Proposal Time

It's time to hand in a proposal to the Bishop for the Church plant. Just trying to make sure we get the building blocks right and in language that is helpful. We've identified three key elements, a worshipping community, discipleship training and mission through networks. Now just got to unpack those in to C of E language. I'm enjoying pulling some of my favourite quotes like this one from David Bosch;

Mission refers to a permanent and intrinsic dimension of the church’s life. The church “is missionary by its very nature,”..and it is impossible to talk about the church without at the same time talking about mission. Because God is a missionary God, God’s people are missionary people. The church’s mission is not secondary to its being; the church exists in being sent and in building up itself for mission..this means that ecclesiology does not precede missiology; there cannot be church without an intrinsic missionary dimension…Unless the church of the West begins to understand this, and we develop a missionary theology, not just a theology of mission, we will not achieve more than merely patch up the church. We are in need of a missiological agenda for theology, not just a theological agenda for mission; for theology, rightly understood, has no reason to exist other than critically to accompany the missio Dei.

Just to prove I was up there... 

Rite of Passage

We've just undergone a rite of passage in the Kirby household as the boys bundled me and gave me a wedgie. (For those of you unfamiliar with this expression it involves yanking someone's pants up to a painful height. It's a past time that appears to take place in school playgrounds around the country and an experience that I haven't gone through for about 25 years!) It's the first time that they've succeeded in beating me, I'm not sure if I should be annoyed that I've now got tears in my eyes or proud that my little men are becoming bigger men.....the joys of parenting.

It's been a funny week in that my dad had major surgery on his neck on monday if you want to see some gross photos check out this website about the procedure. It's funny when you see your parents vulnerable, the good news is that the op went really well and he's back home already. At the same time Sue's had a really nasty ear and throat infection that at one stage was threatening to hospitalise her as well. Hopefully every one's on the mend now and I'm looking forward to some of the creative services that are taking place at St.B's over the next few days to remind us that Jesus died for our sins and our infirmities.

Have a good Easter.

A Mountaintop Experience

Last week had an amazing 24 hours in Snowdonia preparing for the 15 peaks challenge. Check out our new blog that's going to keep a record of training trips etc. Suffice to say I love standing on the top of mountains. Got back Saturday and took part in a Palm Sunday service including full passion narrative at a neighbouring parish. I nearly had my head taken off as the vicar symbolically hammered on the church door with the crucifix - black rod style. No one told me this was about to happen and I was standing right behind him at the time. Had an encouraging conversation with a church leader last night about possible networks, gatherings and training for younger leaders, could be fun.

A Great Weekend

Just had our first "Church plant team" weekend away. It was a great time, we stayed in three cottages down in Hampshire. There were 14 of us and we chatted about Hopes & Dreams, we went walking in the New Forest and ate and laughed together. More to follow..

Made me laugh... 

Spent the day at HSBC HQ at Canary Wharf on a Post Ordination Training Day looking at "God and Mammon". Saw quite a lot of Mammon, heard quite a lot about ethical business practice, came away wondering when people realise they have enough.. 

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Last night the Archbishop of Canterbury visited St.B's and he was good. He talked a lot about being bringers of Peace, he bigged up "Mission Shaped Church and Fresh Expressions", and he demonstrated and a depth of faith and integrity that isn't always evident from the media coverage. Roy says more if you're interested.

This afternoon Henry (my boss) has been meeting my Bishop to talk about where and how they're going to let me loose. The Falklands were mentioned over lunch but I think it was a joke....

Blessed are the Frisbee Throwers

Found this article in yesterday's Times before I read Matt's blog, usually fun to see your friends in the paper even if it is the section that you only read if it's a very slow Saturday..

Training for the Future

Just trying to get my head round next term's training programme for our students. They're a good crew and we just celebrated Sam's birthday with a Pizza Hut buffet lunch (so much for the 15 peaks training programme - tonight is Deanery Synod followed by Map reading and Compass skills!). It looks like we might be heading out to Sri Lanka to get involved in some Tsunami relief work at the end of May. I enjoy the challenge of pulling a programme together and seeing what happens.

Rich summarises some good articles that are floating around at the moment (he must have been to bloglines about 10 minutes before me...)

More celebrations tonight as Thomas has managed to get into a good secondary school - sadly where we live they seem to be either very good or very bad and not much inbetween.

We've just had a dicussion in the office about how you should address the Archbishop of Canterbury as he's speaking at St.B's on Sunday night - I figured Archie felt suitably informal and yet deferential...