How does your church help to give a ‘voice’ to the village?
While the Church will sometimes want to speak with a distinctive voice on local issues, most of the time it is possible, through friendly alliance, to co-operate with local interest groups and the Parish Council in pressing for better conditions. The Church can even give a lead by helping to discover what local needs really are (through a questionnaire and coffee time chats in the village hall). The Church with limited numbers cannot give the impression that it can alone respond to all perceived needs but can co-operate with others to respond to some urgent needs and be able to offer some help through its premises and volunteers. The Church should be fully involved in the drawing up of the ‘Parish Plan’. Parish Councillors can be invited to address the Church – they may already be Church members. Does your Church contribute to a local paper/magazine through the religious column or write in about local concerns? Does your Christian community collaborate with others to produce and maintain a community publication with general distribution? Any such publication needs to be well produced and show a lively inter-active face.