Urban Ministry & Theology Project Newcastle East Deanery

John Sadler has worked in urban situations for the majority of his 21 years as a priest - always with many questions about what it means to be church and how best to be it. This led to a sabbatical on new ways of being church and a number or organised events since. Before coming to Byker he spent three years out of parish ministry as the general manager of a foundry where he learnt a great deal about management, about having aims and objectives, about creating a vision, and about the importance of taking risks.

Church Development Aim:

To work with existing groups of Christians as they dream of what it means to be church and then to support, encourage and enable them as they begin to grow.

Church Development Objectives:

1. To establish a process of consultation and reflection in order to develop a dream.
2. To implement the process.
3. To prepare for the implementation of the dream (i.e. planning the way forward).
4. To support the growing capacity of Christian communities so that skills and self-confidence are developed and the vocation of the community is identified and lived out.
5. To enable individuals to discover the gifts already within them and apply them to the outworking of the dream.
6. To reflect theologically on the whole area of Church Development.
7. To share the methodology and outcomes of this process with the wider community and church.

Much of the work of the Church Development role is to do with helping church communities form their own vision – but this does have dangers (see Church Development – Key Objective). This paper not only looks at the dangers around trying to form vision statements, but also suggests a simple process that will help to form such statements which are really owned, agreed and understood!

Other writing by John Sadler:

A suggested process for articulating a vision and its strategic objectives