Some people have asked for some form of update via this blog on what is happening at the moment.

It can sometimes be difficult to write too much here about what I do. I reflect on themes and feelings, but the lives I am involved in and with do not feature here because it simply does not seem right.

I am in the High Street most days and I have found 2 or 3 places where I intentionally hang out regularly. In some places I am building relationships with staff, in others with customers and in others with both. I have been in thee places more or less solidly for 9 months, simply getting to know people and really hear what is happening. I have also done a lot of watching …. watching where people go, how people act with each other, what people do and try to discern what people feel they are looking for.

I can’t remember who used the term, but ‘I have been listening to the heartbeat of the community’. I’ve particularly been noticing where it resonates with the heartbeat of God …. identified by those ‘cracks’ where I notice the light of God’s KIngdom leaking in o this community.

I believe I have now got to a stage when I need to do something. Gillingham is a much smaller and tighter community than Rochester and I think I am in a situation now that gives me a choice.  I have arrived here quicker than I did in Rochester. I could continue to visit cafes and places, and it would be nice and comfortable, but I’m not sure anything would develop further than where I am at the moment.

If I have been listening to the heartbeat, I now need to identify and follow the flow.

I believe we have come to a point when we need a location to develop a Christian presence and welcoming place from. Call it ‘sanctuary’, ‘pop up church’, ‘drop in’ or whatever, but we need somewhere, some base from which we can support people and offer ‘something’.

You will notice a lot of ‘somethings’ in my way ahead. In my mind those somethings are blanks, but they are people blanks because I believe I only have part of the picture. The rest of the ‘blank somethings’ comes with other people that will join me in this. Some of those people I believe I have met and we have shared dreams. Others I think I still need to meet.

So I am looking and I am talking, which is a bit different to watching and listening. I am praying, and conscious of many people praying with me … some even on their knees outside a possible shop location …. please feel free to join us in this prayer. Likewise, if you think you can colour in one of the blanks and we have not spoken …. please get in touch too.

The time away at the MSM conference was pretty amazing. Hanging out in the evening with Bishop Graham, Bob and Mary Hopkins and John and Olive Drane which a real delight and a real challenge with so much knowledge and inspiration.

These are thinking aloud disjointed thoughts …. so you may like to skip these an come back t a later time. But …. if you wish to contribute, add to the dialogue, agree or disagree please do …. I’m still working this stuff through my heart

The highlights of these things are always the opportunity for networking. I met new people and hope to be able to mutually share stuff over the next few months. In addition to networking was a session led by Michael Moynagh as he spoke about some of his new book. He particularly got me thinking about the language of vision, and challenged us about having honest conversations with people rather than having big visions.

I think this resonated quite a lot as I am fairly tired of hearing about revival and big this and big that …. i’m not that interested in such language …. I’ve heard talk of revival of this land ever since I was a Christian ….. seriously I just want to see the community I am placed in at this point in time transformed. I want GIllingham to be transformed by the love of Christ …. and I don’t believe we need a big vision for that …. we simply need honest and open conversation. It’s all about that authenticity of word and action that I spoke of here not long ago… when people see that they become intrigued.

But for people to see that … the church needs to get out and be with people rather than have big visions to try and attract them in … that’s not the ‘Jesus model’. Jesus went, and he asked us to go …… and i believe we already have vision for that.

Michael Moynagh also reminded us that mission is done in community. It’s not an individual thing. Maybe this is why we doi not see transformation in our villages, towns and cities …. because we have lots of people ‘gifted in mission’ doing things rather than the whole community. Individuals are not called to this stuff … the whole church is!

Could our lack of mission / numerical decline in the UK church have something to do with losing sight of this basic fact that we are called as community in mission? I don’t know … what do you think?

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about connection.

That can mean a variety of things. It can mean something about feeling personally connected, or rooted, into something or somewhere. Connection can also be about the six degrees of separation stuff which, supposedly, link us to each other relationally. There is also the connecting side of connection; what I mean here is probably that entrepreneurial ‘stuff’ of noticing things that are not currently connected but could be and produce great positive results from being connected. Then there are the connections we make as we get to know a variety of people in different circumstances in a particular geographical area.

In various conversations over the last couple of weeks I have been shocked, rocked, knocked …. blah blah blah … to realise that I have now been in Gillingham for 26 years! For 24 of those years I have been involved in some form of Christian ministry working alongside the people of this town that I now call home.

During those 24 years a lot of connections with the people of this place have developed. I have been incredibly conscious recently through involvement in some of what the CofE calls ‘occasional offices’ (baptisms, weddings, funerals) how ‘connected’ I have become with various peoples stories. It seems now that it’s becoming more and more common to meet people with whom I have some link through being here for so long.

This week I have met with people who instantly relaxed when they recognised me from running a youth club 24 years ago! They are now 38, with their own children and as we chatted it was exciting to see these people are still connected, through various ways, with the local Christian community. I have met couples seeking to have their children baptised who I am connected to through the past ministry of GYFC. I am marrying couples with whom I have various connections through schools and other stuff. I am welcoming parents who were in various youth clubs at school parents evenings who now have children about to leave school! I am being stopped by people in the High Street who recognise me from ‘somewhere’ and we talk and we remember each other ….

Apart from making feel incredibly old I also feel a stirring of excitement within me. You may ask why ….. well it’s because, without wishing to offend, Gillingham has been a bloody hard place to work in! It’s not been an easy middle class leafy suburb where people have flocked to events and churches. National and international speaker type people have been here and left telling us how amazingly hard a ‘mission field’ this place is. Those were encouraging times …. not! People are honest and searching … and asking … but often we/church/christians have been answering the wrong questions for a significant group of people. (For some the church has also been asking the right questions … so please don’t think i’m knocking the good work of the local church cos I aint!)

But, despite the toughness,  I am excited, because what I outline above are great mission opportunities. By that, I don’t mean people converting, bums on pews and stuff like that, because I believe firmly the Bible makes it clear that is God’s job and not mine; but I take mission to be about lives being transformed, and through that communities being transformed, and by that towns being transformed, then cities, then countries, then … well you get the drift! In short hand, Christians call this ‘the gospel’ … or good news!

To be good news, it;s got to make a positive difference … right? It’s got to be about transformation and love and grace and acceptance. Is it good news if it’s not good news to all?  I’m not even sure if I know what I am asking there?

Gillingham has been a bloody hard place to work in, and continues to be, but God is here! God is working and peoples lives are changing as we are invited to support and serve. God is doing Godstuff and i’m constantly looking to join in with that.

And the point of this post is … well I’m not sure … apart from urging a commitment to rootedness and building connections. It’s worth taking time to connect …. it’s good to connect … we are created to connect!

One of the beauties, and nightmares, of blogging is that ‘stuff’ you write is always there. I often look back a year or two and cringe and ask ‘did I really believe that?’. A little over a year ago I wrote about being rooted here. I’ve linked to this post because, a year on, I still shout a loud yes to this ….
because ….

I hope to continue to be
listening to the heartbeat of the community and responding appropriately …. what else can we do
what other option do we have….
.. time for …
connections ….
Amen

Last night I had a first. I joined an online video conversation, by using webex,  with others involved in mission/pioneering/fresh expressions, most of whom were in the US … at least on this occasion I was the only person from the UK. The experience was great, it was good to ‘link’ with others and hear the stories of others. For a little while now, Thomas has been inviting me … and at last I managed to be around for one. It was even more of a pleasure as I can’t even remember how I got on the mailing list for this.

Tom gathers people like this on a monthly basis on a Friday at 4.00pm EST (9.00pm BST) for a 90 minute discussion. The strapline is: ‘an online gathering for those leading Missional Initiatives of all sorts, shapes and sizes.’ I kind of think that sor of connects with me!

Today Teresa Pasquale was interviewed. She was great to listen to. Teresa is working in SE Florida where she is creating  sacred space for worship, food and discussion particularly for the 20’s/30’s age group. . What I loved about listening to Teresa is that she is exercising her mission out of her personal experience and pain. When she was asked, ‘how are you developing your approach?’, she responded with something like … ‘I used to be these people, so I am using the experience of what I needed … I am creating a space that I’ve been looking for all my life.’

Isn’t that amazing?! Terea’s calling is one of challenge and pain and danger …. and yet I believe she has hit on something in her outlook that embody’s a realistic honesty towards our lives. A gritty honesty that acknowledges we are created in the image of God, and trusts that we are called by God as we are in our humanity.  By that I mean, the yearnings and desires and needs that we have from God are also to be used in our mission.

Too often we look at ourselves and think what we want or need are things for God to deal with as we progress in our journey. And, of course that is partly right …. but if we are called as we are, in the here and now, that maybe some part of our calling meets some part of our need also.

Our personal need for community and belonging, although not to be a driving force, could be something God given that drives our missional calling. Finding, or creating, a space that others are looking for is right and a massive amount of my own calling; but in that creating, I wonder if that also needs to be a space that I myself have been looking for as well.

Creating space together, that helps us all as a community to experience God in a meaningful way that makes a difference to how we we live speaks to me a lot of journeying together, supporting together, and growing together.

I loved what Terea said tonight and I think it linked in amazingly strongly with the ‘ministry of presence’ stuff that has been bouncing around the walls of my mind over the last few months and written about here and here amongst other places!

I’ve checked out Teresa’s blog and I’d recommend going to some of the stuff that is there. I particularly love the Homemade Dinner Prayer which you can link to at the foot of her page …. all I can say is ‘wow!’

Thanks Thomas for the invite, and thank you Teresa for your story.
I look forward to next time!