What is MAP?

MAP stands for Mission Action Planning. The main purpose of MAP is to listen and discern the will of God for your church and its community. It is about looking at what is happening in your parish and as a church community considering the direction that you think your church should be heading. Once you have established a vision for your church you then set yourselves priorities for you church for each of the following 3 years and then plan the specific steps you need to take to deliver these goals. At the end of each year we will ask you to review your action so that you can adjust your plan accordingly.

Why should churches do MAP?

The MAP process gives every parish an opportunity to take time out to reflect and discern on what God’s mission is for their church and their community. It also gives an opportunity to celebrate what has been achieved and consider what needs to be done in the coming year. It is also an opportunity for you as a community to dream some dreams and consider what God wants you to be both individually and as the family of God.

Is MAP a top down initiative?

MAPs are intended to be done at a local parish level. The reason we want to do this together as a Diocese is so that Bishop Alastair and other senior staff can see what your plans are and be able to pray for you. It also gives us an opportunity to consider what resources we need to provide for you all to deliver your plans. We would prefer to describe that MAPs become part of the life of each churches annual cycle rather than an initiative.

Is MAP a "one size fits all" process?

During the pilot we are looking at how the process works across a wide range of churches both in size and churchmanship. The process has been designed to ensure that you can use it in the most appropriate way for your particular situation.
We are also testing a simpler process for our small rural churches to see if this is more appropriate for them.

What if we already do a form of planning and review: do we have to repeat everything?

The purpose of MAP is that we are all encouraged to plan on an annual basis and it is great that some of you are doing this already
If you already have a system of annual planning and review then all we would ask is that you fill in the MAP summary form so that we know what you are doing. You might want to look at the materials we are using to see if there are any ideas that you can use.

What is the timetable?

MAP launch events are currently being planned for May 2011 and we will be asking that churches have sent in their completed MAP summary forms to Bishop Alastair by Advent Sunday 2011.

Is this just another one-off initiative?

We really want mission action planning to become a way of life for all of us in the Diocese. It should become part of our annual cycle in each parish so that we have an opportunity to review what has gone well and to refine any activities that haven’t been quite so successful.