Family Meeting Feedback – Part 2

If you haven’t read the news of staff and leadership changes, please read part 1 of the Family Meeting Feedback.

At the Family Meeting we also touched briefly on some news about our website and the front of our church building.

First impressions count.  I have heard it said that people form an impression of a church within in the first few minutes of crossing the front doors … long before they have heard a sermon or worship!  I wonder if the current research might change where those first few minutes happen?  I would guess for many people the first few minutes of their experience of a church are two things:  firstly when they walk past the church building, and secondly if they look at their website.  We are planning on doing something about both of these things.

We have a refreshed website going live in the next week.  We have been working hard on a new design, new simpler structure and new content that updates our website.  We are hoping it will communicate about the life in CCE.  We have tried to avoid a ‘corporate’ look, but something that communicates life, flourishing, family, creativity, vibrancy … and perhaps a little bit quirky.  We hope you like it, but more importantly we hope it communicates who we are to those beyond our community.

We are also in process of designing the front of the King’s Hall.  We have asked Abby Lanyon-Olver to come up with a garden design, to bring some living plants and trees to the front of the building and we are looking at painting the brown storm doors, improving the signposting and noticeboards, and if we have enough money to do some lighting.  All this is designed to catch the eye of people passing by, and communicate live, flourishing, vibrancy.  (spot the common theme?).

I believe we have so much to offer the world around, and individuals who are looking for life & community.  When people experience the presence of God in our church family they are often blown away.  One of the challenges is bridging the gap between the church and world around, and we need to do many different things to be outward looking and closing this gap.   I hope that this is one small step to help with this, which sit alongside more traditional methods of mission and looking outwards.