Vision into Reality

For a long time now, the Circuit Leadership Team and the Circuit Meeting have been planning for the future. The Circuit is a vital part of the Methodist way of doing things. It is the way we share our ministers and pool our resources, and a focus for coming together across the whole of Leeds 10 and 11. But the resources of the Circuit are becoming stretched, which means that ordinary members of our churches may find themselves having to play a larger role. We are also rethinking the way we use our church buildings, and the number of places where we meet for worship on Sundays.

In talking about these issues, the Circuit Leadership Team and the Circuit Meeting have been very aware that belonging to a church needs to be a positive experience, which helps people to grow in their faith and draw strength for all the challenges of daily life. When we are asked to hold office in the Church, or to do a job, we need support and encouragement, and we need to feel that we can cope with what we are being asked to take on. We do not want to feel over-burdened, trapped or pressurised. While many of us welcome, or even enjoy, a challenge, we cannot do the impossible.

For all of these reasons, the Circuit decided to embark on the “Vision into Reality” programme. It has helped us to answer some of the questions about our future while – at the same time – helping us to look after our members properly and to see how we can best help and support people in the wider community. As an added bonus, we have now received the coveted ‘Investor in People’ standard, which gives us a benchmark to measure ourselves against and may help us to attract funding in the future.

If you click on the links below, you can open a PDF file which contain the findings from the questionnaires we have circulated, and the discussions we have had about “Vision into Reality”, and PDF files which contain our Action Plan and an honest attempt to say how we think we measure up against the Investor in People standard. In addition, if you click here, you can see how our assessor thinks we measured up. PDF files can be opened with Acrobat Reader.

Margaret Hebden, one or our Circuit Stewards, says: 'It's brilliant news that we have achieved the “Investor in People” standard but we can't stop there. We must go on.'

Whatever happens in the future, we know that there will have to be change. But we also believe that ‘the Lord will give what is good and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him and will make a path for his steps.’ (Psalm 85)

You can read a report of the award ceremony here.

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Last up-dated March 2006