Rivertown United Reformed Church

Rivertown has created a small working group to consider how we can best approach the URC Vision4Life programme (vision4life.terapad.com). We met for the 1st time this week and our aim is to explore and respond to the opportunities presented in the Vision4Life initiatives ‘transformed by The Bible’ – ‘transformed through prayer’ – ‘transformed for evangelism’, engaging as widely as possible within all three churches in the pastorate.

We agreed to promote the Vision4Life programme as a whole, and focus initially on ‘transformed by The Bible’; engage with people in worship, through established fellowship and study groups, in open-invitation talks, and, if needed, through at-home conversations. We will invite Rivertown fellowship / study groups, Garden City and Northop Hall congregations to join any of the arranged open invitation talks.

We will ‘LAUNCH’ in Rivertown morning and evening services by sharing directions and ideas of the whole programme, and presenting aspects of ‘transformed by The Bible’ within a ‘structured / spontaneous’ group conversation in worship. We will provide a timetable for information and sign-up / commitment, together with a take-away invitation card to all of the planned meetings.

This will be followed when we ‘ENGAGE’ through discussion-based meetings covering the ‘remember’ and ‘reflect’ sections of the ‘transformed by The Bible’ conversation. Gather feedback and contributions for input when considering the ‘respond’ and ‘refresh’ sections.

After a ‘REVIEW’ of progress at the mid-point of the plan we will arrange other opportunities (house-groups; home visits etc) to provide for those not already engaged.

Then we will ‘ASSESS’ overall engagement and make further provision as appropriate.

At this stage we will ‘CONSIDER’ in a larger group together in worship the gathered feedback and contributions, and go on covering the ‘respond’ and ‘refresh’ sections of the ‘transformed by The Bible’ conversation. Finally, this will enable us to use the framework suggested in the ‘taking the next step’ booklet, reflect on the conversations we’ve had and, in worship, express how we can COMMIT ourselves to Vision4Life.

The programme will start on Sunday services on 11th May and the open sessions will start 3rd June. Details will be posted when confirmed.

Please pray for this venture and that the pastorate will be enriched by the whole programme.