Mission Action planning is a structured and prayerful process that can help you and your church be intentional about thinking through what mission will look like for you.

• Mission – we look to see what God is already doing and we join in with his mission of love in the world.
• Action – the collective activity of the church. Action for God is at the centre of growth.
• Planning – not just any action, but carefully discerned, planned action. A plan that is inspired by God, grounded in prayer that seeks to further God’s purposes in your local context will help you to flourish.

Put simply, it works! Research shows that churches who are intentional about growth and that have a clear plan in place are more likely to grow and flourish.  Dioceses across the country have encouraged Mission Action Planning because they have seen the fruit of it.

The benefits of Mission Action Planning include:

• Being a tool to help churches be intentional about mission and growth
• Inspiring church members to see their place in God’s plan
• Encouraging more people to get involved
• Enabling focus on key discerned priorities
• Providing clarity about what to say yes to and no to!
• Fostering accountability across your church for pursuing God’s mission
• Growth, both numerically and in terms of discipleship

The MAP process will look slightly different in every church, but a helpful basic structure to follow is this one:

You can follow these steps (see the Mission Action Planning Quick Start Guide ), but the basic underlying principles of MAP are:

• Involve others – perhaps at a PCC meeting, or on an away day
• Pray and listen – because without God, we labour in vain!
• Take time to reflect on your context and community
• Follow the wheel in a way that works for your context
• Ask for help from your Church Growth Officer!

The Church Growth Officers of the Flourishing Churches team are here to work with you to bring this plan to life; to work alongside you as a church in listening to your context and getting to know your community better, spotting where God is already at work, discerning a vision of the church you would love to become with God’s help and creating a plan of how this might come to fruition, with the help and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

We are here to assist you in the creation and implementation of a Mission Action Plan. We can work with you in various different ways: by the provision of a Mission Action Planning session with your PCC, church or leadership team; through coaching; acting as a sounding board for leaders to explore the challenges and joys of the context and any barriers to growth, to help find solutions, fresh ideas and a positive way forward; helping leaders find the right resources for their church. Get in touch with us here: Revd Kate Lomax (Church Growth Officer for Hertfordshire) or Revd Nick Smith (Church Growth Officer for Bedfordshire) .

It is important for the following reasons. Doing so will:

• Help ensure that any goals you have identified are SMART.
• Enable you to think through additional helpful aspects of your planning.
• Help us all to make sure that plans across the diocese are consistent in format, meaning that priorities, goals and trends can be tracked.
• Help senior staff, diocesan staff and Rural / Area Deans and Deanery Lay Chairs to easily explore and read Mission Actions Plans that are summarised in a consistent format.

• As you begin, watch the how to do Mission Action Planning film here
• Before completing this form, we invite you to work through this  booklet, Planning for Mission, which will guide you through the planning process.
• We recommend you have this Mission Action Planning Quick Start Guide to hand as you work through.
• Before starting, would you like to speak to your Church Growth Officer for help?
• Email the Church Growth Officer for the Bedford Archdeaconry
• Email the Church Growth Officer for Hertford and St Albans Archdeaconries
• Click the orange ‘Submit Plan’ button below to enter your Mission Action Plan. NB Once you start to complete the online form, you will not be able to save work in progress – it has to be completed and saved online in one session. You can use this downloadable Mission Action Planning Form as a working document as you work through the sections.