The Mission Statement of Juniper Green Parish Church is “Building Christ’s Church in the Community.” To this end, we have identified 5 Core tasks:
There are activities which serve each of these aims.
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Worship: Every Sunday our morning service is held at 10.30am; mostly this follows a traditional pattern but we have experimented with different formats occasionally. There is a communion service each month, as well as at Easter and Christmas. We also hold services in St Margaret’s Court sheltered housing complex and in Lorimer House Nursing Home. |
Mission: Our ultimate intent in mission is to enable people to encounter, and come to faith in, Jesus Christ. We have a number of ways by which we try to do this: we deliver to everyone living in our parish a Christmas and Easter card, which explains a little of what we believe and invites people to special, seasonal events; we run a monthly Messy Church for families; our Church Newsletter, website, and Facebook page all support these mission initiatives. |
Nurture: There are a number of groups and activities that serve to nurture faith and relationships. Every Sunday, Kids’ Church engages the children with the Bible and we plan a new initiative to nurture the young people of the Church; Church Wednesday gives us the opportunity to study the Bible; a Men’s Breakfast (and occasional dinner) is arranged to enable men to discuss faith-related topics; the Guild of Friendship gives many of the women of the congregation the opportunity to meet and talk about faith and other issues; and Daily Bible study notes are made available. The Nurture Team is responsible for arranging some of these initiatives. |
Prayer: We have a number of prayer initiatives. Church Wednesday provides a public congregational focus for prayer; there is a monthly Prayer Focus insert in the Sunday order of service; an e-mail prayer chain exists for particular, personal requests; and there are Prayers for Healing once a month. The Prayer Team supports this work. |
Service: Our Pastoral Care Teams exist to contact and care for the members of the Church and others who are part of the congregation; we run a small Bereavement Support Group that is available to visit people in the aftermath of a funeral; and we have an overseas partnership with the Cambodian Hope Organisation and local partnerships with Bethany Christian Trust, Edinburgh City Mission, the Salvation Army, and Fords Road and Davidson House residential homes. We run Open Door Cafe, a mother and toddler group almost every Tuesday morning during school term and have a very successful monthly soup and roll lunch on the last Friday of every month.
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What | Why | How and Where | When | Who |
Christmas Event | To tell story to families | Out of the Box Church Halls | Christmas 2019 | Heather |
Talking Faith/Church one-to-one | Make church accessible | Coffee and Chat Molly’s Café | Autumn 2019 | Minister |
Social Media Content | Increase Church visibility | Facebook page; website | Ongoing | Working Group? |
Issues to debate | Make people think! | High School debating? Café Conversations? | 2019/20 | ?
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Hot Topics | Talking Points to grow God’s kingdom | Speaker events from outside, a Christian view? Talking points from Church councils
| 2019/21 | ? |
Partnerships | Care for the community | Examine our existing partnerships Pubs in Juniper Green share with us? Food banks, Fresh Start? | 2019/21 | ? |
Welcome leaflet | Tell people about church | Revamp leaflet/card Parish leaflet drop? | 2020 | ? |
Community groups/uniformed organisations | Develop relationships | Carol Service? | 2019/20 | ? with Heather? |