Leaders away time 2012

The leaders of Shrewsbury Baptist Church had a wonderful 24 hours together at Cloverley Hall website here in North Shropshire
We had a great time together in a wonderful place, in lovely countryside that served great food.

I won't write much here about the content or the encouraging and hopeful, outcome of our discussions, but suffice it to say that while these days are often a struggle to organise, (because it is tough trying to clear the diaries of some very busy people)they always prove to be very worthwhile,we get a lot done.

It is so good to have time to pray,share, laugh and even cry together ,it is good to share our hopes and dreams for the future of the church we serve.It was good to have a walk, on a starry night, back from the pub together. I suspect we get more out of these quality times together than we do from half a dozen evening meetings when people are tired I am looking forward to the next time already

Shrewsbury Street Pastors Celebration@Central

It is a year since Shrewsbury Street Pastors first patrolled the town and last night there was  a  very good turn out at a service at Central to celebrate the first anniversary
.
There really was quite a lot to celebrate and it was good to hear from the street pastors, members of the local community and others, just how well the project is going. Speaking to the local MP and the town Mayor afterwards they were equally impressed.

During the first year of Shrewsbury Street Pastors not one patrol had been cancelled



To my surprise I found parts of the service very moving as people shared what Street Pastors or being a Street Pastor meant to them as individuals.
I was also struck that during the first year of street pastors alcohol related incidents had declined by 19% from the previous year and even more importantly there had not been one death in the river.So this is a ministry that has not only helped and comforted large numbers of people but also very possibly saved lives.

The 18  street pastors themselves come from a number of different churches in the town and judging from some of the conversations happening afterwards there are a number of  other people willing to sign up

All in all a very encouraging evening for a great project

LICC Imagine day at Central

There was a good turnout of local church leaders from Shropshire for the Imagine day at Central yesterday.
The day was led by Neil Hudson from LICC who spoke helpfully, and with engaging humour, and very helpful power point slides about how churches can equip,envision and support their people to be fruitful on their daily front lines wherever they are.
There was a tremendous emphasis on the importance of making disciples and I particularly appreciated  the very practical nature of the teaching.
We were being challenged throughout the day as to exactly how we could put the teaching into practice in our own local church context in order to equip people for the time they are not in church
It was also great to spend time with other local church leaders ,some of whom I had not met before

It was an excellent day and if you get the chance to go it is well worth the £15 that it cost per person.
LICC IMAGINE details here

I was personally encouraged to see Central used for this day .It really lends itself as a building to this kind of event and 6 months on from the opening is becoming an increasingly busy place to be.;

The inmpact of Fresh Expressions on Denominational Structures

Interesting piece  by Michael Volland press here

In praise of the BBC

The BBC has recently come in for much deserved criticism,because of the abuse perpetrated by Jimmy Saville over decades
This criticism is largely justified and polling shows  what happened, and the corporations sluggish response to what  happened, has caused many people to lose trust in the BBC as an institution.(Incidentally the Saville affair also shows why every church should take child protection seriously)

There is however much that is good about the BBC and especially about its current affairs flagship programme Panorama.

They did an amazing job of revealing the abuse happening at Winterbourne View residential home and without them this abuse may never have been revealed and the abusers punished for their crimes
see here

Those abused  were some of the most vulnerable members of society and in my view the crimes against them were as serious (,if not even more so) than the ones committed by Jimmy Saville,
I say this because the victims for the most part were so vulnerable they lacked the means to complain and when they attempted to do so they were not believed.

I heard one woman say that one of the reasons Winterbourne View happened was that," very few people visited the home who were not paid to be there" This was a reference to the fact that these young adults are often placed in home hundreds of miles from their families who thus managed to visit them rarely, if ever.
This meant that these vulnerable people could  be abused unseen behind locked doors,unseesn by the world

Panorama returned to this subject last night The hospital that stopped caring  and again showed that abuse is still going on , and people are still being placed in care hundreds of miles from friends and families so really it is down to the legislators, and indeed all of us to get this sorted so that vulnerable people made in Gods image  don't have to suffer  any more and are supported to live in communitites where they know and are known- but thank you Panorama for highlighting the issue and well done the BBC!





* I do understand that not all homes are like this, that there are many brilliant caring professionals working in this sphere,and that carers should be trained and paid properly, but having said all that there is no excuse for what happened at Winterbourne and may still be happening in other places

Momentum!

Not the best quality video but Neil Coles says some important things in an amusing  way

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"