Richard McMahon's response 29/6/2011:
Thanks for this. The inreach/outreach/upreach offers a succinct way of exploring God's mission for our community.  My best sense of what is at
the heart of this is the what the new evangelisation calls us to, or in other words, how can I connect with and share my faith and our community
life with others?

The questions the site poses about how do we invite people into our community, how do we grow our church, how do we engage our members are
pertinent ones. I would nuance these questions to with a sense of how do we invite people into God's community, how do we grow God's church and
how do we engage our members more fully in God's mission?

I would be delighted to share with you and others some of the fruits of the recent pastoral planners conference I attended. One group in
particular which I met with was examining the church-school dynamic and looking at some quite simple and effective ways of approaching this area
(eg joint school-worshipping community bulletin, exploring points of entry into family life).

There is one other aspect which is beneficial to this reflection, imo (in my opinion), and that is the role of leadership. There is a shift from pastoral
leadership being "provider" to "enabler" and you are obviously in the latter category. However, with that shift comes some important questions
about how we manage the gifts which are enabled, what structures best supports the myriad of ways people wish to engage with church, grow
church and invite others into church.   Richard McMahon