Creating a movement from a monument

Our series on 'The Unstoppable Church' kicked off this morning and we looked at the 'Wind of Mission'.

Wind is a powerful biblical metaphor for the movement of God. From Genesis 1, where we find the spirit blowing across the formless chaos, through to the mighty wind of Pentecost, we find that wherever there is wind, there is movement - disturbing the comfortable, and creating activity for God. When Nicodemus comes to Jesus in John 3, he is reminded that 'the wind blows where it will' - how often we in the Church try to control and harness that wind, for our own purposes. Thankfully, God is so much bigger than that - the wind cannot be 'boxed in' like that!

Did you know that there is enough wind in the UK to power the National Grid five times over? 

Yet only 0.4 % of the our power comes from wind...

Why is that? Surely its because wind is so difficult to get hold of and turn into power.

If it was easy enough - we'd already be turning this free source of power into electricity. 

It's a bit like that with Churches. God is the wind - he blows so mightily that nothing that we can do can control that source of power. Our job is not to try and control him - but rather allow him to blow through us, creating movement and momentum in his Church, and an outpouring of mission.

The takehome sheet with quotes, music and thoughts is posted in the Resources section of the site, together with the sermon notes used on Sunday. They don't precisely correspond to the talk - the wind of God must have been blowing! - but they give a good summary of it.

The Wind of Mission

This coming Sunday we start a series that will run throughout May, based on the book The Unstoppable Force by Erwin Raphael McManus. Read my review in 'Out of the Cocoon'.

McManus is the lead pastor of an amazing, creative and multi-cultural Church in Los Angeles called Mosaic, and they have set out their mission in terms of five metaphors - pictures that describe what they are trying to become as a community. In the book, McManus describes and discusses those five metaphors, which form the basis of our sermons for the month. 

This week we are thinking about Wind. 

Wind is the metaphor for Mission. It speaks of a God who is constantly moving, and constantly creating movement amongst his people. It reminds us that the Church is meant to be a movement, not an monument. Far too often we allow the Church to become institutionlised - to become a group that simply wants to preserve things that we have known and become comfortable with. Yet, the picture that emerges from the bible is that God's people pitched a tent, rather than built a building.  What does it mean - for us, as a Church that has a building, and lives as part of a traditional denomination - to become a 'movement'? What kind of Church would St Cuthberts be if we began to shape ourselves, and live, as a people 'on the move'.  Come along on Sunday and  we'll knock it around!

In the Gospel reading that we will have on Sunday, a curious Pharisee called Nicodemus comes to Jesus by the cover of darkness. With his interest picqued he questions Jesus about his teaching, about what it means to be born of God - notice Jesus' interesting reply

'You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone "born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God' _{(John 3.7-8 The Message version)}

 Are we going to become a movement, or do we prefer to cocoon ourselves within a monument?

Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting of the Church took place on Sunday April 30th after the main morning service. around 45 people stayed behind for the meeting, which heard reports about the finances, the building, the work of the PCC and other things that have been happening over the last year.

Steve Nuttall and Sandra Knowles were re-elected as wardens, whilst Victoria Seage, June Rendell, Bev Nuttall and Bev Strauss were re-elected to the Church Council. Two vacancies on PCC were filled by Steve Harvey (2 year term) and Julie Robinson (1 year term). Catherine Basford was appointed PCC Secretary. Thanks to everyone - we've got a cracking Church Council now and look forwardto the year ahead. We start with a meeting next Monday (May 8th) and our Away Day at Bishopscroft on May 13th.

The main presentation at the meeting was a report on Paul's sabbatical, together with some introductory comments and ideas about how what he learned could impact our Church. This was followed by a Q&A session. The paper presented by Paul can be downloaded from the Resource section of the site, as can other documents from the meeting. 

New Site Officially Launched

Our new web site is now officially online and can now be reached via our usual domain of www.stcuthbertswrose.org.uk.

This site represents something like the fourth or fifth incarnation of St Cuthberts online - and, finally, we have a site that does everything that I hoped it would be able to do! There are static pages with information about the church, forthcoming services and events - the links for those are over on the right.

We've got a range of interactive features where you can add comments or content - there is a discussion forum, hot topic of the week, a guestbook, files you can download and a gallery of photographs. Lots more content and more interactivity to come in that 'middle section'

Then we have my own personal web log ('blog') where I wrestle with issues of emerging church - look for the 'Out of the Cocoon' link to go straight there. Add on links, favourite blogs, recommended books - and you can see that we have plenty to do here on our site.

So, have a dig around. It's relatively early days and the amount of content will grow in coming weeks - but there is plenty to be going on with! Leave a comment in the Guestbook or join in with some of interactive parts of the site. You are most welcome!

Yes to Young People

This is the first ever 'Diocesan Day', to be held on May 1st at Bradford Grammar School just down the road in Frizinghall, 'Yes to Young People' is the first of a planned series of day events, each looking at one of the five key points in the Bishop of Bradford's Future Faithful strategy for the Diocese.

St Cuthberts will be represented appropriately by our young people's leaders team, Graham and Julie Robinson and Paul Seage. The Deanery has also been invited to send young person delegates, and three of our young people, Ben Harvey, Daniel Robinson and Pete Nuttall will be there too!

We look forward to hearing a report back on what looks to be an interesting and challenging day. 

Update on Tuesday, May 2, 2006 at 02:06PM by Admin

Sounds like this was a terrific day - according to this report here on the BBC web site

We look forward to feedback from our representatives in due course 

Soul Cafe

The world is changing. We can’t quite put our finger on it, but instinctively we know that things are not the way they used to be. Not only that—but the pace of change seems to be rapidly increasing… leaving us breathless, confused and wondering about the future. It is tempting for the Church to pull up the drawbridge, to try to survive in a cocoon. But that only leads to fossilisation and decline.

All around we see a Church in decline , with falling congregations and a loss of influence of the Church. Yet, at the same time, people are more interested in spirituality than ever before. Something is wrong, somewhere…. How can the Church learn to not only face up to and understand the present day culture, but find new ways to engage with and do mission? That’s the massive question we’ll all be grappling with at Soul Café.

This is a weekend unlike any previous Church Weekend—no programme of teaching that is largely forgotten once we get back home– but rather a series of honest conversations, interactive sessions and real life stories that will reach down to the very soul of what it means to be ‘the Church’…

Detailed plans for the Weekend have still to be worked out, but it is hoped and intended that the programme will be radically different to anything that we have done before. The whole idea, of course, is that Soul Café is not simply a great weekend that has minimal impact on the life of St Cuthberts—but a key pivotal moment in the whole mission and growth of us as a community of faith here in Wrose.

But don’t run away with the idea that this will be something intensive or ‘heavy’, or that you’re signing up to a weekend of hard graft—it WILL be loads of fun. You’ll have plenty of time for relaxation, messing about with friends and generally having a great time!

Soul Café is an important event in the life of the Church and something that I am truly excited to be planning. I hope that as many of you as possible will catch the vision of Soul Café. Will you drink coffee with me at Soul Café?

Soul Café will held at Bawtry Hall from October 13th-15th 2006. Booking forms and detailed leaflets available now

Open the Windows of Heaven

The PCC has approved an application for a Faculty (or - in English - permission from the Diocese) to replace all of the windows in the Church (first) and the Hall (later)

To assist in the financing of this project—which will make a massive and welcome difference when it comes to the colder weather again—we are having a GIFT DAY on May 14th.

Members should have already received a letter and a Gift Envelope. We will need around £6000 to complete this project—not a massive amount for a Church of our size, but one which make a real difference for all of us.

Thanks to Steve and the maintenance team for agreeing to this—if not for the home grown labour the cost would be much larger. Please give generously on our Gift Day and remember to tick box for gift aid recovery if you are a tax payer.

'See if I will not throw open the windows of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room for it all' Malachi 3.10