Still catching up: here are some summary thoughts that are still in progress after the teaching and seminars on Monday...Numbers are just the way the sessions happened during the day, not order of importance!
1. Devotional on Mark 1:9 - Jesus' baptism. Mike Breen's question throughout all of his teaching was "How do people engage with this today on a practical and personal level?" Acts 9:1 ff
It is in Paul's persecution of Christians that Jesus calls him; it is also through the persecution Paul then suffers in his ministry that he understands and starts referring to the Body of Christ in it's completeness and oneness.
Experiencing Jesus through the Body - through persecution to our body and through our community of relationships to one another in Covenant that we then express the Kingdom rule of God.
2. Covenant and Kingdom - Overview...this was huge and too much to just be a part of this post. I'll post seperately another time but I will also have the audio by the end of the week if you'd like to borrow.
3. Overview of Lifeshapes and focus on The Circle.
Some key points on this for me were connecting the Circle to Event (Kairos) and Process (repent and believe). Toby Bassford led this session and made a point that I will be sure to use in my work with churches in the Diocese "We (you) do not have a monopoly on what church looks like."
Toby suggested using worry as a Kairos moment, suggesting it as a question in a Huddle and taking a group round the Circle - asking about the facts of their worrying, why and discussing that, following into planning and accounting for how to move forward. Equally he shared that in recent months the leadership team had used the deficit in budget to seek God on what to do next and how to deal with it. Using the Circle process and much prayer, they are taking a move towards a more entrepreneurial system of resourcing the church and missional communities.
4. Missional Communities/Clusters - again, a lot in here which I will post on seperately. Big questions for me in relation to my own call and where we are at now in our worshipping community. Lots of In but not much UP or Out for me...see below!
5. The last session of the day was on Huddle - a key accountability and leadership tool used at St Thomas' and which we are familiar with through our exploring of The Order of Mission. Tom Finnemore recommended the Huddle book by Alex Absalom on the 3dm website. It was good to get a reminder of what Huddle is about and for - inputting into missional leaders, focusing on character, skills and developments and considering our reactions and responses to our context.
Some of the questions Tom suggested using in Huddle included: asking "What is God challenging you on right now?" - tests the spiritual temperature.
Also understanding the seasons when areas of the Triangle may be struggling more than others:
OUT can be lower around Christmas when people have been mostly with families and UP can be difficult at times of stress like exams.
So, that's some of the stuff I noted during Day 1. It's now the end of Day 2 and I'm tired, so I'll be heading off to bed soon and will try and catch up on notes from Day 2 sometime during Day 3!
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