Our Vision for the Future


“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus both now and forever. Amen.”

Ephesians 3:20-21


About This Paper...

This strategy aims to capture a sense of who we are and where we feel God is leading us as a church. The ideas contained within it will shape the future of Southover for many years as they describe our mission, the key areas of our ministry and the people that we want to serve. This paper has been written so that every member of our church family may understand how they can be part of God’s people here at Southover.
 maintaining the “status quo” is not an option,
we hunger to respond to God’s love, to be transformed,
to grow.

We long to grow...

As a church family we are from many different backgrounds: from lighthouse keeper to architect; we’re single, married, widowed and divorced; young, old and somewhere in between. But we share a common aim to deepen our love of God and to develop a community which sees his Kingdom thrive here in Lewes and beyond. As God’s people we long to grow in every aspect of our being (e.g. deeper in our understanding of God, more caring in our relationships, larger through helping people find God). This desire to move on and to grow in our love of God and for each other is at the heart of who we are. For Southover, maintaining the “status quo” is not an option, we hunger to respond to God’s love, to be transformed, to grow. Our mission, as the family of Southover Church is:

to glorify God
by growing more like Jesus Christ
and helping others to grow in their faith.

Southover Church exists only to bring glory to God by helping people grow in their faith. This is our mission and it must shape who we are and everything we do.

So how do we help people grow in faith?
- 5 Building Blocks & 5 Core Values.

When the New Testament Church first came together in Acts 2 they provided us with a picture of their priorities.

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as they had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

From this we can identify five crucial areas of ministry that the early church focused on which helped people to grow in their faith and become more like Jesus. We are calling these areas Building Blocks:

a) Preaching & Teaching (Acts2 v42),
b) Fellowship & Pastoral Care (v42 & 45),
c) Worship & Prayer (v42 & 46),
d) Service & Social Action (v44 & 45),
e) Mission & Evangelism (v47).

It is easy for a church to focus on or become well-known for just one or two of these areas. This happens because a church feels it is weak in a particular area and so attempts to compensate for it. It also happens because a Church feels that it is strong in a particular area and desires to “play to its strengths”. Too often it happens because an area reflects the particular passion of its leadership. However we believe that all of these areas are important and we need to take them equally seriously. From these 5 Building Blocks we can discern 5 values that we long to be at the heart of our church’s life.

These 5 Core Values for Southover are

that as God's people at Southover we want:
a) our lives to be shaped and directed buy his Word so that we can know God deeply and personally;
b) to be an all-embracing and outward-looking community which cares for and loves each other as God loves us;
c) to glorify God in our worship, be refreshed and sustained by a real encounter with his Spirit and see him move in response to our prayers;
d) to serve others to make a radical difference in our Church, Lewes and beyond;
e) to share the joy of his Good News in a natural way so that others may come to know Jesus as Saviour and Lord.

Who do we want to reach and serve?

It is natural for people to want to gather together with others who share the same tastes and outlook on life. It would be easy and very comfortable for Southover to focus its ministry on a particular cultural age group or personality type. But God does not often call us to opt for the comfortable life! Instead, as we humbly engage with our differences this is how we are stretched and grow. We believe that this is part and parcel of the gospel message to “love one another” and we want it to be one of the key marks of our church. We want to strive to make Southover a place “where everybody is somebody and Jesus is Lord”.

Therefore we are committed to serving the needs of all the people in our Parish and locality. We have identified 6 key groups of people:

  • Adults with Babies/Toddlers;
  • Children & Young People;
  • Young Adults
  • Adults;
  • Older Adults;
  • Special Focus (eg. men, international students).
 Southover, a place “where everybody is somebody and Jesus is Lord”.

As we serve others we long to see people progress in their journey and become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ who see themselves at the heart of God’s people at Southover. It is possible for people to see themselves at one of four stages in their journey of faith:

Arrow Strategy Image


Outside Church Community – someone who has no particular interest in Church.
Church Fringe – someone who is exploring their faith and who sees themselves as a guest rather than a host when attending something that we do.
Congregation – Someone who sees themselves as a host rather than a guest but has not yet found the place to exercise their ministry.
Committed to following Jesus Christ – Someone who is personally committed to becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ and seeing this happen in others.

We want to do anything and everything possible to help people grow in their faith. To do this we must develop an exciting and engaging series of ministries that develop the core values across all groups of people.

We believe that each of the Building Blocks and each of the groups of people are important and we wish to progress on all of them together. This is possible because we see the function of leadership not primarily as “doing” but as helping to equip, harness and release the ministry of the whole congregation. Leadership involves helping as many members of the church as possible to see where they fit and how they may use their gifts. Having said this, progress will be determined by the people and resources that God gives us.

What are the implications for us?

As a response to this strategy we will develop an action plan for each of the Building Blocks and for each of the groups of people. Every year we will use this action plan not only to show us our “next step” but also to help us understand where we have come from and where we are going. Our strategy and our action plan will be communicated as widely as possible so that they may be shaped and changed by the congregation as we grow.

The Clergy, Readers and PCC recommended that this strategy be given to everyone in our church and endorsed the action plan which was developed at a PCC away-day. To give you a flavour of the things that were suggested I have written a list of the top three ideas for each building block below. The full list and copies of this paper will be available at the back of church soon.
 we see the function of leadership as helping to release the ministry of the whole congregation

May God bless us as we journey together.

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