The United Benefice of Benington with Walkern

St. Peter's Benington with St. Mary's Walkern






Benefice Aims

Understanding our Purpose


Our Mission Statement
As members of St Peter’s and St Mary’s Churches, we plan to: meet together to worship and learn about God, help people connect with God in daily life, and help build community through practical care for others both locally and further afield.






Our Church Goals


As a united Benefice we share five goals:

  1. To love and worship God
  2. To care deeply for others
  3. To tell God’s story
  4. To be God’s family
  5. To reflect God’s character


Where do we get these goals from?

These goals are derived from two statements of Jesus, commonly known as ‘The Great Commandments’ and ‘The Great Commission’:

The Great Commandments (Matthew 23:37-39):
Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself.’
The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20):
Then Jesus came to them and said: ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’


What does this mean in practice?

  1. To love and worship God
    This means that we commit ourselves to maintaining and developing our personal relationship with God, through worship together, prayer and Bible study. Individually, we make time to meet with God on a daily basis; together we deepen our understanding of worship by learning more about the God who has called us into relationship with him. We care about our times of worship together and look for ways of enabling Christians of differing personalities, temperaments and backgrounds to encounter God in our Sunday worship.


  2. To care deeply for others
    We commit ourselves to giving practical care to others, locally and further afield, by getting involved in community projects and by giving informed and generous support to Christian mission and aid organisations worldwide. We also commit ourselves to the sustainable care and use of the environment, and to working for justice and fair trade between nations and communities.


  3. To tell God’s story
    We commit ourselves to learning how to speak about our faith; to think about how to answer questions about the Christian faith; becoming confident to discuss our faith with others in what is becoming an anti-Christian and anti-faith culture; tackling together the big questions of how God works in this world and his relationship to society and individuals.


  4. To be God’s family
    We commit ourselves to one another: to learning how to be a family together, accepting, supporting, encouraging, and loving one another, looking out for one another and enjoying doing things together.


  5. To reflect God’s character
    We commit ourselves, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to try to reflect more fully the character of God our Father in the way we live our lives. We accept God’s call to reflect his concerns, priorities, passions and loves in our own, and in the character traits we aim to develop.


How these goals help us to become a healthy Church

Many churches are very good at putting one or more of these goals into practice. We too have our strengths and fulfil some of these goals more easily and readily than others. The challenge is to maintain all five goals in balance; that way, although we may never be very large Churches, we will be healthy because we are doing what the Lord has asked us to do.




EXPLORING OUR GOALS: SUNDAY PROGRAMME 2006

In order to help us keep our goals in the forefront of our mind, and to help us explore them more fully, we will have occasional sermon series throughout each year, each series focussing on one of our goals. There will be the opportunity to discuss the issues raised in many of these series in the context of home groups, based in Walkern, Benington and Stevenage.


January 2006 (Epiphany)
GOAL 1: TO LOVE AND WORSHIP GOD
Traditionally in epiphany we focus on how the non-Jewish world began to discover who Jesus is, through the visit of the astrologers from present-day Iraq. We use this traditional theme to help us in our Worship goal.
In this series we look at what the Creeds tell us about Jesus, and ask the question: ‘What does this mean for the way we worship Jesus?’

SERIES TITLE: WHO IS JESUS?

  1. One with God
  2. Sustainer of the universe
  3. Saviour and Judge
  4. Lord of our Church


February – April 206 (Lent)
GOAL 5: TO REFLECT GOD’S CHARACTER
Lent is traditionally a time for considering how we can be more faithful and effective in our discipleship.
In this series we look at how, in listening to God and speaking to him, our relationship with him is built up. Each week we glean help from the experience of a particular Bible character.

SERIES TITLE: HEARING GOD

  1. The God who calls us by name (Samuel)
  2. Developing a conversation with God (Enoch)
  3. Looking for God’s guidance (Nehemiah)
  4. The God who deals with guilt and fear (Peter)


May-June 2006 (Pentecost)
GOAL 3: TO TELL GOD’S STORY
The Holy Spirit, given to the disciples at Pentecost, gave them the understanding and the boldness to tell others about the work of God in Christ.We use the weeks following the celebration of Pentecost to look at the story of God’s involvement with the world and how we can share this with others.

SERIES TITLE: UNDERSTANDING OUR CULTURE AND THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE

  1. All in the mind: how we think today
  2. Pluralism and half-remembered Christianity
  3. Individualism and optional community
  4. Entering into God’s story: ‘Belonging, believing, behaving’


July 2006 (Summer)
GOAL 4: TO BE GOD’S FAMILY
A programme of events for all the church family, along with a series of talks on how to enhance and develop our life together.

SERIES TITLE: BELONGING TO ONE ANOTHER

  5. Family celebration day for both Churches


September 2006 (Harvest)
GOAL 2: TO CARE DEEPLY FOR OTHERS
At harvest time we are especially aware of our dependence upon the environment and on its wise and generous management. We use this as a prompt for our thinking on Jesus’ call to care practically for the world and its people.

SERIES TITLE:




QUARTERLY MISSION SUNDAYS

Each quarter we are dedicating one Sunday in each Church to finding out more about one of the Christian missions or aid agencies we support, and to prayer for their work.
Mission Sundays in 2006 are as follows:

WALKERN
For Jan/Feb/March:
February 5th The Montagu Community Church’s work (South Africa) with a local primary school for children of farm labourers. Speakers: John and Beverley Harlow For April/May/June: May 7th Christian Aid For July/Aug/Sept: August 13th The Wycliffe Bible Translators. Speaker: Jodie Whitely For Oct/Nov/Dec: November 19th

Becky Totterdell, March 2000