Prayer Points - September 2008

These prayer points were just sent out on our prayer support mailing list. If would like to join this list please email me.

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Sorry that these are a bit late this month, and I'll blame it on school holidays and conferences and things!

Thankyou for continuing to support us in prayer. We are also now in the BCA prayer notes booklet.

Here are our prayer points for September:

1) Praise God for the milestone on September 14. On the first day of our fifth year we had a baptism and confirmation at the Cam River. Photos and details can be found here: http://will-briggs.blogspot.com/2008/09/first-sunday-fifth-year.html. It was a significant event and affirms the heart of our mission as we see lives switched on for Jesus! Please continue to pray for Dave, who was baptised in the river, and his family.

2) Please thank God for the many who put lots of energy, time and prayer in many acts of service that keep our community ticking over. People are stepping up to the plate in leadership and acts of service. Pray for this heart to spread! And please pray for more "harvesters" for the harvest in the next season and 2009.

3) Please continue to pray for our need to shift our venue. There have been some administrative hiccups recently with regard to considering a local school gym as a venue. Please pray for the way forward to become clear and smooth.

4) Please pray for those who will be attending facilitators training in the next month, preparing for the Lifekeys "Search for Life" course that we will be running in the new year.

5) Please continue to pray for those who run and help with our children's program - KLT - and for the raising up of those willing and able to work in the discipling of our older children.

6) Please pray for a new small group looking to start up with men in Somerset.

Best disclaimer ever...

From The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Hogshead Publishing 1998):

Disclaimer: The words "he", "him" and "his" are used throughout this book as generic third-person singular pronouns. With this usage the author, a man of great gallantry, does not wish to imply that members of the fairer sex are any less likely to have astonishing adventures than their male counterparts despite their frailty, lack of education and great aptitude for giggling and fainting. He does not assume that flouncy crinolines and a décolletage like alabaster might make then any less able to engage in espionage against the French while disguised as a haddock, or that their extensive skills in needlepoint and household management would be anything but an asset when seducing the Empress of Russia. In short, he believes that in many ways women are just as brave, capable and interesting as men, and in occasional circumstances more so. Bless their little hearts.

(Quoted under fair usage as a review)

With a disclaimer like that how can you not want to read more? Heartily recommended as a rather interesting parlour game, and a damn enjoyable read.

BCA Conference

My family and I have just returned from holidays and attending the BCA Conference at Grindelwald. We really appreciated the opportunity, in particular, to meet with other BCA Field Staff and discover the people behind the Prayer Notes faces.

It was also a real blessing for us as a family to be cared for with the provision of a program that was an energy-gain and in which the children were cared for. It was well-balanced time of adult-input and interaction and times as a family together. Pictured is the standard post-breakfast romp by BCA children on the "bouncing pillow" near the Grindelwald restaurant.

We made a number of new friends. It's always great to meet people with the similar heart, similar call, facing similar issues, learning similar lessons, carrying similar burdens. Ecclesiology will talk about the collegiality of ministry - but here it was in flesh and blood.

Bp. Graham Cray was the keynote speaker. Bp. Graham is the Bishop of Maidstone in the Diocese of Canterbury and is a significant promoter and enabler of Fresh Expressions of ministry in the Church of England together with new ordination streams for pioneering ministry. I had already heard Bp. Graham speak at the EFAC Conference the week before and it was good for Gill to hear him as well, and also have the opportunity to have a conversation with him and his wife Jackie. Good encouragement and good advice.

And not just for us. One of the delights was to meet with a number of those who are ministering under the banner of both BCA and Church Army involved in church planting or in situations where ministry is "one continuous church plant" because of sociologically-driven high turn-over. As it is doing with Connections, I can see BCA using its resources to establish sustainable next-generation churches. I applaud that, and it's great to be part of this network.

Progress Report :)

No news to report, really. Still progressing on track, foundations are being laid in place still. At this point it's a matter of just putting it all together one at a time and making sure it works.

Hopefully we'll make enough progress soon to spring a Beta Preview on the group when they least expect it :)

First Sunday, Fifth Year

Today is the first Sunday of the fifth year of Connections. And what a way to celebrate it! Our dear brother Dave McPherson was baptised today in the Cam River. Dave's fiance, Emily, reaffirmed their faith, and their daughter Kiara was also baptised (but not in the river).

Dave came to Jesus a couple of months ago. It has been a joy and delight to see how God has been at work in him and his family and he has taken his place amongst us. The Missioner Bishop (Training & Projects) in the Imagine Project, Ross Nicholson, was with us and following the baptism confirmed Dave in his faith.

It had been a miserable day today - the weather was blustery and rainy. The rain stopped as Dave and I entered the water, the sun burst through the clouds as he came up out of the water and lasted until we prayed and declared God's truth following the confirmation. I'm not usually one to wax lyrical about metereological coincidences but it was truly profound. The truth of the gospel was demonstrated and declared in public as a firstfruits of conversion growth of the church in this time and place.

And the shared life of Connections continues. Four birthdays to celebrate amongst the children - where the children prayed for each other. And another engagement to rejoice in. Please continue to pray for us to depend on God and to grow in Him in the way He would have us go.

Photos courtesy Jonathan Adamczewski

Married Life

There's great joy in the season that we are in. In the Connections community we have had new babies, engagements, and forthcoming baptisms (in the Cam River this coming Sunday) and more weddings.

Four weddings in five months. The first of these took place on a beach in Hobart this Saturday last.

Not only are weddings and baptisms and the like good in their own right. They are also a great witness, particularly when they are held (in an appropriate way) in a public space.

But also, from a church-planting perspective these occasions of life are great catalysts for community building. Sharing the beginning of married life, or the testimony of baptism, creates connections of community between people. Acquaintance turns into "I was at your wedding, wasn't it wonderful." Broad knowledge turns into "Thankyou for sharing how God has been at work in your life."

These weddings and things - they are a gift of grace in many ways - but a gift to us as a community, for they give us something to share in, and so share in each other.