Our Mission Action Plan
St Martin-in-the-Fields' Mission Statement and Ten Point Charter describe the fundamental aims of our ministry and the theological approach underpinning our work.
At the Annual Parochial Church Meeting in April 2007, we adopted the Mission Action Plan 2007-10 (MAP2007-10) as the strategic document for our community life and mission over the next three years. We recognise that this period encompasses significant physical changes in our buildings, as well as the experience of worshipping away from St. Martin's and returning as a different shaped community. MAP2007-10 has therefore been developed as a framework to focus and support our activities rather than as a definitive list of tasks.
The framework of MAP2007-10 is based on reflective and relational ideas explored at a series of PCC awaydays. In particular, MAP2007-10 has developed out of a period of thinking which has focussed on the relationships in which we participate as a Christian community and as part of the one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. We have reflected on the nature of these relationships - with God, with one another and with the world in which we are set and which we are called to serve - and pondered on Biblical passages and images which inform our understanding of these relationships :
- As branches of the true vine we are called to be rooted in Christ and to exercise a critical self-discipline to enable growth and individual and collective flourishing (John 15:1-17)
- As members of the Body of Christ, we are called to recognise and honour the diversity of people and gifts which make up our community, to live creatively with the tensions difference brings and to recognise the potential within each individual and the whole body (1 Corinthians 12:12-26)
- As those called to be servants and prophets in the world, we are to echo the covenant relationship between God and God's people, developing a shared responsibility, a willingness to receive as well as to give, and a calling to be both open to transformation and agents of transformation ourselves. (Isaiah 42:1-9)
- Is God-centred, with a wide vision of the Kingdom, enabling us to be a prophetic and challenging community, that enables the transformation both of individuals and society.
- Has a strong sense of connectedness both to the local and global, enabling it to be a distinctive witness to the Kingdom and so encouraging people to recognise the active presence of God in the world.
- Is a place of healing and reconciliation, of comfort and refuge and a place of light.
- Developing our relationship with God through our life of prayer and worship
- Developing our relationships within our Church community and as part of the wider St. Martin’s organisation
- Developing our relationships locally as a city centre church, including our ministry to visitors
- Developing our relationships with, and our activity related to the global community and the global church
MAP2007-10 then develops a series of objectives within each area which allows these relationships to develop and flourish.
The full text of MAP2007-10 is available here »
MAP 2007-10 also includes a series of sections that concentrate on the means of implementation and seek to ensure a robust level of accountability and measurability within this implementation. As MAP2007-10 develops, a log of progress against these various objectives will be also be available.
