Cottingham Methodist Church Website

This needs some unpacking. We recognise that our physical position is at the centre of the Cottingham Community, but we aim to be more than this. We aim to be the place where our Community recognises its heart to be – a place of comfort, where people are able to reveal their innermost burdens and joys.  A Church where we express our love through actions that are in harmony with both the needs of the community and the leading of our God.

We wish to be open to all people - not just in a physical sense, but in a spiritual, moral, ecumenical, class, creed and colour sense.  We wish to be a Church where everyone can explore their relationship with God.

Finally we seek to be people who walk with others on our journey with God. There are people at every stage in their spiritual journey in our Church and community.  We aim to support each other at whatever stage we are at, through courses, through worship and fellowship, through actively expressing our faith in love and care for all.  Whilst we don’t have all the answers, we believe that God is the answer for us all. So in seeking to follow Jesus Christ, we will learn from each other and all develop.

The following statement forms our focus for the overarching mission of the Methodist Church in the UK:

The calling of the Methodist Church is to respond to the gospel of God's love in Christ and to live out its discipleship in worship and mission. It does this through:-

• Worship - Increasing awareness of God's presence and celebrating God's love.
• Learning and Caring - Helping people to grow and learn as Christians, through mutual support and care
• Service - Being a good neighbour to people in need and challenging injustice
• Evangelism - Making more followers of Jesus Christ

For us in Cottingham, at the core of our mission to share God’s love with others is:

• Spiritual growth – There is a fundamental need for us to be constantly feeding ourselves with and growing in God’s love.
• Nurturing and educating – Everyone who comes to our Church, from the youngest to the oldest needs to be nurtured and learn more about our amazing God.
• Ministry to the community – Our Church is right at the heart of our community. We aim to continue serving them and sharing God’s love where we are rooted.
• Reaching everyone, especially teenagers – Although we seek to share our faith with everyone, in responding to the needs expressed by the community our current focus is to find ways of effectively relating to young people and help them to experience God’s love as they develop. They are our future.
• A welcoming Church – We want whoever comes to our Church to feel at home, loved and respected. Whoever they are and whatever their needs.
• Christian Unity – We all serve the same God, so together we are stronger and therefore more able to fulfil our mission of sharing God’s love with others.  We will actively seek to work and worship with other Christian denominations in the village.
• Worship at the heart of all we do – We love God, so worshipping him is central to everything. The challenge is to make our worship relevant to everyone.

The current ‘projects’ we are supporting, aimed at delivering elements of our sharing mission are:

• Rock Solid Youth Project - A monthly youth group for 11-14 year olds run by Churches Together.
• High School Lay Worker - A Churches Together employed social and youth worker who is working alongside the school in offering pastoral care to students and their families.
• Annual Music Festival - Encouraging a wide range of people to nurture and share their musical talent.
• Varying Styles of Worship - We currently offer a variety of worship styles from the traditional choir assisted Methodist worship, to more modern praise song based worship and more reflective styles drawn from Taize and Celtic roots.
• Developing Links in Community - Members of Churches Together meet with the Cottingham Action Team, which includes the Parish and County Council representatives, the local PCSOs and other community bodies.
• Increasing Small Group Teaching - Building upon our active house groups we have completed a disciple course, begun a Journey’s course and actively considering an Alpha course.
• Regular Courses - In order to facilitate regular courses we are seeking to train others to share in their leadership.
• Sharing Family News - We are considering extending the pre-worship notices to offer a time for sub-groups and those using our premises to share their needs and accomplishments.

The development of our mission projects is an ongoing process, discussed and agreed by our Church Council. We do this prayerfully, believing this is what God wants us to do.

Our commitment is to use the finances available to us in what we believe to be the most effective ways of working towards our stated mission. We will communicate to everyone regularly on how these projects are progressing.
We can be justifiably proud of what we have achieved in the past and with your help we look forward to achieving much more in the future.

Increasingly mission opportunities present themselves to us that demand immediate action and there simply is no time to fundraise, seek matched funding and all the other things we normally can do.  The High School worker Merry Springate is a case in point. 

We began praying for opportunities at the school in 2007, partly because our Churches had failed to gain access in the past, but additionally in response to community feeling that we needed to offer our teenagers some alternatives to the lifestyles some of them were choosing.  When the Churches went to visit the head in unison, God opened the doors to us, and very quickly the school was asking for pastoral support from us - the one thing we didn’t have readily on offer.  God blessed this project by providing us with both funds and a person with the suitable skills.

We have been able to accomplish this and other mission goals because we have been able to draw on our own cash reserves and those from some of our partner Churches.

The message is therefore clear – if we have no reserves for our mission in Cottingham, we will not be able to fund the mission opportunities we identify.
What our mission is about is not just having enough money to fix the roof, but enough to pursue what we believe is God’s agenda for us to fulfill.