2024-08-31-accounts - Tavistock Methodist Church

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Tavistock Methodist Church

Minutes of the Annual Church Meeting held on Wednesday 17[th] July 2024

Ref	Minutes	Actions
	Rev Paul Smith opened the meeting at 7.30 p.m. Paul was chairing as Rev Chris Brown was on Sabbatical
1.	Welcome Rev Paul Smith welcomed everyone to the meeting and explained the format of the evening. Business matters to be done first and then have time to reflect on how churches grow. Paul to lead: principles which emerge when thinking about growing churches.
2.	Opening Devotions Paul stressed that when thinking of the future of the church we need think about the beginning of the church. He read from Acts 2. This showed what the first Christians did, immediately after Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, Peter’s talk to the crowd and how 3,000 people responded. “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer”. This is a blueprint for us. Paul then opened the meeting proper with prayer.
3.	Approval of members of the meeting A list of members of the meetingwas distributed aspart of the calling papers.
4.	Apologies Apologies were received from: Trudi Massey, Tracy Harding, Rene Chambers, David and Valerie Norman, Iris Wright, Jackie Palmer, Anna Dodd, Joan Gosling, Peter Rowe, Ruth Newman, Nick and Mary Clarke, Jackie Shillabeer,Robert Oxborough,Marion Playle
5.	Minutes of the previous meeting Minutes were approved and signed byPaul.
6.	Matters Arising None
7.	Notification of Any Other Business incl. conflict of interest None
8.	Correspondence None received
9.	Appointments which won’t come up in reports To be voted on by Church Council members only: Paul brought names to the meeting of those who will be brought into membership at the 10:45 service on Sunday 28thJuly. These are: Marion Playle, Jennifer Hawkins, Ian Rogers, Robert Oxborough and Tracey Oxborough This was agreed by those Church Council members present and eligible to vote Pauline Sawyer was presented to the meeting as next year’s Senior Steward. This appointment was agreed by all those present and eligible to vote The existing stewards were also re-elected by those present and eligible to vote.

Tavistock Methodist Church

Minutes of the Annual Church Meeting held on Wednesday 17[th] July 2024

They are: Jennifer Youé John Wright Iris Wright Rene Chambers Andy Marsh Kathy Watts Liz Rowe

Two new congregational reps to the Church Council are needed. John Wright agreed to stand again and this appointment was agreed by all those present and eligible to vote

No-one else came forward, but please let Paul know if you or anyone else is interested. Presently, the Senior Steward and Treasurer are ex-officio representatives from TMC to the Circuit meeting, along with two Church Council reps.

There is a vacancy for two additional reps, plus two substitutes if the main reps are unable to attend.

No-one came forward to fill these vacancies.

Connexional, District and Circuit matters

Rev Paul Smith reported that Conference met recently. The annual summary of Conference business is due soon.

District - from 1[st] Sept Tavistock Circuit will now be part of the new South West Peninsula District. Rev Dan Haylett will still be the Chair. This new District will stretch from Bridgwater to the Isles of Scilly.

District committees are in the process of being rehashed. District gatherings likely to be local, eg, Plymouth, Tavistock, Lifton. Paul mentioned he used to lead a support group for young ministers. At first he just covered those in the Plymouth and Exeter District, before taking on responsibility for Cornwall too: they met at Lifton Down.

Circuit – nothing to report

11. Reports from the life of the Church (as distributed prior to the meeting)

Reports were distributed prior to the meeting. Pauline thanked Jennifer for her 2 years as Senior Steward. Jennifer will continue as a steward. Jennifer was thanked for her diligence and dedication to the job. Paul also thanked Jennifer for her time.

The Treasurer brought two names to the meeting for approval:

Peter Johnston – new Chair of Finance Committee and

Marion Playle – new Secretary of Finance Committee

Tavistock Methodist Church

Minutes of the Annual Church Meeting held on Wednesday 17[th] July 2024

	These appointments were approved by those present at the meeting and eligible to vote. Nothing from Safeguarding needed to be reported.
12.	“How do Churches Grow” The meeting then got into groups. Paul did a presentation on why some churches grow. It was a bit of a mystery in the past – as people were not sure why some churches grew and others didn’t. Lots of research has been done in recent years. Paul shared some of the principles. There is no magic bullet as to why churches grow. When serious about growth it is really important to start by saying ‘how do we assess where we are at the moment’? SWOT analysis a good place to start. Each group discussed one each – looking at this church. S (strengths)– Premises, location, reputation in other communities, churches and town. Good service to community , i.e. Street Pastors, DATA etc. Very welcoming, Toddlers, Care Café. Diverse age profile. Reasonable engagement with tech. TMC comes high up on internet searches. Lots of opportunity to help. Prayer. Family work. Welcoming, lots of time given, good facilities, open approach, youth work, good preaching and teaching W (weaknesses) - don’t like to talk about this. Need to improve. Are we aware of wider community needs? O (opportunities) – buildings, market town, reasonably affluent and growing, schools work, family groups who meet here, Toddlers etc. Youth work, Catalyst. Partnership with other churches, e.g., partnership for specific needs. Arts e.g., Tavistock Passion, street theatre T (threats) – top heavy with older people, lack of money. Costs of running the building. Sunday distractions. Family commitments. Media, including social media. Technology, far more choice of churches or people decide not to go at all. Paul then went on to discuss how do we maximize the O and S and how address the W & T? Need to recognize numerical and spiritual growth. Numerical – new people born to Christ and then come to Church – various paths – ‘conversion growth’. Some come because they are attracted to a particular church – ‘transfer growth’ . On a show of hands, this is the largest number at TMC.

Tavistock Methodist Church

Minutes of the Annual Church Meeting held on Wednesday 17[th] July 2024

We attract from other churches. Lots of those who moved here didn’t come from same denomination. Reasons include there being a junior church. This is a real challenge for some churches so young people move away. Youth work is a “selling point” for TMC.

One story was shared. The initial welcome good. Heard about TMC by word of mouth so TMC stood out - had been to Methodist church before.

Invited by others (personally)

Families who have always been in the life of the church so their children inherit – ‘biological growth’.

Some churches recognize biological growth is significant as the Methodist church loses members when they move location. Change of situation makes it easy to drop through the cracks. Some churches monitor this. They set up an area programme to keep an eye on house sales – welcome new people when they move in. This puts the importance of growth on the church’s map.

Conversion growth – one story shared.

Research has been carried out on conversion growth. This is difficult in most churches. What leads to most conversions is another person – the importance of relationships.

‘Anatomy of local church’. Paul explained ‘circles’. Small circle = those at the core of the church.

Next circle out = those who worship reasonably often. Would say they belong here, but are not core people.

Next circle out again = those who would not say this is ‘their church’, but come here for something, specific e.g. lunch clubs, etc.

Last and largest circle = fringe – don’t see here as their church, but they are open to things: maybe they are friends with a Christian?

To grow do we need to move from outside in and vice versa? Is this the right route? Success is all circles to be bigger. Often people don’t move to the core. The danger is we want more people to attend, but we don’t want to give up power!

A feature of growing church is that more and more people do less and less each. They are thus free to do what they do really well. Church would recognize that as their ministry, so they are not needed to do anything else.

Declining churches see fewer people doing more and more.

Integration is how a person takes the journey through the circles.

Paul told a story of new vicar in Sheffield and his experience of going into a betting shop and being stared at. People can feel like this when they come to church the first time. There is no second chance to make a first impression.

Tavistock Methodist Church

Minutes of the Annual Church Meeting held on Wednesday 17[th] July 2024

Does the church have a strategy to enable people to make that journey?

We have an up to date Welcome Pack, but does it have information that new people really need to have? E.g., bus timetable, details of doctors’ surgeries etc.?

It was pointed out that lots of information is available already. Transition Tavistock produced an initial pack which was distributed around town. No-one has come back for more stock – lack of connection?

Think not just about churchy things.

What stood out from the above discussion?

Importance of:

Welcome pack
Relationships
Relationships
Relationships
Do what you do really well

Bread and butter issues can be talked about. No church will grow if worship is boring. Vibrant worship, where people feel they are sharing in something, is really important and where it touches their life which makes a difference.

Pastoral care is very important. People need to feel they matter as they feel they matter less and less in the current world

Need to get out of idea that exuberant worship is the way we grow. There is lots of growth in cathedrals at the moment.

Need to decide where we sit on the spirituality spectrum. Decide what it is and do it well People need to know what they’re going to get.

Paul handed out copies of the Engel scale: “Steps to Christ”. This is one way to think about the journey to Christian commitment.

Paul mentioned the Plymouth Central Hall evangelism group which was set up at the end of his ministry there. Very few came to church as a result of this group.

All we’ve talked about with regards to TMC is important, but people come because the Lord brought them. God guides people to churches where He knows they will challenged, nurtured and fed. If we get our bit right God will get His bit right.

What’s important for us to know is that, normally, people don’t jump steps. We need to discern where are they now and what is the next step for them? Revival might happen but usually people come in steps.

A steward was appointed to each group and they made notes from that group’s discussion. The Stewards will take these discussion to their forthcoming away day, talk it over and come back to us afterwards.

Tavistock Methodist Church

Minutes of the Annual Church Meeting held on Wednesday 17[th] July 2024

	It was felt the above was a good exercise and a good start Thanks to Paul for this discussion. Paul prayed. In all the above discussion we have not talked about spirituality – the church needs renewal on a spiritual level too.
13.	Future dates Not mentioned
14.	Date of next Church Council meeting: Not mentioned
15.	Closing prayer: Rev Paul Smith thanked those who served refreshments, Neil for doing the sound and Mel for taking the minutes. The meetingclosed at 9:02p.m.

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