Check out Lyfe - the new approach to Bible Study being promoted by the Bible Study. It's basically the kind of approach we used to use very successfully in Team Space: Read a passage, allow it to speak to you and reflect together. This kind of approach actually works very well if you approach it prayerfully and collaboratively. Another example of KISS. The advantage with Lyfe is that the Bible Society are supporting it and providing an on-line infrustructure and resources. They're also keen that Lyfe groups meet in public places like cafes. Anyone up for a Lyfe group?
At the same time BRF are making Foundations 21, their on-lone discipleship programme free. Well worth a look.
They are very different approaches. One is light and process driven; the other is content heavy and structured. Different tools for different people.
Showing posts with label discipleship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discipleship. Show all posts
Monday, 8 June 2009
Monday, 15 September 2008
The Gospel According to Star Wars
Faith, Hope and the Force
I bought this book at Greenbelt thinking it would be a light read and a bit of fun. It turned out to be a fairly meaty piece of systematic theology using the Star Wars saga as a jumping off point. I felt I was back at university again...
It is a good book and certainly makes you think. John McDowell reflects on the underlying theological and philosophical issues that can be found in the Star Wars movies and explores issues of evil, politics, salvation and redemption in an original and thought-provoking way.
A must if you're a closet jedi with theological tendencies - but McDowell has some serious things to say about Christian discipleship which are worth hearing.
I bought this book at Greenbelt thinking it would be a light read and a bit of fun. It turned out to be a fairly meaty piece of systematic theology using the Star Wars saga as a jumping off point. I felt I was back at university again...It is a good book and certainly makes you think. John McDowell reflects on the underlying theological and philosophical issues that can be found in the Star Wars movies and explores issues of evil, politics, salvation and redemption in an original and thought-provoking way.
A must if you're a closet jedi with theological tendencies - but McDowell has some serious things to say about Christian discipleship which are worth hearing.
Thursday, 21 August 2008
Vision Raising
I spotted this on Pastor Steve's Blog:
Vision Raising is a way of helping individual Christian believers use their time and energy in ways that are effective and joyful. I'm thinking about preaching on the concept of "Call" and then, soon after, have three vision raising events, one focused on Discipleship (making disciples and living as disciples of Jesus), the second on Outreach (world & local) and a third on Leadership & Support (to help give success to the activities, projects and events that people are called to do).
At each vision raising event we will gather for scriptural teaching on the designated focus, prayers, an offering of ideas (such as in a brainstorming session) and finally, the asking of an important question "How would you like to be involved in making one or more of these ideas a reality." Those attending the event would then indicate their own specific desires and those desires would then be recorded. Some people will want to continue in the ways they are currently involved. Others will want to switch to another existing activity or to something new.
At a vision raising event (quoting Wendy's book The Custom Designed Church):
What is done or not done is based upon people's calls and desire to make something happen. It is critical that no pressure be applied for people to do something. If no one feels inspired to do a certain thing, then an idea is dropped and not pursued now. If one idea becomes a real vision, then the process has been a success.
Vision Raising is a way of helping individual Christian believers use their time and energy in ways that are effective and joyful. I'm thinking about preaching on the concept of "Call" and then, soon after, have three vision raising events, one focused on Discipleship (making disciples and living as disciples of Jesus), the second on Outreach (world & local) and a third on Leadership & Support (to help give success to the activities, projects and events that people are called to do).
At each vision raising event we will gather for scriptural teaching on the designated focus, prayers, an offering of ideas (such as in a brainstorming session) and finally, the asking of an important question "How would you like to be involved in making one or more of these ideas a reality." Those attending the event would then indicate their own specific desires and those desires would then be recorded. Some people will want to continue in the ways they are currently involved. Others will want to switch to another existing activity or to something new.At a vision raising event (quoting Wendy's book The Custom Designed Church):
What is done or not done is based upon people's calls and desire to make something happen. It is critical that no pressure be applied for people to do something. If no one feels inspired to do a certain thing, then an idea is dropped and not pursued now. If one idea becomes a real vision, then the process has been a success.
Sunday, 17 August 2008
What do we want?
I preached at Holy Cross today. The reading for the day was Matthew 15:21-28 - the Canaanite Woman. This gave me an opportunity to speak about marathon running - having sat up during the night to watch the women's marathon at the Beijing Olympics. Paula Radcliffe did her best to finish even though she clearly wasn't fit enough. The winner was a Rumanian who took off and kept going even though everyone else thought she would grind to a halt... This provided a great link to the reading, picking up themes of persistence and constant re-thinking in the pursuit of an important goal.
In the second part of the service I decided to experiment and ask the congregation what they thought they might need from Church in order to pursue their own calling to be disciples. I pointed out that Church is a "school for disciples" rather than a "club for saints". If this is really true, what do we need? What should preachers talk about? What themes would be worth exploring?
I collected the results and would like to say that the most common suggestions were:
a. Sharing the Gospel
b. Being a Disciple
c. Being Christians in our local community
d. The Communion Service
e. The Background to the Bible
I was suprised to see evangelism at the top of the list, but there were refrences to "getting more people to come to church" so there may be questions about motivation to unpack. I would be interesting to know if other churches would produce a similar list...
The question for me know is to think about how I follow this up in my preparation for worship.
In the second part of the service I decided to experiment and ask the congregation what they thought they might need from Church in order to pursue their own calling to be disciples. I pointed out that Church is a "school for disciples" rather than a "club for saints". If this is really true, what do we need? What should preachers talk about? What themes would be worth exploring?
I collected the results and would like to say that the most common suggestions were:
a. Sharing the Gospel
b. Being a Disciple
c. Being Christians in our local community
d. The Communion Service
e. The Background to the Bible
I was suprised to see evangelism at the top of the list, but there were refrences to "getting more people to come to church" so there may be questions about motivation to unpack. I would be interesting to know if other churches would produce a similar list...
The question for me know is to think about how I follow this up in my preparation for worship.
Sunday, 9 March 2008
Passion Sunday
It was a long day today, but here are some of the highlights...
8:00am: Holy Communion at All Saints' Loughton - I preached on Lazarus with an emphasis on the place of the story in journey of Jesus towards the Cross
9:00am: Holy Communion at Holy Cross Two Mile Ash - I preached a similar sermon, but with an emphasis on resurection which I extended to the rest of the service
10:30am: Holy Communion at All Saints' Loughton - We rejigged the service so I could preach before the reading. I spoke about Rolland Allen, making links to the journey of our churches towards Local Ministry - with references to St Mary's Worship Leaders and the new experiment at St Frideswide. The link with the Lazarus story is the way Jesus chose to take the risk of "retiring" (pinching Allen's phrase) from the events in Bethany for the long term good of the Gospel... I left them listening to the reading with Tim Hadden to preside at Communion.
11:00am (actually 11:10am): AGM at Water Eaton - got to Water Eaton ten minutes late having torn down the A5 at 70 (which is legal on the dual carriageway). I was supposed to be chairing their AGM, but it was inevitably a team job since they knew how they do things better than I ever will. It was good to be with them, and the whole meeting was very positive. It was good to affirm what they've achieved during the past year. The discussion about Malcolm and Gail's proposal ("Toward a Local Shared Ministry") was positive but thoughtful. There is a general feeling that this is the right thing to do at the moment, but a concern that we have contingency plans and are open to other possibilities in the long term. The vote was nearly unanimous, with one person voting against, but it turned out he really wanted to make sure there were sensible checks and ballances included, which we agreed to require.
And so the next stage of the Water Eaton experiment begins. We will now need to make sure proper guidelines for the team and the reviews are set up. We will also need to speak to Bishop Alan. In the meantime, they can continue with a bit more stability and confidence.
Afternoon: Izzy needed some attention. Long walk. Lunch.
6:30pm: Growing Disciples part 7 - I hadn't had any time to prepare for Growing Disciples so it wasn't the smoothest of sessions. This was the session on Groups and Teams that we had issues with last year. The CPAS Growing Leaders material makes an artificial distinction between Groups and Teams which we suspect was motivated by their desire to use concepts from "Five Disfunctions of Teams". Unfortunately, we think there is a difference between groups and teams and buy into the idea that in a Team your work has an effect on the work of the whole, but a Group can meet without mutual responsibility.
On the other hand, it was a good evening.
Mike and I are beginning to think about next year and are starting to consider names of people to invite. Years one and two have been so significant as we have seen people grow, develop networks and find new confidence. This has been an important programme for us as a Partnership and is clearly a key part of our discipleship strategy.
One of our next thoughts is to do more with our "Alumni" - we will have 22 by July. One idea that we're considering is to organise a trip to the Willow Creak Leadership Conference in the UK - and to get hold of the videos. This would give us a way of continuing to build up and develop our leaders...
8:00am: Holy Communion at All Saints' Loughton - I preached on Lazarus with an emphasis on the place of the story in journey of Jesus towards the Cross
9:00am: Holy Communion at Holy Cross Two Mile Ash - I preached a similar sermon, but with an emphasis on resurection which I extended to the rest of the service
10:30am: Holy Communion at All Saints' Loughton - We rejigged the service so I could preach before the reading. I spoke about Rolland Allen, making links to the journey of our churches towards Local Ministry - with references to St Mary's Worship Leaders and the new experiment at St Frideswide. The link with the Lazarus story is the way Jesus chose to take the risk of "retiring" (pinching Allen's phrase) from the events in Bethany for the long term good of the Gospel... I left them listening to the reading with Tim Hadden to preside at Communion.
11:00am (actually 11:10am): AGM at Water Eaton - got to Water Eaton ten minutes late having torn down the A5 at 70 (which is legal on the dual carriageway). I was supposed to be chairing their AGM, but it was inevitably a team job since they knew how they do things better than I ever will. It was good to be with them, and the whole meeting was very positive. It was good to affirm what they've achieved during the past year. The discussion about Malcolm and Gail's proposal ("Toward a Local Shared Ministry") was positive but thoughtful. There is a general feeling that this is the right thing to do at the moment, but a concern that we have contingency plans and are open to other possibilities in the long term. The vote was nearly unanimous, with one person voting against, but it turned out he really wanted to make sure there were sensible checks and ballances included, which we agreed to require.
And so the next stage of the Water Eaton experiment begins. We will now need to make sure proper guidelines for the team and the reviews are set up. We will also need to speak to Bishop Alan. In the meantime, they can continue with a bit more stability and confidence.
Afternoon: Izzy needed some attention. Long walk. Lunch.
6:30pm: Growing Disciples part 7 - I hadn't had any time to prepare for Growing Disciples so it wasn't the smoothest of sessions. This was the session on Groups and Teams that we had issues with last year. The CPAS Growing Leaders material makes an artificial distinction between Groups and Teams which we suspect was motivated by their desire to use concepts from "Five Disfunctions of Teams". Unfortunately, we think there is a difference between groups and teams and buy into the idea that in a Team your work has an effect on the work of the whole, but a Group can meet without mutual responsibility.
On the other hand, it was a good evening.
Mike and I are beginning to think about next year and are starting to consider names of people to invite. Years one and two have been so significant as we have seen people grow, develop networks and find new confidence. This has been an important programme for us as a Partnership and is clearly a key part of our discipleship strategy.
One of our next thoughts is to do more with our "Alumni" - we will have 22 by July. One idea that we're considering is to organise a trip to the Willow Creak Leadership Conference in the UK - and to get hold of the videos. This would give us a way of continuing to build up and develop our leaders...
Thursday, 7 February 2008
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...
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...
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