Turramurra Uniting is a church driven by the calling that we believe God has placed upon us—a calling to help each other to grow in our faith in Jesus; to care and empower our church family, especially our young people and seniors; and to share the love of God with everyone through our words and actions. Each year our Church Council spends some time prayerfully considering the way that God’s calling should be enacted for that year and casts this Vision on Vision Sunday. We then over the next 12 months bring that Vision to life by work towards the goals that we have set.
Both 2020 and 2021 have not been good years when it has come to our Vision. COVID disruptions, lockdowns and the resulting lack of momentum have made it hard to work towards our mission goals and in some cases these have been impossible to fulfil. We have been able to achieve one of our key goals for 2020/21 (welcome Kevin), in other areas for reasons beyond our control, we have only been able to partially progress these goals, and in one case not at all. We believe God is calling for us to continue to focus on these goals and ideas. We believe that God’s Vision for us in 2022 is a mix of bringing these previous Visions to life as well as some new initiatives and ideas.
The Core of our church’s Vision becomes the heart of who we are. Our Jesus-centric passion for helping people grow in faith and discipleship; our heart for young people and families; our desire to care and connect with each other; and our hope to be a lighthouse church that reaches out beyond us … these are all embedded in our DNA and this calling remains strong and valid.
Over the past two years we have discerned that it is time for a “Vision Check-up” – a chance to review and refine our Vision so that we can continue to grow and for the Vision to be clear and effective. Our goal is within the first half of 2022 to spend some time in conversations across our church community reviewing within the Vision framework and priorities that Church Council have set to confirm what specific goals, ideas or initiatives we feel God is stirring us to undertake to move forward in this direction.
Proposed Mission Goals for 2022
- Refining our Vision. April / May 2022 – to have discussions with groups, individuals, and key stakeholders culminating in a church wide “refining our mission” planning day/session where we can all bring our voices and ideas to find the best way to renew, refine and refresh our vision.
It is our vision goal to continue our commitment to “growing young” in everything that we do. To develop and implement strategies that engage and retain teenagers and young adults, and develop “sticky faith” within them, thus invigorating the entire church. Over the past 12 months we have had an intentional focus on journeying with youth and young adults through conversation and support. While these have been some great successes, there is more to be done and the call for this relational support to continue is strong.
Proposed Mission Goals for 2022
- Employ part-time youth worker. To honour the Alan Williams Bequest through employing a part-time ministry agent to focus on youth and young adults.
- Encourage the whole church to participate in PULSE’s “Growing Young” questionnaire (Feb) and Growing Young program during 2022.
- Supporting and empowering young adults – continuing to explore and take opportunities to connect, support and empower young adults
- « Continuing to build up our existing groups and allow more young people to be brought into a relationship with Jesus and grow in faith and life.
TUC is blessed to be one of the largest and strongest Uniting Churches in
our region (and state) and for a number of years we have discerned that
God is calling us to embrace what it means to be a lighthouse church. Just
as a lighthouse helps people that will never step foot inside the lighthouse
itself, a lighthouse church reaches out beyond itself and helps people,
communities and others churches.
Our new minister Kevin has been encouraging us to consider how we as a church and individuals can be good neighbours in our local community. As a lighthouse church we might consider how we better enhance local connections and relationship with people, community groups, schools, day Our new minister Kevin has been encouraging us to consider how we as a church and individuals can be good neighbours in our local community. As a lighthouse church we might consider how we better enhance local connections and relationship with people, community groups, schools, day care facilities, new housing developments etc. We might also consider how we can bring our social justice ethos into sharper focus and enhance our digital/ social media footprint. This will include continuing and building upon our high quality online worship presence and creatively looking at ways to connect and support those beyond our normal church boundaries who are accessing our worship online.
As a lighthouse church we are also called to connect with, support and grow other churches and congregations in our area/ region and boosting our influence at a regional and national level.
Proposed Mission Goals for 2022
- Developing ‘Community Asset Mapping’ to identify the key people and key places in our community and neighbourhood – establishing a network for collaboration, empowerment and support.
- Increasing the awareness within our local community of who we are as a church and what we can offer – including website, marketing and personally reaching out.
- Encouraging missional collaboration with other Uniting Churches – especially those who have an existing relationship with us and our geographical sister churches.