THE CHANGING FACE OF SHOPPING!

As a very infrequent visitor to the City Centre, I have had my fair share of being caught out by the changes taking place. Last year I encountered problems in M&S when I couldn't find the escalators! They had been moved during the previous year. This week it was Waterstones in the High Street. I went there to get a book, only to discover that the shop is now a Bank! Waterstones has moved to the Eastgate Centre.

Change is a fixed reality in all of our lives. Some of it is gradual and some of it is very sudden and unexpected. The church too is faced by the challenge of change and how to respond to it, and as a leadership we were thinking about this last Saturday with the help of an excellent book called THE MISSIONAL LEADER. In the face of radical and discontinuous change, many churches have just carried on doing the same things and the consequences are there for all to see. TML is a helpful book in stimulating thoughts and ideas as to how Christian leaders can "cultivate an enviroment in which the Spirit given presence of God's future may emerge among the people of God" It's not a light read, but it's the kind of book that will help you to see the reality of the challenges facing the Church today, as well as painting a very positive picture of how to respond.