Relaunching a Website

We have just relaunched our website.

It was quite difficult to know what to do.

Some Churches spend thousands on the latest technology. Others don't seem to have a website at all.

I looked across the board at different options and am happy with where we have ended up.

1. The old site was looking a little tired and needed sprucing up a bit.
2. Our providers have been excellent to work with and very cost effective considering what we get.
3. We looked at more complex system and for us we can't really justify the cost. If this was a city based student attracting Church plant I would consider something a bit more intereactive, but we aren't. Some of our folks don't even have email and we don't want to exclude people.
4. I think you can spend a lot on things that don't add value.
5. What we have done is made the podcasting bit a lot more functional, made the whole thing look smarter and reads better.
6. Almost every person who visits our Church has been on the website first. This has always been a strength of our site and something we wanted to build on

So add it all up and a new chapter opens up with our web presence. On Sunday morning a chap was baptised who responded to an Alpha flyer popped through his door.

These things make a difference!

Being part of something bigger

In 1997 our Church leadership team gathered for an away day in a local village hall.

We were in touch with newfrontiers having researched the various new Church groups and had found them to be very similar to us.

A guy in the Church with a significant prophetic gift had a picture of a fishing rod and a net.

We were challenged whether we wanted to be like a single rod that no matter how far the line went out could only catch one or two fish at a time, or if we wanted to allow ourselves to be knit in with others to form a larger net.

Last week I went away for two days Prayer and Fasting at Peterborough. That was great for many reasons, but something I found profoundly moving was seeing a room with 800 people from all over the country in prayer for our Borderlands weekend.

We are a small region of Churches on the edge of things geographically; but here was a national movement, over 240 Churches represented, getting behind our seven Churches and praying blessing upon us.

That touched me in a way that I am struggling to get my head around. In a good way!

Men's Weekend

We had great fun this weekend away at the Christian Mountain Centre.

We walked, we climbed cliffs, jumped into mountain stream plunge pools, dragged ourselves into waterfalls and sailed or paddled around an estuary.

We talked, we had an ale, we worshipped, we played table tennis, we reflected on scripture, we shared our stories, we prayed and we got to know each other.

Suffice to say, a good time was had by all.

There has been a lot of discussion about men and the Church. I am even reading a book about it. I am sure a group of women from our Church would enjoy a weekend away like this too. That is not the point. The point is it was good to get some of the blokes together. A very meaningful and worthwhile venture and I would recommend the venue wholeheartedly.