So that’s the Big Deal

Just had a totally brilliant weekend.

I spent Saturday afternoon rehearsing and performing 27 children in a musical version of Jonah. It was a joy to do. I hadn’t been looking forward to the weekend. I was working with people I hadn’t worked with before and I had offered to write the script and didn’t have a clue what I was going to do with it. But the script came to me eventually and the other people were really easy to work with and we had loads of fun.

And to top it all we may be getting some new weekenders to boot.

Result.

Big Deal

This weekend I am getting involved in a Big Deal event. I haven’t managed to attend any of the events so far that have been laid on in Stockport but this weekends involves doing some drama so the organisers have asked me to join them. I am pretty excited about this, I have written a script that re-tells the story of Jonah in a slightly different way, hopefully, one that will engage the kids, a lot of whom will never have heard of Jonah before.

All I knew about the Big Deal activities is that churches, in a particular location, get together to do community actions. So far, in Stockport, there have been a few weekends organised. I think they largely involve coffee and tea though some have had (I suspect Christian) rock bands performing. Well that’s what I thought before I read the web site. It seems there is much more to them than that and I know that the weekend coming up has lots of activities going on for all ages throughout the weekend.

Anne is involved with some worship on Sunday morning so BCLC is all down to me and Penny. The theme this month is ‘Morality - who says it’s right’ or something like that. Quite challenging as always and it follows on well from last months Interfaith relations topic.

I will, of course, be back here to tell you how it all went.

Fresher Expressions

i was looking at the fresh expressions web site the other day, for those of you that don’t know this is the initiative from the Anglican and Methodists church to look at new ways of “being church” (don’t you just love that phrase…..). Now I may be missing the point here, and I hope someone can explain it if I am, but I have always attempted to describe the emerging church using words like, how can I put it, emerging… starting out… diversifying… breaking the rules…. subverting, and yet when I look at that web site I find blueprints for how to set up what appear to be established forms of church. If they are established then are they not part of the establishment and therefore not part of the emerging ‘movement’?

Truly emerging churches are doing just that, emerging from whatever context they are in in response to the needs of the people involved. Leaders will emerge and the ways of doing things will emerge and they will both be appropriate. There must be a danger of looking at, say, the cafe church examples on the web site and think that you like the sound of that and trying to replicate it. I can’t help thinking that this is as likely to fail as it is to suceed.

Don’t get LEPpy

Bit of poetic license with the title today. I am referring to the formation of a Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP) with our brethren in the Methodists (always makes me think of communists) and the Anglicans. Well at the moment we are only talking to the Meths and not about a full-blown LEP merely a building share, and, to be honest, this isn’t going completely to plan, shall we say.

So why am I talking about an LEP with 3 denominations? Well if you are going to do this you might as well go for it I reckon. It isn’t going to be easy with one on one between us and the Meths so lets throw the Anglicans in the mix, it couldn’t make it any harder, in my opinion.

The meeting last week was odd. We threw the cat in amongst the pigeons when one of our number blabbed that some people were not only getting cold feet they had never had warm ones. Indeed it would seem that a few people at ER still think that there’s nothing a good lick ‘o’ paint wouldn’t sort out. These people are sadly delusional but for the district representative to get all shirty about it because we had told district one thing and, heaven forbid, might have changed our minds. Well I am sorry if we don’t fit nicely into the districts neat little plan anymore (than we ever have done) but some things are just more important. I am not saying we have changed our minds but if we want to we will. So there.

And whilst I am ranting a little, we were told that there is no blueprint for forming an LEP, they are all different and what we are trying to do is fulfilling God’s purpose for the churches on earth etc. and there are LEPs where you wouldn’t know who had come from what tradition prior to their current arrangement and others where they still describe themselves as URC or Baptist or whatever. Well of course they do, like dur, they have to because in the eyes of their church hierarchies they still are URC or Baptist or whatever! The day I hear about the formation of an NEP (that’s a National Ecumenical Partnership) between the leaders of the churches then I will be more convinced by the ecumenical rhetoric we hear trotted out. Oh yeah the future is ecumenical so that’s what you lot have to do whilst we retain our identity (and offices and jobs etc.) oh and you have to report back to us in the same way as you always have done.

That’s the day they can get upset if a church has the temerity to change its mind about whether they close down or not.

Until then shut up and get over it.

Now where was I?..

I am trying to work out what my priorities are. I seem to have a lot of things (apart from work that is) on at the moment, big things as well:

Local Leaders - I have just finished the training and the real work begins.

Weekenders - Struggling with numbers, we are at something of a crossroads. Time to bale and let someone take it on to the next level while I move on to something new? I was going to do it for 3 years, I have done 4. 

BCLC - Doing brilliantly I think. I get so much out of this. It needs more, we need to be a) doing something as a result of all our discussion and b) looking todo other BCLC style stuff at other time places etc.

Church Redevelopment - Need to do a lot of work with the meths and, as Anne says, we should resurrect the visionary ecumenical talks we started way back when or this thing is going to seriously end in tears. For my part I want to make sure we come with something for the old site that:

a) is economically viable

b) is practially usable

c) continues the work that the people that built that church nearly 100 years ago started 

How hard can that be?

Something has to give, I can't do all those things and my day job as well. I think weekenders is the one that sticks out there, the others are complementary to one another. My remit as local leader is to do the BCLC/church redevelopment stuff.

Better ask Pete if he wants to be the boss of w/ers….

Consecration

I heard a funny (to me) thing last night… apparently the Anglicans that moved out of their church near us can't do anything with the building until it is deconsecrated!! 

Has anybody out there any idea what this entails? I am most intrigued….