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Vision Verses

The Vision verses for the year focussed on John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  This vision about our identity underpinned the preaching and teaching of the church for the year, and gave a point of reference for various other ministries.

 

Sunday Services and Preaching

Our attendance on Sunday mornings fluctuated between 150-170 attendees with our usual addition of tourists and visitors from our families.  We finished our series in Hebrews called ‘Persevering with Jesus’, then spent the first half of the year working through the book of 1 John in a series called ‘Loving as Jesus loved’, then worked through parts of the gospels looking at interactions Jesus had with people in a series called ‘Loving moments with Jesus’.  We finished the year in a series called ‘Walking with others’ looking at various circumstances of life people find themselves in, and how we can love them in those circumstances in light of our vision verses for the year.  We also observed Christmas, Easter, Harvest, had a vision Sunday, and a special visit from Compassion.  We had 10 different people preach and recognised our first female preacher in over 13 years after working through the various scriptures on that issue in 2024.

 

The music team continued to serve us with a variation of musicians playing each Sunday to aid us in our singing worship, and we continued to alternate between communion, our ‘Frontline slot’, our missionary updates, and book reviews in our service focus each week.  The monthly fellowship meals were also resurrected and very well appreciated for the fellowship, and the opportunity it gave for ourselves and the many newcomers to get to know each other better.  The flower arranging team also beautified the church each week and at seasonal times of the year, and added significantly to the sense of welcome in the church.  The team of people who set up our communion services each month served us in patient ways – especially with so many little cups to prepare and wash as well!  Another team also helped serve refreshments after the services to facilitate our fellowship and make newcomers and visitors feel welcome.

 

Welcome Team

The small group of members were very committed to welcoming people at various stages of entry into the church each week, and the majority of comments that visitors and outsiders made about the church that was fed back to the office and to the leadership, is the genuine sense of being made to feel really welcome to the church.

 

Prayer

Prayer meetings were facilitated every Sunday before the morning service, and encouragements were given for the Connect Groups to focus on particular prayer points mid-week.   The prayer team continued to serve each week at the end of services with a rota of volunteers to pray for people.  The monthly prayer meeting of grandparents who pray for their grandchildren and children in the life of the church continued to meet, and the monthly Sunday evening prayer meetings in the office continued to cover the life of the church in prayer.  Two special meetings were put on in the year to pray specifically for the vision of the church in that year, and for the following year.  Individuals in the church also created small groups or prayer partners or prayer triplets to pray more personally for one another.

 

Pastoral Team

Our small team continued to visit the sick at home, our elderly members who could not make it to church, and those in hospital, in order to pray with them, share fellowship, sometimes sing, and also have communion.  Meals continued to be provided for those who needed it for a variety of reasons, and many in the church have had the pleasure of helping on rotas in that way too.  The Connect Groups continued to be the main source or regular pastoral care, and the Elders also distributed the pastoral care of the church between themselves.  Kathy Lewis continued to send cards each month to people that the Elders ask her to, and members of the flower arranging team also make sure that flowers seen on a Sunday morning were given to those who needed encouragement and cheering up.

 

Grace Kids

Thank you to the 25 volunteers who served in the team that Nick and Rosie led!  They served 24 children with extras who visited during the holiday seasons.  They helped educate the team and accommodated children with additional needs.  They linked the children to the site more by planting a new hazel hedge and saplings donated by the Wildlife Trust, thus giving them a sense of connection and care for the site.  Other online teacher training was provided for the team, and they worked through the set material from ‘Faith in Kids’ and ‘Go Teach Come Learn’ ensuring wider coverage of the bible’s main stories and themes.

 

Grace Youth

Thank you to the 14 regular volunteers who served in the team with Becky leading!  They served 25 youth who were mainly from the church here, but others came from relationships the youth had with other friends.  Each Thursday, guest speakers gave testimony about how they became Christians, plus worship and prayer became regular events with Josh leading the worship on his guitar.  On the two Sundays in the month where youth leave the service for specific input, they worked through the book of Philippians, then the life of Peter.  A number of the youth also attended the Spree event in Devon, and the Menadue camps in Tintagel.

 

Connect Groups

Seven stable groups met in different locations from within the 30-mile radius around the church site.  The number of members increased in these groups from the previous year, and met to worship, pray, pastor one another, and discuss a mixture of questions produced from sermons, and teaching from others on pre-recorded media clips on various topics.  Other groups naturally formed as relationships were made in the church.  Those other groups met for prayer, for Bible study, or to read a Christian book and meet for discussion, and for fellowship that met particular pastoral needs.  Under this banner, but slightly separate, the Grace Café continued to meet for fellowship in the day time, open to all with cakes, singing, bible reading, and prayer.

 

Missionaries

We continued to support our missionaries with John and Tessa travelling all over the world with Global Training Network to train pastors and other leaders in churches and countries where there is very little training or none at all.  Liam and Rachel continued to serve in South Africa, Lenny in Kosovo, Johnny and Jenny with YWAM in Hawaii, and Chris and Becky here in the South West with Pioneers reaching the unreached communities of the world who are here escaping persecution from elsewhere.  Becky gave us monthly updates and developed links between those missionaries and the Connect Groups so they received more personal prayer support and pastoral support when returning home.

 

Men & Women

The men’s breakfast mornings on the last Saturday of the month continued throughout the year and attendance continued to hover around 15 men meeting each time.  After a cooked breakfast, various discussions took place on our relationships based on the vision verses for the year.  The women enjoyed two weekend retreats at Rora House in Devon where fellowship and various talks and discussions took place relevant to women.  They also began developing a breakfast meeting, and gathered for a movie night to watch ‘War Room’ together.

 

Media and communications

Often referred to as our ‘Teach Team’, its members continued to record and upload Sunday messages for people unable listen due to serving in Grace Kids or Grace Youth, being housebound, ill, or on shift work.  The website was developed and updated.  All those at the front who need to be seen and heard, along with the words to our songs and other media being watched, were all made possible due to the abilities and sacrifices of this team.

 

Site and Events

Our site managers were employed part-time to make the church ready for services and all events.  They also rely on others to help with maintenance.  During the year they organised a work party with 10 volunteers to pain the front wall of the Church hall, the entrance hall, and all of the passageways between.  They had a brand-new fire safety system installed in the Church with a new controller board and wireless smoke detectors to serve both the present buildings, and prepare it for integration into the new Barn when finished.  A major service was completed on the ride-on mower keeping it useful for at least a few more years.  Lighting was installed around the office and residential car park to make things safer at night.  These are just some of the jobs that took place among the many that kept the site operational and safe.  It was noted by the trustees that when the Barn would be completed, there would be an increase of jobs for them to perform.  It was suggested that in the following year their role which also included being employed for Grace Kids work, could separate and increased hours given to their Site and Events managing role.

 

Building project

The project developed in very visible ways during the year, and a number of grant applications were made to supplement the very generous donations pledged by members of the church.  Some were successful, and some were disappointingly not, but enough was raised to envisage completing the project to be a functional building with toilets and carpets, but still needing further funds for a kitchen, tables and chairs, and for landscaping.  There were a number of work parties for volunteers to help progress things in and outside the building.  A special prayer meeting also took place in November to pray over the building and the church vision.  Prayers and blessings were written on cards and put onto walls and in widows and doorways before being plastered over and wooden frames set around them.

 

Other uses of the Site

The site continued to be used by those in the community for a Hoola hooping class, a Pilates class, dog training sessions, private hire for birthdays, an FIEC conference of church leaders from Devon an Cornwall, and a special exhibition of art produced over many years by one of our members was held here, and the pieces were sold due to her declining health and desire to share them out.  Proceeds from the sale were donated to the ongoing building of The Barn.  The Beach Mission Team also used the site as their base for their annual three weeks of the year where they shared the Gospel on Looe beach in the summer.

 

Membership

Over the year, we saw one member resign, and two other members died, 12 new people come into membership who between them also brought 4 children into the family.  One of our members moved into the ‘non-voting’ members category due to old age and being housebound which took out ‘non-voting’ membership numbers up to 10.  We ended 2025 with a total 123 members.  We also enjoyed 5 baptisms in the sea with our young people making their commitment to knowing and following Jesus known.

 

Trustees and Elders

Elizabeth joined the Trustees in her role as Church Secretary, and a total of six Trustees met each quarter to oversee the 12 areas of church life that we are legally responsible for.  The four Elders continued to meet each month to oversee the delegated spiritual and pastoral life of the church, but noted that at least one other Elder was needed to help with that oversight, and there was concern for Jim’s capacity to serve the church with its growing needs and development without an assistant pastor.  It was agreed that another Elder would be sought out, and the issue of an assistant pastor was put to the church at the beginning of 2026.

 

Staff and Employment

Our employed staff included Jim as pastor, Nick and Rosie as Site and Events Managers and Grace Kids Leaders, and Becky as Youth Leader.  We interviewed and appointed Elizabeth to be our new Church Secretary who started in November.  She immediately caught up with the backlog of administration that Jim was trying to oversee in the one-year interim, and put our ChurchSuite operating and emailing system into practice.

 

Safeguarding

Our safeguarding lead continued to provide safeguarding training for everyone who needed it, and new systems and updated policies were put in place to ensure that all who work with our children and young people, as well as vulnerable adults, were encouraged and equipped.  New forms were created and put on the noticeboard for all attendees of the church to communicate any issues to the team.  All volunteers and workers were DBS checked, the team met together and communicated regularly over any issues that they were made aware of, and during 2025 there were no serious safeguarding concerns that needed to be reported.  New posters were put in the toilets to help anyone struggling and not knowing where to get help from, and the team grew in their experience of how to navigate the sensitive lines between safeguarding in a church context where we recognise biblical methods and instruction, in contrast to the way safeguarding works in the public sector or in a business context.