Following the PCC Vision Day towards the end of 2019, the Mission Committee had been working on formulating a bold new Vision for 2020, which gained final approval from PCC at the January Meeting.  

After much thought and prayer, we have identified three main areas to focus our work during this year, in order that we might be a Church which proclaims the Good News of Jesus Christ to the people of our parish.  Our Parish Vision is firmly rooted in the Diocesan Vision 2026, and draws on its aims of Being Witnesses to Jesus Christ, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ and Growing Leaders for Jesus Christ.

Our three priorities for this year reflect where we are as a parish, and PCC believe that, with prayer and commitment from the whole of the congregation, they are deliverable under God.  

Our first priority focusses on work with Young People aged 11-25.  This has been chosen because we believe this age group presents its own challenges in communicating the message of the Gospel.  This challenge is not unique to our parish, and to that end, we have committed to drawing on the support of the Diocesan Youth Department, and we have already begun to have the initial conversations to kick-start this work.

Our second priority is to make our Church community the most welcoming it can possibly be.  We desire to be a Church which, reflecting the love of Jesus Christ, welcomes all people to worship, and to become involved.  Part of this is to enable people to be comfortable when they enter through our door, but also to feel that we, as a Church community, value their presence among us, and that we consider everyone who enters our door to be a part of the Body of Christ in this community.

Our third priority is to maintain the links we make through baptism families.  We celebrate a good number of baptisms each year, and one of the challenges is enable those families to enter into a relationship with Jesus through wanting to continue to be part of our church family.  We are conscious of the Church of England's Baptisms Project, and will be drawing on those resources to help us in our work in this area.

Any vision for a Church cannot simply be for one year only, and we have already identified some potential priorities for future years, and made a commitment in particular to equipping lay people to lead nurture courses; developing a group to work particularly with those who are recently bereaved; and to seek ways in which we might engage better with issues in our community, both in Adlington and beyond.

Please keep this Vision in your prayers, and in particular we invite you to use our Vision Prayer, written particularly for this work:

Heavenly Father, 

following the promptings of your Holy Spirit,

we ask for your blessing concerning 

the paths we have chosen for our Vision.

Help us to encourage each other

to be a welcoming people,

to be aware of each others’ gifts and talents and to use these

to spread your love throughout our parish.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.