Category Archives: pioneer ministry

a start ….

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balcony view .JPGLiving on the Greenwich Peninsula is a fairly unique experience to many. People live in close proximity and yet I can go for days without seeing anyone from my block of apartments. At 1801 last night someone that moved into the village at the end of December described her experience of living here as being anonymous.

One of the strengths of living in a  place like the Peninsula is that people want to work and do build community together. There is a very strong residents committee on the Greenwich Millennium Village which I have been both invited and pleased to be a part of.

At the start of the year we were all profoundly affected by a death of a resident who was run over by a bus. For years the residents committee has been asking for the roads to be safer. The residents have pulled together and launched an amazing campaign for the roads around the village to be safer …. you could support this by signing here.

The residents committee live here and care about the place we live and show that by being willing to make time to work together. At last Thursday’s residents meeting we were able to build on this by starting our survey of residents views. This is going to be something that is going to be a priority for me and the people of HT for the next few weeks. Why? Well … as Holy Trinity part of our reason for being here is to be ‘good news’, to help and be a blessing to the community. Surveys can take a long time and cost a lot in finance and time to carry out and so this is a way we can be of help. The surveys, which are anonymous, and whatever we learn will be shared with the residents committee and other agencies that are seeking to work together here.

Meeting people on Thursday was an incredible encouragement. Everyone has views and wants to share them. They wish to share them because they passionately care about the place that they live in. After a lot of research and talking to various agencies I found Livability to be very helpful in getting us to think about what to ask.

So … on our survey we are asking three simple questions:
What do you like about living on The Peninsula?
What frustrates you about living here?
What do you think is lacking here?

After just 30 surveys it would be premature to say we have any understanding of views and a lot more residents need to be spoken with. It is, however, a good start and I was really encouraged by the helpful and engaging response from people.

Over the next few weeks I and a little team hope to have many more interactions with people with those three questions. When we have got a good sample and heard lots of voices I hope we are then able to engage in way that will be both a blessing and authentic …. watch this space!

 

Ideas and food = agapai

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FullSizeRenderOne of the new things we have started as a church community is meeting to eat together on a Wednesday night. This has started as a way to discuss what kind of church we want to be. I’ve guided us in this exploration by using an ‘ideas tree’ as seen in the photo by asking people to write what we want more of and what we want less of …. e.g. more hospitality or less formality.

After filling the tree with post it note ideas we then looked for patterns in our thoughts and, thankfully, found some. The next couple of weeks have been focussed on taking a ‘more of’ idea such as community engagement or hospitality and then chatting through ideas of what that means and how we can do it in the context and restrictions of our lives.

This week we had a good strong direct conversation about the reality of our situation as a church and the reality  of our ability to develop things in the midst of a busy city life.

The task is not an easy one!

A result of that honest discussion is that the Wednesday evening meal will be ‘tweeked’ a little. Rather than talking about what sort of church we want to be every week we are going to see what alternating a discussion with a check in, eat and pray for each other would look like. I other words we will alternate between talking church and being church …. although I know we are being church when we talk church as well …. but i think you get my drift!

Although the conversation was tough, even awkward at times, it was good and needed. I firmly believe that if a group of people are seeking to birth something new then honesty needs paramount in discussions. The fact we jumped to honesty rather than stay in politeness so soon is a real encouragement to me. It’s an encouragement because it means people care.

So … this Wednesday we will eat, talk, hear each others stories and pray together ….. so if you are on The Peninsula and fancy eating with a group of people that want to birth a church and bless this community ….. then join us. I just ask that you let us know you are coming so we can cater correctly.

We call this event agapai – a word used by the early Christians derived from agape (meaning God’s love) to describe ‘love feasts’ when they got together to eat and pray together as well as share bread and wine as part of the meal. The name seemed to fit a little with what we are trying to do here.

 

 

 

so … how’s it going?

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a day to contemplateI am in that position where I need to start reflecting again. I have allowed myself to get out of the discipline of writing here as a reflective practice. That needs to start again.
This blog will become, yet again, a place where I will think aloud. It’s a blog in the public domain so please feel free to comment.

So … to answer that title question …
It’s  a challenge!
Leaving a community you have known and loved for 30 odd years and moving into a new community where you know very little and understand even less is a challenge.

So what is my major challenge?
I was asked that recently and had to think.
I think … my toughest challenge … is a feeling of being in this alone.
There is a lot to do, so many opportunities, so many people and organisations to engage with …yet, although I am in a team, … it feels pretty much that I am doing a lot of this stuff alone as everyone here s incredibly busy.

I already know that the life of a pioneer is a lonely one.
In many ways it needs to be.
I have written in the past a lot about the power of vulnerability and I still hold by that. I think ministry of vulnerability is incredibly vital in my context.
Thats has always been the case and I have experience of that.
I accept that is ho this has to be.
In Medway my life as a pioneer was lonely, but that loneliness was in an environment of familiarity. In Greenwich that loneliness is in a place of unfamiliarity and I realised I have underestimated the effect of that.

Being an advocate for change can be quite draining.
Looking for ways to engage with a community hidden behind electronic doors can be frustrating. From limited research and talking with professionals working in this area I am pretty convinced that loneliness is an issue for people … and yet trying to engage with that is hard as people here are protected from people knocking on doors.

Despite the challenge, I am confident. I am convinced that God has called me here for this point in time and that we, Holy Trinity, will find ways to engage with and support this community.

But …. I need help.
So I am looking for a core of people that may or may not already be involved in HT. This core of 2 or 3 people would regularly meet to pray with me about the peninsula. These people would be at virtually everything  we do as well as in time take on some responsibility for running and or planning stuff. Currently I am praying that these people will become pretty obvious very soon.

If you are the praying type … you could pray that too!

the dream on the peninsula …

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htg postcard imageI have now been here for around 5 months. We have made some changes which can be seen on the image of our latest postcard which makes use of one of the photos I took recently of Alex Chinneck’s art on the Peninsula.

In my last two locations I have had a dream. Essentially the dream does not change …. the dream of a new way of living out and discovering faith with other people. The birthing of a new way of being church.

Although the dream does not change, the context of that dream and it’s outworking obviously changes according to the local context.

This is my dream for Holy Trinity Greenwich Peninsula:

I believe there are people, who live, or soon will live, on the Greenwich Peninsula and share a common vision or hope.

These people long, maybe are even too scared to dream, of church being a place which really connects with people outside, but also with them. In a real and obvious way. 

They dream of a church where differences are celebrated and add to the communities flavour.

They are not worried so much about what people believe, but more concerned about how people believe: how they live out faith, how they are Christ-like. How they love the community they are in.

They don’t care so much about worship style, but interested in something that’s authentic and enables them to connect with God where they are emotionally and spiritually.

They really do believe Christianity is a journey, and that we can all exist at different points on the road, or even off it, with no fear of condemnation.

A community that does not judge a person by how they look, sound or by what they believe.

They want to see a community that loves and has people at its heart rather than a program that must be delivered.

They believe a community should be one that meets throughout the week to enjoy relationship with each other and with God, and is not restricted to any one day or meeting.

They are willing to pay the cost that comes with developing relationships.

They want to see this as a place where people belong because they are connected and on the journey, not a place where they can only belong if they turn up at a particular time, day and place.

They want to see a community that really believes in mission, that not only welcomes in strangers, but expects and allows the community to change due to what that new person brings with them.

They believe church is about participation and engagement of the majority, rather than being consumerist and led by a few specialists.

They are tired of being told the same stuff and want to discover together how to live Christian spirituality in their world!

They long for their experience of church to inform their experience of the world and vice versa.

This journey will be tough.

Some won’t want to embark on it. Others will.

I am not looking for something better than church as we know it.

I am looking for something equally valuable.

Something to add to the mixed economy of church.

But I’m putting this out there as I would really love to meet other people that share this vision.

So …. if that sounds like you …. get in touch soon. If that’s not you but you think you know people that it might be for …. please pass this on. Whatever …. please pray for us as we move forward into the unknown! 

moving along in harmony

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DSC_1165aAnother two weeks has passed since my last blog … it’s gone in a flash, but as I look back I can see that quite a few things have happened and so the mist of uncertainty has lifted for brief moments so I can imagine possible lights of ideas ahead of me.

I have nearly spoken with every person that regularly attend Holy Trinity here on the Peninsula. At my licensing the bishop was incredibly permission giving, and was very open about the fact that I am here to aid change. he said I was here to do things differently. Without exception it seems the people of HT are up for change. No one wants to stay the same, everyone knows we need to do something different. Change will happen!

I love being part of this community of Holy Trinity that are sold out on being something that makes a real positive difference in our community life.

As I have listened to people, people that I am here to serve, some common threads have come out. It would not be right to share them publicly until after we have chatted as HT. One thing, though, that I can share that has been very clear is this …. everyone agrees that 11am on a Sunday morning is not the correct time for us to meet. This will change. It has to change because it is obviously not the right time for the people of the peninsula. It’s refreshing to be part of a group that can see that and ‘get’ that we are here to serve this community.

I have some ideas of what we may look like over the next few months. In some ways I could speed the process up by suggesting certain changes … but I really do not believe that is the way to work. If we are going to move forward together in a way that means something for the wider community here then we need to move slowly, listening intently to each other and those we seek to serve. We need to discover more of what God is doing and then join with God rather than develop our own little ideas. I really do not know of any better way to start something new.

The next step, as I see it, after I have listened to everyone who is currently part of HT is to eat together as we seek a way forward. I’m feeling quite excited by this thought and can’t help but think what a great privilege and how exciting the way forward is. Maybe I should feel more daunted or scared at the scale of the task (and sometimes that is very evident in my heard!) but at the moment I feel quite simply that we are on track and need to keep listening and moving together.

Interestingly I think harmony says something about what we are trying to do at this point in time. I say interestingly because the schools theme for collective worship this term has been ‘harmony’. Harmony talks of cooperation and friendship.  It declares unity and conveys empathy. It breathes peace and understanding. It emits order and integrity. It sings of richness and melody. It serenades of blend and harmony.

As we move forward together in this harmonious way, I believe we will become more aware of the whisper of our community … and when we hear and join with that … well … then we may have more of an idea of the sone we are called to sing.

why do we need pioneers?

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http://vimeo.com/churchmissionsociety/missionpioneers

Great video of the CMS Pioneer course …. is it coincidence that Jonny is ‘releasing’ a video so soon after Harry? …. lol

If I was looking for a training course … this is the one I would go on, without a doubt …. it’s a no brainer!

christ centred community

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imgresYesterday was one of those quiet but packed days that I often get as a pioneer. Quiet meaning that I never really talked significantly with anyone, and packed in that I was out most of the day, in the community, and engaging briefly with a variety of people in a variety of ways.

Following from yesterdays post I was painfully aware that i came across a lot of people who have not taken on board, maybe not even ever heard, that they were created, loved and fully accepted by their God. Today I came across raw unacceptance expressing itself in a steely commitment to a belief of inadequacy.

Everywhere I looked i seemed to see people that, in my opinion, seemed to be feeling that they are simply not good enough, not worthy of respect, worthless and useless. That thought makes me sad for this area, for people I am getting to know and for people I am looking to engage with.

Occasionally, and today being one of those occasions, I am asked to verbalise what it is that I am actually trying to achieve …. and the simple answer that comes is that ‘I am trying to build a Christ centred community’. We could ask and argue ‘what does that mean’, ‘isn’t that just a trendy name for church?’ or even ‘more meaningless Christian jargon’

Well maybe … but todays conversations and thinkings have made me think more seriously about booking a place on the Oasis conference titled: ‘Change makers: Building Holistic, Christ Centred Communities‘ …. the sessions do look pretty amazing…. and it won’t do any harm, and will probably result in a lot of cross fertilisation of ideas … so maybe i’ll see you there!

not growing up

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6a00d83451b3d069e20162ff2794b1970d-800wi-264x300.jpg.pagespeed.ce.Lb7chRZnaXToday has taken me by surprise.
I’m not a Monday kind of person.
I just don’t like Mondays.
Normally.
Until today.

Recently I have made a bit of a positive mind change.
This can often occur when I have spent a lot of time in contemplation.
I guess this mind change can best be described more as wholeheartedly accepting my calling (again!). An acceptance that means inevitably I will deliberately make myself vulnerable as I adopt a more focussed approach. A focussed approach that refuses to sit down, be quiet or take second best. An approach that means I am ready again to fight passionately for what I believe in, and am called to. I guess Frank Turner word’s from Photosynthesis:

And I won’t sit down
And I won’t shut up
And most of all
I will not grow up

The ‘not grow up’ line of that song always makes me smile. When I left YFC after around 15  years of fun, as was normal, a bunch of people gathered around me to pray for me. One of the more mature people felt he had a message from God from me …. the exact words I still remember …. ‘I think God is saying I am placing you as you … and you are not to lose that childlike cheeky chappie outlook ….. DO NOT GROW UP!’ (That’s my excuse for a lot of behaviour and I’m sticking to it!!)

That growing up stuff of taking yourself too seriously, thinking of lots of reasons why things have to be kept the same, thinking of even more reasons why we can’t change how we do something, worrying about bills to pay, promotion prospects (as if!), or what people might well think of me …. rather than the childlike outlook of seeing a simple solution, accepting others at ace value, trusting others (unless you have a good reason not to!) and (which I think is a gift of mine) seeing the lighter side of things and being able, and willing, to bring humour to a situation along with a certain uncomfortable focus and determination …. it is that childlikeness that I think I need to keep and nurture ….

I guess I am outlining an attitude of no compromise as I seek to develop stuff here that we know God has called us to set up.

So why the change?
Wasn’t I always sold out on this?
Well … hmmm …  yes … and no!
I guess this is not a change, as such really, as this is how I have normally worked. This is more of a recommitment. To get things done, often you need an uncompromising outlook and attitude.

To use labels, though, as a pioneer it is easy to feel alone and I happen to love working in teams. I think that’s biblical and i genuinely am convinced of the synergy effect of team working. Until quite recently I have felt alone in my vision, particularly for the High Street for some time, . But this has not been the case in reality. I started to remember this a few weeks ago when a good friend sent me this scene from Harry Potter:

The trouble with allowing yourself to feel alone is that it can cripple your ability to think, to create, to speak out … to do anything really.
For a little while I have felt crippled, hindered, held back and prevented from doing my thing with God. But, as my friend reminded me I am not alone in this. It only feels like it. It is like I have allowed myself to be fooled by stuff around me!

Today has taken me by surprise as I was reminded in quite an amazing and humbling way, in an unexpected forum of the local ministers forum, that I have the support of many people. Not only do I have support and prayer of the local leaders, colleagues, but I have people willing and wanting to get involved. It’s easy to forget that, but exciting to be reminded.

So …. today is a new day … and tomorrow too … i know the hassles and struggles will not disappear ….. but it seems today I am ready for them again ….  maybe I’m simply saying …. I’m back!’ Or…. if I kept a diary, maybe I’d call this ‘the day I remembered I’m not supposed to grow up!’

a pioneers plea …

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http://vimeo.com/84310265

warning: bit of a soapbox post!

There was some great researched published yesterday on church growth in the Church of England. George Lings and others outline the findings on the video and you can read a summary online and download a fuller version.

The headlines that have grabbed me:
Fresh Expressions of church are clearly furthering the mission of the Church of England
small is good … most fresh expressions are around or under 40 so they show a certain quality of community with a real sense of belonging
Fresh Expressions of church really are reaching new people that other churches do not reach at all.

After 6 years of ordained life as a pioneer of hearing that the Fresh Expressions ‘thing’ was going to be cut, or of hearing from others that I just get to do all the fun stuff which others with ‘real’ churches would love to do (I still heard that even this week!), or of being told that I do nothing different, or of being guilt laden by those who tell me I should do more baptisms or services, and of course of hearing that there is no finance to support Fresh Expressions because they are a ‘risk’ …. this report excites me, gives me hope, restores my faith in the establishment and expresses what we have known for some time….

Fresh Expressions of church just work!

And they work not because they are better than established or inherited church models (we need both – that’s what mixed economy means), nor because people leading Fresh Expressions are better leaders (that’s what the Body of Christ in 1 Cor 12 is all about), nor is it that God favours or blesses one type of church over another (that’s what Genesis, Image of God and Abrahamic blessing stuff is all about) …

Fresh Expressions of Church simply work because leaders of Fresh Expressions, like other leaders, work with integrity, they, like other leaders listen to God and to the prevailing culture, but their particular gift, unlike other leaders (that 1 Cor 12 thing again …. God made us to work together in variety) is to create something that matters and meets a particular group of people that other churches don’t. In our particular case, the gathering has taken 5 years to grow from 0 to around 20; 15 of which did not attend any church before they found the gathering.

So my plea …. encourage pioneers that you know. For years they have been looked down upon and viewed with suspicion. Those involved make great sacrifices (over half work unpaid – many actually giving up paid ministry or work to develop their community – and find other jobs to pay the bills). Often, by the very nature of the work, they are lonely, vulnerable and in risky contexts and can think regularly about giving up as idea after idea fails until something clicks (remember Edison and his 1000 attempts at the lightbulb!?)

Prayer and encouragement … on that I sign of ….. peace be with you.

tales of a pioneer … latest!

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header

 

the latest ‘Tales of a Pioneer’

is ready to be read now …

Pictures, words, video …. an update on what is happening with us, pioneering in Gillingham, the gathering and all that stuff.

If you are an apple person you can download it with video etc here: (although it will be a big file!)
http://alturl.com/uok22

Otherwise you can download the pdf here and will need to click on links to see further info:
http://alturl.com/bvx5s

I’m using Mail Chimp so you can subscribe from the newsletter so you get the next one direct if you like!