It’s New Year’s Day and I’m reflecting, praying and imagining. I’m imagining what we could be as Reforming Church 2022, and I’m asking for you to imagine too.

We’ve been through a lot over the last two years, as a society, as a church, and personally for many of us this is still felt. We’ve learned a lot, after all disciples are “learners”. I’ve personally learned much through some training I’ve undertaken and some ministry supervision I’ve been receiving. So now is the time, this New Year, for us to reflect on the last two years for our learning and looking to the future, by faith.

On the 29th January 2022, our Elders, Board of Management and Ministry Coordinators will gather for our “Plans & Prayers Brunch”.

Here is our Session minute:

Ref: 211206, 8.7, Combined Leadership Team together for a bunch and revision-Reforming day Brunch/Lunch Jan 29 in 2022.

It’s a “vision” bunch in that sense that the Lord Jesus already has given us our mission and values, and our long-term vision. For us though we seek to make plans and pray through them for a vision of what we think we need to focus on in 2022. We aim to gather the joint leadership of pastoral and operational ministries to think together, and pray together.

As we undertake this together, I thank the Lord for our togetherness in Christ, and in being fellow-workers together,. I’m grateful for you.

As we start it’s helpful for us to be aware and appropriate the parameters for planning. To do that it would be helpful to visit our current Org Chart, and see how we fit into Christ’s kingdom strategy (I think this org chart could be updated).

Next it would also be helpful to read previous plans and prayers papers like this one, written at the start of the pandemic for the Elders.

Reforming is nine years old this February, and our history and name contains the methodology of our ministry: that we are always reforming by the word of God, and this will mean we need to keep revisiting our vision, and praying through our plans.

In the past when we first planted and didn’t have local elders we had a “Lead Team”. They were messy days, but days in which everyone had to pitch in with plans and prayers. Let’s not lose that culture, that we are in this together. Let’s share the load of ministry that God has given us, before He calls us home. And let’s pray to him, being reliant on Him in everything.

Our meeting on 29th of January will involve some looking at our church health dashboard and some future thinking. It will also involve us needing to reflect on what we have been through the last few years and pray for the Lord to refresh our hearts for our recovery. We pray that we would grow as a church in a culture of Christ.

To prepare for this meeting, I would like to ask you to reflect and plan to share your thoughts, your heart, on the future of Reforming Church. Please be prepared at the meeting for me to ask for you thoughts, and to give a few minutes of uninterrupted time for this. A helpful framework for future your future thinking might be:

a. Where are we now?

b. Where would we like to be?

c. How could we get there?

Our aim in this is to have 3 to 5 things to focus on, (ideally 3 and no more than 5) as actionables for 2022.

For my part, being closely related to Reforming from the beginning, and regularly reflecting on our church life and health - here is what I am reflecting upon and imagining for our future. I pray that our joint imagination, our innovation, our plans will always find their ultimate expression in prayers.

1. Imagine if we were deeply shaped by a culture of Christ. In our church, our relationships, our attitudes, our responses. Imagine if the fruit of the Spirit series kept breaking fruit in every season of our lives.

2. Imagine that as well as being a serving church, we were also a resting church. Imagine we had served out of our sabbath rhythms.

3. Imagine such rhythms meant that we didn’t aim to fill the church calendar up, but instead move to have more margin in our lives by focusing on the three core things of discipleship in gatherings, groups and teams.

4. Imagine what it could mean for us to be a prayerful church. Yeah we pray for one another in our groups, a bit. Yeah we have the pastoral prayer as part of gathered worship, and that is a wonderful part of church life. Yet just imagine the difference it would make in our reliance upon God in everything if we prayed all-together as a church, viewing prayer as the work of ministry and not just something we do for the work.

5. Imagine with COVID making us so weary, that we focus our plan for recovery and rebuilding as a church by resting in the finished work of Christ, the gospel. So that, as we identify ministry areas to invest in - we do so by focusing on building our capacity for gospel care through community, particularly in Gospel Groups. This will help us to love the lost and love one another.

6. Imagine if we had the rooms for Creche and Kids Church, to welcome many more families to church, and for the making of little disciples.

In all our plans and prayers we will need to be flexible and adaptable, and most of all reliant on God who has all the resources in the universe.

So dear friends, fellow-workers, here are my imaginative prayers for us. I look forward to seeing you on 29th January, more details to come in the week leading up to that day.

Grace be with you this New Year’s Day, Russ.

Make Leaders Article by Russ Grinter | Pastor & Teaching Elder

Russ is weak, but Jesus is strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Russ gladly boasts of his weaknesses by preaching, writing, and speaking the gospel - because Jesus changes everything.