Question Time

The end of a week when questions around Fresh Expressions have been very much to the fore. In Oxford on Tuesday night for an interesting and very provocative lecture by Helen Cameron at Regents Park college. She drew parallels between some models of church and secular activites, noting the parallels between small group (cell/class) church and book groups, 3rd space (ie not home nor work) church and secular coffee bars, and 'parental choice ' church (ie where childrens' work is central) and schools' choices. She noted the strengths and weaknesses in all of the models and discussion at the end focussed on the desirability or otherwise of homogenity in FX churches. My contibution was to be sceptical as to the lack of homogenity in exisiting churches - aren't we all attracted to spending time with people we share common interests with, whether it be surfing or choral evensong? The key question for me is 'how can times of shared fellowship across boundaries be enabled, whilst recognising that helpful God -centred worship looks very different for different people?'

How FX can be enabled and accomodated within the circuit system was the topic of conversation when working on seperate occasions with two district Supers this week - how can a circuit be encouraged to own a project at the early stages when there is no building/congregation to speak of and at the other end of the scale how can a long standing FX be made a full part of the circuit with all the responsibility that entails, whilst not losing its distinctiveness?

Travelling back from a circuit review meeting with my TDO colleague Paul yesterday, talk turned to the role of new communities in the establishment of FX. Do we put energy into new communities primarily because a) they are great mission opportunities or b) for those of us frustrated sometimes with the inflexibility we percieve in some traditional churches, it's a great opportunity to start afresh without baggage (and thus in a sense an admission of failure?)

Questions questions! Even these weighty matters pale in comparison,though, with the big one: Who is going to get the Birmingham manager's job?

In the Beginning

It's Friday night, England are beating Austria 1-0 in a meaningless friendly on Sky and I've finally started a blog. The idea is to offer some reflections on my work as Director of Mission for the Northampton Methodist District, as a way of sharing stuff that's happening and as an outlet for my own musings on the work, theological or otherwise. In the two and a half months I've been doing the job I've seen lots of evidence of God at work, as the churches and circuits in the District engage with the challenge of being mission-shaped in a changing world. My job is to prayerfully discern the best way of offering appropriate support, training, encouragement and resources. Its a huge district and so I'm getting to know the M1 intimately, but I bet I'm having more fun than Steve McClaren right now.