Investing in our Future - Gift Days 2021

By Andy O'Connell (on behalf of the Elders)

hands giving

In 21-22 we want to invest in development / growth / breakthrough, especially in our four Future Focus goals. 

To do this we want to invest in releasing more time from some members of staff and leadership, in order that they can increase their focus. Ideally, we want to increase capacity (time) for these people. If you're not sure who's who, look here

Steve and Bev Jones – enabling them to dedicate 1 day/week to see key steps taken in public voice in the city, developing external relationships and partnerships, and developing tools to equip the church in confident public voice.

Lois Fulton - contributing to her time to lead the School of the Spirit as it moves in the second stage of pilot. We have also obtained an external grant from our wider Salt & Light network of churches, and, as we do for many other training courses, participants will be asked to pay a small fee.

Lyn Waddington – increasing her from 1 to 2 days/weeks in order to deliver effective pastoral care as we emerge from the pandemic, while releasing Steve to public voice (above)

Andy O'Connell – sometime in 2021-22, we want to release ½ day/week (currently used for S&L International) to develop further the quality and impact of discipleship and training in OCC

Daniel Martin-Thomas – continuing to lead the Thrive Leys youth project which serves an under-reached area of the city, through which we want to see a fruitful missional community redeveloped – we will be increasingly responsible for Daniel’s funding in the future

Sanjay Mahtani – medium term (2022-23) we want to release 1 day/week for Sanjay to undertake a theological degree, investing into him as a future key staff leader, while allowing him to maintain at least 1 day/week focus on missional development

Typically, it costs us £10,000 each year to release one person for 1 day/week. This includes costs of employment, as well as overheads such as staff training and expenses for the thing they are leading.

For this September 2021 Gift Day we are asking the Lord to release £35,000 to us, to help with the costs of these changes in 2021-22, and are planning a further increase in budget in 2022-23.

For more details look at the PDF attached below, which brings together the various stories we shared on social media in recent weeks.