Some Further Considerations
As a church it has to be said that St Nic’s lives on the edge of Anglicanism. We are not so easily identifiable with the institution that is the Church of England and we don’t quite fit its traditional mold. We should develop and experiment with:
- alternative styles of worship
- alternative times and places of meeting for worship
- alternative patterns of worship
- alternative structures or emphases for our ministry
- alternative methods of evangelism, which will have to cross traditional Anglican boundaries
Our buildings are situated on the edge of the City Centre and the Broad Marsh Shopping Centre so we must find ways:
- to open our buildings up to people
- to make better use of the fact that the church is an historic landmark
- to use our buildings creatively to meet needs or create opportunities for care and evangelism
- to understand the issues within the City and to reflect upon how God would have us respond
- to interact proactively with the media e.g. Evening Post, Radio Nottingham, Radio Trent, which are all on our doorstep
- to liaise and network with the many denominations that exist in our area, as well as the 2 other Anglican churches
Our membership spreads out across the conurbation, indeed the nation, to the very edge of the world. We must ensure then that we continue:
- to develop an easily accessible and effective pastoral structure for members, based around small group networking, where we all look out for, and care for one another
- to develop encouragement for people to feel confident in being Christian and sharing Christ in their neighbourhood, their work place, their leisure
- to develop support for people in their situation no matter the age, background, status or gender
- to develop our encouragement to members to discover what God might be asking of them
- to develop our support for those already involved in mission work at home or abroad, as laity or ordained
We are equally situated on the edge of the inner city ring with so much need and so few resources. We need to discover new and creative ways in which we can:
- listen effectively and lovingly to those who minister in these areas
- support ministry in these areas without being patronising, invasive or exclusive
- offer encouragement through the use of resources e.g. with training
We sit on the edge of a leisure and youth culture second to none outside London. Our young people, teenagers, students and under 40s will be the best people to reach their peers. We must:
- nurture them carefully with our teaching, our encouragement and our example
- help them to understand that holiness is about who they are in Christ not just what they do
- help them to understand the importance of a positive Christian life-style that does not withdraw from society but gets involved, whilst living a new life that raises the standards of the secular norm
- continue to actively and practically support Chris, Belinda and their teams in their specific ministry with students, young people and children, inside and outside the church
- explore ways in which the gospel can be communicated in terms that are “street-wise” and methods that have “street cred.”
- explore the possibility of a youth congregation, building on the Friday night Deeper Groups
Our Parish has people within it from the edges of society: the homeless, the addict, the lonely, stressed businessmen and women; reps in hotels etc. At St Nic’s we need:
- to ask for the compassion of Christ to be at our heart
- to pray that the hope of Christ dwells so richly in us that it overflows out to those who perceive themselves as hopeless
- to find creatively practical ways of sharing the love of God in these places; building on the work of the Soup Run ministry on the one hand and developing new and relevant ministries on the other
- to understand the issues in the City
- to understand what is happening and to discover the gaps and to know where God may be calling us to fill a gap with our service
- to network with others, religious and secular already involved in similar ministries
