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!

Mothers Day.- Pause for Thought. Radio Shropshire

The shops and adverts have been telling us for at least a month that today is Mother’s Day

My inbox has been inundated with offers of cheap flowers, discount vouchers for a tasty mothers day lunch out, yummy  chocolates and a host of others goodies for mum

Now as it happens I  have the best mum in the world.  (besides my wife and mother of our children who of course who is also the best mum in the world!) Today she deserves to put her feet up, relax, and glow in the warmth of the love of her children and grandchildren and enjoy the gifts we have lavished on her.

Despite this I still get the feeling that Mothers day is over commercialised and we need to be honest and acknowledge many people find Mothers day a day to be endured rather than enjoyed.

Over the years those who have lost their mums or those mums who have lost children or those who longed to be mums but were unable to have children, have told me when Mother’s day is over they breathe a sigh of relief ,knowing it is a year till the next one comes around.

But being a mum is not easy it is time consuming and demanding

One mum wrote you know you are a mum when

  You start spending regular half hours in the bathroom…just to be alone!

• You start hoping that tomato ketchup is a vegetable, since it’s the only one that your child eats.

• You find that, without thinking about it, you’ve cut off the crusts of your husband’s sandwiches

• You hear your own Mother’s voice coming out of your mouth when you say “NOT in your best clothes!”

Being a mum can be tough being a single mum can sometimes appear almost impossibly difficult. You do an amazing job just to keep going!

But mothers day isn’t really mothers day  it was originally called mothering Sunday a day when people would return to their mother church a nearby large church or more often a cathedral to gather with other Christians to be in community together

There’s a clue there about how to keep going in tough times .Find strength in community- that might be a sure start centre or a toddlers group or at the school gate or a fitness class

Human beings were made for community .It is in community that we should find love ,encouragement and support

The greatest community I know is the Christian church and the best churches are not holy huddles but ones who keep the 2 greatest commandments to love God and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves

If you can find a church that does that it must be worth giving it a go!

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!

The Hub !

I am still processing the sessions from the weekend away and I will blog Roger and Lesley's teaching in the next week or so.

I was though struck by a number of other things that came up during the weekend, and I thought I would share one of them here, because I think they offer an insight into some of the opportunities we have as Christians  in the UK; and also because  although there are differences between their situation and ours, there are also similarities.

Altrincham Baptist Church has an old building, built for a bygone age.In common with Claremont they had a rather forbidding, and not very accesible entrance. I cannot believe their gents toilets were as bad as ours!
Not far away from ABC was a community building run by the local council,which was under threat. My understanding is that  the church went to the council and offered to run it for them for an initial period of 2 years.During that time the church renamed the building "The Hub" and  began to turn the centre into a thriving place for everyone in the area.

Facilities include rooms for all kinds of community events and a coffee shop. The church has now extended the lease to 25 years.The council recognise it as one of the best community partnerships in the area and the church have put down deep roots into the local community through which the love of Jesus may flow and the gospel of Jesus may be shared.
This is not traditional church but it is mission!
The Hub's strapline is not "our community our place" but "Your Community Your Place!"
This must have been tough for some church members initially.As Christians it is possible to treat church as our club rather than a community for God and others
Roger told us they made a number of rules when the Hub opened .I cant remember all of them but here are 3

• They gave the building a neutral name in this case "The Hub "
• They said community events took precedence over church events- After all they had another building for church stuff, like leaders meetings and church meetings, and they wanted  the community to feel this really was their building
• They said no services for 6 months .They didn't want to brand the building as a church ,not because they were trying to hide who they are but because they wanted the community to feel they belonged.

As I say some church people must have found these things hard, but great credit to them for being willing to make sacrifices in order to connect with their local community.

The church attendance stats in the UK are not encouraging. However, I honestly think the opportunities have never been greater,  and with the passage of the forthcoming localism bill through parliament ,they could become greater still.

I am certainly not saying we would adopt Altrincham Baptist Churches rules for our new building but they do give us plenty to think about!

The key point is that the church is not a building,it is not an institution it is the people of God and if we are going to share the gospel we need to be where people are sharing Good News with them

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!

Introvert or extrovert?

Found this an interesting read

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!