ACCELERATE (Sheffield Jesus Centre) November 2014 - Thoughts on Prayer

Thoughts on Individual Prayer

1. Practise brutal honesty
See Jacob’s struggle into reality [Genesis 32:22-31] 
The ‘impaired life’ - Jacob's limp

2. Move beyond temperamental ruts
Learn from Father - we are made in His image, not the other way round

3. Being reconciled to God
We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.  (2 Corinthians 5:20 )
Written to Christians!

4. The discipline of “No”
Don't be an ‘Amateur providence’: Martha (John chapter 11) had it all worked out...

 Thoughts on Corporate Prayer

1. Reconciled into one purpose
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.  Do not put out the Spirit's fire  (1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 )

2. Priesthood
I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone --  for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.  This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,  (1 Timothy 2:1-5 )
A priest secures a blessing from God that the person can't reach into by themselves. 

3. Prayer of Agreement
Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.  (Matthew 18:19 )

4. Faith stretching
“Thou art coming to a King, Large petitions with thee bring;” (John Newton)

Community Weekend

Steven had the most emphatic ideas.  "We'll spend Friday night at home - no phones, no knitting.  And we're NOT going to the Peak District on Saturday.  We can have a work morning, and all do some games in the afternoon."  He wasn't even prepared to concede that the games should be at the Jesus Centre, where Jamie could get out the table tennis table.  But Steven did at least agree to be the MC.

I'd resolved that this was the ideal chance to clear out the overgrown laurels by the front lawn.  We had James and Jon from Grimsby staying over.  I needed to find time in advance to get some stuff cut down so the rest of the team would follow on clearing it away.  Jack planned to wash and vac the cars so Grace and Faith could help.

As the weekend approached, Steven, representing the guys generally, faced some challenges - especially the 'no knitting'.  "We've got this blanket to finish, to send off to Iraqi Christians..."   So, Men Alive for God had brought us extreme mountain biking in Skye, plunging into icy Welsh lakes, manic downhill-running, blizzards in the Italian Alps, and martyrdom.  And we were planning to spend the weekend crocheting.

I'm a dangerous person when pushed to an ultimatum.  Kelly had mentioned previously that if I ever needed a long-reach powered hedge cutter, he could lend me one.  He also threw in a 21 foot telescopic pruning saw.  Ultimate crochet hooks.

Friday morning was clear enough to make a start.  At 10.00am I broke off for a Skype conference call with Ed, Desmond and Colney - the Multiply International Exec - to sort out the 2015 budget.  Then Kat turned up with Zeb and Zane, and proposed a jog while Mary gave the boys lunch.  I'm not going out with her again: she drove us to 5k in 33 minutes, three minutes less than my latest best.

The Friday evening 'at home' worked fine.  We did the icebreaker in which you declare three things about your past, two being true, and one fabricated - which the rest of the room guesses at.   People have done some funny things.  Andrzej did a video interview with Pope John Paul II; Mary got sawn in half on stage; James died and had to be resuscitated when he was six.  I was a bit offended that they didn't believe that I'd had a painting exhibited in Hull's Ferens Art Gallery, nor at one time had been a professional model.

Saturday morning was clear, too, and the team did a great job.  We rescued Barrie, who overtoppled with the hedge cutter.  Titus and Silas joined in raking and sweeping.  After lunch the Congregational Development Group met, including Phil and Donna.  Then Steven launched us into round of 'Empires' that had gone so well at Kings.  The unlikely Lois won - it pays to avoid attention for as long as you can.  Malcolm led the household meeting in rather more serious discussions about community.

Mary and I had offered to play host for Phil and Donna down at No25, as we'd run out of accommodation at home.  In bed I found out how many aching limbs I'd earned in the garden.  And there's still the holly to tackle.

Men Alive For God Special 2014

We needed to pep up this annual event, usually held in Spring.  We aimed to invite a special speaker, but Carl Beech wasn't available until late in the year.  That gave us more time to prepare, which improved the result.  We also invited Kings Church Chatham guys to jointly run the afternoon workshops.

I had a coffee with Carl at Sheffield Jesus Centre about a month ago.  He told me about the work of Christian Vision for Men (it's been running for about ten years), and I tracked down a local group that meets monthly at Network Church Philadelphia.  We got our publicity right for the Saturday event and three guys from the Lounge Drop-In travelled down to in our minibus to Northampton Jesus Centre.  Mick led the morning session and recounted the story of Alfred Nobel - the promoter of explosives - when he read a premature obituary, and changed his ways (and will). 

There was a good mix of afternoon workshops.  I stuck around with James and Jon, from Grimsby, for the first session on leadership.  We got interviewed by Mary, from Kings, which wasn't a usual experience for Jon.  After than I went to the session on serving God in daily work.  It's true, I haven't really given retirement a chance.  I chatted with Tim, JFLT Treasurer, over tea - there's sadly much to share about 2015 budgets.

We warmed up the evening session with video of a bunch of our guys climbing Cader Idris and ending up in an icy quarry pool.  Carl came across well, and has a strong message basis to his colourful presentation.  "Testosterone" proved something of overworn cry over the remainder of the weekend (our fault, not his - but check out the Gloucestershire cheese rolling video for a sample).  Carl is moving on to a church planting role with Elim in the New Year.  I diverted to Leicester for the night as Mary and I were due to spend a bit of time with the Springfield saints. 

On Sunday, I joined the leaders' breakfast time and then took the morning meeting at Netherhall.  Andy pointed out that I'd still got a bit of a cough (from our stay over a month ago), so I had a cosy afternoon doze in the armchair by the wood stove.   Andy led a thoughtful evening house-group meeting, and then Mary and I headed home to catch the end of our supper scene.  Caleb's and Karen's little boy safely arrived at 1 in the morning: a welcome new single brother resident at Springy!

Broomhall Community Choir One Year On

Margaret was excited: "We're holding a Remembrance Service here at St Andrews, and the Minister would like the Choir to sing."  So, as the day drew near, we had to rehearse, and rehearse, and refine. 

Steve, our choirmaster proposed a vote on including some World War I favourites, and Keep the Home Fires Burning won.  The remainder of the morning's offering was drawn from our current repertoire: Tebe Poem by Dmitry Bortniansky, Locus Iste by Anton Bruckner, Mozart's Ave Verum (K618), and God So Loved the World from John Stainer's Crucifixion.  Perhaps the biggest challenge was that first two items would be unaccompanied.

We gathered an hour early to finalise seating and warm up our bronchials.  Everyone was remarkably friendly.  St Andrews lost their full-time minister last year.  Sarah was quite a catalyst in the local scene, and I hadn't met Robert, her successor.   For this Armistice Day event, there was a screen set up at the front, and Robert stood to one side to lead the proceedings.

The music went well.  Barrie stayed on afterwards to listen to the recording, and was impressed.  As the two-minute silence approached, Robert, wearing a white poppy, read a long poem while suitable historical pictures played out on the screen.  The message seemed to be: we decline to mention that WWI was deemed to be "to God's glory", but don't mind commending sacrifice as a principle; and, things haven't travelled too well for Christian religious sentiment (universally amongst the young) in the century that's followed - un-British Islam's ascendancy is driving us to greater humility.  Hmmm.  (I wish I could find the original, but URC's website hasn't helped.)

Steve didn't stay for refreshments, so I sent him a text congratulating him on where he's got the Choir to in 12 months.  I guess it'll be carols at the Sheffield University's main Firth Hall before the year is out, too.

Healing

I came back from East Africa to find that our Sheffield congregation Sunday night gospel event had fallen apart.  Thereafter, we've attempted some household-based activities.  For Royal Standard this means a bible study in the Lounge at the Jesus Centre.  Thus far the themes have been drawn from our Church statement of faith booklet, and different leaders have introduced the studies. 

I recently did a session on sacraments, and we found some stimulating stuff about the real presence, and the Radical Reformation position that the mean elements represented by the gathered people of God become, by the Holy Spirit's metabole, the Body Of Christ - broken break and poured out wine for the world.  But I digress.

Malcolm was at the end of a study on healing, and we seemed to be just warming to the subject.  I offered to do a follow-on session in workshop format.  So, week one we looked at Jesus' healing ministry: there are 41 recorded incidents in the gospels, with different 'methods'.  I prayed for Barrie's painful leg, then handed over to Steven and Paul to pray for Jamie's.  And so we went along.  Folks were getting to 'do the stuff', including anointing with oil.

Week two, we looked at the healing ministry of the disciples in the gospels and also the early church.  Then more 'practicals'.  Barrie's leg was in the frame again, but this time we prayed for his hip, too, with more success.  Natalie, who's been coming around since the summer, was buzzing to have been involved in the prayer.  John, our 80-something outspoken pentecostal visitor, was having tummy troubles and so was next.  Mary's shoulder proved more resistant, and that led us to explore, helpfully, where fear and doubt hinder us in power ministry.

As we'd strayed into more subjective issues, I prepared some notes on inner healing for our third session.  "Holed below the waterline", was the expression I used.  One of our (increasing number of) visitors grunted his agreement.  When we got on to speaking of our problems to receive prayer, he related painful events from his teenage years, and was on the point of tears.  With a couple of the guys he went off somewhere quiet in the Centre.  He returned announcing he'd been sitting on these incidents for over twenty years, and was amazed at the events of the evening.  Jesus remains our healer.

Sheffield Hallam ESRC Festival

Kevin dropped an A3 preview programme on my desk.  Since we've upped our sights in Jesus Centre networking, we want to talk to people with cheque books, not agencies like our own holding out begging bowls.  Hallam Uni joining with the Economic and Social Research Council in a week of charity-related presentations sounded ideal.  I booked for the Thursday session on Outcomes Measurements for Service Commissioners and the Friday one on Charity Legislation and Accounting Regulations.  It may not be your idea of fun, but as vice-Chair of Jesus Army Charitable Trust, I have to keep up to date with trustee matters.  Commissioners, by the way, are groups appointed by every local Council and NHS Trust to distribute their budgets towards what they see to be the priority services and interventions.
 
I caught the Supertram to the Source, Meadowhall, for the first event.  I entered a noisy teaching room of public- and voluntary-sector professionals, and quickly grabbed the day's information pack and some coffee.   Okay, let's get the biased demography over:  the majority were high horsepower middle-aged women in black office somethings, and I guessed a good number were divorced but dedicated to running other peoples' lives.

The presentations began with a summary of academic-led outcomes measurement work undertaken with Doncaster Council.  Here I must display another prejudice.  You see, I lectured for over five years.  Steve Rumsden, my senior colleague, invigilated my first class.  "Yea, you've got it," he concluded.  "You can make 40 minutes worth of material spin out for an hour."  So we had an hour's powerpoint that amounted to, well, "We made up a questionnaire, and it got us some feedback".

The second set of presentations was about a scheme in Rotherham by which GPs can prescribe a range of social measures to complement medical ones.  So, if a patient's wellbeing would benefit from increased contact with other people, they can be referred to a befriending service.  Here I pricked up my ears, because  our Jesus Centres probably deliver a bunch of services that could be recognised in this category.  The academic angle again was again somewhat underwhelming - they'd programmed some follow-up phone calls. 

Any way, after chatting to various people over lunch, I determined to contact Voluntary Action Sheffield, who are probably most in touch with the various commissioners in the city.  Lest you consider I've been harsh about the outcomes measures, I concede it's difficult to get right.

Which brings me to the Friday event, held at the Hallam main city-centre campus.  By comparison with Thursday, it was a positive introvert-fest.  It appears the on-line booking system had a glitch, and I'd effectively gatecrashed an invitation-only private function.  No matter.  We wheeled into the history of charity regulation in Ireland, and then a detailed qualitative study on the narrative section in charity annual accounts that's designed to demonstrate public benefit.  We went on to consider new regulation in Scotland, and about-to-be-introduced proposals in Northern Ireland. 

The quiet conversations over coffee were on a peer-to-peer level with people at the top of their game.  I noticed discreet lapel badges betokening Christian commitment.

We sauntered off the the Uni's showpiece restaurant for lunch.  The afternoon concentrated on audit findings and implications in the light of SORP 2015, and group work to suggest regulation and standards improvements to feed back to various professional bodies.  Then a final presentation concluded, from a survey involving 179 nations, that the time may be right for a global approach to charity reporting.  It appears that many recipient nations get bullied by donors, and would appreciate a level playing field.  Maybe that's something for me to do as a retirement project if Multiply funds run further short.

The good news is that our Church not-for-profit entities' annual returns seem to score well.  But its going to get more complicated.

42 Collegiate Crescent

I get Sheffield Hallam Uni's monthly business-related e-magazine, and noticed an invitation to visit their new £27M 'Heart of the Campus' facility.  It's sort of "our neighbours' new extension", so I didn't feel the need to adopt any official capacity to accept the offer.

For over a year there's been evident construction work on the go.  But I didn't realise they'd bored down 700 meters for a ground source heat pump installation.   Beyond much environmental high-tech, the whole functional layout is impressive.  On a relatively small footprint they've set up extensive teaching rooms, staff/faculty areas, a huge open-plan concourse with cafe and SU, and substantial gym and sports facility.  There's even a fully equipped courtroom for the law studies students.  My teaching experience was housed in separate blocks for each function.  Such intense usage would create noise problems, and they've introduced extra lowered ceilings to suppress echo/reverb and give the larger spaces a more intimate scale. 

We had a good nosey into the gym, and I found that local residents can sign up for £14 per month.  That's hard to beat - and resist - when it's just a few minutes' walk away.  Then we went to the top floor, where the staff have an enviable roof-top balcony overlooking the east city centre. 

I had to decline the full meal that followed the presentation and tour, as Mary and I were due to go to Phil's and Donna's for our 'Wednesday Agape'.  But there are other events to follow.  Hallam boasts to be the most modern campus in the country (and it's one of the biggest Unis).   I told the organiser that whatever their community liaison team had been doing over the years had worked.  We no longer get drunken revellers pushing the coping stones off our garden wall in the early hours of the morning.  She didn't seem impressed.    

Multiply UK Leaders Conference (MUKL) 2014

Trapped by my now-officially more prominent role in Multiply, I ended up on the planning team for MUKL.  And anyway, they met in my office.  So I was ahead of the game when we sounded out Kings Church Medway if they'd act as hosts, and delighted that they readily agreed. 

The shift of the venue to Kent raised a challenge for folks who customarily like to attend but who live north of Watford.  Even the Northamptonshire Church contingent would have to leave at 7am.   Claire was quick to spot my dilemma; "You and Mary must stay overnight with us at River."   Great - we took the invitation to extend the weekend to spend Sunday morning with the Coventry saints.  But others didn't cope so well, and Hannah had to cancel the comfortable coach we booked in favour of two minibuses (ah - economy). 

Ed (also co-opted, like me), Iain and Pastor Andrew, who was over from Uganda for two weeks' 'Leadership Hosting', visited Kings Church in September to cover the practical issues.  Desmond, new Chair of Multiply International Exec, had had to cancel his return travel plans to Sierra Leone and so agreed to head up the morning teaching.

Steven had attended last year, and was keen to come with us, and Jamie was up for it too.  So, Friday teatime and evening found us comfortably spread around River's lounge appreciating the local saints, and abundance of chocolate.  I heard Andy Lantsbery come home at 1am after he'd been evangelising in Birmingham, even though he was our early morning driver.  Hardcore.

Kings Church were on a high.  They'd just started to move into their new community house bang opposite the church and next door to their Caring Hands outreach ministry and initial shared house premises.  "The church is winning," was the spirit.  Their community contingent is now about 60 strong, and circumstances around the property auction and free remodelling of their grounds indeed speak of the Lord's favour.  During the lunch break we had a guided tour.

Kings Church leader Mat Guest led the afternoon session, complete with a great band arrangement of Hillsongs 'Oceans'.  Mat made the hard-to-argue-with statement: "You must change, that's the start of the church changing, and we impact change on the world, by which the church grows (with new people)".   Whew; so why do we hunker down in our holy huddles?

Of course in all the buzz, we were late leaving.  And our foursome were similarly late arriving at Kings House, (in the middle of their Saturday evening get-together).  Sunday morning at Coventry Jesus Centre followed the format of their monthly evening celebration, with full band and baptisms.  Their faith is on a rising trajectory, too.  Yes, Christians are winning.

Who We Are

22:13 "You're on TV! :)", Kat's SMS text announced.  Yes, it was the long-awaited Jesus Army episode of Grayson Perry's Wednesday night Channel 4 series.  There'd been a brief anticipation of the content and flavour the night before around the Agape table.  "It won't affect us, we don't have a television."  Groan.

Andrew, Ellen and the boys were staying overnight with Kat.  I diverted my morning jog to call in.  Without glasses, I'd mistaken a neighbour out walking her dog and small child for Ellen with Holly and Ryan.  After demonstrably attracting their attention, I realised my blunder and swiftly crossed the road.

Ben and Faye were in the middle of breakfast.  "I'd just come round to explain that Granddad was on the tele again last night.  Such an embarrassment."  Ben was gracious: "'S alright."  Zane offered a hug.

I'd forgotten the 2013 Alive Festival Weekend when I'd led some baptisms, and got caught on camera.  Later, catching up with the programme, I found that Grayson felt deprived of 'the numinous' by our Living Stones community house's decor.   (You can find the episode on http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grayson-perry-who-are-you/4od#3777327 .)  "Christianity stripped bare," he continues. 

Actually I'm quite pleased with that.  I recognise that within philosophy, aesthetics is probably the most fruitful field in which to debate the existence, person and nature of God.  I've even dipped into Aristotle, Kant and Schiller on the subject.  Respect: Grayson is quite a seeker.

The Big Pick

Sheffield Praise Day - the whole Church celebrating indoors; the Big Pick - out in creation enjoying the massive fruit harvest.  It may seem crazy to drive from Sheffield to Northampton just to pick apples, but that's only part of the purpose.  (Even when the sixth core value I've adopted is: "earn all you can; save all you can; and spend nowt.")  This was a 'Zion' occasion, the community heart of the Church.

Monday afternoon 11 August found a national leaders' event in progress at Cornhill.  There was a sudden intense hailstorm.  It dimpled the skin on the nearby apple crop, and wrote £20,000 off its market value.  However, we have a second product string to our New Creation Farm bow, which is pure apple juice.

 If we could get the crop harvested and sent for pressing we'd save some of the lost revenue.  So, picking wasn't the "treat 'em like eggs" procedure that I recall from several other years.  We had big crates to fill, and you could throw down the picked apples in handfuls.

The sun was glorious, but the unusually warm October was giving way to something more average.  And the orchard fields were muddy!  We'd brought along Nkakasang from Botswana and her friend - suitably togged up - and a bunch of Eritreans.   Titus was delighted to find that the fruit at the treetops also needing picking, and spent much of the time swinging from branch to branch.

We broke for a tea break in the grading shed yard, where a phalax of barbecues and trestle tables were being laid out for the bring-and-share lunch later.  Then we crossed to fields near the rail line.  I hadn't been to these rows for some years, when I remember they were planted with soft fruits like blackcurrant.  In between I caught up with Ralph about a trip to visit Sokie in Malaysia, and tackled Huw, our caretaker Apostolic Leader, about another key leaders meeting in Sheffield.

Jimmie Norden (of Zambia fame) had borrowed a drone to do some overhead videoing. (You can catch the whole production at http://jesus.org.uk/videos/special-short/new-creation-farm-view-above).  Then the call was, "Lunch time!", and the tractors came to cart away our efforts.  No-one seemed in a hurry to rush home.  After, Andy Lantsbery, the fruit 'manager', told me we'd lifted 30 tons.  It's an interesting life we've chosen.

Sheffield Praise Day 2014

The roll-out starts on Thursday, when the carpets go down in Ponds Forge's main auditorium.  I'm becoming a veteran at this, but was trapped between driving back up the M1 after two days of meetings and the earlier start arranged for the job.   Jamie was game to give a hand, and it turned out that Pastor Freddie, who uses the Jesus Centre for his Sunday church events, brought a bunch of his guys, too.  So we made cracking progress.  We were finished soon after 10pm, which is a whole lot better than the midnight or later of previous years.

On Friday, while the Untamed bus and evangelism crew were in the city centre again, Carl Beech dropped in for coffee at the Jesus Centre.  He's (until the end of the year) the front man of Christian Vision for Men, and he's speaking at the evening event at our next Men Alive for God day.  You can catch him on Premier Radio's regular Sunday Shed Talk programme. 

Empower, Sheffield's quarterly inter-church prayer event, was booked for 24 hours from 7pm Friday until 7pm Saturday.  I got along towards 9pm and stayed until towards 2am.  In a group with folks from Rotherham, we prayed about the churches' response to the recent abuse cases, trying to get behind the media portrayals.  After midnight the worship lead music went acapella: I don't know if 'St Phily' has a late-night 'no noise' restriction like our Jesus Centre.  Next year we'll see if we can prevent the diary overlap.

Clare had flown in from Gibraltar for the weekend, and we'd promised a chat over coffee, as we'd done at London Day in Trafalgar Square.  She arrived at breakfast time, and four of us - including Mary and Steven - spent the morning catching up.  Meanwhile, the house was buzzing with other folks who'd arranged to stay, and No25 was packed with the techie set-up team 'indoor camping'.

When lunchtime arrived at Ponds Forge, most of the back section of bleacher banked seating was roped off so folks didn't spread out too thinly across the hall.   Sadly, the number attending never justified opening up these seats, and it's clear that the event now runs under with under 1,000 folks present.  The afternoon session concentrated on our five core values: Holy Spirit life and movement, new humanity brotherhood, sacrificial love, a culture of sharing, and mission focus.

 In the evening, we found out why the chairs on the floor has been laid out with a circular perimeter.  From above, the layout formed the Arabic letter nun.  At Praise Day we stand with the persecuted church, and the Middle East was in focus.

Back home, over supper we shared about the highlights of the whole event and the evangelism campaign of the preceding days.  A good number of our Jesus Centre Lounge drop-in had attended and got on well.  The presentations were worthy of a packed meeting, but that's part of a bigger challenge of adjustment.

Financial Summit

Ed was behind it all.  He bumped into Steve Line, who had been our audit manager for a dozen or so years, first with Coopers and Lybrand and latterly with Grant Thornton.  "How're are things going?", Steve had naturally enquired.  Ed was honest.  "We're in a bit of a pickle, with Church business profits on a downward trend (if there at all), and New Creation Christian Community struggling to pay its way as comfortably as we've been used to.  The result is that we're stumped for giving to our charitable Church and Jesus Centres work at the scale we'd like to." 

This was nothing new to our Church members, as the whole situation had been carefully explained at Annual Church Convocation in August.  What to do about it - for the best - was the tricky question. 

Steve, since moving out of 'the profession', has been running an innovative business that recycles carbon fibre.  "Hah, I've found that doing the stuff is a lot different from just giving advice," he sympathised.  "But, keep in touch."  His personalised number-plate Porsche suggested he'd mastered the challenges nicely.

So, late September found about 16 of us, charged with the care of our overall finances, spending the best part of a day chewing things through with Steve.  He was direct and penetrating.  "So, where would you like to be with things in five years' time?" "Whoa!  When I pop along to church there's no chance of getting away without putting something in 'the plate'."  "I detect turmoil!"  "If you ask me, that's a no-brainer."

We'd done an impressive job of condensing the mass of figures and graphs, getting them into everyone's hands in advance, and thus leaving the bulk of the time for deliberation.  Very significantly, we'd also done an exercise to sift through the priorities for saving expenditure so we don't damage emerging future ministry.  (That's now gone to 100 wider members for further evaluation.)  But - painfully - 2015 budgets are going to have more than a whiff of Chancellor of the Exchequer austerity flavour.  Maybe not a bad thing, as we are meant to be a church of the people, and 'community bubble' is an expression you hear around. 

Steven's final conclusion was that across all our entities we hadn't adequately trained up our 'succeeding generation', and were feeling the stress.  We've set up different Exec meetings to shape our responses across our various bits and pieces -'entities' - (businesses, community house common purses, congregational regional funds, Jesus Centres, central events and departments and so on).  Steve's promised to come back and hold a review before the end of the year.  I hope we don't flinch.

Adelphi and Other Scouse Gems

So, a slimmer Church diary for September.  The Sheffield leaders decided to join with Liverpool for a day on the freed-up weekend.  Mick had already arranged to take Birmingham saints there, too, and to do some evangelism.  Because it made sense to catch the Uni Freshers Week, we agreed on the Saturday a week behind the remainder of the Church's Regional get-togethers.  The Liverpool saints staged a coach campaign, and booked a function room for a Saturday evening event. 

Thus the early morning found us heading for Snake Pass.  The sunshine had raised a covering of mist on Derwent reservoir.  We took a short diversion to enjoy different perspectives.  The satnav got us straight to the car parking adjacent to St Johns Gardens, opposite the Museum and Library.  First off we met Colin and Carley, a couple from Fleetwood who are aiming to get married at Cornerstone early in the New Year. 

An interesting place the Gardens, with a central statue that looks as if it has a pigeon permanently perched on its head.  It turns out to be a plume adorning the helmet.  We enjoyed chatting until lunch, after which folks were encouraged to disperse for the afternoon into the nearby city centre.  I sat on the wall that runs around the Gardens with my guitar and sang some favourite songs.  This was a welcome creative interlude after a week of wearing my Jesus Centre admin head. 

Groups of families were parking up to visit the Museum or Library, and folks seemed to appreciate my efforts as I nodded a welcome.  A bunch of guys dropped some pound coins into the polystyrene cup that contained my half-finished tea. 

We had our picnic tea in the Gardens and exchanged stories about the afternoon.  As the evening chill began to take the edge off the welcome sunshine, we sauntered across the Lime Street Station concourse to the Adelphi Hotel.  I'm always amazed at the contrast between the two maritime cities of Hull, my birthplace, and Liverpool.  The extravagant architecture and decor of the hotel speaks of prosperity and cultural aspiration that's somewhat foreign to flat-footed Humberside.

The evening event buzzed along nicely, led by Loz.  A couple of folks met during the afternoon had made it, too.  A guy from the Uni, armed with a reel tape recorder, added our worship to his catalogue for a media studies assignment.  Altogether it was a great boost for the local Lighthouse saints.

We walked back to the parked car past a pub advertising 'full Irish breakfast'.  Interesting place, Liverpool.

Regions and Empires

When we simplified the 2014 Church diary, we dropped the September North/South half-church celebration meeting.  However, in our typical wanting-it-both-ways manner, we encouraged Regions to arrange something that would bring folks together.  I hinted to the Warwickshire and Leicester leaders that a joint event at Coventry Jesus Centre may nicely fit the bill.  They weren't up for anything as 'set-piece', and decided just to mix up households for something on the Saturday afternoon and evening. 

I had a vested interest, because it was a weekend that Mary and I were due to be in Coventry.  And every visit to Kings House is drawing nearer to our final one when the Church closes it down.  We took Steven and Jamie in tow.  Folks from Spingfield trickled in after lunch.  It turned out that most of the guys had gone for some hairy overnight adventure to celebrate Caleb's birthday.  The weather was indifferent, so not an ideal day for activities outdoors.   

James was in charge of divertisements, and launched us into a game of 'Empires'.  I hesitate to explain the rules exactly.  It starts with everyone conceiving an alias and the MC sticking up the choices (must be unique) on post-it notes without leaking any real identities.  The youngest in the room kicks off the questions. "Mary, are you Florence Nightingale?" If "No", then Mary takes over the questioning.  If "Yes", then Mary joins the questioner's empire (and is basically exempted from any further active part in the game).  If you're lucky enough to guess the identity of someone who already has a budding empire, then they all come over into yours.  To keep the questioning moving, the MC should allow about 15 seconds for thought.  So you're best to line up a couple of next potential questions/candidates.  The typical final outcome is that one person scoops the whole room, and is declared the undisputed winner. 

It's intriguing at several levels.  First, who do you choose as your alias.  The younger children just tended to opt for fictional characters - say, Harry Potter or Postman Pat.  The older folks tended to opt for someone they thought would be universally recognised, so there wasn't an obvious traceable link.  It didn't always work because of the generational assumption: like, Reginald Bosanquet.  Reginald Bosanquet???  Ah, almost before colour television.  The devious picked someone less commonplace - Nicolas Cage, Angela Merkel.  But equally the field of interest may give you away.  Justin Bieber won, with Alexander Fleming proving resistant, and Xerxes baffling several early questioners.

It was the most effective icebreaker I've ever met.  When you've exhausted asking your friends (and mostly guessing wrongly), you're driven to propositioning folks you've never seen or spoken to before.  And risking exposing your impressions of them!  Then, for the highly competitive, there are subtle tactics, like asking someone if they are your alias, so folks are put off the scent.  At least, that's how we played it.  Next time I think I fancy Jessica Ennis.