It is late on Saturday as I write this week's blog. It has been a full and quite busy week. For most of the past 24 hours I have been away but I will come to that a little later.
On Monday I travelled to London for a Rural Round Table run by Fresh Expressions. As might be expected I already knew over half of those there from other contexts but it was good to meet and hear from two that I had not met before. The theme for the day was developing lay leadership and the gust speaker was James Lawrence from the Church Pastoral Aid Society. His talk was excellent and while the focus was on leadership development in fresh expressions of church, anyone with leadership responsibilities in inherited forms of church would have found this valuable. I hope that we might be able to invite James to speak at a Rural Evangelism Network meeting some time.
There was a lot of wise sayings. Here is one: "For the sake of the many invest in a few". In other words focus on leadership with a few that are willing. It made me think about a pithy saying from Dr Donald McGavran (of Church Growth fame) regarding leadership development. He recommended focusing energies on teaching the teachable. It sounds logical but a great deal of energy and time is wasted in our churches trying to move those who do not want to be moved.
Inevitably during the course of the day we considered individual potential when training leaders. It made me reflect on the item I posted a couple of weeks ago about my need for a 'Timothy'. Roughly ten years after Timothy joined Paul's team as a young man Paul wrote about him to the church at Philippi highly commending Timothy. By that time Paul tells us that he has been 'proved'. I wondered whether in praying for the finished article I was missing what God might want me to do in helping to develop the yet-to-be-realised potential in someone. So as I ask you to keep praying about this please, perhaps we should keep an open mind as to whether this ought to be someone with a desire to be a good disciple and who has a teachable character.
An enjoyable spin-off during the day was the unexpected pleasure of sharing the train journey to London with my friend and colleague Dr Gordon Temple. Gordon is CEO of Torch Trust for the Blind and is part of the ministry team at Yelvertoft and part of my local mission management team.
On Tuesday morning I attended a planning meeting for the 2012 summer Holiday at Home in Market Harborough. I continue to rejoice that the local Methodist Minister and his wife are former associate evangelists. Brian and Clare still have a heart for sharing the gospel and a heart for rural ministry. Holiday at Home locally was Brian's vision and has brought a lot of blessing. A good programme is coming together for August this year. Today a church leader from another country town expressed interest in learning from our experience of running these events.
After my regular ministry at the local prison I spoke on my journey of faith at a meeting in the evening at Market Harborough Congregational Church, interspersing my story with four gospel songs. It felt very effectual and I hope was very effective.
Thursday was a day for leading Bible studies at Yelvertoft, one in the morning and one in the evening. I continue to be very encouraged both by attendance and the high level of interest. While writing about Bible teaching I would like to encourage you to pray for my brother in law, Paul, who is speaking to church leaders in Sierra Leone this week.
On Friday evening I set off towards Winchester for a session on research skills Saturday morning. It was very interesting but I also drew comfort to discover that most of my fellow students seem to be struggling with time management (as I am) and several are significantly behind me in their work. I felt liberated a little! Immediately after the morning session and an hour in the University Library I drove to south Leicester to catch the end of the Area Assembly of the Congregational Federation. I was just in time to catch the last 20 minutes of what was obviously a helpful talk on engaging in mission.
Prayer Focus this week:
On Monday I travelled to London for a Rural Round Table run by Fresh Expressions. As might be expected I already knew over half of those there from other contexts but it was good to meet and hear from two that I had not met before. The theme for the day was developing lay leadership and the gust speaker was James Lawrence from the Church Pastoral Aid Society. His talk was excellent and while the focus was on leadership development in fresh expressions of church, anyone with leadership responsibilities in inherited forms of church would have found this valuable. I hope that we might be able to invite James to speak at a Rural Evangelism Network meeting some time.
There was a lot of wise sayings. Here is one: "For the sake of the many invest in a few". In other words focus on leadership with a few that are willing. It made me think about a pithy saying from Dr Donald McGavran (of Church Growth fame) regarding leadership development. He recommended focusing energies on teaching the teachable. It sounds logical but a great deal of energy and time is wasted in our churches trying to move those who do not want to be moved.
Inevitably during the course of the day we considered individual potential when training leaders. It made me reflect on the item I posted a couple of weeks ago about my need for a 'Timothy'. Roughly ten years after Timothy joined Paul's team as a young man Paul wrote about him to the church at Philippi highly commending Timothy. By that time Paul tells us that he has been 'proved'. I wondered whether in praying for the finished article I was missing what God might want me to do in helping to develop the yet-to-be-realised potential in someone. So as I ask you to keep praying about this please, perhaps we should keep an open mind as to whether this ought to be someone with a desire to be a good disciple and who has a teachable character.
An enjoyable spin-off during the day was the unexpected pleasure of sharing the train journey to London with my friend and colleague Dr Gordon Temple. Gordon is CEO of Torch Trust for the Blind and is part of the ministry team at Yelvertoft and part of my local mission management team.
On Tuesday morning I attended a planning meeting for the 2012 summer Holiday at Home in Market Harborough. I continue to rejoice that the local Methodist Minister and his wife are former associate evangelists. Brian and Clare still have a heart for sharing the gospel and a heart for rural ministry. Holiday at Home locally was Brian's vision and has brought a lot of blessing. A good programme is coming together for August this year. Today a church leader from another country town expressed interest in learning from our experience of running these events.
After my regular ministry at the local prison I spoke on my journey of faith at a meeting in the evening at Market Harborough Congregational Church, interspersing my story with four gospel songs. It felt very effectual and I hope was very effective.
Thursday was a day for leading Bible studies at Yelvertoft, one in the morning and one in the evening. I continue to be very encouraged both by attendance and the high level of interest. While writing about Bible teaching I would like to encourage you to pray for my brother in law, Paul, who is speaking to church leaders in Sierra Leone this week.
On Friday evening I set off towards Winchester for a session on research skills Saturday morning. It was very interesting but I also drew comfort to discover that most of my fellow students seem to be struggling with time management (as I am) and several are significantly behind me in their work. I felt liberated a little! Immediately after the morning session and an hour in the University Library I drove to south Leicester to catch the end of the Area Assembly of the Congregational Federation. I was just in time to catch the last 20 minutes of what was obviously a helpful talk on engaging in mission.
Prayer Focus this week:
- We start by praising God for the many precious experiences of ministering to people over the past week. It is such a privilege to share in God's mission and sense his guidance.
- Praise God for encouraging letters and emails received and some donations for the work of Rural Mission Solutions.
- Pray for those who have sat under our ministry that God's word will work in all our hearts.
- With the date of the concert at the prison looming we have a mountain to climb in polishing our programme and we have such little time. This puts me under pressure and relationships can easily become strained. This is an important gospel issue and I need your prayers.
- This Sunday is a ministry free day so it provides a chance to be still and listen to what God is saying. Pray for my listening.
- There will be Bible teaching and pastoral visits to undertake at Yelvertoft through the week.
- On Saturday I will be meeting with a couple who have asked for a service of blessing following a civil marriage at a local conference centre. These can be precious intimate moments for sharing something of the gospel.
- Please pray for Paul in Sierra Leone.
- We learned last weekend that the Leaders Conference immediately after Easter I am helping to organise has had to relocate. Happily all our speakers are OK with this. We could still do with additional bookings.
- I am trying to arrange a number of rural mission consultations around the country. The challenge is settling on the best dates for these. I hope to move forward on at least three more this week.
- I have a lot of writing to do and need some focus time, also some focused reading time this week.
- Sunday 25th I will be ministering at Yelvertoft.
Thank you.
Barry
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