“The Coventry Circuit will bring the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to those outside the Church with continuous and unflinching determination.
The Circuit will lad this outreach by deploying all the resources available to it in collaboration with the people of each Circuit Church .
We shall continue to support and encourage one another as we make this journey of faith, hope and love using every means of communication to proclaim the New Life in Christ available for all people”
The Mission Statement is to be read and interpreted in conjunction with these accompanying notes.
The Circuit Mission Statement is the starting point for developing the Circuit Policy and is itself the result of mutual engagement between the dreams and visions of each Circuit Church and Standing Order 500 – “The Circuit is the primary unit in which Local Churches express and experience their interconnection in the Body of Christ for the purposes of mission, mutual encouragement and help… The purposes of the Circuit include the effective deployment of the resources of ministry, which includes people, property and finance, as they relate to the Methodist Churches in the Circuit, to churches of other denominations and to participation in the life of the communities served by the Circuit, including local schools and colleges and in ecumenical work in the area…..”
The Ministry of the Church is of a three-fold nature: Worship, Mission and Service. These inform, enable and support each other in such a way that they cannot exist independently of each other. So when we speak of a “Circuit Mission Statement” we express our Mission in full knowledge that it arises out of and always includes our Worship and our Service.
There is clear evidence that the number of Church members and adherents in Coventry Circuit is falling year on year. We believe we must work with our Lord to reverse this trend and so our Mission Statement needs to reflect the situation we face and convey a keen evangelical message with our resolve to implement it. How we implement it is the next task we face together as we develop our Circuit Policy which takes its lead from the Mission Statement.
Rev David Hunter
June 2005