Service in Setting up

We have a bunch of dedicated servant-hearted folk who come in on Saturday nights to setup the hall. This includes our musos who then spend time praying and worshipping together as a small group in their own right. These people are gifts to our community.

The Last Nine Months

One of our guys recently put together the following video. It was requested by one of BCA link parishes who will be praying for us on Pentecost Sunday (a huge blessing) . It was also played at Synod of the Diocese of Tasmania which met in Launceston over this past weekend.

Big Blue Gym

As promised, here are some photos from our move to the "Big Blue Gym" at West Somerset Primary School.

We have now been meeting at the gym for two weeks. We have access to the gymnasium pictured and also to a nearby multi-purpose room for our KLT (Kids Learning Time) ministry during our gatherings.

Our first week in the gym.
Note the tent from the park as a way of marking the transition!
Photo courtesy Jonathan Adamczewski

For a large hall the atmosphere is great. It's comfortable, open, airy, accessible.

It's very much "in the marketplace" with contacts being made simply by being there. God is good.

Bible time during our second week at the gym.
Photo courtesy Jonathan Adamczewski

Update: Observations from a Forest

I'm going to stop calling our current season "weird" - it's just "interestingly normal." I still get aghast looks from colleagues and friends when I tell them "no, we still don't have a permanent venue." And yes, there is tiredness and tedium involved in setting up, packing up, making sure people know where and when we are etc. etc. But the positives of being on this particular edge continue:

• This Sunday just gone we met for a picnic at a local forest reserve. Spiritual input, lunch, hide-and-seek, cricket with the kids. Interestingly - many of our long-term group did not come along (partly due to a wedding the previous day) - and most of those who were there are those who have recently joined us or came for the first time that day. God's gift of "getting to know one another."
• We are ramping up to having a "Kid's Christmas" in a marquee in a local park on Christmas Eve. So the next two Sundays will be in that same park. The physical "four walls" are gone and we just need to step up to the plate.

Connections Summer?

On Sunday (Oct 19) we finished up meeting at our venue for the past almost-year at Somerset Heights. It's been a great occurrence to shake us out a bit and cause us to get back to our "fresh expression" missional heart. As mentioned in a previous article - the joy of known uncertainty is the need to rely on God.

What lies ahead for us? As soon as we found out that we would have to be making some changes we have recognised that God in his grace is providential. Our prayer has been "Close the doors you want to close, Lord; open the doors you want to open - and above all keep us obedient to you."

And in the light we have some immediate plans and some medium-term opportunities.

The immediate plan is to meet this coming week at ANZAC Park near the Surf Club in Somerset. We're going to have a marquee from the local Scout group. The Bishop will be there to pray for us and encourage us. It will be good to gather in that place and enjoy each others company at BBQ and beach afterwards.
(If you want more specific information about what's happening each week then you can find it at http://www.burnieanglican.org.au/connections/index.php/ComingWeek)

Our medium-term plans are in the process of being "brought forth." It is looking less and less likely that the use of a local school will eventuate (at least not until next year). What is more likely is the possibility of having a "Connections Summer" with our Sunday meetings at the Surf Club or thereabouts.

The message amongst us is this:

As part of the Imagine Project we are encouraged to imagine under God the possibilities of what ministry, church, and following Christ might look like in many creative ways - and as we have been conversing with people and sharing together it seems that a "Connections Summer" at the Surf Club fits with people's imagination. Our prayer has been that God will close the doors that need to be closed and open the doors of the way he would have us go. God answers prayer. This door seems open, and looks good - being near the beach throughout summer gives us opportunity for building relationship, outreaching, and creativity in our gathering together while continuing to shake us out of our comfort zone and press into God.

The Connections Leadership Team (CLT) is meeting this week and we hope to finalise some of the administrivia for this so that Bishop John can pray us into it on Sunday. However the administration is not the substance of what we do or plan to do. Rather, the substance of it depends on us all being willing and able to look to God and to grow, work and play in Him. It will require us all to be praying and sharing ideas and thoughts and putting up our hand to be involved. So please be praying and communicating.

We are in a transition into something new as a church. Please be praying for us, particularly this week, as lots of decisions are made and new things eventuate.

Exciting times. In his hands. For his glory.

Homelessness - A Blessed Uncertainty

The excitement of church planting continues...

Last Thursday we were informed by the owners of our current venue that they had sold it and that the new owners wished to move in as soon as possible. This meant that we had two Sundays left - the one just been (October 12, 2008) and the one just about to happen (October 19).

While this wasn't a surprise (the building has been for sale for some time), and we have been (and are) working on procuring our next venue, the fact of the matter is that right now I cannot tell you where our congregation will gather on October 26 to share together in worship and word.

And I'm not worried. Even despite the fact that the Bishop was booked to join us on October 26 - and he is still coming - doesn't worry me. Our church does not depend on bricks and mortar - and we will still be the church no matter where we meet.

Of course we're planning and organising things. Hopefully a new venue in a local school gym will be forthcoming sometime in November, or even sooner. And we have plenty of short-term options from local sporting clubs to the local park.

And of course they'll be a bit of stress involved. Routines will be shaken. People will end up in the wrong place or something. Things won't happen quite as smoothly as they would otherwise. And they'll be more energy required to set things up and pack things up and basically get everything organised.

But in the end, this is a time and a season of change, and it's value comes from the way in which God will ground us, gather us and grow us during this time. I can see this already happening.

• It will draw us to God. It already has. After we announced what was happening this past Sunday we entered into one of the most participated-in and profound prayer times we've had as a whole congregation.
• It will draw us to God's purpose for us. We will be stripped away of some of the comforts of "church life" and will have to get back to the basics of why we're here - to reach out and to grow to be a community forming people to be and do what Christ has intended - discipling and speaking the truth where it is needed.
• It will draw us to each other. This coming Sunday is now a time of "closure" of this season and an entering into the next. We will share lunch together and people will have brought their utes and their trailers to help shift stuff away to where we are storing it. It is quite appropriate that in our sermon series from 1st Corinthians we will have just reached 1st Corinthians 3 with it's emphasis on unity and mutual solidarity in Christ.
• It will strengthen our faith. The truth is that we are always dependent on God's grace to survive as Christians and as a church. This truth is now obvious. We are dependent on God in the seeking of our next venue - we need his creativity, his discernment, and his grace to go before us to pave the way through authorising committees and the finalisation of hire agreements and the like. If doors close we have to trust that God has closed them. And when the doors open he will have given us the gift of never being able to say that "we did it" but that God out of his love for us has blessed us with all things.

So we are homeless, we enter into a transition, a season of uncertainty - and it is a blessed thing.

Please pray for us. Please pray for those opening doors - that are next long-term venue will not be too far away. Please pray for us to be wise and discerning. And above all, please pray that God will have his way with us and we will learn what we need to learn during this time so that this congregation of God's people may bring glory to his name alone.