Our destination!

We continued our series on 1 Peter yesterday morning looking at the start of Chapter 2 and thinking about the fact the church and it's future.The above video reminded us of our destination and therefore how we ought to live now " punching holes in the darkness"

Beyond 400- Does the future have a denomination?

 

 I have linked in previous posts to a debate that is starting to happen in Baptist Union churches
about the way forward into the future
I have been interested in many of the early contributions to this debate that mostly come from pioneer ministers and they have made some important and significant points that we would do well to heed.

It is Simon Jones minister of Bromley Baptist Church however who ,for me, most accurately describes where we are as Baptists today, and coins the phrase" Does the future have a denomination?"

We as a church have been greatly helped by the Baptist Union and by its local manifestation the Heart of England Baptist Association  and especially it's  representatives, and I am always very grateful for that.
However,  most people in our churches would fail to answer the question" What is the denomination for?" They really don't identify themselves as Baptists . We need to face up to that as we seek to re-imagine the future?
You can read Simon's thoughts here: Simon Jones contribution

New Year ,new building ,new opportunity,.. but an old prayer

2012 looks like being an exciting year !

This Friday our new Central building is being handed over by the developers,  although the formal openings are not until March.

I  cant pretend I am not excited about the new building, and in particular the new opportunities that it brings for us to serve and bless our community; but I do remind myself frequently that it was Herod, and not Jesus, who was famous for building buildings, and what I am really looking forward to is the chance to connect with people who visit ,live in or work in the town centre.

We are also determined that the new building should be a place of prayer and we  even have a small dedicated prayer room upstairs  in the Central building .

We see this as vital as we want to not simply acknowledge, but to depend on God to do God's work in God's strength and not our own.

I haven't made specific new year resolutions as I am  not good at keeping them, but I do echo this prayer in Townends hymn for my life and the life of the church I help lead.
I hope it will be your prayer too

Speak, O Lord, as we come to You

To receive the food of Your Holy Word.
Take Your truth, plant it deep in us;
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness,
That the light of Christ might be seen today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us
All Your purposes for Your glory.

Teach us, Lord, full obedience,
Holy reverence, true humility;
Test our thoughts and our attitudes
In the radiance of Your purity.
Cause our faith to rise; cause our eyes to see
Your majestic love and authority.
Words of pow’r that can never fail—
Let their truth prevail over unbelief.

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds;
Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us—
Truths unchanged from the dawn of time
That will echo down through eternity.
And by grace we’ll stand on Your promises,
And by faith we’ll walk as You walk with us.
Speak, O Lord, till Your church is built
And the earth is filled with Your glory.

You can hear it here

Visit to The Hub

Some time ago I blogged about Altrincham Baptist Churhces The Hub here

Today 3 of us went for a visit to see it in action.

We were met by one of the workers who showed us around and later we had the chance to meet the Hub's manager who is also a church leader at Altrincham Baptist Church

Our visit began with a tour around the building which was flexible,accessible ,well equipped,clearly signposted , and where appropriate, decorated with some taste and even flair! Besides various offices of various church leaders (which they hope will return to the other building when refurbishment is complete) there were kitchens and counselling rooms ,a quiet room and great space for toddlers and young people as well as a cafe which was open for most of the week serving coffee and delicious food (coffee only on Fridays ).

 It wasn't the building that really impressed me though, but the absolute determination of the Christians working there to be good news for the people in that community.Working together with a number of partners, including the local council, they have set out to bless their neighbours.
That is evident in pretty well everything they do from the choice of a neutral name which makes it easier for local people to enter the building, to the fact that the food they serve is wholesome ,delicious and very reasonably priced and and the various  ministries that operate in ,and from, the building

Though they probably dont realise it a number of ministers and others from Altrincham Baptist Church have been very helpful to us over recent years and without perhaps realising it have helped guide us on our journey

Transitioning from  a fairly traditional church which seeks to serve primarily the needs of its membership to one that seeks to share and be good news for  its neighbours, is a tough journey for a church to make .At times it cannot have been easy but I am sure it is one that God has called them to travel. It's exciting and scary to think we are travelling in the same direction!

Next Reformation

 Came accross this interesting and challenging  article from next reformation here

Some great quotes in the article -especially like this Bonhoeffer one

“The restoration of the church will surely come from a sort of new monasticism which has in common with the old only the uncompromising attitude of a life lived according to the sermon on the mount and the following of Christ. I believe it is now time to call people together to do this.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Hows your church doing?

Thanks to Steve for pointing me in the direction of this one press here

Church meeting

I have been to a few excellent church meetings where we were able to discern God's presence and leading as the Holy Spirit spoke powerfully to the church.

I have, if I am honest, been to many mediocre meetings where there was a sense of needing to get the business done rather than on waiting on God together and I have been to a few dreadful ones (not recently) which seemed to be much more about politics and power struggles than prayer. In no way do I wish to absolve myself from all blame, that these latter meetings turned out the way they did!

Recently we have been experimenting with new ways of doing meetings Vision Meeting
Judging by the very positve comments we  felt this worked well and are already planning the next one. My own take is that the fact that the whole meeting was done in the context of worship,and that we gave time to it made all the difference
I was grateful today to The simple pastor for drawing my attention on his blog , to an excellent blog by Steve Holmes that touches on church meetings Steve Holmes blog about church meetings which he wrote partly in response to a comment by Mark Driscoll to the effect ‘it is almost impossible to be both congregational and missional’.
Though in fairness to Driscoll if "almost impossible "is too strong then I could go with "pretty difficult"!

I  enjoyed Holmes retelling of the history of voting at church meetings  and I particularly agreed with his conclusion

 Personally, I would like to do away with the practice of voting in church meeting: for a century it was prophetic; for another few decades it was useful; now it is toxic and undermining of the reality of what church meeting is about. If we are to keep it, however (and it may be that there are legal reasons why we must), we need to renarrate it powerfully enough and often enough that our people realise a vote at church meeting is not a way of promoting the interests of our party, but a way of participating in the shared task of discerning the mind of Christ.


As a church leader I would say Amen to that.     I think we are heading in the right direction.

Joining God in the Neighbourhood

I have been reading" Missional -joining God on the Neighborhood" by Alan Roxburgh

Regular readers of this blog will know that our church in Shrewsbury has been exploring what it means to be missional Building church for the future!,and to that end I (and some of the other leaders) have been reading people like Reggie McNeal,Alan Hirsch and others to help guide us on this adventure.Roxburgh is another 21st century pioneer of the missional movement
His basic contention is that since the 16th century our questions have been shaped by the Reformation and  are essentially therefore church questions
 Roxbugh's contention is that these are the wrong questions for the 21st century and that the task of the local church is to go out into local communities and join in with what the Spirit of God is already doing there.
I will not attempt a full review of this book except to say it is excellent and particularly helpful for a church like ours, rooted in a more traditional way of doing things.Indeed there are some very helpful questions at the back of the book to help a church make this important transition to being fully missional.
It was also affirming in that we have taken many of the steps Roxburgh is suggesting
Roxburgh's exposition of Lukes gospel (especially Luke 10) is very thought provoking and his potted history of Bishop Newbiggin  opened my eyes to the life story of an amazing man.

I commend the book to you-Roxburgh's thoughts are  here and Simon Jones blogs on the book here:
a sideways glance

Building church for the future !

The work on our town centre building continues.
Demolition is alsmost complete and rebuilding will begin shortly.
The planners  insisted we keep the front facade so this is not being demolished .

We do hope however to build an atrium on the front to increase the buildings "wow factor".

It was I think Churchill who said "We shape our buildings and then they shape us"

We are determined not to be club but to be a welcoming community, and therefore we are  committed to building something that is attractive, flexible and accessible so that this building can be used to serve and bless our community and it can be a place where the love of Jesus can be seen and shared..

All being well the new building will be opened fairly early in 2012

On Sunday the church spent 4 hours together thinking,praying and talking about exactly what ministries would take place in the building. It was a pretty inspiring time and what gave me immense pleasure was how so many people of different ages grasped the vision of what it means to be missional church.
In my view this is a much better way to do church meetings and the feedback we got seemed to confirm this view
Other churches are much further along this path,The Hub and we also showed this video from Finchampstead Baptist Church which is well worth looking at( forgive the slightly heavy denominational slant -it is still an exciting story!)


So these are very busy but very exciting days for us all -Lots of meetings about different aspects of the project ,but all the time trying to keep ourselves focussed on the goal .We are not here to build a building but to build God's Kingdom

Lots of people in the town wonder what is going on at the site and ask loads of questions. Hopefully they are beginning to believe that a new building will emerge from the rubble after demolition and hopefully to it wont be very long beore the signs go on the hoardings " Building church for the future- Building church for the community -building church for you!

Paris in the Spring

Just back from a very enjoyable few days in Paris.

We were told that the city was on high alert after a law was passed banning the wearing of the burka in public and the police, and indeed the army, were very visible in all parts of the city, though we saw only one very small demonstration against the new law.

We visited most of the popular tourist haunts and the city looked great, far better than I remembered it from my last visit in 1991.
There was very little sign of an economic downturn,though there were more beggars on the streets than I have seen in other cities recently.
It is hard to measure the spiritual temperature of a place in a few days but  Paris  looks even more materialistic than other places and from all I read the church in France appears  weak, and seems to have little influence.Although still nominally Roman Catholic less than 10% of  those who describe themselves as Catholic attend church.

We visited some stunning church buildings including the Notre Dame and the Basilique du Sacré Cœur with its amazing ceiling

These churches were crowded with tourists but looking around I was also struck by the number of people praying and lighting candles and also the number of people writing down prayer requests in books that had been provided for the purpose.

Even if we assume that only a small percentage of these people attend worship regularly ,they do at least provide evidence that human beings have real spiritual needs and are in some way reaching out and looking for Gods help in their lives
I know UK Christians who have worked in France for many years and found the going very tough, but I was left wondering what more the church here could do to help the church in France?

Weekend Away.Pioneer Centre- Roger Sutton

Roger and Lesley Sutton were our main speakers.
The first session they told us a bit about themselves and the way God had worked and indeed was working in their lives.Peter described  their story as "thrilling ,inspiring and challenging" It was certainly a powerful testimony to the difference a relationship with God can make.
On Saturday Roger told that he and Lesley had recently become grandparents and they had begun to reflect what kind of church their grandaughter Pearl would join in 2030AD and what kind of society she might live in.
Roger then described a journey that he hoped the church in the UK would make in the next 2 decades,indeed he felt that in many places the church had already begun to make this journey
Roger kindly gave me permission to quote his powerpoint headings
The Church must journey from

• Control to reliance. 
• Independence to interdependence 
• Institutional to Personal
• Isolation to Incarnation
• Timidity to Confidence
• From the rich to the poor
• Disregard to respect
• The Ghetto to the town hall
• From security to adventure
• Predictable to surprising

Roger unpacked each point individually and applied it to our situation at Shrewsbury Baptist Church.

I think what was enormously encouraging was that we felt that (even if in very imperfect ways) we were already on this road and it gave us not only confidence that this was indeed the way to go but also a determination to keep going!

Promise Auction!

The town centre building is coming on.
We have enough resources to get it built but not yet enough to fit it out
We are very keen that the building will be for the community The Hub.To achieve that the building needs to be accessible and attractive .If it is going to be useful to all sections of the community it needs to fitted out with great technology.and this doesn't come cheap!Consequently we are in the process of raising more money.To this end we will have an Easter Gift Day,we are exploring grants,and having some fundraising events.

On Thursday night we had a promise auction where people promised a whole variety of things from a days fishing on the river Severn ,hampers for Mothering Sunday,a weekend in the Lake District, flower arranging,trips to the airport,a days sailing, a ride on a Harley Davidson and a whole host of other wonderful things!
I was amazed by the creativity  and generosity of the donors, and the enthusiasm of the bidders, we raised not far short of two thousand pounds.The best thing about the evening though was not the money raised but the great sense of community there was.It was just great fun!  One person  put it  this way;" a fantastic evening I was just bowled over by the diverse mix of those who both gave promises, and also those who bid for them."

I just  love the diversity,the creativity,the generosity of the Christian church at it's best!

Church Weekend Away 2011

I am back from an excellent church weekend away at The Pioneer Centre,Cleobury Mortimer.

Roger and Lesley Sutton from Manchester were outstanding speakers on our theme of discipleship.I will blog more on the content of what they said another time, but for now I want to say a big thank you to them both for not only speaking passionately and thoughtfully but for taking time over coffee,lunch and at all other moments to get to know us.They were constantly available to chat with.This was greatly appreciated by everyone.

There is much more to time away than the talks.
We did archery ,indoor caving,raft building,we had children's parties games a quiz,early morning prayer, and late night chats over coffee.It was a lot of fun but there were of course tears as there always will be when deep friendships and authentic relationships are happening.We rejoiced with those that rejoiced and wept with those that wept.

We worshipped we prayed ,we shared communion we grew closer together.The youngest person who came is a few months old, the oldest in her nineties.Together with them we are building Christian community which hopefully will be attractive to others

There have been sad and even hard times in the past but many of us feel a deep joy in belonging to this Christian community at this hopeful and exciting time

As Roger and Lesley said this truly is a new day for us.

We rejoice and are glad!

The building continues!

I spent the morning in various meetings about our new town centre building.To be honest I am not very good at this kind of thing, but I am passionate about it!
Over the years I have enjoyed planning and praying together.It is wonderful to see answered prayers and to look back and trace God's hand through this whole project.It is amazing to see vision by the grace of God begin to become bricks and mortar

By and large however building buildings is not what  excites me,(after all God does not live in buildings made by human hands) but how the building may be used to build The Kingdom.
Doors are slowly opening and we feel we are much closer now to discerning how this new building will be used to glorify God and proclaim Jesus

We did stop on the way to the second meeting to see a big crane had arrived on site and some massive steel girders had been put into place

Things are moving forward. The building is pretty much on schedule. The key for us as a church is to be spiritually prepared when the time comes for the building to open This new building like our existing one will be all about mission!

The church and change Evangelism 2 -Alpha

A large group of us went to an Alpha training course in Birmingham in 1994..I believe it was one of the first  held outside London.I remember Nicky Gumbel telling the shark joke which is one I have tediously repeated ever since!
Alpha's charismatic emphasis was never hidden and the training was excellent.In fact I found it a very powerful spiritual experience
In view of that it may seem strange that instead of running The Alpha Course we ran a course we had written ourselves called "Just Looking" in a local hotel in Ross on Wye. Less charismatic than the Alpha course  we still attracted good numbers and a number of people came to faith and were baptised.
Subsequently over many years  we have run Alpha courses in both the churches I have pastored and again we have seen people come to faith and be baptised .

In my experience what works about Alpha or indeed" Just Looking" is not the teaching as such but   the ability to talk about faith in a relaxed atmosphere with food ,where people can ask any question they like and know it will be taken seriously,
Above  all  this Alpha gives the opportunity  for relationships to  develop with people and through those relationships the love and message of Jesus can be shared. Alpha creates a space for people to talk about faith ,something that's not always easy to find in secular Britain in 2011
In my experience follow up works best where a group that have done the course together stay together in a small group
There are challenges but we certainly intend to keep using the course in the future
As I have stated above the thing that makes Alpha invaluable is the chance to build relationships with people who are not Christians. It really is all about relationships!I


The great danger for Baptist Churches with a membership structure Is that church becomes about the members rather than the gospel and people talk about the rights of members and the ultimate authority of the church meeting.It is possible for church to become little more than a cosy club rather than the people of God on mission!


The lessons we have learned from Alpha have helped us avoid that danger and have  been applied in recent years to the whole of  our church life. We have tried to share the life of individuals and the life of the local community ,to build relationships ,to put down deep roots locally, to be authentic,to recognise The Lordship of Christ .Alpha was, I  think, an important stepping stone on this road.
Then along came Reggie McNeal and Alan Hirsch who for me  at least demonstrate what missional church could be all about.. More about that next time..

The church and change Evangelism part 1

I became a Christian on the steps of St Martin in the Fields London on the stroke of midnight on New Years Day 1973.
I had gone there for a New Years open air party and met there two Australian Christians  and a guy from the UK who I remember was a lorry driver.They spoken to me about a personal relationship with Jesus and I accepted Him as my Saviour and nothing was ever the same again! That night we went to speak to homeless people about Jesus.
Having come to faith in such an unexpected and even dramatic way through the witness of Christians ,evangelism has always been important to me.

Crowd at Spree73

Initially I assumed all evangelism was personal evangelism but it  was not long before I went to Spree73(SPiritual Re-Emphasis 1973) to hear Billy Graham preach and if memory serves me right Johnny Cash sing at Wembley stadium.
I remember nothing of the content of the sermon but I do remember large numbers of people responding to the call to "come to the front and ask Jesus in your life"
It was my first taste of large scale evangelism and it appeared to be highly effective. In following years the same format was used by a number of evangelists including Luis Palau among others and as a a young pastor I remember taking coach loads to hear Billy Graham at Ashton Gate and Villa Park in 1984.Again large numbers responded to the call. Billy certainly made the  gospel message ,and the demands it makes, very clear indeed,though despite all attempts at  follow up of these new converts there appeared to be a very high drop out rate.
What Billy Graham did on a huge scale, we tried on a much  smaller scale with evangelistic events ranging from evangelistic talks to visiting American choirs and preachers. On different occasions both Louie Giglio and Steve Chalke came .The format was the same though,the church put on an event and people came to us.
These events had results ,some people came to faith, (though again the drop out rate was high),there was an increased confidence in the church about the gospel message and the change it could make to peoples lives and the very act of organising these events gave us a chance to work together for The Kingdom which is what true fellowship is all about
Meanwhile I was noticing many people who came to faith were not converted at one of these evangelistic events but through the day to day ministry of the church .Sometimes they sat in the pews (yes we still had them at that time!)for a couple of years before coming gradually to faith.It all seemed so different to my own conversion It was also clear from talking to these people that relationships with Christians had been a key part in coming. to faith!
Indeed relationships were to be a key part of the next big evangelistic activity we bought into ...The Alpha course, which I will blog on next time


to be continued!

Behind the hoardings

It seems a long time since our old town centre building was hidden behind billboards and superficially it can appear that not much is happening.The appearance is very  misleading
 The contractors are on site every working day & lots of meetings  with builders, architects  and others are taking place to ensure that, when the new building is open, we have  the attractive, accessible ,flexible building we need in order to serve the the community as God has called us to do.
We are very keen to get away from the idea that the space the church building occupies is uniquely sacrosanct.As far as we are concerned the great gospel challenge therefore  is not to build the building but to build the Kingdom. The church is not there to serve the building, the building is there to serve the church and The Kingdom .
I feel passionate about this!

The ongoing task that the church leaders and others have been engaged on for some time is discerning through prayer and discussion what kind of ministries will happen in our new building.We hope to partner with other Christians in this venture and already have loads of exciting possibilities! As for which ones we will embark on;  watch this space!
Meanwhile Reggie McNeals words ring true

So, how do we do it? How do we the Church reach a world that doesn’t care about Sunday? 
First, we must understand that Church is a who, not a what; an organism, not an organization; a 
celebration, not an institution. The purpose of the Church is to  be a movement of God that 
introduces people to the King and His Kingdom? He intentionally calls a people to partner with Him to reach the world with His love and blessing. 
This is the purpose of the Church. We are called to be a people of blessing in the community 
where we live and beyond. Like Jesus the church is here to serve, not rule or seek privilege. When we act out being the people of God we will be a blessing and be blessed and God  will receive the Glory. This is our calling and  our mission: to glorify God by introducing Him to others (Matthew 28:16-20)


Missional Renaissance

Senior Citizens of The Kingdom

Photo from Age Concern website




I went to a large sheltered housing complex in town today
The group of Christians there had kindly asked me to speak at their monthly service.I spoke from Marks gospel to about 16 people for about 40 minutes (well they said I could!)
A few impressions follow
I was encouraged and delighted by their enthusiasm. Some had been Christians for a long time and still keep up their church connections.For others that was more difficult and this monthly meeting had in effect become their church all appeared to enjoy looking at the Bible and some asked questions afterwards
I was impressed by the pastoral care they showed to one another.Some people who used to be in the residential home and come to the service have moved on to nursing homes.They were still remembered, ,prayed for and cared for.One lady felt this was a very specific ministry God had given her.
I was surprised that the people who came were all women.I know they live longer but I thought there might have been one or two men

Leaving that meeting I went back to our church building where First Tuesday (a work we do for mostly senior citizens) was going on,there were about 30 people present (many more men here) I stayed for a short while chatting
There is quite a culture of youth today. Reflecting on this mornings events reminded me how much older people have to contribute to our churches and how involved they are in the work of the church and the Kingdom
As I myself get older I hope God will give me the grace and energy some of these people have.The ones I met today were not living in some nostalgic past but seeking to serve God today!

They were seeking to do what we should all seek to do: Finish Well!

Hopeful and encouraging signs!

I enjoyed the service to mark the Launch of Hope Church.
The Simple Pastor gives a good account of it here http://www.thesimplepastor.co.uk/2011/01/launching-hope-church/ but the service was well thought through,informative about the old churches  and  new church, with good worship,good participation in prayer and a helpful sermon from Martin Charlesworth which  rehearsed something of the history of the church and encouraged them as they go forward into the future

I was struck that the new church was described by one of it leaders as missional in intent, and even more struck by some of the ministries they are engaged in especially Grease Monkeys an innovative and inspiring project for 16-24 year olds that provides them with hands on car mechanics experience


To extrapolate from the local to the national; In an age when we rightly worry about church attendance stats,the evening highlighted some hopeful things about the evangelical church in this country in 2010

• We are much more united than we have been for many years ,there is not only a willingness to work together but also a desire to do so
• We are even willing to merge churches ,and let old and cherished traditions die for the sake of the Kingdom, as Hope Church have done..I personally expect church mergers to become more common,not because there is a desire to huddle together against the storms of secularism and materialism but to release energy and resources for mission
• Churches seem much more willing to try new  ministries and to innovate generally .I haven't heard the words "we have never done it this way before " for a few  years which has to be positive!
• Churches are much less likely to be preaching centres these days and much more determined to put down deep roots into the local community they serve
• There seems to be an increasing desire to worship and an increasing desire to pray which ,not surprisingly builds faith which in turn encourages mission

Now not everything in the garden is rosy ,there are enormous challenges ahead for the Christian church but there are also great reasons for hope 

The next decade or so could be very exciting ,I certainly hope so.

Hope- Radio Shropshire Pause for Thought 23/01/11

Imagine the scene….The band plays, the dignitary says in as loud a voice as possible “ I name  this ship the Mary Rose” ,a bottle of champagne is smashed against the side and the new vessel glides gracefully down the slipway and into the water.

Tonight I am going to the launch  not of  a new ship but a new church. There won’t be a slipway, I am guessing there won’t be champagne, but I am hopeful there will be a band!

This is a new church formed as a result of a merger between 2 churches that have served Shrewsbury well over the years The Grange and North Shrewsbury Community Church

They have chosen a great name for the new church Hope Church.

Now in certain contexts hope can be a weak word I hope it doesn’t rain I hope we win, I hope I don’t lose my job. In this context it really does little more than express a wish that something might or might not, happen

However Hope can also be a mighty word

In the darkest days of the Second World War Churchill inspired hope for survival and then victory by in Jack Kennedy’s phrase mobilising the English language and sending it into battle

Nelson Mandela implanted hope in the hearts of millions that together they could build a better country

Their expressions of Hope changed history

Hope church is a strong name chosen as Phil the churches leader puts it and I paraphrase because the church wants to bring hope to children and young people, the community, the unemployed and families.

Perhaps you’re listening today and hope is in short supply. You’re in debt, unemployed, your marriage is in trouble, or your ill .Someone said to me not long ago I am not living I am just existing …without hope!

It is tough to survive without hope

Now many people have said Christianity is pie in the sky when you die

And it’s true to the extent that we do have a future hope…. A hope that because Jesus died and rose again from the dead that those who believe in Him will in His own words Though they die  yet shall they live “ That is a future hope ….call it pie in the sky but  it is a future hope of life beyond the grave and life beyond the crematorium.  However  that future hope should also inspire  present hope, right here right now   not just pie in the sky when you die but it is also steak on the plate while you wait!

Inspired by his future Hope Jesus spent His time  ,giving sight to the blind ,feeding the hungry helping the lame walk , ministering to the poor and needy  speaking out for justice

In other words our future hope should inspire us to believe in  and indeed work to build a better world here and now for the depressed , the vulnerable, the  hungry, homeless, abused , paranoid , the hopeless and despairing

In that sense every church should inspire hope in the community every church  should be Hope Church

Maybe you think of church as boring  but a church doing those kind of things can be challenging and demanding but never boring

Hope church sets sail on an exciting journey into the future tonight

To use a nautical metaphor God Bless her and all who sail with her!