Our Diocese expects all parishes to produce a five year vision statement. A group of us met yesterday to draw up the fundamentals (we're meeting next month to put the meat on the bones, so to speak). For the purpose of alliteration we decided on three Fs: Faithfulness (to God) Friendliness (to all) Flourishing (for all). This seems a good start. It was thought that we might add "Funded (by all)" but this is included under Flourishing. Some wag suggested "Fun, flirting and frivolity" which might have been apt but was deemed inappropriate.
A good question. We meet next month to discuss this. But we need not only to maintain/increase our numbers, we need to be more diverse.
Another good question. The parish has some fairly prosperous areas, relatively well represented. Many of the people from these areas who attend church are well educated, including scientists, which is refreshing. But we also have a large area of low income, public housing, and there are very few people from there. We are keen to include them. There is also another factor common to many churches (and other groups, too): we a rather skewed age profile. There are quite a few mums with children, yes, but few middle aged people.