A Day in the life: B.M.S. World Mission Council of Reference.

One of the things  I do as part of my job is being part of the wider Baptist cause.  I have been involved with B.M.S. World Mission for three years as a member of their "Council of Reference".  It involves me in two meetings a year, bombing down to Birmingham for the day to be involved in the wider decision making process of the organisation.  Today I have kept a moment by moment account of my day.  Hopefully you can skim read it! 5:28 Wake just before the alarm. 5:50 Walk to the station. I noticed the bird singing gave way to the seagulls screeching as I got closer to the station. 6:17 Arrive at the station, out of breath and a bit worried. 6:19 Train left on time. It was a good journey.  I got lots of basic work done on my research. 9:05 Arrive in Birmingham and read through the meeting papers (again). Sometimes I wonder why I am involved in this meeting, but I'm beginning to remember.  Not only does the BMS do the traditional Missionary thing, it get involved in relief and development work.  They are not afraid to innovate and to take some imaginative steps. 9:30 Coffee and Networking. Surprising where you find mutual friends. Interesting blue sky conversation about the possibilities of putting Home Mission funded ministers into Independent Methodist Churches. 10:00 Welcome and preliminaries. 10:05 Brief review of the appointment of the New General Director, David Kerrigan. 10:10 David offered some comments and thanks. The main induction to the post is going to be done at the Baptist Assembly in Bournemouth.  Note: Must ask Jeff Taylor if he has thought of including the alternative venue (Prism) in the act of recognition for David in his new role. 10:20 Prayer of commissioning for David. 10:25 Discussion time Interesting questions were raised:

• How is BMS World Mission perceived in the Churches (who are the main providers of the charities income)?
• How should the experience of the organisation be used and shared within the U.K.?
• What has BMS learned that they can bring to our Mission and activites in the U.K.?
• What kind of dialogue should the organisation have with those of a Muslim background?

11:00 Coffee and More Networking. Another interesting discussion about Mission, Evangelism, Budgets and Priorities. 11:20 Financial Review. Phew! Not so long ago this organisation were facing a huge black hole in the finances. Along with increased giving from the support base and a large legacy, we have had a year where we have not drawn out of our savings. There was a big effort in saving costs, and in the current situation the reserves have been managed well.  We are affected by the falling value of the Pound, this is one of the most significant changes. Running slightly behind program. 11:48 Group Discussion. More interesting questions were raised.  I wonder how much the discussion in the council of reference affects the policy decisions.  Note: The later feedback session made me feel as though the trustees were listening to the conversations in the discussions and were taking the views of the Council of Reference on board. 12:20 Selecting New Trustees. 12:33 Update on the work of the training college.  My friend Justine H. gets an honourable mention as someone who has influenced the out going director of the centre (even though he seemed unable to pronounce her name properly!). 1:00 Lunch.  Lovely food, I chose lasagne and rice.  More networking.  Interesting conversations about planting churches and ministry in urban areas.   I bumped into one of the people I first talked to about a sense of call into ministry (I was 16 at the time). 1:50 Update of Staff Vacancies and restructuring two of the departments. 1:55 Update on the Charities work in central Africa.  Some of the work involves:

• Church Leadership Training;
• Advocacy & Legal Awareness;
• Basic Education;
• Relief grants to help displaced people because of civil war.

Two workers from Central Africa shared their experiences of training teachers to cope with classes of over 100 children.  Their other work with the local church, helping young people deal with their questions about faith and learning from the relational approach of the African Church. 2:16 Stretch break. 2:17 Feedback from the strategy discussions.

• Over 40% thought that BMS could have a valuable contribution to make with work in the U.K. 38% did not.  The majority of people who spoke on this issue, considered that BMS thought that BMS could make a contribution to our U.K. based mission, but not necessarily contribute personell to the situation.
• Over 70% agreed that BMS needed to strengthen its theological stance.
• No consensus on the issue of dialogue with those of a Muslim background.  It raises interesting issues.  Do our churches percieve dialogue with those of other faiths as threatening?
• Campaigning was seen as an appropriate thing for the BMS to do.  I think  this needs a little qualification.  Where BMS have a reason to campaign they should.  The people traficing campaign is a good example.  The work we were involved in highlighted the issue.  The campaign was launched on the back of that.  I felt that the creation care campaign that the BMS have invested a fair amount of time on in the last year has been a little forced.  It didn't seem to flow naturally from the work.
• Over 80% would support sending people to potentially risky parts of the world.
• Overall the meeting agreed that Creation Care should form part of the descision making and strategy process.

2:50 News of:

• Events;
• Vacancies;
• Changes to the governing documents;
• News of a sister charity to help attract some funding for some of the development work.

3:30 Closing Prayers 3:55 Walk through the Bullring in Birmingham in search of free wifi.  Looks like the Bullring has had a make-over since I was last dragged here by Louise (12 years ago?). 4:15 Settle on Urban Pie.  Check facebook, e.mails and twitter.  Looks like my friends have been having a little conversation about my destination today!  Edit this entry (most of which Ityped up during the meeting). 5:20 A little time to read before catching the train home. 8:22 (Hopefully) Arrive in Morecambe after reading and writing for my studies, while on the train.

Which one are you?

I'm preaching this morning and the passage (Luke 15) highlights three approaches to mission:

1. Active: Go and find.
2. Passive or Compassionate: Stay and wait.
3. Grumpy: "I should get the attention"

If you could describe your approach to Mission, which one would you be? It strikes me that Jesus did much more of the Active than the Passive, and that he taught his followers more of the Active than the Passive. I was talking with someone a few weeks ago who had been heavily involved in Churches for 30 years and they said something that really struck me:

"It seems to me that for the last 30 years the church has systematically dis-empowered me. I have been captivated by church activities and I'm not sure how to share my faith with the people around me." This is not a direct quote, you'll be please to know I don't record conversations or take notes!

If Jesus example was "Active" why have we become so "Passive" and dis-empowering? As Churches we have become specialists in the "Passive", "Come to us, we're waiting for your return" kind of Mission. I can understand why, it is far more comfortable to stay confined within your own environment than to go in mission. If we are to learn from Jesus and his stories then we will recognise that there is a place for that kind of mission, especially where there is an existing relationship that has broken down (as in the Father and the Son).

North West Baptist Association (NWBA) Forum

It was Morecambe's turn to host the North West Baptist Association of Churches forum. I confess I'm not big on these events, they are usually scheduled on my only day off in the week, I understand why they are, but it does make it particularly difficult for me to attend. Still as the regional team brought the Forum to my home, they made sure I arranged to go. The afternoon was split into different seminars, with the quickest business meeting ever thrown in for good measure. The evening was an old style celebration event with worship band (made up from young people in one of the Association churches), information, prayer, video clips and a sermon by Glen Marshall (of Northern College and Nah-Then). My reflections on the afternoon:

• I enjoyed the afternoon sessions. I was quite surprised by this, but the opportunity to hang round and chat with different people is right up my street.
• The first seminar I went to was led by some the leaders of creative approaches to mission. They are funded by the Home Mission and it was an opportunity for people from the more established churches to find out what they are up to, and ask them questions. Very interesting and inspiring reflections on:
  • The Community Ministry at Ellesmere Port.
  • Levenshulme Baptist Church.
  • The Synergy Project in Manchester.
  All good stuff.
• The second seminar was a little difficult to hear, but it was an interactive information and feed back session with one of the Regional Ministers. It was informative and useful.

My reflections on the evening:

• It is possible that I am Glen's biggest fan, but I must put aside my temptation to idolise him. He was thoughtful, reflective and funny. Reflections on Mission grounded in the scriptures can never be a bad thing! He made his points clearly, occasionally I lost his thread (did he explain what he meant by "Eucharistic"?) but then I was typing this at the same time!
• Glen used a set of 2 rotating images on the screen that were in keeping with his message. I have often thought about doing this, but have never really found the time to sort the images out. I like the idea, a few more images might have helped, but then, I get bored easily.
• I did notice that most of the congregation weren't fully engaged with the sung praise at the start, perhaps this isn't particularly surprising since all of the regional team appeared to be wandering around, and most of us were wondering what they were up to.
• I think the evening was billed as a joint youth and adult event. Several of our young people went. I'm not sure what they thought, perhaps they might take the opportunity to comment here, or tell me face to face. It seemed very adult focussed to me.

The day left me thinking through several questions, but since this was my first visit to the forum I am asking "Would I go again". I'll think some more before I answer that. Did you go? What did you think?

Reflections on the “Baptist Ministers Refresher Conference”.

I have just spent three days at the Ministers Refresher Conference.  The group of Ministers I work with (the Baptists) have set aside some cash to send us all on a refresher course once every five years.  When I received my invitation there were two things that struck me as slightly amusing:

• I only fully qualified this year!
• I have been a Minister long enough to need refreshing!

It has been good for me to renew some old friendships and make some new ones.  There are about 200 people here (There are about 2000 Baptist Ministers in the country) and it has been good to look around and recognize the variety of different situations and circumstances that my colleagues serve in.  Other observations are:

• Baptist Ministry is very male.
• Baptist Ministry is heading towards retirement.
• I am one of the youngest here, I think that less than 15% of the participants must be under 40.
• Baptist's are involved in some very creative approaches to mission and evangelism.
• My car is the oldest in the car park!

They gave us permission not to attend every session, so I skived a couple in order to work with one of my colleagues on the subject of resurrection.  The Incarnate Network web site was hacked, and we needed to resurrect it.  We have managed to get the content back up (it still needs a bit of formatting), although we haven't managed to get the user log in working yet. Some of the highlights for me have been:

• Stimulating sessions on Esther (stimulating because I had much to disagree with).
• The many conversations about Ministry, Mission, Church Planting and Evangelism.
• A conversation with Paul Goodliff (the leader of the Ministry Department) about the nature of ordination and the demeaning nature of having your "Hand Shake" at the Baptist Assembly.
• Meeting up with and re-establishing friendships with people I don't get to see very often.
• Being able to put my life and work into the context of the Union of churches that I am a part of.

The only thing I don't like about being away at times like this is being away from Louise and the Children.  Being away makes me realise how much I like being around them and missing them when I am not arround.  I go home this afternoon, and I'm looking forward to celebrating Isaac's ninth birthday.

Managing Church Meetings

For those of you that don't know our system, the Baptists have a Church Meeting, where all the members of the church can meet to discuss matters that are of concern to the Church as a whole.  There are several ways of looking at it.  Two ways I see it are:

• Theologically, it is the church, who are called "the body of Christ" in the scriptures, meeting to discern "the mind of Christ" for the future.
• Practically, it is consultative leadership.  Everyone has an opportunity to consider the things up for discussion and comment on them as they see them.  Not that the church meeting decides everything.  It delegates responsibility to groups and individuals and trusts them to get on with it.

Last night we had a meeting, and it is probably the most tense meeting I have been involved with at Stanley Road.  It made me reflect on the way I lead meetings.  I'm not one for the Minister and Deacons telling the church what to do, so I leave plenty of time for questions and dialogue.  The problems I have noticed are:

• Although the dialogue is encouraged it tends to be dialogue between and individual and me, the chair of the meeting.
• That although people are free to contribute only the most vociferous, or eloquent, do.

To combat this I have sat people around tables a hall, rather than rows in a chapel.  I don't think I have progressed that far enough.  The dalogue last night was mainly between me and two individuals who wanted to speak on two subjects without entering into any dialogue. We may as well have been sat in rows.  The meeting at that juncture would have been the same. Some things I could have done, but didn't (perhaps because I feeling a little under siege) are:

• Turn the questions outward: "Would anyone else like to answer that".
• Turn the conversation inward: "Perhaps you could discuss that around your table, and we will take feedback from each group".
• Shoot the discussion dead on items that are marked as information: "This item is for information, if you would like to discuss it at a church meeting feel free to ask the secretary to put it on the agenda as a discussion item at the next meeting."

Other things have occured to me that we could do:

• Provide a discussion primer introducing the topic so people are informed in advance.
• Have a discussion about behaviour in a church meeting and collaboratively produce a summary of what the church meeting is for, including acceptable forms of behaviour and questioning.

Has anyone got anything to add?

Richard asks me some questions about “The Sunday Night Project”

This is a really dodgy quality interview.  My Friend Richard who is Minister in Hull asked me a few questions about the Sunday Night Project.  Richard Interviews Graham

Morecambe Sunday Night Project

Last Sunday we launched our Sunday Night Project.  My initial reflections are:

• Fantastic start, 75-80 People.
• Lake of Fire are very good, as are the Jazz band from Ripley School.
• Great venue (who didn't charge us all they said the would).  The horse shoe layout worked well, giving a quieter space and a loud space.
• Things like this usually start well, I'll be surprised if there is the same number of people next week (circular walk).

I'm very pleased with the way that it went.  I have had various comments back, and am arranging with RevJev to impartially interview me and ask probing questions.

The Sunday Night Project

For a few months we have been working on re-inventing our evening services. We finally came up with a name "The Sunday Night Project" and Launch on June 8th. However we pinched the name from "the Friday Night Project" who have now moved their program to a Sunday night and have renamed it "The Sunday Night Project". Sigh... the best laid plans of mice and men... Our initial values are: Values: Enjoyable, Accessible and Christ Like Areas of Activity:

1. Building Relationships
2. Social Action (Local, National, International).
3. God, Bible and Thinking
4. Worship as journey

Provisional Program June 8 Big Launch - The Park Hotel 6:30-8. Light Music and Food 15 Circular Walk, with a few pause for thoughts. 22 Where is God in an "Act of god"? 29 Communion with a difference. July 6 It was Independence Day - Barbecue on beach (bring your own Burger). 13 Discussion - Genetics? 20 How do you see Christ? - Question Time Format/Interviews. 27 Review/groups feedback

Belated reflections on the Baptist Assembly.

Most years I go to the Baptist Assembly. It's where Baptists from all over the country get together and be Baptist. This year it was in Blackpool and very close to this ship!  I first went in the year 2000 and eight years on it has changed significantly. Highlights for me were:

• Bumping into lots of people I know (including Chris who I only see once a year).
• Having Louise visit for a day (she came with me in 2000 and vowed never to go back.  On the stength of this years visit is thinking of coming next year).
• Taking Isaac with me for the first time.
• Prism (the alternative meeting, only this year it was a little more mainstream than alternative).
• Hanging around in "After Hours" talking with people.
• Seeing "Riverdance" Close up.

Long Whatton, Longevity and Long lost friends.

Last weekend, Louise and I went back to Long Whatton where 10 years ago we were part of a team that restarted a Baptist Church there. I completed my ministerial training while I was there and when my training finished we moved up to Morecambe. The church is led now by two of my oldest Friends and it was great to see the church getting on with life. I am also really pleased that they were being creative in their approach to worship and mission. During the 5 years I was part of Long Whatton, I spent a long time building up contacts and friendships with people who either had no part of any church or were on the fringes of church life. Sometimes my involvement in their lives was fairly insignificant, I'd meet and talk to them just about life, family and the weather. At other times the conversations were about faith or tragedy or illness. I was there as an Evangelist, I suppose, so my role was to build contacts, but I thought I got to know people for who they are and not just with my agenda as a Church Planter. Some of the things I did while I was there:

• Personally visit every home twice.
• Arrange an ecumenical service drawing on the best of the three traditions (I got the impression this changed in character significantly after I had left).
• Offer an evangelistic video to every home.
• Walk the village and make myself as visible as possible.
• Involve myself in the life of the school (I wonder if that child is still having nightmares after my guitar case nearly knocked her out).

The team who are leading the church now had advertised the celebration well and their aim was to use the event to renew old contacts. I think I could have probably provided more than I did but, I didn't keep good records at the time and people only started flooding back into my head, once I was there. The more the the meeting went on I became painfully aware that NOT ONE of those people outside of regular church life, that I had got to know had come. It makes me wonder:

• If I had stayed would those relationships still be lost?
• Does the Evangelist in a rural setting need to be there for a decade or more?
• The Church in Long Whatton has had 3 significant changes in its leadership over 10 years. Is that bad for long term establishment of the village church?

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