Apparently the week before I arrived Brian Snelling had a picture for the Church that it was like a rocket on a launch pad ready to take off, the question was ‘Are you ready?’ What Brian didn’t know and what was then pointed out in my study is that I have a big poster of a Tintin comic book cover which has. . . a rocket on a Launch pad ready to take off.
Looking back at where we have travelled in the last 15monhts I am excited about the future. Recently some of us have been meeting midweek to pray and learn about how to do Mid Week church. The Parish Pastorates idea has been chewed over with plenty of space for people to share what they think. It may be scary stopping our normal routine of House groups but sometimes it is good to simply stop and wait on God’s guidance, it will always be an exciting journey. Well I believe that the rocket spoken about has taken off, we’ve launched!
The Parish Pastorates has definitely got its fans but some also have misgivings and want to see stepping stones put in place before we start. So what did we find out over the last few Wednesdays? God clearly challenged us about how the early Church did fellowship and then the following week spoke to us through the first 16 verses of Philippian’s chapter 2. There was a real sense of how important it is to be united and as much as some may want to press ahead with the Parish Pastorates it is important that we are united as a body of believers. The sense was that it was a good idea but not yet. As we discussed and shared it was clear that we should still meet for fellowship and the plan is to meet twice a month in the Church up until Lent. We will publish a timetable soon but the idea is that we will have tasters of different things and the odd social. During Lent we meet as Churches together and then after Easter I am proposing that we do an Alpha course as a whole Church. If we are to be a Church that runs Alpha’s it would be good for us to know what we are recommending to others. Alpha would be a very refreshing way of reviewing our Christian faith and will give us a fresh change from normal House groups, after this we will look to have further training for the Parish pastorates and then look to start next September by slowly planting out the Parish Pastorates.
As you can tell the rocket has launched, it may be a bit scary but we are one in Christ and know that God is faithful and will lead us on. Every blessing as we ‘blast off’ in faith.
Andrew +
