Diocesan News12 Jun 12

Pro–VISION – Does God order what He cannot pay for?

Money is on everyone’s minds at the moment – all of us are working harder to make ends meet. It is no different for local churches. Fewer churches are looking to undertake large new building projects – the challenge is more about finding ways to sustain ongoing ministry. It is with this in mind that Creed Ireland (www.creedireland.com) is launching a new programme entitled CREED Pro–VISION.

CREED Pro–VISION is designed to help local churches successfully rise to the challenge of sustaining and developing ongoing ministry, even in financially challenging times. The programme has been developed over two years and has been piloted in nine churches.

It may come as a shock to realise that there are over 2,300 injunctions regarding wealth and poverty in the Bible. In fact there are more than all the references to heaven, hell and love combined. This gives a sense of God’s priority for the wise and ethical stewardship of money as well as ministry that has confidence in His provision.

Following the principle that money follows vision CREED Pro–VISION offers churches a step–by–step process that gives two essential things. Firstly it helps churches understand what God is calling them to do in terms of ministry in their local community. On that foundation it then gives practical tools for addressing finance by biblical teaching, prayer and action.

Creed Development Officer John Shannon says, “The strength of the CREED Pro–VISION Programme is that it has been tested in urban, rural, traditional and contemporary churches”. He continued, “Pro–VISION is rooted in the confidence that God has a mission for every church in their local community. If this is the case Pro–VISION aims to help local churches to adequately resource that by examining our attitudes to wealth, giving and generosity”.

Space on the CREED Pro–VISION programme is limited, with significant interest already shown. It does require a significant level of commitment from participating churches. To find out more about Pro–VISION a special ‘Engage Seminar’ will take place in St Saviour’s Church, Dollingstown, Craigavon on Saturday 29th September. Running from 9.30am to 12.30pm it will give a more detailed view of CREED Pro–VISION. The keynote speaker will be the hugely experienced Dr John Preston, the Church of England Resources and Stewardship Officer.

To register for the ‘Engage Seminar’ or to find out more about how Pro–VISION could serve the needs of your church visit www.creedireland.com. This will also give details of a number of Pro–vision workshops planned for this autumn.

CREED exists to serve and help churches and organisations to grow and to be more effective in promoting faith in Christ, by enabling them to implement a vision for ministry and outreach to the local community.