth and young adults within 3 years
    5. to support, assist and encourage the Vicar's role as chaplain at Deakin University
  12. ministering to the retired
    1. to establish a group for retired people
      • to run social activities, outreach activities, interest groups, etc.
    2. to encourage older members of the congregation to invite their friends to activities of the Church that would interest them



    Check out our Mission Strategy

    or Back to our Mission Statement Home
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