Joint Councils

I've been in the house all day today while the painters have been painting the window frames and the ADT man has been servicing the alarm system. This gave me an opportunity to finally get going on some writing I need to finish by Friday... I've managed to do most of it although I still need to come up with an all-age talk...

One of the problems with today's plan was that all the windows and doors needed to be left open, so the house was cold and there was a howling gale blowing through. It was good to shut everything up once they'd gone.

This evening I attended my first All Saints' and St Mary's council meetings post-sabbatical. For those who don't know we set up a very nice arrangement between the churches which basically means that we meet together for ministerial and parish business and then share coffee before splitting into separate groups. Each church has me for half the evening before we join together at the end for final prayers and "circle time". This final time of sharing is often valuable as each person is asked to mention one thing that they will take away from the evening. This has enormous value to people from both churches as learning is shared and they inspire each other.

This arrangement was originally planned as a way of saving time but it has interesting consequences in terms of cross-pollination and seems to generate a great deal of energy.

This was a good evening, as always. The St Mary's people are looking at ways to open up their building for prayer and turn fund-raising into positive community mobilisation. The All Saints' team had a good conversation about pastoral care and the need to encourage more people to be consciously caring.

There was also a discussion about worship leaders taking on "padwan learners" - who they would nurture as intercessors. All good stuff!

A good evening but an odd one for me since I'm not sure where I fit into all this...

The days other highlight was the arrival in to post of my sabbatical notes, all nicely bound. It's nice to see this as a finished product.

Church Councils in 2008

I'm trying to sort out Council dates for 2008. It's a real challenge. Monday and Friday are out. Tuesday is reserved for Mission Partnership and Thursday is used by courses and housegroups. This leaves Wednesday which is competed over by WVEC, the Ministry Team, the Church Councils and a variety of other gatherings.
I sent out some dates today, but they may not be workable - and that's for two churches. I haven't even started on the third. The truth is we have more meetings than evenings. It's a good job we don't have anything else we're supposed to be doing... (I jest)
This is one to watch. If we can find a more sustainable way of managing the business of church, we may find a way of releasing the life of church - and then we may see what the people of God can do...