Every day around the Diocese, dedicated, creative and passionate people are working together in the mission of God.
The Mission Action Planning process covers ten sections of church life from vision and purpose to property resources and is intended both to help parishes identify the next steps that they can take in developing their mission and outreach as well as to help us identify where practical help and advice can be given.
As a diocese, we have been called to grow a sustainable network of Christ-like, lively and diverse Christian communities in every place, which are effective in making disciples and in seeking to transform our society and God’s world.
We believe that God’s desire is for the Church to grow, to flourish, and to make a difference in the world. This is the purpose of this document. As your bishops, we remain committed to supporting churches to do this so that, together, we can fulfil our diocesan vision. In recent years, we have sought to support this vision through our diocesan strategy, encouraging and enabling churches to become more Renewed, Released and Rejuvenated. We want to encourage you to engage with Mission Action Planning 2023 as a valuable on-going process to help you do this at parish and mission area level.
We want everyone to access and benefit from Mission Action Planning 2023 and we warmly commend it to you as something, we hope, will help us to move forward together to see growth in our Diocese.
We enthusiastically endorse Mission Action Planning 2023. All returned responses will be read carefully and receive a personal response from a member of the Resourcing Mission and Ministry Team (formerly Parish Support Team). We pray it will help you to take forward our shared vision statement, access any support you need, and see this be fruitful locally.
The Rt Revd Dr Pete Wilcox
Bishop of Sheffield
The Rt Revd Sophie Jelley
Bishop of Doncaster
Why Mission Action Planning is important
Further Support
The Mission Action Planning process will help you to discern and direct your mission and ministry in your local context.
You will notice that ‘MAP’ has a new format. This is in response to feedback on what churches found helpful or unhelpful in previous versions. The material is better integrated; it includes sections on buildings and governance. We want to keep the focus on mission, action and planning, so we have dropped the abbreviation and given it the full name: Mission Action Planning 2023. To enable people to engage with it for the first time, or maybe having taken a break, we have dropped all the references to previous versions.
The Mission Action Planning 2023 booklet is only a part of the package. This year we will offer much more in the way of support through the process, whether this is an outside facilitator, a workshop, or access to helpful ‘how to’ videos on different aspects. When you complete a Mission Action Plan response and send it in, we will have a far clearer idea of what you want to achieve. We are now in a much better position to coordinate resources to help you with this.
Please aim to complete Mission Action Planning 2023 as soon as possible in the year. This will enable the Resourcing Mission & Ministry team (RMM) to review them and to discern common needs so we can better support parishes.
If you need support or resources to help you to progress with actions in any of the 10 sections, please email us…
Key Resources
EXPLORE MORE
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Helping and supporting parishes in all aspects of church life