big pizza or ready sliced?

Been thinking about the shape and make up of the Mission Commnity, and whether we see ourselves firstly as discrete churches united by some stuff or as an essentially united church thats expressed in diverse ways across the town- which comes first: our unity or our uniqueness. Or to put it another way, am i more bothered that i'm getting my share of stuff, or that there's enough to make sure everyone is included?

We explored this a bit the other weekend using the image of 2 kinds of Pizzas- Pizza Hut to represent the image of a community that is defined as multiple small communities that together form something larger; and Domino's to represent the whole pizza image that is defined as a larger community containing diversity within the whole. We were trying to describe it by means of the different ingredients too- Tomato sauce is all over the whole pizza, as is cheese (and their flavour permeates throughout), but a slice either has or doesn't have a piece of mushroom on it...etc.

The outcome was that people felt that although the Domino's image represented harder work and possibly more sacrifice for the sake of others, it was also the community we aspired to become. Now we 'just' need to figure out how to do that...

mission community notice board and calendar

This blog won't act as a full website, but in the meantime it has a notice section, plus a calendar...you can update the calendar pretty simply- ask me for the login and away you go, or send me details of an event...obviously the more comprehensive it is, the more useful it will become, but that will take time to develop.

Anyway, as you'll see, the posts up to now are from a while back, and all put here by me simply because i was trying it out and hadn't given other ministers the login details...

hopefully there'll also be link and share buttons below each post, and on the calendar...

Film Club goes a bit alien...

Film Club are meeting this Sunday, we're going to see the highly rated District 9- action thriller with aliens, racial tensions etc... oh, and some great big explosions...

we're meeting up in Wetherspoons at 7.30, the film starts at 8.30 and then we'll have another drink and a chat about the film and the issues it raises afterwards.

Come along, invite a friend

Community Alpha Course

Dear all,

Simon and Marjorie May are planning to run an ALPHA course starting Thursday October 1st at 7.30pm at my house. The refreshments will be coffee (or tea!) and cake.

This is for the whole Mission community

If people would like to come then register with me (344321). People usually come with a friend rather by themselves so do encourage people to invite and bring.

I'd really appreciate it if this could be announced, included on notice sheets etc, for next 2/3 weeks.

Thanks

Top of the world- and beyond!

Phew... 14 hours, 79 climbers, 7 very tired belaying legends and 9148m later, we've finished our relay climb...and accidentally climbed 300m beyond the top of Mt Everest (which is only 8848m high). I guess our counting muscles had got tired too by the end of it too, but at least we weren't 300m below the top!

Huge thanks to all the climbers, the supporters, the sponsors, the staff at the Mill Adventure Centre who let us use their wall and kept us supplied with cheese toasties and cups of tea...

the 'justgiving' page is now set up here so please use it to find out more and support the project.

This picture is at one of our 'quiet' spots when we only had a few hours to go- I'm belaying one of our youth group who said she couldn't do the climb and then proceeded to climb the wall 40 times!

Climbing up the walls!

Tomorrow (Friday 3rd July) and the next day a team of climbers including 35 primary school children as well as local residents and members of Holy Trinity and Goodleigh churches will be undertaking a huge sponsored climb- we'll be attempting to climb the total height of Mt Everest (8848m) in 18 hours of relay climbing at a local climbing wall.

Its all part of the fundraising and awareness heightening projects for Holy Trinity Church, which is having essential work done to keep the building safe (bits of the tower falling off, dodgy electrics and a leaking roof just aren't popular- and we wonder why people sometimes stay away from church!). Once the work is finished the tower will look awesome, the building will be fit-for-purpose as a multi-use worship and community space, and we're also trying to build a community climbing wall inside the tower: it won't affect the exterior at all, and will give local schools and community groups an added facility...

Anyway, its a sponsored thing, any donations would be hugely appreciated (email the Trinity Church office on office@trinitybarnstaple.eclipse.co.uk or send cheques directly to trinity vicarage, victoria road, barnstaple, Devon).

But thats not the point- its also an intentionally missional thing: a bunch of Christians are doing something with the express purpose of blessing the local community, and we aren't doing inside our church services, and we've involved the local community in the actual project... we won't be preaching with words, but we'll be showing the fruits of the Spirit in our actions and building connections with the people who live and work around us... lets just hope and pray that i don't drop someone from the climbing wall!

4th Sunday- Church Outside goes tidal

The Church Outside group went to Putsborough Beach today for our monthly worship event. Arriving at just after 10am to a worryingly small beach we started off by making some sand sculptures to relax into each others company (sculptures on the theme of films: slumdog millionaire won for attempting to build a miniature slum on the beach!). Following that most people relaxed while a small team set out a prayer labyrinth based on the Millenium Labyrinth at St Paul's Cathedral ( http://www.labyrinth.org.uk/index.html ).

Once it was all set up we used it as the focus of our morning worship- it took just under an hour for 40 of us to pass through the labyrinth and the two additional prayer stations, while passersby looked on and occasionally asked what was going on- a few came close enough to look at the printed reflections that were dotted around the labyrinth itself.

Afterwards we had a picnic lunch and played a few more games on the beach before retiring just as the rain became more serious- next month we'll probably be out on Exmoor, contact Andy Dodwell at Holy Trinity for further details if you are interested.