What is our Mission?
The PCC has agreed that the mission of people at St. James's is:

"To build the kingdom of God on earth, and particularly here in Hampton Hill"

In order to do this there are two central aspects:
        1. Helping people to grow closer to God,
            by attracting them into church,
            by nurturing their spiritual growth.
        2. Looking at how we can use our resources most effectively,
            particularly our property.

The responses to the Mission Questionnaire overwhelmingly supported these statements of our mission.

How can we achieve this?

A great deal goes on at St. James's. We have some 34 Committees or activity groups, each of which is functioning well. But the replies to the questionnaires have shown that people have thought hard about what they are doing, why they are doing it, and whether they might do some things differently or better. For some groups little or no change might be foreseen, but others clearly would like to be able to do more in order to achieve St. James's mission.

There are some strong themes that emerge from what people would like to do and whether they are realistically going to be able to achieve it, as summarised below.

Financial Resources
The Finance and Stewardship Committees comment that our finances are currently exactly on budget and that the stewardship scheme contains virtually everyone who could be in it. If we are to spend on any more projects, then we will have to raise the money. However, our history in raising money for past projects such as the Hall and Organ, as well as continuously for charitable appeals, and the demography of the local population, would indicate that further funds can be raised for the right cause(s).

The Finance Committee would like to prepare a long term Financial Plan for the Parish and to identify inefficiencies which could release funds for mission objectives.

We spend 10% of Parish funds on a wide range of charitable giving, and the Charities Committee points out that we should find more ways to spread news of the good work of our donees.

People Resources and Age
Many groups said they wanted to attract more people and particularly younger people
• Womens' Forum: small, static membership
• Ladies choir: this is predominantly middle aged
• Young Church: needs young leaders to act as role models
• Liturgical Dance: could do with some younger members
• Choir: noticably fewer numbers than other local musical groups and only one child
• Clergy time is limited: could more people help with pastoral follow-up, particularly visiting people with whom we have new contact? Who would be right to visit a young family or someone who is bereaved?

Some groups feel particularly constrained by their limited people resources: they need more people to help.
• Jays/Young Church
• Cleaning
• The Brownies are overstretched with 31 girls and badly need more help - they have a long waiting list. Could another Pack be started?

The message from several groups is that we need to be objective in looking at ourselves and recognise that a sizeable proportion of the congregation is middle aged or elderly. Given the local demographics, we do not succeed in attracting regular involvement of the 20 - 40 age group. We do attract a number of young children and their parents but numbers fall off after say the age of 11. Virtually every group that tries to cater for children wants to do something about this.

There is strong support for putting effort behind trying to concentrate on attracting - and keeping - children, teenagers, and their parents. Several groups mentioned that a strong and efficient method of attracting parents is by attracting events for their children.

Whilst there is a lot that we can do with our existing personnel resources, some limits are noted. For example, the Churches Together Around Hampton group commented that some ventures are too big for one congregation, and that some pooling could achieve great results, although there is currently a lack of any shared vision as to what the churches can do collectively. Effort could usefully be put into developing a substantial sense of purpose. A particularly logical but challenging thought in response to the lack of resource issue is that of the Jays Sunday School group: we should have a full time paid youth leader.

Outreach
There are enormous possibilities arising out of our diverse resources. eg Our UN Committee has been asked by 8 local schools to help with new citizenship curriculum requirements: could we organise outreach events in the Hall from this?

The Social Committee, Womens' Forum, Open House, Sidespersons, Bellringers and similar groups all have great opportunities to attract, welcome and interact with people. Many of these can act as neutral, ie not formal church, fora in which outsiders may at first feel more comfortable than in coming to a more overt religious event.

The same thing is true of musical events. The Travellers Band has a membership that straddles all ages, particularly the young. It could play a wider range of music in different styles and on different occasions. Encouraging the church to be used for concerts (especially if connected with a religious event, such as DIY Messiah) attracts people in. But do we try and interact enough with those who attend such events?

A particularly useful development would be to nurture a church choir that included children: not forgetting that children also bring their parents. This is a point strongly made also in relation to the Scouts/Guides/Brownies/Young Church/Jays groups.

There are in fact many local primary, junior and secondary schools in this area, and this is a residential suburban area where many families live. In other words, the fish are here but we need to be stronger fishers.

Plant
We have two different and complementary items of plant: the Church and the Hall. The Property Committee reported that we are constrained by the fact that the church is an old building, and the absence of facilities to provide a church office and other facilities, such as for young children. These are in fact badly needed. They would add to the attractiveness of the church, in all senses, and enable us to extend our informal welcome when services are not being held.

In relation to attracting people to the church, we need to face the facts that we have one very good aset and one not so good, in aesthetic terms:
- The Hall is contemporary, attractive & useful but
- The Church is not attractive enough to some modern age groups or children. The pews are uncomfortable and old. The lighting is dated. The external appearance is drab: it does not look like a lively or welcoming place. There is a challenge that many people feel in doing something about this. Even given the attractiveness of the Hall, the Hall Committee suggests that we could advertise the Hall more, such as in the magazine and school notice boards, given its popularity for children's parties (note the reference to schools/children again).

Communication
Many groups felt that their mission could be improved by better communications. This was echoed by the editors of Spire magazine and the Website! People said time and again that they wished they could let people know more about the events that are planned here, so as to get them to come. We clearly need to put more effort into advertising and writing about what we plan to do, and have done. We also need to plan events more in advance so as to publicise them earlier and give people more time to get them in their diaries. This does not necessarily mean doing more events - but it does mean maximising the opportunities out of the events that we hold.

Good mechanisms for publicity already exist: The Spire is distributed to thousands of local households, and an increasing number of people use the Internet - particularly, we should note, the young!

There is also a strong feeling that the problem experienced by several groups of wanting to grow and having limited resources could be at least ameliorated if they actually communicated with each other more! For example, several groups are involved with children - if they worked together, might they be able to share some resources or be more efficient? For example, could we not plan a programme which involved a talk (Womens' Forum), service or concert (Choir, Travellers), party (Social & Hall), plus of course publicity (Spire, Website). If more people were putting their efforts into a combined enterprise, the rewards could be great.

Structures
This leads on to two thoughts that struck those of us who have some experience of management and management consultancy. First, we have a very flat structure, with our 34 groups sitting horizontally adjacent to each other, and only the Vicar & Churchwardens, and the PCC, sitting above them. Secondly, there is no mechanism for a review of what the 34 groups are doing or to coordinate it. The groups make a writen annual report at the AGM but that is hardly review and coordination. Should we not try and help things work better?

It is true that modern management theory is that people work well in wide structures if they all have a clear Mission Statement and Plan. All Christians start with an advantage here, and we are developing our current local objectives. But should we have a coordinator of all our activities? Should we not also have a formal coordination review of what all the groups are doing, say once a year, involving all the group leaders? And should the leaders of the key groups not be members of the PCC, so as to keep them fully involved with the development and implementation of Church policy? (This would clearly give a number of them extra moral support - there were some cries of "I feel a bit lonely and unappreciated doing what I'm doing".)

Worship/Spirituality
We have recently adopted new forms of service - and they seem to be going well. Several groups are crucial to the objective of growing people once they are here, such as those involved in the liturgical aspects, servers, music, welcoming people when they arrive (sidespersons, coffee rota), Lent groups, and clearly the Nurture Group. Responses showed that there are ideas which should be developed further in order to support and interlink these groups.

We needed to develop these themes and turn them into action. The Questionnaires contained many good ideas that are not mentioned here: groups should not lose the opportunity to put these into action themselves.

The meeting on 8 July, which was well attended, agreed that we should concentrate on four areas, or focus groups.

For each of these, a coordinator was appointed and convened a meeting or meetings or led discussions of anyone who wanted to be involved in the focus group. Convenors reported in writing and personally to the PCC meeting on 11 September.

It was felt that the themes to concentrate on in these areas are:
• Helping adults, youth and children to grow spiritually
• Making St. James's more open and attractive
• Helping people to be better informed about parish activities

Below are the outline strategies to guide future action.

Strategy for Worship and Outreach
• Establishing trained and co-ordinated lay ministry
• Supporting the growth of newcomers, those on the periphery and regular attenders
• Planning a series of talks on modern Christian life, at work and at home
• Establishing a co-ordinated music strategy
• Developing the west end of the church to provide office space and an open and active    presence (see plan)
• Possible replacement of pews with chairs and carpeting

Our parish church is an important building for many people. For those who worship here it is a sacred place where God is known and where every member of the Body of Christ can feel at home. It is a much prayed-in building and one which makes the presence of God known in our community.

For others who pass by it is obviously a church but, from Park Road and from the important turning into St. James's Road, it used to look rather dead. Those of us who felt very attached to the building also realised its limitations for expanding our mission in today's world. We desperately needed more room for administrative work to be undertaken, we needed space for one to one confidential conversations, and we very much wanted to create a building which reflects our openness to the world.

Therefore we gave some thought to how all this could happen. We went through an extensive reconsideration of our Mission Action Plan and as part of this review we considered very carefully our property needs. We asked our architect to help us in achieving our aims and eventually were in a position to show everyone our first proposals. We very much wanted to keep everyone informed.

The current plan allows us to achieve us to achieve our goals by creating

• A view from the street through the whole length of the church. This will be an important witness of our openness and activity.
• A place for the administrative load of the parish to be securely and effectively undertaken. It will allow the church to be staffed and open much more of the time.
• A small room for work with individuals.
• An easily accessible toilet.
• Compliance with accessibility legislation.

The plan envisages removing the current West Porch, which is in a poor state. This is not part of the original building. However, the architect is suggesting that we retain the West Front of the porch and re-use it in the new scheme, which will continue to blend well with the building. The scheme resonates with the rest of the church and this will help in the planning process. A major difference, however, is that the new construction will be lit naturally by glass roof which will create a light and welcoming space. Read more

Strategy for Children and Youth
• Encourage more active involvement of children
• Engage role model leaders for particular children's events or projects (e.g. art, drama)
• Consider the involvement of local school children in the musical life of the church

Improving our Communications
• Provide focused coverage of Christian witness and parish news in the Spire
• Enhance the weekly notice sheet with bible readings and highlighted future events
• Develop a poster strategy and distribution system
• Continue the development of our parish website  www.stjames-hamptonhill.org.uk

Improving our Organisation and Co-ordination
• Hold planning meetings of group leaders to enable a co-ordinated programme of future    events
• Consider employing a paid administrator for a specific number of hours per week and    provision of computer and reprographic equipment