Category Archives: gathering

love god-love yourself-love others

Posted on by
Reply

After my KCME training session earlier this week (which was good) I was able to pop to London to spend 90 minutes with Ian Mobsby, my mentor, in the new home of Moot at St. Mary Aldermary.

We were able to have a good discussion on where I am with what is happening and how the gathering is taking shape. For me its invaluable having Ian being able to input from his wealth of experience while looking at the gathering from the outside. In many ways it is like a life line as Ian not only understands what I am saying, he seems to have an idea of how I am feeling because he has experienced this stuff himself.

We spoke a bit about the expression of Jesus’ commandment in Matthew 22 of loving God, loving ourselves and loving others. This tied in really, I guess, with myself wondering what, as the gathering, our mission should be? It became clear that we aspire to love God through our worship, we believe that we will be able to try to love others through our mission (whatever that may be) … but we can’t do any of that until we start to love ourselves.

Jesus says in that passage above ‘love others as you love yourselves’. I wondered when looking at that afresh – ‘how do we love ourselves?’ … or maybe the question is ‘do we love ourselves?’ Before we can love others it would seem that we need to be able to love ourselves. So, as the gathering, we need to learn how to love ourselves before we are able to love others. Or, to turn that around, we will find it extremely difficult to love others if we dont love ourselves first.

I’m going to raise this tomorrow at the gathering as I think this is something quite key to our development as a missional community … if we want to love others we need to love ourselves … so we need to wonder what can the gathering be doing to help that. As the theme is ‘our bodies as temples’ then it may well fit in quite well.

gathering into 2011

Posted on by
1

The gathering got together for the first time in 2011 in the Crypt today. We started the new year by celebrating communion together after considering the journey which I have used and blogged about before here. This was a moving and challenging experience for us as we thought about where we were with God, and where we would like to be.

We have developed a ‘habit’ of sharing communion while we stand around the stone altar in the crypt which means the time is quite intimate as we share bread and wine together. It seems we are able to capture something of the joy of this meal as well as the sacredness in this setting. I find this, again, is a powerful way to share, but I guess we will lose this intimacy when and if we grow.

We ended our time together by chatting about what we think we should be looking at over the next year after we reminded ourselves what the gathering is about (here if you are not sure). I think we have the start of a challenging and intriguing program … so watch this space.

a cautious step into the veil

Posted on by
Reply

I’m feeling quite excited after the gathering meal and discussion about the way forward this evening. We shared a lot about the things we value about the gathering, as well as asking hard questions about what we are doing and what we hope to be doing.

We seem to value the inclusivity, the creativity and the opportunity presented to engage with God. We enjoy the freedom to create and the ability to be different each time we gather with a loose structure that we have developed to create within.

Tonight we made a decision to share the curation of our worship gatherings. Up until now it has been down to me to ensure things happen and I’m looking forward to being able to share this with others as we move forward and discover together some new things.

One particular concern of mine over the last few months has been the whole question of whether we have started to fall in to the trap of simply putting on a monthly worship event rather than birthing and growing a church. Creating takes energy and time and, actually, we all know it is a lot easier to create a worship event than it is to develop a new way of being church.

Tonight we chatted about this and asked ourselves the question … ‘how do we move from creating an event to growing a church?’ I’m not sure we came up with any great answers, but we are, again, more conscious of what we feel we are called to do.

So … the gathering cautiously treads into the unrevealed and unresolved veil of possibilities and opportunities that will make up the year of 2011

advent gathering

Posted on by
Reply

We had our last gathering of 2010 this afternoon, looking at the theme of Advent. It’s both hard and amazing to think that we have now been gathering for around 18 months and have been using the crypt since April.

Tonight we tried to enter into some of the mystery of the Advent season by thinking about the characters of the Christmas story, and tried to imagine what their expectations were of ‘the messiah’ or the child, or king, that they were going to see. We chatted about this quite a lot before we tried to earth this asking ourselves how we can prepare for Christ’s arrival in our lives, and what our expectations were of Christ being born afresh.

I think someone shared a powerful image after visiting a family member who is expecting a baby soon. They are clearing a room out and decorating it in expectation fot he arrival of a new life. This has caused me to ask myself what, in my life, needs clearing out to allow the Christ child to be born afresh in my life. What else needs tidying up or decorating to be ready for this arrival?

In our Open Space, our time for reflection and space to allow God to work, one of the stations was in the form of a Christmas tree. It was decorated with presents that contained our individual words of commitment. Each person took 2 presents – one to hang on the tree and one to take away as a reminder. Mine is now sitting on my desk with the word ‘time’ …. for me to prepare, I felt I needed to give God time to speak, to work and to change me. Different people wrote different things.

We ended our time by sharing communion and singing O Come all Ye Faithful together (another first as none of us are that musical!)

It has been a good and interesting 18 or so months. Our next stage as a growing community is to get together to think about the way ahead … we want to be church in a different way, and I’m not sure whether people think we are doing that yet. We certainly have an interesting monthly gathering … but we want to be more than just an event and I wonder whether we are in danger of falling into tyhe trap of just putting on something, rather than living out something new. We meet in early January to talk so please hold the gathering in your prayers if you do such things!

taps, mentoring and imagination

Posted on by
Reply

My day this morning did not get off to a good start! The shower head breaking in my hand and a tap erupting in another part of the house resulted in me needing to sort those things before going to London to have some valuable time with Ian, my mentor. (would you believe it can take nearly an hour to unscrew a tap!)

The day got better!

I met with Ian at the London Spirituality Centre and we chatted about the stuff we needed to chat about. Ian was able to inject some wisdom into what I was experiencing and I came away feeling incredibly refreshed and focussed. I have been struggling with some ideas and Ian was able to help me in my thinking. Some will read a negative comment into that but there is not one there. My support structure in Rochester is 100% solid and I am very fortunate. Ian, as my mentor, has been to many of the places that I am experiencing and so he can support me differently in my role. His insights today have been very valuable for me.

The day also ended well with 3 great people from the gathering joining me for the Imagination Guild. We got together to have ideas for our next large gathering with the theme of Advent. It’s a privilege to work with these people and we had some really powerful ideas which we think will help people connect with God in a real way. I’m looking forward to the gathering on December 12th.

peace-ful gathering

Posted on by
Reply

The gathering, err gathered again this afternoon. We considered, contemplated, talked about peace.

This was a good collaborative gathering and I didn’t really know what was happening until it happened. In that sense it was exciting, particularly as things came together which showed a God imprint on what we were doing. Things seemed to flow which gave the impression this was all carefully planned … but it wasn’t!

We looked at some quotes on peace and were challenged by:

Peace: it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart. (unknown)

Before moving into our Open Space time we listened to Cyndi Laupers ‘True Colours’ which Jim had put together with some images. The stations of Open Space saw us making cranes of peace, thinking about what things we use when we think of peace at home (books, chocolate, wine etc.). We also looked at a great resource from the Methodist Church called a Gift of Peace.

We ended our time together with this Celtic Blessing from the Gift of Peace before we shared drinks and cake.

Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
Deep peace of the gentle night to you
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you
Deep peace of Christ, of Christ, the light of the world to you
Deep peace of Christ to you.

I was challenged and made to think today … thanks everyone.

gathering: simplicity

Posted on by
Reply

the gathering got together again today in the crypt. There were around 15 of us that looked at the topic of Simplicity; partiularly delving into what it meant and how it applied to our lives.

Our bible passage to look at was Luke 12:22-34 and then Howard got us to think about linking that with Fosters 10 statements on simplicity:

1. Buy things for their usefulness not their status
2. Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you
3. Develop a habit of giving things away – deaccumulate
4. Refuse to be propagandanised by moden gadgetry
5. Learn to enjoy things without owning them
6. Develop a deeper appreciation of creation
7. Look with healthy scepticism at all buy now pay later schemes
8. Remember Jesus’ injunction about plain honest speech
9. Reject anything that will breed the oppression of others
10. Shun whatever will distract you from your main goal
I struggle with a number of those if I am honest!
The time together was good. It was different again today and there was some good interaction and engagement. I enjoy meeting with this group of people even if I have no idea what God is doing and where he is leading us as a group. 
I guess a concern for me on reflection is that we had a number of people, again. who visited us for the first time. It is fair to say that some today were visiting out of curiosity. This does, however, show up an issue in what we are doing and a hard thing to think about as we have a lot of people who we only seem to see once. In the last 5 months I can remember 7 people who have gathered with us but not returned. 
What should we draw from that? Should we be worried? It certainly shows there are a number of people searching, and they may well not be looking for what the gathering is at this point in time. Does it mean we should be doing something different? I firmly believe this is not a numbers game, and yet on the other hand I see a number of people searching, engaging but not returning. Is even my concern a valid concern to have? 

simplicity

Posted on by
Reply

the gathering gets together on Sunday and this month our theme is simplicity. I have a funny feeling we are going to be challenged about our 21st century consumerist lifestyles … but I may be wrong.

this particular gathering has been the hardest to plan, the email and facebook page have been the quietest they have been since we started like this and so, again, this makes me wonder whether this is a topic that we are going to find quite a difficult one to cope with.

After all … what is simplicity all about? Is it about stripping back to the bare essentials? Is it about being naive and a bit dim? Or is it simply (see what I did there?) a brand of sanitary towel?

Simplicity is a word that has been banded around, but a word that I am not sure we get to grips with properly.

I have the video below emailed to me today from breathe … so it may make an appearance on Sunday.

curating worship

Posted on by
Reply

Along with many others I have been reading, and enjoying, Curating Worship by Jonny. I have particularly enjoyed reading it as it draws from many people who are involved, or rather live in, the world of creative worship and of re imagining church.

Many have blogged about the book already (I am quite slow off the mark) but I particularly like and agree with  Ian’s encompassing comment: ‘what this book emphasises is that this form of worship is a skill, and needs much thinking and engagement with theological thinking, engagement with metaphorical meaning, liturgy and ritual.’

I have been both excited and challenged as I have read this. It has caused me to start to think more deeply about the how and why we do the things we do at the gathering. Some parts of the book have resonated stronger than others; one in particular being that the art of (curating) worship has something to do with leaving space for people to discover the reality of God and how they can engage with whatever is being considered for themselves.

I guess this counters the frustration I have with the style of church worship that I (we?) have grown up with where a person ‘in authority’ decides what a bible passage means and what we need to ‘go away with’ and then sets up activities or preaches a sermon so that we all arrive at the same place with the same conclusion.

I am starting to feel everything needs to be a little more open, a little more permission giving so that we can really hear what it is that God wishes to share with us. I guess it has amazed me for the last few years that we speak of a ‘great big God’ and a God that do anything and is all powerful …. and yet we try to confine God and cause God to act in a way that we want God to act.

If God is so big and so mighty why do we feel a need to control so that we all believe the same? Surely, if God is so big and great, then God can get the message across if we allow the space for God to do so? For this to happen, I wonder whether our worship needs to be more open ended rather than aiming to get people to a particular ‘point’.

I think (hope!) that is what we are trying to do in the gathering. I think we are trying to allow people to discover God in their lives and where they are and so respond in a  way that is meaningful to them. I think there is a desire that we plan to allow God to find us where we are.

Sometimes this is confusing to explain and a lot of time we don’t get it … but I do think it is a healthy kind of confusion.

vine and vespers

Posted on by
Reply

Tonight the gathering started to regularly meet together for prayer. Tonight was the first time we tried Vine and Vespers as a way for us to pray together and join together in an ancient form of prayer.

As with many Christian communities of the past, some of us met together in my home to pray, while others of the gathering followed a similar format at various locations depending on where they happen to be today. Tonight was the first of our monthly prayer nights

Tonight was small, but small is beautiful and it is a start of the community praying. Tonight was exciting as the gathering was united in prayer without being limited by location. Tonight’ Vespers was a mixture of ancients prayers and newer thoughts that I had reworked over the last few weeks. YOu can read more of the origin of vespers here.

I feel that tonight we have made some milestone. By that I do not mean we have reached a stage and we should feel pleased and slap ourselves on the back; but rather that God seems to be moving us forward as a community and I find that quite exciting as well as being a challenge.