Dunganstown, Redcross & Conary Union of Parishes
MISSION REPORT

Mission is not an optional extra for the Church. The Great Commission in Matthew 28 is a command that Jesus expected his disciples to carry out. If we decide to opt out of mission then the church will soon fall into decline and will have a bleak future.
Mission does not happen on its own or by chance. We can’t take the attitude that some day someone else will come along and sort it all for us and therefore we can patiently wait doing nothing. However mission comes at a cost. Mission will make the church uncomfortable, will probably demand changes in the ways we have been doing things; will require leaders developing different priorities and at times add on a load of extra work.
For mission to happen, the church needs to become proactive. In the Dunganstown Union of Parishes we decided to engage in a mission project in one of our three churches for the benefit of the overall parish. We realised that as a parish we had to change because of both an ageing and decreasing congregation. We realised that our traditional Sunday services were not attracting families with younger children, a problem that we needed to solve. At the beginning of 2001, with the consent of the Select Vestry, Redcross Church changed the format of its worship and began what we called Family Worship with a vision of bringing people of all ages together (especially those who were unchurched) to experience the presence and power of God. We recognised that generally those who are in the under 45 age group are more familiar with contemporary popular music rather than the traditional classical church music, like to have variety and are used to multimedia presentations. We also looked at every aspect of what we did in our church services to make them as user friendly as possible. For example handing someone a number of books when they arrived through the door wasn’t always helpful if they didn’t know what they were!
The format of the Family Worship service began with modern contemporary worship, short precise liturgy and the use of Power Point presentation. Children of all ages were encouraged to stay in for the whole service and colouring sheets were given to younger children during the sermon time. There was also a greater emphasis on lay participation and a number of parish readers were trained to help on Sunday mornings. A prayer ministry team was also trained to pray with people whenever appropriate either during the services or afterwards for those who preferred. Coffee was introduced after each service to allow for fellowship and for new members to get to know each other.
In 2001 the average congregation in Redcross was 25 people. Today, the average congregation has risen to 150 leading to the development last September of two services on a Sunday morning because of the lack of seating space within the church building. This has allowed even more lay involvement and the appointment of Derek and Trich Dodd as Parish Lay Ministers.
The setting up of this new mission venture in the parish was to provide both choice and variety. There is now the freedom to choose between the informal Family Worship of Redcross to the more traditional Anglican services provided in Dunganstown and Conary. We believe this has been an enriching experience for the whole parish.

Roland Heaney