Have a look at this website and tell me what you think.
What do you GET from this?
What do you understand about this?
What do you feel about this?
What can you see happening through this?
( think that's all the learning styles covered!)
If you have joined the Hope 08 Facebook Group, have you had a proper look at what you are aligning yourself to - no leaving the group now!
Romford Bloggers - anyone got a burning desire to turn what is essentially a vision into something more tangiable, doing more, doing it together with other churches and doing it in word and deed?
Other blogging friends and profile viewers - you know who you are- let me know what you think too PLEASE :)
6 comments:
What I "understand" about this is that there is there is a cry for churches to work together in their communities, actually doing something to address local needs.
Personally I would love to see churches being able to build real relationships with people in our communities. Trying to regain what i feel has been lost, (and not just in Romford, but in society gernerally) the sense of community spirit.
The vision Ann had for Romford with the new hall says it all for me really. I would love to see us providing reading groups, mum's and toddlers, marriage conselling, men's golf days or breakfast clubs, parties, sports days, kids clubs - all of which involved loads and loads of people from the community.
My question is - do the community want that stuff? If they do, how can we get them to come - I think it would take sacrifice on their part too. There is also practical stuff to consider like resourcing, and making sure that there are enough people available to start making relationships with people - but I think all of that stuff is secondary to the issue of how we get people to come.
If that is not want the community want - what do they want? DO they want anything? Hang on, I am getting my anti post-modernism hat on again! Stop me!
I find it exciting, and yes I do want to be involved, I do want to do something, I do want to get active - but I want to do it right, and I don't know how to do that!
Thanks Kirsty and doing it properly is something I want too, which is why I am trying, not very scientifically at the moment I admit,to guage the the response of the people who might want to get involved or not.
Does Romford want what we can offer? I don't know yet. Will they come to us? Probably not to start with.Should we expect them to come to us? No, Not intially.Does it matter - no actually, when you condiser it in terms of Kindom rather than denomination building ( ...the new buzz phrase at the moment??)
So how do we mobilise more of or worshipping community to become more mission minded?
At the moment, a tiny number of people from the corps, and some folks who volunteer from the community, do an amazing job in meeting community needs during the week, and I am positive that Ann and Richard have an amazing Word Ministry that most of us will never know about. People are coming back to the SA because of meeting with them.
Four things:
I have been reading Laura Menary's blog ( Hope she updates soon!)and she seems to indicate that people don't want to build meaningful relationships outside the ones they already have.
Don't know/don't care is a favoured response in many questionnaires because possibly people don't know what what they are missing - don't miss it, because they never had it.
What I don't want to do is keep on talking about this - committees etc- I think it's time to mobilise andf if you are interested in being involved , as our Prayer Warrior?? then Yeay!!
Ann's Vision is my call to get moving, because we need to start putting things in place NOW to make that a reality - some of it will cost money, some of it is none of my business but, some of it is. I know there are amazing plans in place for the Coffee Bar and I am sure that will provide amazing opportunities.
Hope 08 is just a tool but I think it has come at the right time for us.
Actually, the harder thing will be to mobilise our fellowship to become more ecumenically minded too as we consider the minefield that apprears to be Churches Together.
Maybe that can be your first prayer for our mission?
Liz, I am currently working my way through the Hope08 guide book and am more and more excited by each page I read.
You're right, it has come just at the right time and I offer any time I can give and would love to have a chat with you regarding this. I know Nick was also very keen to get involved so maybe we could come over to Romford one Sunday and have a cuppa.
HI Andy -glad you are passionate about this and I'd be really delighted to chat with you and Nick. I think the main issue for the churches in Ilford is your massive multi ethnic community.
The book is full of great ideas so I think the first thing you might need to do is decide what you want to major on -I'm guessing your focus is on initially mobilising the youth group?
I know you have NEWS Groups in the Corps and so at Romford we are hoping to mobilise our Evangelism Cluster + any others that might be excited about the ecumenical aspect of this too. Perhaps that would be another way to raise the profile in the Corps for you too.
Keep in touch with how it's going - I am sure we'll have disappointments too, so it would be good to know the corps groups can share the frustrations too!
Hmm too many too's.
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