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/