Yesterday was an amazing day – the last day of Love Gilingham 3.
All the churches of Gillingham cancelled their morning service to attend a united worship service at the sports centre. There were around 500 people there which was quite mind blowing. Jim and I had the pleasure of continuing our ‘double act’ of leading the LG mornings into Sunday and I ended the service by getting people to look around and realise that this was the church of Gillingham.

I don’t like big. I think small is better and small Christian communities of around the 30 size are, in my mind, the ideal. Sunday, however, was special as it can remind us of our place in the wider church.

In our own churches it is easy to think that this is how it is, that we re the only ones who care. This can breed a kind if isolation mentality. With an isolation mentality vision becomes scarce s we fer trying anything. Getting together, seeing others from different traditions and different opinions uniting for one event can serve to enable vision. It was certainly encouraging to remind myself that I am part of something that is not only ancient in origin, but is far bigger than I realise most of the time. From the front it was great to see peoples faces as they looked around and realised the size of God’s church in Gillingham.

After the service we were joined by those we had met in the week and invited to a BBQ and fun day at the sports centre. It was a privilege again to witness the engagement between different people groups and the growth of new friendships across the community. This is true mission – people being loved and accepted with no expectations placed upon them.

The challenge for us is how to we move on. For three years we have staged various events and there is now a feeling that we need to show this acceptance and love (i.e. bring in the Kingdom)in regular realistic and achievable, but ordinary and simple, ways in Gillingham.

I have loved LG3 as I have loved previous years. I am sad at the end and have a desire to see an expression of this develop as part of the DNA of the Christian community in Gillingham.

For those of you coing here for pics – the last days photos may be found here.

Love Gillingham 3 started today.
Love Gillingham has the strap line of ‘showing the love of Jesus with no strings attached’. It’s a great mission statement, and it’s a mission statement that we should have 24/7 as Christians. This week is about being good news for people and not expecting or wanting anything in return.

It was great today to see from Christians from a number of local churches working together. People from different traditions forgetting the non-essential aspects of faith and uniting around the essentials that unite us.

After a morning of worship, teaching and prayer the teams had lunch before getting involved in various projects. The projects all seemed to go really well. Tom was involved in the retirement home again where he did some gardening and chatted to the people. Tom is developing a real love for OAP work and has done this for the last 3 years. Sarah, Beth and Joe were involved in a drop in at church for people to drop in for a drink and chat while there were activities such as face painting for their children. I was involved with many other great people in clearing rubbish from peoples homes in 3 different locations around the town. Today we have filled 4 massive 12 yard skips (or the equivalent).

The rubbish teams today have cleared greenhouses, rubble, trampolines, baths, toilets, wood, tables, chairs and much more. While all the ‘stuff’ has been happening in the teams, something very special has been happening. We have been chatting with people and in those conversations I believe we have seen God at works in the lives of people outside the church.

Today I have seen in the hospitality and love of God in various ways in peoples actions:
through the lady and her 3 children who invited us all in for a cup of tea
through the old gentlemen who brought out a carefully wrapped sheet of glass for the skip as he did not want us to be cut
through the lady who wanted to buy my t-shirt
the person who wanted to reward us with a donation

It was great to be reminded today that God is loving Gillingham and very much at work here.

The photo shows a local councillor opening the event and you can see the photos of today by clicking on y Flickr album or by clicking here.

Love Gillingham is getting closer.
We had our final planning meeting today and I think it’s fair to say that, once again, there is a healthy mix of fear and excitement as still too much is ‘up in the air’ for people like myself who like to have a better idea of what is going on. At the moment things do not feel that ordered.

This has worried me today as God is a God of order so there is some part of me that thinks we should have more of an idea 2 weeks out. I took some time to reflect on this and felt God’s quiet voice remind me: but … I am also a God of paradox, and a God of mystery, and a God of story. I am the God who created out of chaotic nothingness. I could go on. If God is all these things, then God is quite messy as well as being ordered. If there can be an ordered messiness then I guess that can exist within the Godhead.

Actually, I quite like the idea of messy God and messy mission. When I say messy, I use it in the sense of things being quite unpredictable but beautiful at the same time. Canoeists and surfers may well have a sense of what I am trying to say. The first day we were in Cornwall a few weeks ago we went to Constantine bay with surf boards and canoes. The surf was messy. It was all over the place, waves were crashing on waves, there was no predictable pattern, but it looked pretty amazing and beautiful.

In a sense all those on the water could do was ride the wave and see where it took them. Others could watch the waves in amazement and try to fathom out what was happening. It was clear, however, where the action was – out in the messiness, in the salty, biting spray. Out there, rather than on the ordered beach, is where all the action was happening.

So,upon reflection I am no longer concerned about how messy things still are. I am, however, still scared that things may come crashing down around our eyes, but I am willing to trust in the messiness of my maker!