Two Stars

The thing about having Friday as your day off is that it's always when child related things take place, but I'm not complaining too much. Today was an opportunity to see both daughters shine.

Isabelle had the starring role in this mornings class production of "the Trouble with Mum" (The trouble is she's a witch). She was great - continuing the family tradition of drama most recently demonstrated by Iona's wonderful Pilate in JCSS.

But this wasn't the only event of the day. We also had to go to Cornerstone to see Iona in the Music Festival. We were very proud of Vocalis. There were only a handfull of them, but they held their own against the massed choirs of private schools (and one state school I think). It was like guerilla music. There were all these smart rows of blazer wearing disciplined school kids - and Vocalis in their purple shirts - clearly more of a little team... But they did extremely well. Technically I thought they were brilliant. They just couldn't produce the same volume as half a school... They didn't win, but no shame in it.

Well done the girls!

Growing Leaders

I took Isla for a run this morning. We did three miles in 28 minutes.

In the morning I aslo met with Mike to talk through his new role as Team Leader. It felt odd in some ways putting all this time in to support someone in this kind of a role. I seem to remember just drifting into it without any support or clarity. I'm sure this way is much better, but it's another clear indication of how far we've moved in a short period of time. Mike will be a great Team Leader, and I look forward to seeing how it all goes...

At lunch time I met with Linda from the Friday Cell Group who is doing a great job as leader/facilitator of that group. I hope she found the time useful.

In the afternoon I had a funeral visit in Shenley Church End, and I spent som time working on worship material for All Saints' Day 2008 - which needs to be finished by tomorrow.

In the evening I went to the Deanery Pastoral Committee at which we agreed to support the proposal from Water Eaton to develop "a Local Shared Ministry" which effectively means setting up a leadership team which will include two retired priests - with me as Area Dean acting as incumbent. This proposal is intended to give Water Eaton some breathing space to continue their development while waiting for more clarity about a long term vision...
We also discussed a proposal about Deanery posts which we will now be exploring with the Bishop, Archdeacon, and PDA. This was a good discussion and moved things on a bit... We seem fairly clear in our minds that there are three posts we want. The question is how to create them, locate them and whether they will be full or part time. All may be revealed on the 15th March...
Local Shared Ministry was also discussed and there seems to be a concensus that we are moving away from models toward process and support structure...

So much of my work today, as usual, has been about developing and encouraging our leaders. This is where my energy must be put if we are to build a sustainable and growing deanery/partnership. It's crucial that we nurture those who will provide the quality leadership that our churches need. I think most of my "parishioners" still think I sit around (between cups of tea) waiting for the phone to ring for a baptism, wedding or funeral. They probably even think I write sermons... The truth is I spend most of my time growing the ministery of others - and actually quite enjoy it...

Open for Business

Went to the Quarries Scout Camp again today to try to buy a Cub Uniform. Once again found it shut, although we had been assured it was open on a Wednesday afternoon. I finally found a small notice hidden behind a steel grid, which I could just about read, which informed me it was open between 6 and 8 pm. So a third trip will be neccessary...
Isla commented that this is similar to the experience of people trying to go to church and struggling to work out when and where to go. Those who know the secrets know exactly what to. But if you're not "in" you can find it very difficult...

I went back to the shop at 6:30pm and managed to feel even more lost. It wasn't obvious which door to push to get in and when I did get in I didn't know what I needed and found it difficult to ask. The size of the uniform was marked by chest measurement, but I had height. I was lucky enough to come away with a uniform that fitted, but it was an interesting exprience. I have to agree with Isla; it was just like going to church - I feel as deskilled as the average church visitor...

Also today - LSM Project Group, Lunch with Alison Baird and a meeting with someone about the Common Purpose course...
This evening - CtS Governors

Big Bang

I was woken this morning at 1:00am by a low bang followed by a strange rattling of pots. I thought for a moment that it might have been a distant explossion, but it turned out that there had been an earthquake. I think the word is it was something like 5.3 on the richter scale with the epicentre in Lincolnshire. Any one else hear or feel it?

Images of Priesthood

At Team Space this morning we looked at the images of priesthood developed by Bishop John in his book, the Life and Work of a Priest. These range from "Spiritual Explorer" to "Weather-beaten witness". Bishop John's book is a wonderful exploration of what priesthood might involve, and has already become a must read for ordinands, but it does tend to focus on the activity of "professional" priests - which shouldn't be a suprise given the title...

In his introduction he admits that his descriptions are "a bit busy and breathless". We felt that no one individual could really be good at fullfilling all the various images of priesthood that he puts forward, which brought us back to the concept of the priesthood of all believers - with a shared concept of priestly ministry - originating in Christ and expressed in some way through "set aside" individuals.

More to explore...

Tuesday

Team Meeting - Talked about Priesthood
Holy Cross Team Meeting - Planned Services for next two months
Liz Baker Sepervision - Looking at October 12th Evening for first communion...

Isla out in evening. Watched Star Wars 2 with kids...

Thinking Ahead

This is my first proper day back after the half-term week, although yesteday was fairly busy.
I managed to run 3.5 miles on the way back from school, which is always good, and dealt with some of the emails and messages hanging over from the week off. I've managed to work our a 10k route which I may try when I've got a free hour.
The day has been dominated by a meeting of the Deanery Leadership Team which had a fairly full agenda. Whaen we meet, we need to work through the various things that are going on. It's valueable time, and makes a real difference. There's a lot going on at the moment, so this was a fairly full meeting.
We did start to talk about Deanery Communications. One of the issues here is the request that has often been made that we find a way of feeding back what we're learning and also share some of the good ideas that are proving productive across the city. We are going to look at the possibility of revamping the Deanery Web Site (which was really created to diseminate copies of the deanery plan) and create something more interactive. Alongside this we're thinking of a monthly news sheet which might flag up articles on the web site and make sure key dates and information are properly circulated. We're going to look at this again next time we meet.

The rest of the day was dominated by sessions with ministers: Yvonne, Derek and Alastair. Mixed in with family time and odd jobs.

Peg Wars

Iona's half-term project: The cast of Star Wars as peg dolls - next she plans to make a movie...

Back to Work

Back to work today...
I dragged myself up for 8:00am - which felt challenging having sat up till 1:00am planning the day... Preached on the Samariton Woman at the Well.
Went to Holy Cross for the 9:00am Communion - Samairiton Woman again... (shortened version - the sermon not the woman)
Popped back to the house for my guitar to play "Be still" for the 9:45am service at which Liz was preaching - she also needed to borrow some sandles and a baby blanket - something about Moses...
Then back to All Saints for the 10:30am service on the theme of Spiritual Gifts. All in a days work...

Home for bowl of soup.

Visited Tim and Julie. Julie is looking better, but still feeling awful after her car crash.
Then popped in to see Paul and Molly at the Hospice. Delivered copy of Voices.

Service Planning Meeting at 3:00pm: We worked through the plan up to Septmber/October with some thought about Christmas and the Silver Jubillee celebrations in October 2009.

Went home to cook tea - Chiken Tikka Masala with coliflour.
Gils had cooked cake - yum.

Watched Wife Swap in the evening. Pastor's wife swaps with smoking, gambling, boozing fellow Christian. Great to see that we have all sorts in the Church(!) The highlight was when the slightly up-tight pastor blew £63 on the dogs... and then his wife found out... oops...

Bed and sleep. ZZZZZZZ

The Road to Growth

The Road to Growth
by Bob Jackson

Bob Jackson has written an absolutely fascinating book, which attempts to analyse the evidence for growth ascociated with various popular strategies. One of the benefits of this approach is that it produces a wonderful treasure trove of tables, charts and figures. This makes it a perfect book to dip into again and again... One to leave in the loo for a while...
On the minus side, it's worth reminding ourselves that there are "lies, damned lies and statistics". All attempts to pin down the facts about any complex situation are always doomed to oversimplification or omission. Use wisely...
Having said that, there are various observations in this book that I feel it would be unwise to ignore. Here are just a few for starters:
1. Team Ministries (and LEPs) have not had a good track record for mission and growth. Jackson observes that that they require a great deal of time and energy to maintain and therefore have little capacity for mission. (His statistics prove this...)
2. Short Incumbancies are bad news: If ministers stay for less than five years, they won't have had time to get established and won't reach their peak. (He has the figures...)
3. Younger Clergy are generally ascociated with growing churches. In fact, he suggests that ministers are best at atracting people who are within ten years of themselves in age. This would suggest to me that if you want to reach out to people in their twenties and thirties, you need at least one thirty year old on your team...
4. Lengthy vacanices are bad: Long vacncies are not a good idea - he says. Although the recieved wisdom is that vacancies are good times for churches to grow, the evidence is that they generally shrink. Combine this with short incumbancies and you have a recipe for steady decline. (He has charts to prove it....)
5. Alpha Courses (and other nurture courses) don't produce growth by themselves - but they can be productive when they are well established and part of the core strategy of a church.
6. Churches that provide good youth work (and youth workers) normally have growing children's work - because younger children can see that they are being taken seriously long term...
7. Sunday Morning is the key time for growth and evangelism - except amongst teens and twenties...
8. Multi-plex churches are the way forward - provide variety
9. Small churches grow quickest. In fact, he says, most church growth in London has taken place in the small churches, not in the big (and sometimes well known) churches. Which means that we need more small churches...
...and there's much more worth picking out... Perhaps I'll return to this blog and add more...

One of his key observations is that the Church of England is stuck in a cycle of decline based on a continual need to raise shares to pay for clergy who are finding life more and more difficult - and being reduced in number as their responsibilities grow... More generous giving is seen as the main solution...

He contrasts this with a cycle of growth which would focus on church growth. In this cycle, parishes are renewed and fresh expressions encouraged. Costs are reduced and a "pay for what you use" approach taken for shares. Ordained Stipendiary Clergy numbers may go down, but a growing workforce of lay / part-time / task focused people would energise the life of the church...Of course, it strikes me that this is precicely what we've been talking about in the Deanery. The vision is to make Milton Keynes a sustainable, growing Deanery - hence the challenge to pay at least 80% of clergy costs - hence the focus on mission rather than structural ecumanism - hence the desire to change the way we use clergy and deanery posts - hence the Local Shared Ministry project... I may not agree with everything that Bob Jackson says in this book, but the central message is very familiar. We need to get from a cycle of decline to a cycle of growth - from a cycle of greif to a cycle of grace...

Loft Space

The great Holiday Project is complete. We now have useable loft space Alleluia! Seven bags of rubbish removed. Trip to tip and charity shop. Clear up operation begins...
Have enjoyed having a few days in MK without having to work 24/7. Can see this would be a good thing. Not looking forward to going back to work...
On my death bed I would probably regret giving too many hours to church work. I would also feel guilty for all the things I hadn't done for the church... That's why being a Vicar isn't great for your stress levels... We need a new way of doing church...

Wednesday

Not sure whether we managed to get a break or not this week. All tired. Trying to be off and rest, but proving difficult...

Recycling

This week's project is to finally go through our junk room and get rid of all the stuff that has accumulated over the past eight years. The dream (vain hope?) if to turn this small box room into a useful space. We fought our way in this morning and managed to get rid of three old PC monitors, six bags of rubish, three bags of cardboard for recycling, two bags of old toys, a bag of old videos and four bags of old clothes - scary what you can get rid of when you try! This afternoon I had the delights of a trip to the charity shop and the tip - which is always a treat...
The next step is to see what we can do with the stuff we want to keep...

Home again

Drove back to MK on Monday afternoon. Pizza and salad for tea.
Episode six of Primeval on video.

Sunday in Kent

We went to church in East Malling this morning. It's always good to be there. It's changed a lot under the new Vicar, Jim, who has had to take the church into a multi-parish benefice. On the face of it, it's a fairly traditional set up, but Jim is definitley a "team leader" with a large group of people who function as members of his various teams. It seems to work well...
In the afternoon we headed off to Witstable for cockles and oysters and walk on the beach...

Saturday in Kent

Went to Kent to see Grandma. Set up her new computer, which seems to work.

Friday

Finished Voices in the early hours. Got some sleep. Went to CtS for Assembly. Went to New Bradwell to deliver Voices to printer. Went home. Sat down and worked through all the jobs that need to be done before half term: Planning services, making sure people know what they're doing etc...

Valentines Day Part Two

We had our Valentines night meal (cooked and eaten in half an hour) in time for me to get to Fenny Stratford for a meeting with their PCC. Got there in time for the last ten minutes of Benediction - haven't been to Benediction in 16 years since we used to go the St Margarets on the Gallowgate in Aberdeen (sometimes known as "the Church of the Big Golden Jesus"). The meeting was about Parish Share and was hopefully useful. We tried to be encouraging. It is difficult to pay a parish share if you're a small church in a less prosperous area. I suspect the long term solution to this problem is a change in the way we do church...
I'm now working on this months edition of Voices. I have more material than pages and I need to finish it by tomorrow. If you're reading this, wish me luck...

Valentine's Day

I always buy cards for the girls, but often wonder what people think when I buy three Valentine's cards. Perhaps they would really wonder if I bought them with a clerical shirt on.
This year, I noticed one high street shop sold cards addressed to "my daughter" so my worries are over!
Although this could be a day for flowers and cards and chocolates and all the rest... there'll be limited time for that in our house. I spent the morning in Great Missenden with the Bishop and the wardens from Water Eaton. It was a great meeting and we've made a lot of progress - although I do now need to attend their AGPM - on a Sunday Morning...
Back to Milton Keynes, I popped into Killkenny where I was expecting to celebrate communion. They were expecting a singer, who was half an hour late. We had a nice time chatting and singing along to old songs. I left before the real entertainment began...
So it was four pm before I even started my own work for Thursday. I'll get a bit done while the girls are out, and then it'll be time for my evening meeting...

Wednesday

Strange day... Lots to do but still waiting for all the material from other people that I need before I can do it...
Had a good meeting in the afternoon with the people of Water Eaton, thinking through what they want to put to the Bishop tomorrow...
Parents Evening was fine. We were all tired so we went to the chip shop for tea.
Team Meeting this evening was a little odd. Lots of people didn't turn up. There were only three people for the first half hour. It was one of those occassions when it was hard to have a meeting.
We managed to have a brainstorm in preparation for our bit in the Annual Report., Mike's writing it up, which is great. His first Annual Report. I do feel a bit sad that I don't have a chance to feedback and report on the last five years, but time marches on...
When I got home I was able to put a number of pages into Voices. There are still a couple of gaps, but the real task is now arranging, and filling gaps... That's the job for tomorrow night...

Mad Tueasday

Started the day at Team Space with a long discussion about Pastoral Care systems in the various churches. Great discussion and really valuable, but not much time for anything else...
Then it was time for Ministers West, which was also very good. We spent more time in general sharing than normal, and all learned a great deal...
This left an hour and a half before it was time to collect the children. I though about squesszing in a run. Decided to work instead but couldn't give time to my projects for the week since there were various emails and phone calls which needed doing right then and there. Isla picked up the children and I finished the most urgent emails by 4 when she headed off to her course.
Looked after children until 7. We explored http://www.factory.lego.com/ which is cool, and Izzy made a zoo. We had late Chineese New Year food.
Had a wedding/blessing interview at 7.30. Isla came back soon after 8. Had a fairly undproductive evening and none of us slept well...
Going to be tired tomorrow... and there'll be hangover emails and work from today's dramas...
The work on Voices is piling up for Thursday night...

Mad Monday

The week continues with another fun packed day:
Didn't have time for a run this morning - which is a shame because Monday morning is a good time for this. Started the day with emails and notes...
9:30 - 11:30am: Meeting of Working Group on Deanery Deployment. An intense but productive session. We managed to work through the proposal that will now go to the DPC. Must write it up tonight...
12:30 - 1:30pm: Lunch with Ernesto. Good to catch up.
2:00 - 3:00pm: Voices Editorial Meeting: Very little material to work with this month and I'm editor! Could be some late evenings...
5:30 - 6:30pm: Had a conversation with a prospective LLM candidate with my tea on my lap.
6:30 - 7:00pm: Went to All Saints' to see the man who is running a focus group about the Door, the diocesan newspaper. I think we have between 4.5 to 9 people at this session. I look forward to finding out how it went...
7:30 - 9:00pm: Deanery Finance Committee presentation at Walton LEP: The first of our presentations to parishes about share and deployment. It went extremely well. I hope this will prove to have been a helpful evening. One key thing that came out of this evening was a clear request for opportunities to share good practice in mission across the city. People want to know what works. It would be really good to do something about this, but time is the issue as with so many things...
9:30pm - home and to work. Must do some work on the deployment proposal, Voices and the Team Meeting before I sleep. I wonder when that will be...

11:15pm - just finished work on DPC proposal. Will email it to the group. Next some work on Voices...
Got to bed at 1:00am having tried to do some work on the Team notes and agenda... Couldn't publish because Google Groups weren't behaving...

First Sunday of Lent

8:00am Holy Communion at All Saints
10:30am Holy Communion at All Saints - with introduction to Viewpoints / "Position"
2:00pm Baptism at All Saints
3:00pm Wedding Interview
6:30pm Growing Disciples

King Kong: What is his Viewpoint?

Richard's Re-Tyre-Ment Party

Richard's Retirement was marked with a service, a meal, tributes and dancing... In true Richard style, everything over-ran...
I was struck by the message "The fields are white but the laborours are few". This was a comment on Richard's special ministry. It was also a reminder that ministers can't retire - really - and it was a call to others to help with the work. As we were told, the best tribute to Richard would be for others to hear the same call to serve God in the local church...

Mad Week begins...

Izzy woke us all up at 4:00am worried about snakes under her bed. (No she hasn't been watching Snakes on a Plane, she's too little.) I couldn't get to sleep, so I got up and got on with work. This is a Mad Week (note the capitals) - I have meetings with Walton, Fenny Stratford and Water Eaton, the Bishop, Ernesto and the Deployment Working Party. It's a Team Meeting week - so agendas and updates will need to be out. I'm editing Voices, preparing for the next Service Planning Meeting and picking readings and themes for 2009 for SU. All to be finished by Thursday. Plus I've got Parents Evening, Viewpoints, Team Space, Ministers West, Afternoon Baptisms, Growing Disciples and Wedding Interviews... All in all, I'll be glad when the week is over...

Lazarus not raised

We've decided to rename our our goldfish, previously known as Molly. From now on we'll call him/her Lazarus. Twice over the past year we though he/she was going to a better place. Twice he/she has come back from the edge. He/she was nearly removed from the tank in the last week in a plastic bowl (a fishy coffin?) but pulled through again and is now swimming around as if he/she had never been ill.
We'll keep an eye on Lazarus and hope that he/she doesn't need raising from the deep...

Bishop in residence

Bishop Alan is worried about his carbon footprint, so he's decided to spend entire days in each deanery to allow people to come to him - and avoid some of the long journeys that people need to make to see him... so we had Bishop Alan in residence today. He borrowed a room in our house and did bishopy things. It was an interesting day.

This evening we had an Ecumenical Confirmation in Milton Keynes with one candidate from Watling Valley. I couldn't be there because I was at the first session of Viewpoints, our new discernment course. This seemed to go well although numbers were low. The second group starts tomorrow. I'm hopeful that this will be a really significant tool in our discipleship kit, so this is a project I'm watching very closely...

Ash all round...

Today is Ash Wednesday and I have never had so many ashings to do on one day...

I started the day with a little ash factory at the front of the house. There I was sitting on my little green stool with an old sauce pan in my hand, a bin of recycled paper at my side and a few palm crosses blowing in the wind. Goodness knows what the passers by thought, but I produced three small pots of ash...

Pot One: William Sutton House. Took my first pot of ash to the residents for their monthly communion. I then took this pot to Oakhill STC for Yvonne to use with the trainees.

I went for a run (3 miles in 28minutes 10 seconds) and had lunch with Jeremy Trigg...

Pot Two: Taste and See at Christ the Sower. I took the second pot to Christ the Sower, but the plan was to burn some palm crosses with the children. Pot Two was technically a backup. It took some time to get the crosses going, but we did, so pot two finished with more in it than it started with...

Taste and See for Ash Wednesday went well. We made Ash in the courtyard, then there was a choice of activities. The adults liked the quite meditation (lying down) and the children liked the black and white craft activities - particularly the play dough (most of them twigged the link with ash...)
As usual, it was great to see the children really enjoy church - and the grown-ups get something out of the experience too... The only problem is the set-up time. This "fresh expressions" stuff is all very well, but it would be nice to have an army of helpers... Although of course, since a true fresh expression is tragetted at those who don't attend church, I suppose an army of bright eyed enthusiastic church members would be counter productive...

Pot Three: Evening Service. There was still some left from pot one, since Yvonne hadn't used it. Pot two had been filled up. So there were three pots of ash on the table at St Giles this evening. They'd all been on very different journeys but ended up together for the final event - Holy Communion with the Imposition of Ashes at St Giles.
There was a good mixed turnout. Liz was assisting and I preached.
I commented on the way we sometimes seem to do what the Bible tells us not to. We call ministers "Father" even though that's the one thing Jesus tells us not to call people - and we put ash on our heads when Jesus tells us to do our "acts of righteousness" in secret.
The point of lent is to do things that help us grow. We take on spiritual disciplines, but these disciplines are designed to open us up to the grace of God - not to force us to be better. It is right therefore that they are private actions - since they will be different for each of us...
So what about the ash. We don't want to make a big deal about what we do, but the carbon we put on our heads can still make a point. Carbon is the stuff ot life and yet we are now burning it as we damage the earth for our own ends... Perhaps the ash on our heads is a call to change rather than a claim to be more holy. A personal carbon footprint to remind us that the whole world needs to repent...

Pancakes all round!

Having decided to have family pancakes on Sunday, it was inevitable that this would be a pancake filled week....

Team Space was relatively pancake free but Liz, who was hosting, had been volunteered to run the pancake event in Wolverton. Mike, meanwhile, was in charge of pancakes for Deanery Chapter. We finished unusually early, after a productive discussion about the Priorities for 2008 and how we will use them...

Deanery Chapter began in pieces as people arrived from their various pancake events. Jeremy was slightly delayed, having driven (with a funeral procession) through the Olney pancake race - not as competiters, I believe...

Deanery Chapter was good today. Small in numbers again, but a good sense of fellowship. I think it's generally a good thing that Chapter is less formal than it used to be, but it would be good to see more people...

Picked the kids up after school and took them home (tea included more pancakes). Iona has just finished Lego Star Wars (DS) so we celebrated by watching the Phantom Menace. It was interesting watching it with fresh eyes. Most people thought it was a bit dull when it first came out, but the kids just think of it as Episode 1. I'm sure I'll have to sit through Episode 2 at some point. It will be good to watch the whole story unfold as George Lucas intended...

Had some difficulty with my video for Taste and See. More work to do on this tomorrow...

We are Kiwis

Just received an email from my dad in New Zealand. He's keeping a blog of their travels. See http://wearekiwisnow.blogspot.com/ I've asked him to check out some Local Shared Ministry churches, so I may get some research out of this...

Monday Run

Went for a run on the way back from school. Managed three miles in 28 min 14 seconds - which is the fastest I've done it for a while. I'd decided (after weeks of getting moving again) to go for it this morning, aiming to run as fast as I felt sensible. I'm pleased with the result. Of course I have done this distance in 25 minutes, so I've got a good way to go yet...

This is the kind of Monday I need more often - the kind of day when I haven't got hundred of meetings and events. If I'm lucky, I could get some things done today...

DFC

Small gathering of Deanery Finance Committtee in the evening (2) to discuss the presentations we're going to give to parishes. The first one will be at Walton next week. The idea is to give a clear presentation of the facts about Parish/Deanery Share and help churches have a discussion about the implications and what they plan to do.

Sunday Before Lent

I went to Woolstones this morning to join them for worship. Duncan was taking the service and speaking about stewardship. He preached a good sermon, which I would quite hapily borrow.

The congregation were welcoming, as always, and we had a good chat over coffee after the service. Meanwhile, back at Watling Valley, we had our Covenant Service, which Mike lead at Servant King. Apparently the service went well, but the attendance was very low - arround 100. As always, most people seem to see this as a Sunday off...

In the afternoon, Mike and I had Wedding Preparation - Seven couples today. This went well as always, and we introduced a new section about the subjects couples should talk about before getting married...

Once I got home, we had an early pancake day, since Tuesday will be far too busy dort such things...

Iona's Birthday Party

Iona's Birthday Party Today.

We had a party for seven at the snowzone.

Very hard work... but Iona enjoyed it.