Our Vision
vision, values and membership
I am very excited about this new vision statement, as we look forward to where God is going to take us as a church in the next five years. God never called us to a dull life, and no doubt challenging times lie ahead, but I am full of faith that the next season of St Bs will be one of growth and development. This statement represents the refinement of many months’ work by a large number of people in leadership positions within St Barnabas. Even the process of compiling it has been inspiring, so I can’t wait to see what God actually does next.
Henry Kendal
The Vision transforming lives • changing the world In 2010 we were given what we have come to see as a significant prophetic word for the church: “St Barnabas is called to be an Antioch church”. There are some striking similarities between us and the biblical church in Antioch. We are multicultural, we are called to faith-led risk-taking, we are a relatively large church with a vision for growth, we aspire to honour prophecy, and God has led us to become a sending church. More and more we sense God showing us that we are to manifest these two aspects of being church: continuing to be attractional (come and see), hosting large inspirational meetings to which people are drawn and then subsequently encounter God in a fresh way; but also a missional church, sending out, not just the few
missionaries to the ends of the earth, but in some way all of us into our communities and networks to demonstrate God’s gospel of love to those around us. We believe that our church should be a visionary community of love, fun and laughter. We are committed to seeing our lives transformed by an experience of the love of God, and then sharing all that we have received with a hurting world desperately in need of Jesus’ love. We are passionate about our faith, about the Bible and about God. Our Vision is to become a community that transforms the lives of thousands of individuals and then moves outward to see the world changed for Christ.
St Barnabas is part of the wider Church of England and this vision statement has also been presented to our Bishop and Archdeacon 2 Our Vision
transforming lives through:
changing the world through:
• Conversion We long to lead as many people to faith in Christ as possible.
• God’s power We want the power of God at work in us, by actively seeking to use the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
• T he Holy Spirit We are utterly dependent on God to empower us with the Holy Spirit and transform our lives. • T he Bible – the Word of God The Bible has everything we need to discover the truth about God, us and the world. Through it we can hear God’s voice. • Healing Life can be a bruising experience. Our vision is to enable people to be healed and have their lives transformed into Christ-likeness.
• S erving It is through serving our local communities that we express Jesus’ love amongst them. • R eaching out Our vision is to reach across traditional geographic boundaries to a large part of North London. • Resourcing We feel called to provide encouragement and resources to the wider Christian community.
• Discipleship We are all life-long learners with the help of accountable relationships with those around us.
• Planting From a strong central base, we plan regularly to plant new churches and congregations that will, in turn, reproduce themselves.
• Equipping We plan to equip and train our members in a whole range of ministry and life skills to be effective for the kingdom of God in our world.
• S ending As our part of the Great Commission, our call is to send out workers into church leadership and into every corner of the world.
• Engaging In order to relate to today’s society we need to keep ourselves relevant to an ever-changing world.
Missional Communities
One of the frontlines for realising our vision “transforming lives, changing the world” is through our Missional Communities. These groups meet on average twice a month and are engaged both in reaching out in a huge variety of ways to bring effective change to the world around us, and also in personal discipleship to transform the lives of their members. For more details see website: www.stbarnabas.co.uk/missionalcommunities
Our Vision 3
Key Strategies Each year we will set key strategies which we perceive as the most important ministry issues for St Barnabas for that year. Apart from the business card reminders, we will give a full explanation of these on a separate sheet published each year. This year we will focus on: • • • • •
Encouraging everyone in missional communities Preparing structures and finance for the future Drawing more of the church into discipleship and service Actively stopping, to stir and encourage prayer Developing our special needs ministry, in particular through Our Place at St Bs
St Barnabas
Key Strategies
Pick up the latest Key Strategies and Mission Aims cards from The Arch at the back of church
Ken Livingstone, the first Mayor of London, once said:
“if you want to change the world start with London”. As a suburban London church we believe that we are called to be not just a local parish church, but a large church that is reaching out in mission to a wide swathe of North London and beyond. The London Borough of Barnet has a population of over 300,000, almost all within a 10 minute drive of St Bs. We believe that this part of London needs a large church and that there are vast opportunities for growth.
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Mission Aims 2011-2016 Beneath our vision statement – transforming lives, changing the world – is this statement of what God has called us to be as a church. We have set these five year mission aims as a set of reminders of the main attributes we want to be espousing. Love that is outward-focused, creating vibrant community Love must be at the heart of our community. It will be difficult to achieve a high level of cohesiveness in such a large group, but we believe it is by looking outwards that we will build the close bonds of love amongst us.
Serving as a lifestyle for all our members Jesus said “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45). We call our main meetings services, because they are places to serve. We want to give everyone an opportunity to grow in living out Christ-like self-giving service.
Encountering God in intimacy and passion Encountering the presence of God in worship and in prayer is an incredibly important part of our life as a church. It is in this place that we find healing and meaning for our lives. We aspire to: “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord” (Romans 12:11).
Sending out people and resources, including planting churches We believe God has called us to be a sending church, looking to send and support more people out in mission. This includes looking for opportunities to plant churches and give away resources.
Discipleship that transforms and equips in community for mission Discipleship for us is a journey of personal transformation and preparation for mission. We want to do this at every level of church life from the children’s, youth and adult programmes to the Equip scheme and staff training.
God has called us to be a large missional church committed to: • • • • •
Love that is outward-focused, creating vibrant community Encountering God in intimacy and passion Discipleship that transforms and equips in community for mission Serving as a lifestyle for all our members Sending out people and resources, including planting churches
St Barnabas
Mission Aims
Pick up the latest Key Strategies and Mission Aims cards from The Arch at the back of church
Our Vision 5
Goals and Objectives 2011-2016 Love that is outward-focused creating vibrant community BY 2011 WE HAD:
FIVE YEAR GOALS:
Established host teams, hospitality teams and staffed The Arch for our Sunday welcome.
Create a pathway of easy and transparent access into the life and community of the church, having a fully worked strategy for welcome and integration, with teams to match.
Reached out into many networks in the area and become known as a church that actively serves the community.
Move further out into the community via existing ministry and by helping to enable missional communities.
Run a wide variety of youth groups to enable as many young people as possible to come into contact with the church, no matter what faith background.
Develop these groups, and their related cafés, to be a vehicle for young people to invite their friends and so build relationships with the team and other Christians.
Identified the need for change to occur in our outward-focused Friday night kids group, to make a more vibrant community accessible to the majority of families.
Develop our community of volunteers for all our ministries.
Discipleship that transforms and equips in community for mission BY 2011 WE HAD:
FIVE YEAR GOALS:
Publicly launched four Missional Communities.
See the Missional Communities fully established as the centre of the life of the church.
Launched the Equip Trainee Worker Scheme with 11 Trainees.
Consolidate the Equip Trainee Worker Scheme and explore external accreditation of the vocational elements of the programme.
Run bi-annual leaders’ weekends and an annual Welcome to Leadership day.
Develop and deliver a leadership programme to equip people for leadership in the church and in the world.
Launched Impact – young leaders training once a month.
Prioritise developing young people to become effective leaders in the whole of their life and in their area of ministry.
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Discipleship that transforms and equips in community for mission
Encountering God in intimacy and passion BY 2011 WE HAD:
FIVE YEAR GOALS:
Established a high level of excellence in our platform music.
Establish intimate encounter with God as the central hallmark of our worship.
Enabled and run a variety of prayer meetings.
Actively stop, to stir and encourage prayer and seek the in-filling of the Holy Spirit.
Integrated prayer ministry into all our main services.
Encourage new ways for people to step out in spiritual gifts, especially the prophetic.
Nurtured a worshipping environment in Kids Church and among the youth, including seeking the presence of God and experimentation.
Further invest in sung worship in kids and youth settings, and build up a worship team of young leaders.
Our Vision 7
Sending out people and resources, including church-planting BY 2011 WE HAD:
FIVE YEAR GOALS:
Sent out 25 mission partners – 17 abroad and 8 UK-based (although all but 2 of UK-based with strong focus overseas).
Build at least one major partnership project overseas with opportunity to send regular teams, including an annual men’s mission and links with our Kids Church.
Planted 5 churches/away congregations/church-grafts in the past decade.
Plant a church/congregation/graft every 2-3 years.
Influenced New Wine in its thinking about Urban Ministry and helped to start build new UPA national networking structures.
Host new UPA venue at New Wine summer conference. Host an annual UPA networking day. Host a UPA residential forum.
Given away resources to other churches for Under 5s ministry.
Support other churches’ development of children’s ministry.
Sending out people and resources 8 Our Vision
Serving as a lifestyle for all our members BY 2011 WE HAD:
FIVE YEAR GOALS:
Placed most of our members into teams. We already have a large volunteer team of leaders and helpers in a diverse group of ministries.
Draw more of church into discipleship through service by an exhaustive integration programme for all our members, including creating opportunities for people to serve in existing ministries (eg Besom and Hope House) as well as in new emerging ministries.
Begun thinking about an initiative where children and youth are given the chance to serve in the community.
Develop this ‘called-out’ ministry into practical expressions of mission in the community.
Established key volunteers in strategic leadership positions.
Continue to build leadership in depth by establishing core teams of volunteers within youth and kids departments who will hold an overview of the vision of the youth and children’s work.
Encouraged young leaders – all Year 5 and 6 children serve in various areas of the Kids Church service on Sunday.
Develop areas in which our children can serve within the Church, especially prayer ministry.
Preparing and adapting the infrastructure for “a large missional church” BY 2011 WE HAD:
FIVE YEAR GOALS:
Got church commissioners’ permission partially to demolish and redevelop the existing church.
Finance and build an entirely new church building and centre to provide for the ministry of St Barnabas for the next generation.
Established September-August management accounts and set a cashflow policy.
Structure our finances to cope with growth through broadening and strengthening our giving base, and building our cash reserves.
Developed a good website.
Use social media as a means of communicating with our members.
Our Vision 9
Values
What is important to us?
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One God
At St Bs we do not have our own new statement of faith, but we fully subscribe to the historic catholic creeds of the church (which can be viewed at www.london.anglican.org/Beliefs) that expound the truth that God is one revealed to us in three persons. And we also agree with the statement of faith of the Evangelical Alliance (which can be viewed at www.eauk.org/about/basisof-faith.cfm). These are the fundamentals of our faith which have been eloquently elucidated by others for us, whose tradition we share.
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Two emphases
We want to emphasise both word and spirit.
Jesus, when criticising the Sadducees, said “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). Over the years we have seen a false dichotomy between those who think of themselves as evangelical (Bible) Christians and charismatic (spirit-filled) Christians. We see no conflict between these two but aim to emphasise both word and spirit fully. We trust in the Bible as the word of God revealing the truth to us, so that we are not blown around by every new wind of teaching. It is important to us that we are made in God’s image, rather than God being made in our image, dreamed up from our own imagination. So, it is essential to have an objective benchmark of truth that remains unchanged and independent to the circumstances of the age in which we live. We also know our inadequacy to live out the life God calls us to and so urgently pursue an outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit to empower us. We long to see all the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5) grow in our lives. And we also seek to experience the power of God through the operation of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, both in our church meetings and in our daily lives.
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Three orientations
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Three orientations
We understand that the church needs to be facing in three directions at all times and these orientations are expressed in our mission aims:
UP IN
OUT
Upwards towards God The first and greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Matthew 22:37). Our ministry to God is our highest calling. Each of us is called to a personal relationship with God as Father and our own personal devotions and our corporate worship should form the linchpins of our lives.
Inwards towards each other The new command that Jesus gave us is to love each other as he loved us (John 13:34). This is expressed in close, open and accountable relationships within our community as a church.
Outwards into the world The second great command of Jesus is to love our neighbours as ourselves (Matthew 22:39), and the final great commission of Jesus is to go into all the world (Matthew 28:19). As a church we long to be constantly going out both to serve our local community and to spread the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ across the globe.
Our Vision 11
Four Marks of Membership: What belonging to St St Barnabas means At St Bs we welcome all who want to make the journey of discovering God in their lives. We enjoy informal non-hierarchical structures that are inclusive and welcoming. As such we do not have a strict membership roll (we of course do have a formal electoral roll but this does not limit what anyone can partake of in the church). Instead we have articulated four marks of membership that describe what it means to be fully part of St Bs.
Worshipping
Belonging
Our relationship with God is one of our highest values, but we pursue this not on our own but in community. At St Barnabas this means being committed to joining together in worship and study of the Word. So we ask all our members to commit to making Sunday worship at St Barnabas a priority in their lives.
To grow in our faith we need to live in open and accountable relationships. This level of commitment to each other cannot practically be done in our corporate Sunday worship, but in a place where we can have close friendships. It is in this context that we learn to love each other, love God and grow in wholeness. So we ask all our members to commit to maintaining open and accountable relationships by joining a Missional Community.
Serving
Giving
We believe in the church, not as an institution, but a community, a family, a body, where everyone has an essential part to play. God gives each of us gifts and talents to serve one another and our wider community. And it is through serving that we grow more like Jesus and share his love with others. So we ask all our members to commit to serving in a ministry of St Barnabas.
The giving of our money is the most tangible evidence of our commitment. If we think of ourselves as a member of St Barnabas we will consider it an obligation and a joy to contribute financially to our shared ministry and mission. So we ask all our members to commit to regular, planned, faithful and generous giving to St Barnabas.
1 3
12 Our Vision
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Four Attributes of Members: What are our hopes for all our members? The four marks of membership of course account for what our involvement at church looks like. However we believe it is far more than that. Most of the really important things happen beneath the surface in our personal lives.
Acknowledged Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour
Devoted to worship, prayer and reading the Bible
Jesus said “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again� (John 3:3). So it follows that each of us needs to make a personal step of faith and be spiritually born through asking for the forgiveness of our sins and submitting to the Lordship of Christ over our lives. He then promises to fill us with his Holy Spirit to empower us to live for him.
Our faith is integral to our entire lives, not a mere leisure activity for Sundays. We choose to make it our ambition to reach out to God every day and allow his Word to mould our lives.
Committed to a journey of personal transformation
Enthusiastic participant in the mission of Jesus Christ to the world
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Each of us has arrived at St Bs because in some way God is at work in our lives; we are on a journey. We long to walk that journey together. We desire to see personal transformation, healing and growth of each individual to become more like Jesus. And it is only when this happens that we start to fulfil the vision that we believe that God has given us.
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We have been left on this earth for a purpose; Jesus has given us a commission to fulfil. We consider it our duty to play our part in the implementation of this God-given assignment to reach out to our lost world with the gospel.
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The Story so far: 1886
1914
1940s – 70s
St Barnabas church planted into a temporary mission hall in Gainsborough Road, Woodside Park.
The large new church building completed and consecrated by the Bishop of London near the new Northern Line station in anticipation of more housing being built in the area.
Post-war trends in churchgoing and a general spiritual malaise affect St Barnabas and the church declines to the point of threatened closure.
1994
1990s
1995
The so-called “Toronto Blessing” hits St Barnabas with a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
St Barnabas’ first missionaries are sent out, partly in response to God’s call during the Toronto outpouring. This is the start of a missionary move of God at St Bs that would see many others being sent out.
Team of church-planters sent to Mill Hill East church.
2001
2002
2004
John Coles becomes leader of New Wine and hands over de facto leadership of St Barnabas to Henry Kendal. Oakleigh Community Church is planted.
Continued growth results in the starting of a second main morning service. The bungalow next door to the church is bought.
The vision statement “Transforming lives • changing the world” is adopted.
2008
2009
2010
A house is bought on Strawberry Vale and Helen Shannon (St Bs former Children’s Worker who is by that time training for ordination) moves in with her family.
All the offices at St Bs are refurbished and rearranged to accommodate the growing staff.
Equip Training Programme and School of Theology is started.
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1982
1984
1980s
John Coles becomes Vicar aged 32 and seeks to bring the gospel message back to the centre of church life.
John comes into an experience of the Holy Spirit and starts to pray for key couples to join him to build the church.
After initial sticky times, the church grows and experiences spiritual renewal.
1998
1999
2000
The charity Hope House is founded.
Henry Kendal joins the church staff (first as Associate Vicar and later to become Vicar).
New temporary ‘classroom’ halls are built around the back of church.
2005
2006
2007
The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams visits St Barnabas. The Youth Hall is built around the back of the church to accommodate a new vision for youth ministry.
Emmanuel Network Church is planted.
A team is sent from St Bs to revitalise Golders Green Parish Church.
2011
2012
Church@five is planted on Strawberry Vale. John and Anne Coles are sent out as church-planters.
New five-year Mission Action Plan is launched.
Henry Kendal is officially inducted as Vicar of St Barnabas.
Brother Andrew’s visit to the church breaks attendance record.
The first Go Deeper weekend conference is held.
Missional Communities are launched.
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St Barnabas Holden Road Woodside Park London N12 7DN Tel: 020 8343 5770 Email: theoffice@stbarnabas.co.uk www.stbarnabas.co.uk
Our Vision Published April 2012