I have found myself in quite an interesting position recently, defending the UCCF.
Anyone who knows anything about me knows that must show quite a journey.
And I found my freedom to forgive and make my heart attitude right because of relationship.
Which is why my views on unity are ever evolving.
As I read back some of the things I said originally when discussing my own experiences, I genuinely now know my heart is clear. They don't have any hold over me.
Receiving forgiveness is such a rich, rich blessing.
Sometimes we underplay the amazing gift of being imparted the grace to give it!
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Sunday, 3 February 2013
Reflecting on Christmas
It seems a long time ago now, but I am still trying to work out quite what happened this last Christmas.
We had two carol services on the Sunday before Christmas, 4.30pm & 7pm.
I knew something was up when guests started arriving 45 minutes early.
And they kept coming.
Not sure what your Church is like, but even though our start time is pretty consistent at 10am, we have people arriving well into the beginning of the service.
Well this was different.
By the time we were ten minutes to go, we are basically looking full.
The next 20 minutes are a blur, as the stewarding team managed to move our entire refreshment set up and fit in an extra 80 seats.
And so they kept coming. We started just ten minutes late, surfing a tidal wave of visitors.
The second meeting felt a little bit small in comparison, which is a bit odd as it was larger than a usual service.
So we ended up with 540 people there. Actually it was 570, but about 30 came to both including the choir. 540 unique visitors breaks our previous record for any day by a neat 123.
The vast majority of extra people were guests. Some invited. Some completely out of the blue.
There is not a marketing strategy, or a prayer strategy, or a guest speaker, or anything really that I can put my finger on, which explains why so many people seemed to show up.
I am pleased about that, because it must have been a God thing!
We had two carol services on the Sunday before Christmas, 4.30pm & 7pm.
I knew something was up when guests started arriving 45 minutes early.
And they kept coming.
Not sure what your Church is like, but even though our start time is pretty consistent at 10am, we have people arriving well into the beginning of the service.
Well this was different.
By the time we were ten minutes to go, we are basically looking full.
The next 20 minutes are a blur, as the stewarding team managed to move our entire refreshment set up and fit in an extra 80 seats.
And so they kept coming. We started just ten minutes late, surfing a tidal wave of visitors.
The second meeting felt a little bit small in comparison, which is a bit odd as it was larger than a usual service.
So we ended up with 540 people there. Actually it was 570, but about 30 came to both including the choir. 540 unique visitors breaks our previous record for any day by a neat 123.
The vast majority of extra people were guests. Some invited. Some completely out of the blue.
There is not a marketing strategy, or a prayer strategy, or a guest speaker, or anything really that I can put my finger on, which explains why so many people seemed to show up.
I am pleased about that, because it must have been a God thing!
Friday, 1 February 2013
Christ Central on the web
I posted recently about being part of ChristCentral Churches.
One commenter of a previous post about the transition within newfrontiers was so incensed at a lack of web presence he wrote "If this is a master plan for a great way to move forward and be Church in the 21st century then someone has a great sense of humour."
To me that probably takes the biscuit for the strange path some of our detractors will take to find things to criticise, but it did make me hope the new website would go live soon.
Up until that point you could "like" ChristCentral Churches on Facebook and connect with lots of people.
You could follow ChristCentral Churches on twitter and keep up to speed with events etc.
Yesterday the website went live. I like it. Clean and crisp in design. Very clearly part of the wider newfrontiers family while also having its own new identity.
There will be lots of new content in due course, but for now the platform is in place to build a useful resource for people within, and outside, to see what we are about.
A quick shout out to Catalyst, Relational Mission, and the events hosted by New Ground, and Co-mission
One commenter of a previous post about the transition within newfrontiers was so incensed at a lack of web presence he wrote "If this is a master plan for a great way to move forward and be Church in the 21st century then someone has a great sense of humour."
To me that probably takes the biscuit for the strange path some of our detractors will take to find things to criticise, but it did make me hope the new website would go live soon.
Up until that point you could "like" ChristCentral Churches on Facebook and connect with lots of people.
You could follow ChristCentral Churches on twitter and keep up to speed with events etc.
Yesterday the website went live. I like it. Clean and crisp in design. Very clearly part of the wider newfrontiers family while also having its own new identity.
There will be lots of new content in due course, but for now the platform is in place to build a useful resource for people within, and outside, to see what we are about.
A quick shout out to Catalyst, Relational Mission, and the events hosted by New Ground, and Co-mission
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