Day of Prayer (15/09/09)

Prayer is going to be a big focus today as the church has it's day of prayer, as well as starting Sacred Space back up and then going onto our church meeting. It would be great if everything flowed one into the other so that our whole day is about seeking God's will, that we spend time in prayer with the same attitude that we come to church meeting with. Today should be about listening, about yearning, about reflection, about seeking and waiting. I hope that our church meeting is approached in a similar way to our day of prayer.
Yesterday's team day away was great, a real laugh and a time for talking, sharing and getting to know each other better, a good start to the year.

Finished Reading (14/09/09)

I have been trying to finish a book for sometime now. It is a book that was set for me to read for some studying I have to do, the book is called 'Promise and Presence, An Exploration of Sacramental Theology' by John Colwell. As you can tell by the title it is quite a deep book and has taken me far longer to read than I ever anticipated or hoped for, was it worth it though? Well yes, in one way it was interesting and brought some interesting ideas about how God meets us in communion, baptism, and other sacraments, not that I agreed with all of them! Onto my next book now which is all about worship, it looks like a far easier read and I probably will enjoy it more, rather than it being a chore!
Today Rachel, John, Cathy and I are going away to talk about ministry and to get to know one another better as we seek to serve Horfield and Bishopston Community. I hope it is going to be a good day and that we learn new things about each other, both good and bad!
Tomorrow is a busy day as we have the day of prayer, even if you cannot make it to church, please pray for all the things going on, especially 'Creating Space for all' and in the evening we have our first church meetig of the year, busy times but good times.

Sacred Space (12/09/09)

This morning I am off to play the piano for a wedding of a friends brother, after which I pick up my guitar which has been fixed :) I will be down at church around lunch time today as I begin to finalise some of the details for Sacred Space. Sacred Space is where the sanctuary is open for people to come in and spend some time in prayer and meditation. We ran it a while ago and it seemed to be well used by the community, so with a few alterations and changes we are trying for it once again to be a connection to the local community. Please pray that it goes well and that we are able to meet people and pray for them in all of lifes happenings.

9/11

This week is the 8th Anniversary of 9/11. I recorded a documentary and have watched it over the last two nights and in one sense re-lived the events of that terrible day. The documentary used t.v. recordings, radio and mostly home-made camcorder footage to tell of the 102 minutes in which the twin towers collapsed. In watching this I realised that my memory had sanitised the event and the time between had allowed me or made me forget some of the horrors. I suppose that something like this lives with us for a long time even if we were not there, and for those who were there and lost loved ones I just pray that they find some peace today.
We have Deacons tonight and this morning we are talking about pastoral visiting. I also today want to give some back to Church invites out to some people that I have met over the last few months.

Yesterday

Yesterday seem to go well, there was a good atmosphere as we started the new church year. The sermon seemed to be recieved well (and there were no awkward pauses or forgotten lines!) have a listen on the Head Space page. Today I have a meeting about safe guards around vulnerable adults and then at some point need to get my guitar fixed as it was getting very annoying yesterday as one of the strings kept slipping!

New Church Year

Well, tomorrow is the beginning of the new church year. Our new Children's and Family worker is starting and there is a church picnic in the afternoon (weather permitting). I am just sorting out tomorrows sermon, and it's going to be different, I am not using a script and will be just using bullett-points. I have to confess to being a little scared about it. You will be able to hear the results online on the head space page (which now includes the church worship overview for the year). I will let you know how it goes...