PCC Meeting Minutes for 1st July 2024

  Minutes of the PCC Meeting

                         Held on Monday 1^st July 2024

Appendix 1 – update on Key priority 1: Discipleship3

1. Connect Groups;At the APCM in 2023 we ‘re-launched’ Connect Groups and reshaped them around the vision of the church.  It isn’t possible to get to know everyone and so our midweek Connect Groups are the main way of caring for, encouraging and supporting one another both in our faith journey but also life in general!  The other change in Connect Groups is that we stopped calling those who co-ordinated them ‘leaders’ and instead call them ‘facilitators’.  In many ways it may not feel like a significant change but we recognised that a culture had developed in which those who were willing to be ‘leaders’ felt at times overwhelmed and found themselves organizing every aspect of the Connect Group.  The purpose of the facilitator is to enable every person in the group to use their God given gifts and skills to serve and build one another up, rather than do everything themselves.Since May 2023 we now have 5 Connect Groups, all meet fortnightly (listed below).  We have tried to encourage everyone to be part of a group and while for some going to the fortnightly meetings might be hard, the majority can get to the group socials and be part of the wider group to pray for and support one another.Greg was the Connect Group co-ordinator until just before Christmas 2023 and stepped down due to ill health.  I now do this role.  The facilitators continue to meet every couple of months to support one another.Our five groups are:
   • Monday afternoon (Carol Maycock)
   • Monday evening (Elizabeth Holbrook)
   • Thursday morning (Alan Palmer)
   • Wednesday evening (Dawn A)
   • Wednesday evening (Ben & Livvi)
2.  Tuesday Teaching evenings:
   In 2022 we decided to keep Tuesday evenings free from other church business to allow for occasional extra teaching sessions.  Earlier this year we ran an Alpha course on Mondays instead of Tuesday (due to candidates availability).  We are currently considering a 4/5 week short course called ‘SHAPE’ which looks at how we are gifted, what desires we have and what the Lord may be calling us towards as a result.

Decision needed by PCC

No decisions needed from PCC at this time.

Revd. DA.

Appendix 2 – Under 18s Ministry

There are a huge number of people involved in under 18s ministry – around 27 adults!  We take the research seriously that tells us that churches who invest in under 18s ministry grow, and those that don’t decline.   As such we have started the discussion around potential employment of a children’s and youth worker. .

Last year we signed up to a resource called Energize which we use across all of our under 18s groups.

Under 11s Ministry

For our under 18s ministry we have both a discipleship stream and an outreach stream.  For under 11s our discipleship stream is primarily Sunday mornings at Sunday Club.  Our outreach stream is on a Thursday for Wellitots (under 5s) & Ignite (those in year 1-5), and Monday for Glenvale toddlers (under 5s).  For young people (those in year 6 and above) the discipleship stream is 3 Sunday mornings and 2 Sunday evenings a month (Connect Youth), the outreach stream is also a Thursday evening (Ignite youth).

1. Sunday mornings
   There is a great group of people who lead and help with the groups.  Over recent months some of those who had been serving in this area for many years took the opportunity to step down with new people taking their place.  Huge thanks to each of them for their willingness to guide the children in their individual journeys with the Lord.
2. Wellitots Toddlers Group
   In November 2022 the group moved to the Hub at Redwell School which meant the session time could be extended and has proved to be a much better venue.  The numbers attending prior to moving venue had become very low and we even wondered if we might need to stop the group.  However we now have many new households coming along and have 10/11 households each week.  A number of these join in with our events at festival times of year and some are touching their toes with Sunday mornings by coming to the café style service.
3. Glenvale Park toddler group
   This is a new initiative which started mid April.  Glenvale Care home provide a beautiful room, toy storage and refreshments.  Some of the residents join the group also.  We currently have around 8 families coming each week.  We suspect this group will grow significantly as the development grows and when the new church school opens in September.
4. Ignite
   Ignite numbers dipped in 2023 to the point where we considered if was a sustainable group.  However, since the team did a school assembly at Redwell Primary early January 2024 the numbers have shot up to between 25-30 each week, though they have dipped again more recently.  There is a very committed team leading this and with Rob leaving, from September Livvi is going to take on the leadership.
5. School’s work

• Redwell School
  Invitations to engage with Redwell School have increased since 2023.  This has meant we were invited to be present at school assemblies/plays and special days at school.  We were given the opportunity of doing monthly in person assemblies too.  We continue to run several wellbeing groups throughout the year with different year groups….and always invite them to Ignite and Ignite Youth as a result.  We have taken a break from delivery the wellbeing groups this last term but will begin again in September.  We will again be running year 6 ‘Transition to Secondary School’ sessions using material from Scripture Union in June.
• Glenvale Church of England school
  This will be open 1^st Sep 2024.  I have been meeting with Wilby School Head, Chair of Governors and the Vicar of Wilby to talk through some of the more detailed transition.  We look forward to the school opening in Sep 2024 and working very closely with them.

Decision needed by PCC

No decisions needed from PCC at this time.

Revd. DA

Youth:

The poster above highlights our three youth groups – Sunday Youth, Connect Youth, and Ignite Youth.

1. Sunday Youth
   This occurs on the second and fourth Sunday mornings of the month during the service. During this time there is in-depth bible teaching and discussion. We currently do not have enough leaders to run Sunday youth on third Sundays in the month and are trialing this as a ‘Serving Sunday’, encouraging the young people to help with various aspects of the morning service (such as assisting with children’s groups, playing in the worship band, serving tea and coffee, and helping with the sound and visuals teams).We’ve only had a limited response to this so far – assisting with the children’s groups has been the most popular, but there hasn’t been much take up from the young people to being involved in other areas of serving.There’s an aim to encourage those interested in music to get involved with worship but this will take some time, and we’ll try to explore other opportunities for serving where possible. The number of young people attending on Sunday mornings varies somewhat from week to week.
2. Connect Youth
   This is our discipleship group, which meets fortnightly. Ben, Livvi, Sam Carew, and Dawn lead this group. We begin with a game, then have a time of worship, Bible teaching and prayer, before finishing with a meal together. There are around 15 young people who attend the group, with an average attendance of 8 to 12. Most of the young people are connected with church, and it’s really exciting to see how they’re all growing in their faith in Jesus. At the moment, Ignite Youth and Connect Youth operate very separately, with little crossover between the young people attending the two groups. We are currently considering this and the implications for our wider youth strategy. Last term we learnt more about the Bible – how and why to read it. 4 members of Connect Youth wish to be baptized in the autumn, so we will be undertaking baptism and confirmation preparation during the summer term. We have continued to hold half-termly social evenings, with a games night during the Easter holidays and a film night during the May half term. We look forward to the Satellites summer youth festival at the Bath & West Showground from 2^nd-6^th August 2024. There are currently 5 young people booked to come. The adults involved will be Dawn & Chris, Ben & Livvi.
3. Ignite Youth
   This is our Thursday evening outreach group. We have been seeing between 15 and 20 total young people regularly, but the average number each week has dropped to between 10 and 15. The sessions involve games, sports, crafts, and a short time considering the Christian faith. The small group discussions have been working better than giving a short talk from the front, so we will continue with these. However, there are some tricky relational dynamics between older and younger members of the group, for which we would appreciate prayer to know how to deal with this appropriately. The current team is: the Aireys (Chris every other week), Carol Maycock and Judy Meleleu (who help with registration and the tuck shop once a month), Bruna, Daniela, Livvi and Ben. Any additional volunteers would still be gratefully welcomed!
4. Glenvale Park
   We are continuing to look out for where God is at work and seek opportunities to connect with young people in Glenvale Park, and are looking ahead to the summer community days and how we can engage with young people through those.

Pray for:

• The many young people we are in contact with to come to faith and grow as followers of Jesus.
• Give thanks for those who have recently offered to help with some of the church youth work activities, and pray for the development of more leaders with a heart and calling to serve young people.
• Ignite Youth, that the group would function as well as possible and that the young people would experience God’s love for them.
• The families of our young people – may they also be reached through our ministry.
• Preparing young people from Connect Youth for baptism/confirmation this term, and revisiting these with those who have already been baptized/confirmed.

Decision needed by PCC

No decisions needed from PCC at this time.

Revd. BH-S

Appendix 3 – update on Key priority 3: Wholeness in Jesus/ Wellbeing

1. Bereavement Support Group
   Valerie Brown runs the bereavement support group on Tuesday afternoons at the hub in Redwell School.  It has been difficult trying to establish an in person group since the pandemic but Valerie keeps going with it.  She will be reviewing the group at the end of the summer term.  We also have a bereavement facebook group which has 84 people part of it.
2. Care
   Throughout 2023 pastoral Care at Gleneagles Anglican Church continued to operate through Connect Groups and by direct contact with the Care Team providing fellowship, friendship and practical help where needed.   The Care Team members were Valerie Brown, David & Helen Downey, and Elizabeth Holbrook.  Helen Downey took responsibility for this team and I am so grateful to her.   I want to thank them all for all they have done in responding to the needs of church members.However, it became clear in the early part of 2023 that the Care Team was itself very small and therefore limited in how it could respond.  As the church was growing we realised a new way was needed.  At the same time we were developing ideas around Connect Groups and as described in the discipleship section we slightly reshaped the purpose of Connect Groups in line with the vision of the church (Connecting – with Jesus, with each other, with the wider community).  Part of that reshaping included a different understanding about pastoral care.  The language of pastoral care had perhaps become unhelpful in that in can encourage a culture in which some are giving help and some are receiving help.  The reality is that most of us will find ourselves in both ‘camps’ at the same time!  The Christian life is such that we are all members of Jesus’s body with different skills and gifts to offer one another, and we are all broken human vessels that need love, support, friendship, practical help and encouragement.  The other reality is that it is only possible to have close relationships with a few people at one time, close enough to know and be honest about our needs.  With all of that in mind it made sense to close the Pastoral Care Team and for Connect Groups to become the main way in which we are all enabled to build close friendships, offer one another support when needed and use the gifts the Lord has given us to build one another up.

Decision needed by PCC

No decisions needed from PCC at this time.

Revd. DA.

Appendix 4 – Finance Report

Treasurer’s Report May 2024

General Account (Restricted and unrestricted money)

BUDGET 2023   Unrestricted (Budget for 2024 not agreed)

Appendix 5 – Parish Update

• As of the 1^st May we are now legally North Wellingborough Anglican Church, incorporating the 3 housing estates – Gleneagles, Glenvale Park, Redhill Farm (Artists).
• Our model of being church is to have a base (currently Redwell School) and to use the available community spaces for our missional groups and activities.
• Our current relationship with Redwell School is very good but that has not always been the case. Glenvale Park School is going to be a Church of England School and thereby opens up the question as to whether that should become our base.  It is highly likely that we are going to be given a parish office within the school.  Early discussions with the diocese (PDET), school head and chair of Governors have been positive with reference to the potential for us as a church to relocate to Glenvale School.  No costs have been negotiated at this stage.

Decision needed by PCC:

As a PCC, having very briefly discussed this previously, we need to continue this discussion and at some point make a decision.  At the next PCC meeting it would be helpful to talk about the merits of either decision.

Revd. DA.

Appendix 6 – Safeguarding Report

• Three people have applied for the DBS which has now been received. Two of them need to do the safeguarding training.
• The diocese have appointed a new safeguarding advisor, Victoria Kellett.
• Emails have been sent to 3 people who have expressed interest in volunteering. We still need to complete the DBS process for them.

John Gilyead.

Appendix 7 – Deanery Synod Report

There will not be a meeting until September. Therefore, no report this time.

PP HC.

 Appendix 8 – PCC report – Parish Weekend away

I have been thinking through the merits of having a church weekend away in May 2025, possibly the second bank holiday weekend leading into the half term school holidays.  This would be for two nights, Friday through to Sunday.

I have approached the Frontier centre as it’s so conveniently close but still feels like you’re away.  Their initial quote per person felt too expensive.  However, in negotiating with them on price I wonder if we have arrived at something more doable.  If for example we had meals from Friday tea time through to Sunday lunch time it would be £121 per person, under 6s free and every 10 people booked would give us a free place.  The cost of Friday tea is £13 per person and Sunday lunch is £9.80 per person.  So if we chose to exclude either or both of these that brings the cost per person to under £100 each.

PCC decision needed:

There is of course much more detail to think about but at this stage I wanted to hear what the PCC thinks and whether this is something that would both benefit the church community as well as be affordable for people?

Revd. DA.