Interpathy .....

......not sympathy or empathy.

Just read this again in Frost & Hirsch's "Shaping of things to come"... "Interpathy describes that depth of a relationship when an outsider to a particular host community develops a burden for that community .... it refers to the capacity for an outsider to pick up a community's sense of values, what has hurt them and where they're headed."

I think it's all about listening to that host community asking the question 'what is good news to these people?' and what should church look like for them?

Frost & Hirsch suggest " we would think like missionaries and spend more time listening to, eating with, and playing with" those we are trying to minister to. We shouldn't try to impose church upon people like some sort of alien model but we should listen to what seems natural.

Listening, eating, playing .... sounds like fun!

Potential.......

Bulbs ..................................... to daffodils.

I planted some bulbs last weekend .... or should I say I planted some daffodils. Sure, they don't look like daffodils yet but I look forward to what will emerge from the depths of the soil in a few months time. I don't expect to see a bulb appear but a daffodil in all its intricacy. It will emerge from immaturity to maturity and then .....

These bulbs I've planted have potential .... these times on Saturday mornings have the potential to be something beautiful in the Kingdom of God. The conversations are laced with questioning ...they are beginning to be something beautiful .... and God is in it all.

Yet I still feel that what I am doing is planting, nurturing, encouraging .... will I see what emerges? It has the potential to be church for those that come, in that it will be their spiritual home and God lives in the midst of the community!

On a different note .. the community association is hopeful of getting a vacant shop in the estate .... now that is good news .... with potential .... exciting times!

Croissants coffee and card making in the morning then?!

It's different ...

....numbers are the same but it's different!

We've met three times since I last blogged. I was concerned that meeting weekly would just be another programme until Andrea commented on the last blog. Meeting weekly is actually what is wanted. Two weeks ago there was no Childrens' club in the Saturday morning because some of the leaders were away and the parents were disappointed they couldn't meet. The same scenario will happen this coming Saturday! So i'm now more content to meet weekly.

So what has changed? The relationships have changed. I think they've deepened. There's an honesty and real depth in our conversations. One parent has taken the initiative and planned the cards we're going to make and sourced all the stuff we need to do that. So my role has changed too. I don't see myself as a leader more of an enabler or facilitator or is that just too postmodern?

A community has been created, we're having fun, we're enjoying breakfast, we're doing something creative. The discussions have focussed around the pressures of family life and already talk is of Christmas (no surprise since we're making Christmas cards). So there'll will be plenty to explore over the coming weeks.

Being incarnational is what this is about. God is a sending God. God sent Jesus and in the same way we are sent into our communities to be relevant, to listen, to join people on their faith journey .....

Breakfast Church?

An array of cereal, smoothies, fruit juice, yogurt, fruit, croissants, pancakes, muffins and not a rasher of bacon or fried egg in sight.

Numerically (do numbers really matter) we were more than last week even though two from last week couldn't make it, so we're up to eight in total.

We enjoyed the food and conversation. Interestingly the Bible study I'm leading this session is focusing on Luke's gospel and the accounts of Jesus sharing a meal with a variety of people in their homes, often at their request. So, there we were sharing breakfast, enjoying conversation, making plans for the card making "fun" next week, I wondered what Jesus would have said to those gathered?

In the back of mind I have the question is this church, can this be church and at the moment my answer is - all depends on how you define church. Church should be rooted in mission, and this is very definitely mission. Fresh expressions are defined as listening first, then loving and serving, creating a place for the unchurched. So there's a lot of listening going on. Maybe I'm just impatient, maybe the listening will take longer and need to be ongoing? Yet we can't make church happen. Roxborough and Romanuk comment

"we do not plan its emerging future; we do not define it in a vision statement that can be realised through a controlled and managed strategic plan .... God eludes our systemising; God's ecclesia cannot be mastered or managed or made"

I'm also wondering does the fact that we meet weekly help or hinder? Will it just become another weekly programme? will the enthusiasm diminish?

Breakfast and card making in the morning .....

"What have I become?"

Johnny Cash mournfully sings "what have I become?" I wonder if "church" could sing would it join in that lament?

What has church become for people? Not a question I propose to answer here but as my first Saturday morning of this new venture has been and gone it is a question I struggle with. People jumping ship, wanting nothing to do with denominations, those who used to "come" but for a variety of reasons can't or won't.

What I'm trying to do on Saturday mornings is provide a "safe space" (their words not mine) for those who I've discovered feel condemned by church (how did that happen) those who feel not good enough to be there on Sunday morning.

So our first get together became a time when five parents and a couple of toddlers shared coffee/tea and eats (using fairtrade products). I provided the morning newspapers hoping they would spark a deep theological conversation on the state of the world (maybe another day)but the conversation that emerged was one of pain, hurt, needs that actually can be met in that safe space.

These get togethers will be driven by the people who come, I have no set plans, so to meet the needs raised we will look at health issues, family issues, the strain of being a parent, not all had had time for breakfast (agreed that next time I would provide breakfast). Leaving those issues aside, they also wanted to have fun (what? fun in church?) so over the coming weeks we're going to learn how to make cards, cross-stitch, crochet, read books, watch dvd's. This will be fun because I'm not too good with the "crafty" things in this world. They shared how it would be good to meet with the children, see what they are doing, join in (sounds like messy church to me) and so the possibilities go on.

I'm excited, those who came liked the informality (unlike everything else they have experienced of church), they appreciated the "time-out". I struggle with the fact that we meet on church premises, yes I know they are dropping their children off at the Saturday morning club, and I know there is no where else in the estate like a coffee shop to meet, so for now the church hall will have to do.

What have we become? I live with the God given hope and imagination of what church can become for those who meet on Saturday mornings ....

New emphasis

Now the emphasis of this blog changes!

I'm doing some study on Mission, particularly the emerging church (whatever that is)
Anyhow, when I signed up to do it I noticed for one module there were 3 choices: a literature review on emerging church,... attend training course/s on emerging church/fresh exp ... or pioneer a church. Okay, so the attend training course appealed, the others did not. Guess what - the rules changed: only option was to pioneer a church.
Yikes!
Here are the criteria we've to follow: it's to be fun; it's to be done in spare time; it does not require a lot of leaders; it does not need a big budget! Oh and you have to blog about it :)
Can it be done?
Well, I'm about to find out.
First and foremost I've listened .... I've listened to people within the community I work, people who don't come to church. They leave their children at various activities.
So, way back last November, some of them asked me if they could do something on Saturday mornings when they left the children to the Saturday morning children's club. I tried to dissuade them by suggesting it was great to be able to leave the children and go and have some time on their own - but they disagreed!

As i listened, I heard needs, so I said I'd think about it - they persisted, I resisted!

But now, tomorrow, we meet! Will this be church? It's new.
It will certainly be my project for my Masters. Is it pioneering?
I've listened ..... I'm on my knees ..... there'll be plenty of coffee .... conversations ..... let's see what emerges .....

This blog will now be the place where I will track the progress of this experiment/project/church/pioneering initiative ..... and as the title of this blog says ... I can only imagine .....

The Provocative Church

Graham Tomlin writes about how a friend walked into his local church to go to the Bible study one evening.
people were sitting in a circle, he didn't recognise them, and then quickly realised, as he checked his watch, that it was the wrong day! He had actually walked into the local meeting of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) but the meeting had started. He listened as people opened themselves up, explaining the sort of week they had just had, how they had managed to avoid "it". He mumbled apologies and left. Yet the meeting had a profound affect on him.
he had encountered honesty, admission of failure, celebration of success and mutual encouragement in a common struggle that he had rarely encountered at the Bible Study. The people he encountered were desperate and wanted to change. He found himself wishing the church was a bit more like that,
Hmmm food for thought

Covenant prayer

As we enter a new year the Covenant prayer below will be said by many Methodists this Sunday. With such doom and gloom being predicted for 2009, perhaps the words will be more challenging for us to speak? My prayer is that we mean these words as we say them, that they are more than simply words ..... because it is such a powerful prayer. Where I lead worship tomorrow these words will appear on the screen one line at a time - we will not rush through them - we will reflect on each line as we speak it ....

I am no longer my own but yours.

Your will, not mine, be done in all things,

wherever you may place me, in all that I do and in all that I may endure;

when there is work for me and when there is none;

when I am troubled and when I am at peace.

Your will be done when I am valued and when I am disregarded;

When I find fulfilment and when it is lacking;

When I have all things and when I have nothing.

I willingly offer all I have and am to serve you, as and where you choose.

Glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

you are mine and I am yours.

May it be so for ever.

Let this covenant now made on earth be fulfilled in heaven. Amen.