My daughter is a huge fan of the TV show ‘Death in Paradise’ – which means that I end up watching an awful lot of episodes. The plot doesn’t change a lot – each one boiling down to the detective having to work out ‘The How? The Why? And the Who?’ That is: How the murder was committed, why the victim was killed and, of course, who did it.
I’ve been reflecting over the last few months, since arriving in Lichfield Diocese, on how this formula applies equally well to the process of developing a diocesan strategy – although the ordering is different.
We know the ‘Who’ from the outset: Jesus Christ; and we know the ‘Why’, too. At baptism we promise, amongst other things, to ‘Come to Christ, the way, the truth and the life’. Coming to Christ means following Him as a disciple, critically bringing other people into relationship with Him, serving those around us. Our diocesan strategy simply helps us to answer the ‘How’. How are we, together as a diocesan family, going to be best able to fulfil our calling as disciples, best able to follow Jesus Christ, best able to bring other people into relationship with Him, and best able to serve those around us in this season.
And the emphasis on this season, is important. Our strategy is not something that has been written in the last six months. It is the next stage of a process. Making our priorities Developing Discipleship, Encouraging Vocation and Inspiring Evangelism, we embarked on Shaping for Mission from which emerged the principles and goals of our Strategic Framework. The ‘How’ that we are now answering is about achieving these goals, overcoming the challenges that we learnt about from parish responses to the framework, and realising our vision of a diocese that is purposeful about evangelism, engaging creatively with local communities, becoming more diverse and growing younger.
In ‘Death in Paradise’ the puzzle is finally solved by some wildly improbable coincidence – perhaps a throwaway remark that suddenly allows the penny to drop. Fortunately, we don't need to rely on such wild improbabilities, so long as our strategy is underpinned and sustained by prayer (of course, they still may happen, such is the adventure on which we are embarking...).
As we follow Christ in the footsteps of St Chad, we pray that the two million people in our diocese encounter a church that is confident in the gospel, knows and loves its communities, and is excited to find you, O God already at work in your world. We pray for a church that reflects the richness and variety of those communities. We pray for a church that partners with others in seeking the common good, working for justice as a people of hope.
Revd Canon Nick Smeeton joined Lichfield Diocese last September with instructions to play a pivotal role in developing our strategy around the goals set out in the Strategic Framework and achieving our vision.