Hopefully you were able to attend the last Cumbernauld Churches Congregational Meeting in Kildrum Church on Sunday 13th June 2010. If you were there you will have heard how the Cumbernauld Plan is progressing and where everything that's going on fits into the bigger picture. If you were unable to attend this report will give you a brief overview of the day and hopefully help you understand better how the plan comes together.

The theme for the meeting on the 13th June was 'Caring for Cumbernauld Together'.
The day opened and closed with worship led by Peter Neilson and in-between a number of people spoke about our vision, our strategy and the detail of our plan for the Cumbernauld area, We also took time to listen to Dr Neil Pratt who led an interactive session on Youth.

The session that focused on the Cumbernauld Plan was entitled 'Working Together' and the presentation was designed to help people make sense of the past two years and better understand how the various pieces of the Cumbernauld Plan fitted together. The presentation was accompanied by a slide that mapped the vision, strategy and the underpinning detail of the plan onto one page. Copies of the 'Plan on a Page' were distributed to attendees at the meeting and proved to be a good reference document. You will find a copy in the printed edition of the Church Newsletter.

The 'Working Together' session first looked at our vision 'Churches of Cumbernauld working together to connect with the townsfolk now and in the future by equipping Churches better for mission to the missing generations' then looked at the six key strategies that the Cumbernauld Churches collectively had agreed should be the focus of our attention in making our vision a reality. Catriona then outlined the journey so far, before a number of people representing the five congregations spoke about the detail of the plan, giving a brief overview and a progress report on each of the elements.

Reading the 'Plan on a Page' from left to right, the role of the Steering Group and the Kirk Sessions were outlined. Kirk Sessions have been developing plans for their own congregations based on feedback from 'Mission Audits' and output from an exercise on 'The Healthy Church'. You will have read about this in the last edition of the Church Newsletter.

Neil Pratt's presentation at the meeting gave us an insight into the work that he intended to undertake on Youth.

The Steering Group is currently looking at setting up an Area Strategy Group and a management structure to support and manage the additional staff. Ministers and Deacons have been attending 'Staff Days' with Peter Neilson and have agreed to hold regular local Staff Forums. Plans to set up a Resource Team and develop a system of communication are still at the early stages as are plans to care for the elderly and commission a Town Centre Survey.

The plan to explore the appointment of two Children & Family Workers; one for Abronhill and the other shared between Condorrat and Cumbernauld Old, is at a more advanced stage as is the appointment of an Emerging Ministry Worker; again shared between Cumbernauld Old and Condorrat. Small groups consisting of one or two reps from each of the respective congregations have been meeting with Peter Neilson to draw up Job Descriptions and explore funding options for additional staff and plans are progressing very well.

When all of the speakers had given their updates the session concluded with time for Q&A. As you can see there is a lot of work going into the Cumbernauld Plan and a lot of it involves Cumbernauld Old. Whilst many people are already involved, many more will need to become involved as the plan progresses. This report should give you an idea of where we currently are with the plan.

Hopefully you have found this brief overview of the last Congregational Meeting and the Cumbernauld Plan informative and that the 'Plan on a Page' helps you better understand where everything fits together.

Brian Smillie
Session Clerk
August 2010

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