Today I travelled slightly over 100 miles, all in torrential rain. I met one person in a garden centre (after three years they still don't have any community buildings) - the sound of the rain on the roof meant we had to raise our voices -VERY loudly!
Again I met three brilliant people and three excellent projects. But there was an issue with all of them and something that has been hammered home to me on this trip; the projects are funded for 5 years but there is no way that any of them (nor mine) is likely to be self funding within that 5 years. I had a hunch that this was the case and part of the reason that I had already said that I believe Cranbrook to be a 10-15 year project. This is sobering but means that I can plan accordingly; managing expectations is key so that the we are not rushed and can build on solid ground with properly measures milestones.
What has impressed me hugely again today is the absolute trust that people have in God and how that trust sustains and motivates them. They modify their homes, their finances and their lives to serve their community - again it is the forming of relationships and making genuine friends that allows faith to be shared - people respond to generosity- I know because I have been on the recieving end of that generosity today.
I have had a few twinges of guilt also today. The groundwork that has been done to prepare me for Cranbrook, the infrastructure of building avaiable, the timing of my appointment - right at the beginning, the response of people living there and about to move in and the huge benefit of having such a brilliant school and headmistress to work with have given me a brilliant start. Many of these things, on many of the projects just arn't there. I feel a little guilty but also feel again that God's has already 'poured' his blessing on the work that I have been asked to do.
Because of the rain and the fact that many local roads around Northampton and in Somerset and Devon are closed I may miss by final visit tomorrow and instead return home in the daylight. I was to visit Cambourne tomorrow so I have just rung the minister to explain my predicament. His is one of the most sucessful church plants and after talking to him I can see that he is part of the reason - he is an encourager and it was an encouraging conversation. The other reason is that he was allowed ten years to make his project fully viable and was there from the very beginning and sponsored by a variety of denominations. Ths sounds so much like Cranbrook and so much like what I am being asked to do. So again I am grateful to the God who has gone before me, thankful for those who have already joined me and are about to, I am also relieved that I will only be driving 250 miles instead of 350 and should get home before nightfall if the floods allow.
Wednesday 21 November 2012
Tuesday 20 November 2012
From the sublime...
The last 24 hours have been so busy, more than 300 miles travelled, caught up with some great friends in Banbury last night, visited 3 inspiring new towns with 3 new churches and then in the driving rain on the way to my hotel I listened to the results of the Anglican synod. In some ways the last 24 hours have been sublime and I do not want to call the synod's vote ridiculous but I am astounded and desperately disappointed not just for friends in the church of England, who deserve better, but for the church as a whole. The synod is spoken of as 'discerning God's will' - how often do we as men and women inadvertantly or purposefully stand in the way of the very thing we are meant to stand for?
On the radio one disappointed female vicar said that all she could do now was get on with the work on the ground, at local level, celebrate and enjoy what God is doing at the grass roots.
Today my three visits have allowed me to do just that, celebrate the things that the church does do well and so often that has little to do with systems and laws and bishops and everything to do with people and relationships.
I have learnt so much today, I have seen the church respond to immediate needs, real lives and situations.I have seen the ordained and the lay work with a shared vision, working together and with purpose. I have seen persistence in the face of difficulty, people giving generously of their time and money to work for something they believe in - those beliefs are crucial, they feed and sustain them, they are about community and a deep love of people and most importantly a deep love of a God who wants us to share the love that we have encountered in him. This is nothing new and everything new, a reminder of calling and purpose, my feeling that my ministry and my calling of 'blessed to be a blessing' is affirmed and re-encouraged.
So it HAS been a day of the 'sublime and... the deeply disappointing' - I, like many of my disappointed Anglican colleagues, will get up tomorrow and carry on trying to be the men and women God hs called us to be - I am both excited and daunted by that and greatly looking forward to finding out about what God is doing in three more projects tomorrow.
On the radio one disappointed female vicar said that all she could do now was get on with the work on the ground, at local level, celebrate and enjoy what God is doing at the grass roots.
Today my three visits have allowed me to do just that, celebrate the things that the church does do well and so often that has little to do with systems and laws and bishops and everything to do with people and relationships.
I have learnt so much today, I have seen the church respond to immediate needs, real lives and situations.I have seen the ordained and the lay work with a shared vision, working together and with purpose. I have seen persistence in the face of difficulty, people giving generously of their time and money to work for something they believe in - those beliefs are crucial, they feed and sustain them, they are about community and a deep love of people and most importantly a deep love of a God who wants us to share the love that we have encountered in him. This is nothing new and everything new, a reminder of calling and purpose, my feeling that my ministry and my calling of 'blessed to be a blessing' is affirmed and re-encouraged.
So it HAS been a day of the 'sublime and... the deeply disappointing' - I, like many of my disappointed Anglican colleagues, will get up tomorrow and carry on trying to be the men and women God hs called us to be - I am both excited and daunted by that and greatly looking forward to finding out about what God is doing in three more projects tomorrow.
Sunday 18 November 2012
Panoramic thinking
Jostein Gaarder (the Danish philosopher and writer or children's books) once said, and I paraphrase:
'Some people go into the world to find out as much as they can about as many things as they
can; whereas some people stay in the same place and find out as much as they can about one
thing'
It is funny that many cameras are made these days with huge zooms to get really close to a subject and see it in all its detail, this is fun and a useful ability I have enjoyed, taking pictures of the moon and distant birds. As I have started to enjoy my new camera though I have started to think about standing back, as far as I can, to get as wide a view as possible. The picture below cheats, I took it with my phone in 'panoramic mode' I take a series of pictures that is stitches together, sometimes more successfully than others.
As we have left Wonford and Lympstone Sharon and I have been talking recently of being 'displaced' from our usual places of worship, our usual gathering of friends, the usual structures of our lives - places, patterns and people we have been involved in for ten years; a situation and a context that we have gotten to know really well, much like the second person in Gaarder's observation. We are aware that, as we move and settle in Cranbrook that we will do this again, that there will be another location that we will settle, people that we will get to know - time to invest in the detail and specifics again.
For the moment though it seems we are in a liminal place, a place between, a time for 'wide-angled' thinking, a time to stand back and look at the big picture.
So next week I am doing a mini tour of England - well actually I am visiting seven sites where new towns are emerging or have emerged, largely green field, and where particular persons have been asked to start 'church'. This is my way of gathering information so as not to repeat mistakes nor to try and reinvent the wheel, I see it as a season of waiting, of gathering, of readying, a time to think outside the box before moving inside the situation, a time to be strategic.
Like Gaarder's first person I hope to go out and discover lots of things about lots of different places so that I may return, ready and equipped, to focus on what God is calling me, and those who join me to 'settle' on.
So here is my itinerary:
Tues 20th
9.15-11.15 Grange Park – Northampton http://www.grangeparkchurch.com/
12.15-2.15 Mawsley http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/stories/mawsley
3.15 - 5.15 Stevenage http://www.greatashbycc.org.uk/pdf/100612Notices.pdf
Weds 21st
10.00-12.00 Northampton http://www.berrywoodchurch.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are/
2.00-4.00 Wixams http://www.wixamschurch.org.uk/contact-us/
5.00-7.00 Wooten wellspring http://woottonfields-wellspring.co.uk/
Thurs 22nd
10-12.30 Cambourne http://www.cambournechurch.org.uk/
'Some people go into the world to find out as much as they can about as many things as they
can; whereas some people stay in the same place and find out as much as they can about one
thing'
It is funny that many cameras are made these days with huge zooms to get really close to a subject and see it in all its detail, this is fun and a useful ability I have enjoyed, taking pictures of the moon and distant birds. As I have started to enjoy my new camera though I have started to think about standing back, as far as I can, to get as wide a view as possible. The picture below cheats, I took it with my phone in 'panoramic mode' I take a series of pictures that is stitches together, sometimes more successfully than others.
As we have left Wonford and Lympstone Sharon and I have been talking recently of being 'displaced' from our usual places of worship, our usual gathering of friends, the usual structures of our lives - places, patterns and people we have been involved in for ten years; a situation and a context that we have gotten to know really well, much like the second person in Gaarder's observation. We are aware that, as we move and settle in Cranbrook that we will do this again, that there will be another location that we will settle, people that we will get to know - time to invest in the detail and specifics again.
For the moment though it seems we are in a liminal place, a place between, a time for 'wide-angled' thinking, a time to stand back and look at the big picture.
So next week I am doing a mini tour of England - well actually I am visiting seven sites where new towns are emerging or have emerged, largely green field, and where particular persons have been asked to start 'church'. This is my way of gathering information so as not to repeat mistakes nor to try and reinvent the wheel, I see it as a season of waiting, of gathering, of readying, a time to think outside the box before moving inside the situation, a time to be strategic.
Like Gaarder's first person I hope to go out and discover lots of things about lots of different places so that I may return, ready and equipped, to focus on what God is calling me, and those who join me to 'settle' on.
So here is my itinerary:
Tues 20th
9.15-11.15 Grange Park – Northampton http://www.grangeparkchurch.com/
12.15-2.15 Mawsley http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/stories/mawsley
3.15 - 5.15 Stevenage http://www.greatashbycc.org.uk/pdf/100612Notices.pdf
Weds 21st
10.00-12.00 Northampton http://www.berrywoodchurch.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are/
2.00-4.00 Wixams http://www.wixamschurch.org.uk/contact-us/
5.00-7.00 Wooten wellspring http://woottonfields-wellspring.co.uk/
Thurs 22nd
10-12.30 Cambourne http://www.cambournechurch.org.uk/
Friday 9 November 2012
All packed up with no place to go...
Well the title is slightly misleading, actually we have now packed just over 40 boxes (out of 120) and we do have a place to go but it has been delayed, so we wait.
It is strange packing after living in a place for ten years. The process of sifting, sorting, dumping, recycling and selling is one that takes time and with every new box a new memory, opened up and then packed away again or with 7 trips to the recycling centre and 6 trips to the charity shop, disposed of.
Perhaps the most difficult and baffling box of 'stuff' for me has to be my old LPs (for those too young to remember like CDs but black and much bigger!). I have a signed album by Gary Numan, I have everything by Japan - it was when I heard this band play that I wanted to play bass because the sound of Mick Karn's bass playing was so mesmerising. I have my first single 'Pop Music' by 'M', I have a record Sharon bought me on our wedding day and my first CD, again a present from Sharon along with a CD player when we were married only a couple of years. The weird thing is that I have not opened these boxes (yes there are several boxes!) since we moved from Bristol. They have been of no actual use in our ten years in Exeter and I am taking them lock stock and barrel with me to Cranbrook.
Now I was determined to go through a sorting process but with everything else to do I baulked at that, it just seemed too hard and so I am keeping them all, even records that I no longer like - Adam and the Ants, Wham, Bad Manners etc! Now although I have not yet decided to dispose of any of them there is a change in my feelings towards them. Twenty years ago they would have been my most treasured possessions yet now I could be persuaded to sell most of them and dump many without much worry.
As a Christian I am all too aware of the idea of 'new life', Jesus tells a man he can be born again and Paul talks of the 'new life' a person finds when they decide to follow Jesus. This was an experience I had 30 years ago (I was 46 this week) when I decided to become a Christian at the age of 16. For me there was much 'unpacking' of what this means and as I journey on trying to follow Jesus there is still much 'unpacking' of meaning and understanding.
The idea of a 'new life' suggests the idea of an 'old' one, aspects of our lives that we are not helpful, that we are not proud of or want to move on from, stuff 'packed away' or 'boxed up'. To take the example of my study and garage if I gather too many boxes then both places will become uninhabitable, not fit for their purpose or intention. So there is a place for sorting our 'stuff' and sorting the 'stuff' of out lives and deciding whether it still serves a purpose or whether it impinges on what we might be.
So as we move I will keep re-evaluating the stuff in my boxes and the stuff in my life - deciding what must be dumped and what might be recycled. I think the real key to the 'new life' that the Bible talks about though isn't focussed on what is wrong or should be disposed of but much about what new opportunities and experiences we have when we clear a bit of space, maybe this is what prayer is.
Now I think I will go through my LPs and see what can be done.
It is strange packing after living in a place for ten years. The process of sifting, sorting, dumping, recycling and selling is one that takes time and with every new box a new memory, opened up and then packed away again or with 7 trips to the recycling centre and 6 trips to the charity shop, disposed of.Perhaps the most difficult and baffling box of 'stuff' for me has to be my old LPs (for those too young to remember like CDs but black and much bigger!). I have a signed album by Gary Numan, I have everything by Japan - it was when I heard this band play that I wanted to play bass because the sound of Mick Karn's bass playing was so mesmerising. I have my first single 'Pop Music' by 'M', I have a record Sharon bought me on our wedding day and my first CD, again a present from Sharon along with a CD player when we were married only a couple of years. The weird thing is that I have not opened these boxes (yes there are several boxes!) since we moved from Bristol. They have been of no actual use in our ten years in Exeter and I am taking them lock stock and barrel with me to Cranbrook.
Now I was determined to go through a sorting process but with everything else to do I baulked at that, it just seemed too hard and so I am keeping them all, even records that I no longer like - Adam and the Ants, Wham, Bad Manners etc! Now although I have not yet decided to dispose of any of them there is a change in my feelings towards them. Twenty years ago they would have been my most treasured possessions yet now I could be persuaded to sell most of them and dump many without much worry.
As a Christian I am all too aware of the idea of 'new life', Jesus tells a man he can be born again and Paul talks of the 'new life' a person finds when they decide to follow Jesus. This was an experience I had 30 years ago (I was 46 this week) when I decided to become a Christian at the age of 16. For me there was much 'unpacking' of what this means and as I journey on trying to follow Jesus there is still much 'unpacking' of meaning and understanding.
The idea of a 'new life' suggests the idea of an 'old' one, aspects of our lives that we are not helpful, that we are not proud of or want to move on from, stuff 'packed away' or 'boxed up'. To take the example of my study and garage if I gather too many boxes then both places will become uninhabitable, not fit for their purpose or intention. So there is a place for sorting our 'stuff' and sorting the 'stuff' of out lives and deciding whether it still serves a purpose or whether it impinges on what we might be.
So as we move I will keep re-evaluating the stuff in my boxes and the stuff in my life - deciding what must be dumped and what might be recycled. I think the real key to the 'new life' that the Bible talks about though isn't focussed on what is wrong or should be disposed of but much about what new opportunities and experiences we have when we clear a bit of space, maybe this is what prayer is.
Now I think I will go through my LPs and see what can be done.
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