The latest meeting of the leadership team (commission) for the new charge of St Columba's took place last night. For me, the process is beginning to become much more exciting because the focus is increasingly on new beginnings. A community audit has taken place, a group is meeting regularly to pray and it is likely that services will begin in April.After the meeting last night, I was thinking about a question that Alan Hirsch often asks existing congregations: "If you could start all over again, would you do it the same way?" The commission has an opportunity to make a fresh start, to do things differently. Our concerns are now very much centred around how we begin.
Jean Houston writes,"We are the people of the parenthesis - at the end of one era but not quite at the beginning of the next one. Maps nolonger fit the new territories. In order to make sense of it all, we must cultivate a vision."
Please pray for the Commission and for those gathering around this new congregation, that we would be able to creatively imagine a new way of being church which would really connect with the culture of the surrounding community. I believe this is a very tall order, given that we are working out of an institutional base, but it's not impossible!
No comments:
Post a Comment