Not just another management tool

THROUGH a process of reflecting and praying together, sharing their experiences, learning about their communities, and honestly evaluating their congregational life, churches up and down the country are being encouraged and inspired.

Future Focus sessions

From the Northern Isles to Dumfries and Galloway, from Benbecula to Aberdeenshire, in small villages and large cities, congregations have found a resource called Future Focus to be of significant benefit. It is a process of envisioning and refocusing.

Usually someone from outside the congregation guides the process and, typically, it takes place over three or four evenings or a day.

As it involves the whole congregation, the outcomes – future directions and plans – have broad ownership and support from the beginning.

Having experienced Future Focus at Portland Parish Church in Troon, the Rev Jamie Milliken is impressed by the way it draws people together: “The process enabled the whole congregation of all ages and stages to share together. Newcomers and old timers, office bearers and friends all turned up for a day exploring our past, our present and prayerfully planning towards our future.”

In the case of Portland, Future Focus made a valuable contribution to the routine processes of review and planning. “It gave us a solid foundation to build Local Church Review upon and this led to the reshaping of our committees around our Local Church Review goals,” says Jamie. “The process has encouraged and enabled our whole congregation to be involved in planning and has provided objectives to work towards.”

With all this talk of ‘vision’ and ‘plans’, you could be forgiven for assuming that Future Focus is just another management tool. However, nothing could be further from the truth. The process is rooted in prayer and seeks to refocus a congregation around what they believe God wants them to be and do. Through a series of sensitively facilitated activities congregations seek God’s guidance and agree future directions.

Laggan Parish Church, in rural Abernethy, invited one of the Kirk’s Mission Development Workers to lead them through the Future Focus process five years ago. Among the outcomes were commitments to stage an annual barbeque for the whole community and to visit each home with children in the parish in order to ask how the church could best serve them. The process also led to a realisation that one village within this large, scattered parish, had no church presence. Ideas about how that could be remedied were discussed and agreed.

In Laggan each year the vision has been reviewed and plans adapted in a continuous cycle of learning. Then, recently, a ‘Future Focus: The Next Steps’ day was held. Minister, the Rev Catherine Buchan explains: “It was five years since we had isolated five goals for the church. We did not want the work that went into these goals to be lost, nor for them to become the new rut in which we got stuck! Revisiting Future Focus gave us the chance to decide together what to continue with and, learning from the past, what our priorities should be for the next few years.” Session Clerk, Campbell Slimon, notes how learning from each experience has developed confidence for others: “A Community Picnic, a direct result of Future Focus, gave us confidence to run a very successful Bake Off. Now there are plans for further community events. Other actions taken at the original Future Focus have helped the ‘feel good factor’ – which in turn is reflected in the gradual rise in numbers at Sunday worship.” Beth Alder, an elder at Laggan describes how after some initial misgivings, the process had a tangible and ongoing impact: “Some of us were apprehensive that it would be yet another talking exercise with few outcomes. However we identified five goals and these were clear and capable of evaluation. Five years on, the review day helped us to assess our progress and we were pleased with our endeavours. I think they wouldn't have happened without Future Focus and we now know where we are going.”

A network of trained Future Focus facilitators is supported by the Mission and Discipleship Council’s Mission Development Workers. A call or an email to the appropriate Mission Development Worker will enable a congregation to explore the possibilities of Future Focus for their congregation (see details below).

It may seem paradoxical that one of the first activities in the Future Focus process involves looking back! Under the guidance of the facilitator, small groups develop a timeline of their congregation’s life, noting the highs and the lows, the celebrations and the struggles. As with all the activities, this is done in a way that encourages everyone toparticipate. All contributions are welcomed and valued. As people then reflect on the timeline they have created, they invariably begin to recognise themes and trends, patterns and developments, lessons to learn, and answers to the question ‘what has God been doing here?’.

Having reflected on a shared sense of the road God has brought them, the Future Focus process then enables congregations to look afresh at the wider community of which they are part and to carry out a ‘congregational healthcheck’ –beforethen agreeing some future directions and identifying the necessary first steps to turn vision into reality.

Congregations that are linked may find that participating in Future Focus together leads to areas of shared vision and to clearer understanding of their distinctive ministries. Opportunities for collaboration andmutual support are often identified. Killearnan and Knockbain Parish Churches are linked parishes in Ross Presbytery. Large parts of both parishes are conspicuously rural, a patchwork of farms and estates. However, in recent years, driven by the rapid development of nearby Inverness, significant housing developments have led to a situation where the most populated and rapidly growing village in the area has no Church of Scotland congregation. Through Future Focus both congregations recognised the opportunities and challenges this presents and identified ways in which they might work together in response.

Susan Cord, minister at Killearnan and Knockbain for just over a year, is delighted by the encouragement and unity generated through Future Focus: “I wanted the direction we took to come from the congregations, not me. We have realised there are many things we have in common and much we could gain from creating a joint vision of howwe can serve the parishes together. We are now in the process of taking the outcomes of Future Focus so we may best serve our communities. It's exciting times!”

Having been utilised by such a wide variety of churches, Future Focus is a tried and tested resource. A recent survey found that, looking back after some months or years, the process was recognised by most who had used it as ‘very helpful’, with some explaining that it had been ‘transformational’ for them. Perhaps the easiest way to get a feel for what is involved is to view some of the video clips available on the Resourcing Mission website (www.resourcingmission.org.uk/resources/future-focus) – or contact your local Mission Development Worker: East: Rob Rawson t 07966286614; rrawson@churchofscotland.org.uk West: Robbie Morrison t 07740414404; robbie.morrison@churchofscotland.org.uk North: Steve Aisthorpe t 07966286617; saisthorpe@churchofscotland.org.uk