Awesome time on Easter Sunday morning. With around 450 of us at Central Hall we celebrated Easter together and then as part of the Hope 08 initiative we wrote our prayers for the city on tags and then attached them to balloons for a massive balloon launch.
By itself this would be pretty spectacular, but across the city a further 26 churches joined together and around 3000 balloons were released with prayers for the city at exactly 11.30am.
The timing had to be exact because nearby Southampton Airport were holding back planes until we had completed the launch. Just as well they were holding them back as quite a number landed on the airport runway (oops!) and had to be cleared away and others were seen hanging off St Mary's Stadium but most of the 3000 balloons made it a little further afield!!
Apart from the weather (which was pretty wet!), the balloon launch seemed a huge success all round the city - see more pictures here.
The only bizarre thing to this excellent story is how it came about:
I am sure that I saw it advertised on the Hope 08 website as a national initiative that all churches around the country would be doing on Easter Sunday. So, thinking this was the case I stood in front of a large number of church leaders across Southampton and sold it to them as that! Unfortunately when we had the list of 27 churches complete we contacted Hope 08 to let them know so they could add information to what was happening across the country. They were pretty impressed with what we were doing and thought it was a great idea, but no other churches were taking part across the country and they had never heard of the idea!!! OOOOPS!
Still it was a great idea (wherever it came from) and an opportunity to pray for the city together as churches. We also got a couple of photos on national news and some pretty good coverage in the local papers...
Over the last 2 weeks I have been back to two different places that I used to live before moving to Southampton. Two weeks ago I spoke at a Spurgeons Conference at Wickbourne Centre in Littlehampton talking about developing the relationship between local Churches and local Government Agencies and then last week I preached at The Life Church in Maidstone.
Bizarrely I moved to Maidstone when I was 11, Littlehampton at 22 and Southampton at 33!!
Going back is a strange mix of emotions. It's great to see friends and catch up on all that's been happening, but it was sad to see things that had changed and not always for the better (don't get me wrong there are loads of great things happening as well...). To hear various stories of damaged relationships and to see things that once were great not have the life and energy that once existed is hard to understand.
I know that we have to move on and life is a journey and we shouldn't look back, but naively I thought that when God had his hand on something that it would go from strength to strength and the only way is up!!! I know that I am one of those annoyingly positive people who thinks anything is possible and that you can do anything you want (whether you should is another matter!) but seeing how something is now that used be so different plays with your head...
I want to develop great church and do something today that isn't just great for a season but provides foundations that provide a platform for future generations to do even greater things - as a preacher once said " are you willing to plant an acorn today that will provide the shade of an oak tree that you will never benefit from?"
I guess looking over your shoulder is good to do from time to time as long as it doesn't have a negative effect on what God has put in front of you...
I've seen it all now... Yesterday we had a "staff retreat" at Central Hall where we talked about the vision and the strategy of New Community and where we were heading. I found it very useful time and very well facilitated. But...
...the highlight of the day had to be when we were asked, as both an icebreaker and a meditation, to write a psalm line by line as a team - a bit like spiritual consequences. You know, you write a line pass on the paper and the next person adds their line. I guess I was a little tired and not quite as prepared as King David to write a psalm so when the guy next to me writes: "I dived into the sea of tranquility", I wrote "and then realised I had forgotten my towel" next line that came along was: "I washed my face with tears of joy", so again I wrote "and I still had no towel" it didn't get any better when I received: "I shouted into the depths of despair", and lacking any spiritual insight I wrote: "and all I got was an echo, echo, echo..." and lastly:
"I faced the long and winding road ahead of me", I couldn't help but add "so I turned on my GPS for guidance".
I know, I know - immature but funny. One day I'll grow up!
Don't you just love icebreakers and group work? I wonder what God thinks?
Ok, ok, I know it's been a long time...
but I have an excuse - honest!
you see I've discovered that blogging is dangerous. I know I thought it was a safe way to spend some free time in the safety of your home but it's not - it can get you into trouble...
I thought only my Mum read my blogs (Hi Mum!) but apparently the whole world can access your random thoughts for the day. After my last blog which mentioned the leader of Fathers 4 Justice I get an email from him within 2 hours of posting wanting to get together over coffee! Crazy!
I then got a further email from a local church leader who was concerned about a post I had written last September about a city centre church leaders meeting I had attended (don't look for it I already changed it!). So I guess I got a little nervous about writing my little blog in case I upset someone again...
and I've been pretty busy...
so to keep you updated here are a few things that I could have (maybe should have) blogged about:
Flo turned three, Zak turned nine (how did that happen!), Lottie is pregnant with number four (and pretty sick with it), New Coffee Shop "Central Coffee" is now open at Central Hall and looks amazing, Lottie and I have started to take responsibility for the Sunday morning meetings at New Community, Loads of meetings with load of great people, bought a new chair from ebay, rolled out a community audit across the church network, engaged 27 churches in balloon release on Easter Sunday, ran a mens weekend at Dalesdown for 65 men aged 16 to 61 and I've taken up golf again as essential stress release...
Hopefully I will blog again before Christmas! Thanks for reading...
Awesome time on Easter Sunday morning. With around 450 of us at Central Hall we celebrated Easter together and then as part of the Hope 08 initiative we wrote our prayers for the city on tags and then attached them to balloons for a massive balloon launch.
