All Saints PCC on a learning curve

Members of All Saints Parochial Church Council devoted a day to learn more about their roles and responsibilities last Saturday. They also spent time working on the parish vision, planning how to take the church forward towards the strategic goals identified by the congregation during the Vision process of last year.
Organised by churchwarden Barbara Smith, the day began with a reading from the from the gospels and a prayer, followed by a humourous ice-breaking session which involved everyone present. The first session was a brainstorming session on each of the five strategic goals in the parish vision. Then Phillip Dixon, the Sonning Deanery Training Consultant, led a session on the roles and responsibilities of PCC members. This was followed by a session on Discussion and Decision-making at All Saints led by Rector, David Hodgson, who shered some of the insights he gained from a course he attended on mediation and facilitation last year. (View the Powerpoint presentation here).
After lunch Barbara Smith led a session on things we need to do before, during and after a PCC meeting to highlight ways of running an effective meeting. PCC members agreed on a number of simple actions to improve communication around PCC meetings. Then a real case study was presented for discussion and PCC members reached agreement on their decision using methods outlined earlier in the day.
The final session returned to the parish vision and the brainstorming ideas which had been collated by Anne King. Five task groups were formed around each strategic goal with the function of launching the goals into the church community and gathering action teams to carry forward the progress towards the each goal.