The fruits of that discussion are set out below.

1. By May 2009 to have appointed five people under 45 to train as elders, with clarity and agreement about the roles they will take on
2. In August 2009 to take a group of young people aged 14 – 25 to Soul Survivor (Christian youth event)
3. By February 2009 to have completed a Natural Church Development Survey (*see note below)
4. In March 2009 to agree 3 SMART goals to tackle the weakest areas of church life
5. By August 2009 to have organised at least one event for those aged 20 – 45 who attend church to explore issues of faith and life, with a further event in September – December.

   As far as possible, should be worked towards in 2009

6. Run four “Messy Church” events for families at Easter, Pentecost, Harvest and Christmas with 25 attending.
7. By May 2009 to have run an Alpha Course, targeted at men in their 20’s – 45’s with 6 attending
8. By June 2009 to have facilitated or run a “Griefshare” course (or equivalent) for bereaved
9. To support the continuation or development of a Lunch Club for elderly in Loanhead (Alison)
10. To further develop the Fellowship Group at Kirkcare to include others interested in attending (Alison)
11. To provide volunteers as needed to develop new groups and activities at Newton

Would be good to see - but not priorities in 2009

12. By June 2009 to run two “Café Church” events at Sainsbury’s Café with 30 attending each event (10 of whom do not attend church.)
13. In May 2009 to run a 4 week course on “living as a Christian in the real world” with a 4 week follow up course in September.
14. By May 2009 to have run an Alpha course for women (during the day) with 6 attending
15. By February 2009 to have painted the hall at Newton
16. By June 2009 to have organised a weekend away for families in the congregation
17. By October 2009 to have organised a Midweek Break for members of the congregation

Research completed by a German researcher, Christian Schwarz, discovered that growing churches had eight key characteristics:

Empowering Leadership
Church members using their gifts within the church
Passionate spirituality
Functional Structures
Inspiring worship services
Small groups where members find support and practical help, alongside spiritual nourishment
Need-orientated evangelism
Loving relationships.

Survey forms are completed by members, and then compared to the answers of others from 1,000 churches across Europe, help to give a “profile” for individual churches. This then enables churches to work on the areas most in need of attention! 30 member shave been selected to complete the questionnaires, and our own profile will be ready in late February.