Jesus Centre Managers' Forum

It's a meeting I look forward to.  Our Jesus Centres probably carry most autonomy of all our local activities.  So, we need intentional cooperation to prevent isolation, mission drift and 'reinventing the wheel'.  Every three months the managers come together, rotating the meetings between our four Centres.  The agenda is flexible, except at the end of year when we carry out a structured review, as befits an efficient charity.

This year we gathered against the backdrop of our financial pressures.  Two weeks ago, the Trustees' Exec met - for the first time since our establishment.  Chairman John had produced an excellent synopsis.  Treasurer Mike had reviewed and commented on the big-ticket items in each Centre's 2015 budgets.

Overnight, following the Financial Summit, I'd stayed at Kings House.  I'd pleasantly spent the evening with Andrew, Ellen and crew.  First thing in the morning I'd texted birthday greetings to her and Kat - they're seven years apart.  (Vodaphone let me down on the second text, but that's a whole nother story.)

On the way to Central Offices, I'd picked up a load of distribution from John Fervent's vending machine company customer.  The Forum meeting was eased along with samples of (lurid pink) green tea and peach cordial, pomegranate juice, and Mars mixtures.  The remainder will find its way to Sheffield Jesus Centre.

We have two tricky objectives to meet: to continue to enable the vision for congregations to run Centres, and to ensure these are sustainable.  So, it's expansion and consolidation at the same time, with the seeming contradiction this implies.  John spoke of the difference between limbs being lopped off and being pruned.  He steered us through the financial constraints (nothing new to the voluntary sector!), and income targets.

Then on to the work on the ground.  Each Centre was able to report progress in 2014, though successes weren't equal.  The common thread is a drift away from fully meeting annual costs, and a sense that we're on the limit with volunteer input.  So the message really is one of resetting our expectations so we live within our means - in the total meaning of the expression.  And communicating this positively, while aspiring to be more effective with what we've got.  Finally, after a couple of years of frustration, opening a Centre in Birmingham is now within our reach.

After lunch it was time to fix our objectives, likely obstacles and mitigation for 2015.  Managers are emerging as teams getting on top their responsibilities.  Northampton Jesus Centre now has strong local staff, London is looking brighter, Coventry have freshened up their service offerings and Sheffield now tends to a measure of realism.

So, much to do.  For me it starts with our own local Management Committee Exec meeting this  Sunday, followed by Coventry's equivalent on Monday evening.  But we're all in it together, and God's in it, too.
 

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.

Multiply Zambia 2014 Day Zero - We Fly

My bedside digital clock said 4.44.  I spent two hours lying rehearsing the day's last-minute jobs and evaluating various permutations around repacking.  Mary had to take Barrie to Northern General Hospital at 8am, so when Phil and Donna texted at 7.00am, I too relinquished the bed.  Then Gav rang: he had all the family gathered round the phone to wish me goodbye.  When I told him the flight was 7.00 in the evening he rang off to get on with breakfast.  Harriet breezed, "Did you see what Ali posted on Facebok last night?  'My last proper night's sleep for two weeks.'"  "Did she tell you about the travel iron?" I followed. 

Actually, the last hours had been eventful for us all.  When the rest of us were away in Birmingham, Steven, our Jesus Centre publicity supremo, had arranged to got to Bridlington for a few days away and to attend a wedding.  Only he'd taken rather more of his stuff than he needed, and then texted Mary to say 'things had come up'...  Sunday supper was a non-event. 
 
On Sunday night and Monday morning I'd desperately tried to find an online bookseller who could deliver ISBN 0691007373 "Wildlife of East Africa" before I left Sheffield.  Hannah had failed in her attempt to check in on line.  James had found that Viv had nicked the best of our camera tripods, and I would need to get it to him before baggage check-in.  Both Len and I had clean forgotten to agree about picking up the two Multiply video cameras, but James (Jimmie to his friends) had thoughtfully snaffled them.  He'd also posted a copy of the Sheffield Jesus Centre video he's just completed on line at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtgHXLKUSZI

The first email I checked was Steven saying the advance budget money still hadn't arrived.  The folks in Lusaka were desperate for it, else we wouldn't be able to keep to the conference arrangements.  Andy rang to say he'd been trying to use the Skaino credit card, and had locked out the password.  He apologised that I wouldn't be able to use it in an emergency.

Time to get to the station arrived faster than I'd noticed, juggling how to transport the tripod and all.  But, at Sheffield station my train had been cancelled.  A landslip had required maintenance work, and only one, not three trains per hour were running between there and Chesterfield.  And they were being very slow about it.  I texted Len to say 'Save me a place in the baggage queue'. 

Sitting on the delayed train, I realised I'd left $500 of conference 'contingency' money at home in my briefcase.  Somehow, I didn't feel like eating my packed lunch.

Past Leicester, the driver opened the throttle and we seemed to catch up on lost time.  I saved a few minutes on the tube and Heathrow Connect train, and surfaced at Terminal 4 just an hour late.  The rest of the gang had taken over Cafe Nero.  Jake, the driver from Northampton, and Jimmie were tinkling on the concourse piano.

Farayi introduced me to his wife Brenda and two children, plus their adopted daughter who'd be travelling with us to join another member of the family in Ndola.  The Kenya Airways check-in was straightforward, not least because the plane was only half full and the usual crush of passengers was absent.  We had a last-minute photo shoot while Mary rang to say that her hospital checkup had gone okay, but she has another one on Tuesday.

On board, I texted Gav to say we were due to switch off 'all electronic equiment'.  But 'We love you, Granddad.' arrived on my answerphone just the same.  Len was like a kid with a new toy fiddling with the in-flight entertainment console, and Jimmie was shooting still photos and videos of the terminal building through the window.

After the crew served the meal, Len passed round half his bread roll as our little Agape.  I headed towards the back and took over three empty seats together.  With three hours time difference they would be serving breakfast at local time equivalent of 4.00am.  I saw Jimmie's screen flickering, but sleep was first priority for me.

Chee Dale Christmas

The Monsal Trail is becoming our favourite local walk.  So when our traditional Christmas Day outing came onto the radar, it was little surprise that Clive announced, "We'll all meet in Millers Dale Station car park".  It ticks the boxes: less than half an hour's drive away, with toilets and an electric-buggy-friendly route, and fascinating vistas. 

Last year had been wet and cold, and the River Wye was swollen over its banks at several points.  Half of us had diverted up to higher ground, and followed a track across farm fields via Flag Dale.  This year was marginally less wet and cold, and the river just about allowed for the adventurous to take the Chee Dale lower path.

We boasted a substantial Chinese contingent - some from our house and some from No25.  Mary and I were getting cold just standing around, so led the way to the 'abseiling bridge'.  Then we headed down to the riverside path.  Before long, Callum, Keziah and the legendary Titus joined me at the front of the party.  They seemed comfortable with a mouldy oldie pottering along with them, so we stuck together.

Clive's laminated route plan referred to two sets of stepping stones.  As this was the point where most of the adventurous had to turn back last year, I was keen to see how we'd fair.  I'd expected the stones would cross the river.  But just at the point where the flow has undercut the rock face, there's a line of cube blocks parallel to the river, making up for the washed-away bank.  The second set, further along, was mostly covered, but not so we got stuck.

We made it through to the turn-back point, where we converged with the easy route.  It had taken just an hour.  It had been great fun. Titus had managed to keep the water out of his wellies, though he had mud up to his armpits.  A stubborn root sent Kezzie sprawling.  Callum had talked incessantly.  On the return path, the echoing tunnels tempted some of the more festively-minded to try out "Ding dong merrily on high".

Back at the Station we spread the picnic tables with sandwiches, fruit and cake, and the saints dived in.  Viv was bartering with Marcello and Quieng for the most bacon.  We packed Ray into a car to counteract his shivering.  Rosie was on her phone.  Peter Ali showed up on his mountain bike.  Jack thoughtfully squashed up all the sandwich packs and plastic cups so the back bin liners wouldn't overflow our wheelie bins back home.   Jan and Jane arrived as everyone one else was leaving.

Before Sheffield I took a detour through Eyam.  The view across the valley to Frogatt Edge was clear and bright.  Back home, Andrzej bundled his two Arabic-speaking friends into the little lounge to view the next episode in his DVD on Old Testament theology.  Harriet cooked up chicken supreme.

Sadly, I can't deny that I did some Jesus Centre admin before Mary and I got ready to spend the evening - as usual - with Phil and Donna in Chesterfield.  Returning at 11.00pm, Viv was taking home some Slovakian Romanies who'd been at the Jesus Centre.  An amazing mix. 

Tomorrow it's a central leaders event.