Cottingham Methodist Church's Mission Statement

“Our Mission is to be the heart of the community, to be open to all people walking together on a journey with God.”

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.