And on to Narrow Way again

Richard was keen that Mary and I should be the first guests to stay in the large bedroom of their newly-finished dormer conversion.  The community house is unusual, as it straddles and interconnects two corner properties on adjacent roads: 133 Cambridge Street and 37 Sykefield Avenue.  The new extension is part of the latter, and it means that the whole house family can be accommodated together.

I nipped over from Springfield, and Mary arrived from Sheffield after negotiating the snow-bound roads at home.  But having settled round a cup of tea, we were off again back across Leicester for a joint Saturday evening meeting.  Richard had explained about the IDEA groups they're in the process of rolling out - individual development, encouragement and accountability, and Andy and Eva added their perspective.  These will happen every other Saturday evening from now on for covenant members.  The initial try-outs for the 'facilitators' (leaders, to the rest of us) have been excellent.

The daybreak view from the dormer bedroom spanned a maze of rooftops, with the city centre in the uninterrupted middle distance.  As the sunlight moved round, it was actually quite an engaging perspective.  Sunday morning event was in a new hall at Overdale Junior School, as their regular venue in Netherhall wasn't available over the Xmas break  A good crowd turned up, and we led off with rousing songs to make the place feel at home.  Nick, a regular member of the congregation, and the caretaker for the buildings, was clearly happy.  We successfully mastered 'Sovereign over us', and I thought the hall could be a great alternative choice for the future.

After lunch, Mary and I decided to stay around for the Narrow Way evening get-together.  Jack at home was keen that we should try to give a lift to Sam from the Farm.  He'd arranged an overnight adventure in a barn in Hathersage - so we had time to kill.  I put on some extra layers and walked the length of Narborough Road - sad, but at least I wasn't going to get lost.

Folks arrived for a viewing of the final third of the Visual Bible dvd of John's gospel, dramatised straight from the original Good News Bible text.  Sam duly phoned to say he was leaving Northampton Jesus Centre, so we hiked back to Springfield to collect him.  He promptly fell asleep until, approaching midnight, we slithered up the drive back at home. 

The two church household groups have come a long way in interacting together, and have definite vision for 2015.  So, as I unpacked, I allowed the thought that some part of my national leadership patch is doing okay.

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.
 

Alive Festival Weekend

I'm not sure that I entirely like this 24-hour availability lifestyle, courtesy of data access, etc.  I was in the Jesus Centre setting up for The Burn when Mick emailed.  "There's been concern expressed about holding the Bank Holiday Festival in the marquee because of the weather and the ground conditions.  What do you think about transferring to Northampton Jesus Centre, and making the programme just Saturday and Sunday?"  There are some endurance challenges that you just don't need.  Thus it turned out to be.

The logistics of attending a Bank Holiday Weekend Festival are pretty impressive.  We start booking local accommodation at least month ahead.  About a week before we travel, we confirm numbers and meal arrangements.  Josh and Viv do a mega spreadsheet with all the vehicles we can summons (about 15) and all the passengers to fit in (usually 90-100).  Hence in recent years we've unified our travel arrangements so everyone travels of Friday afternoon and returns after lunch on Monday.  Not a chance this time: there was the "We're booked in for Friday night" brigade, and the "We're staying over until Monday" brigade.

The nearly 20 of us who were headed for Kings kept it simple.  On Saturday morning we loaded the van with bedding.  Andy dropped it off so we'd get sorted out that bit quicker at supper time.  We were due to lose an hour with the time change anyway.

I was anxious that without the traditional Friday evening warm-up meeting, folks would be milling around more intent on chatting with each other than engaging with the Saturday afternoon event.  When the time came, we had a full house, and an unusual additional ingredient - a full Channel 4 television camera crew.  Joe, the producer, announced that their interest was in "Living Stones as a non-biological family".  Non-biological.  Are they cyborgs, or something?  To be fair, I had been given advance notice, because I was due to take some baptisms, moved for the occasion from the customary tea interval into the evening event programme. 

Mick stunned some of the afternoon congregation with the challenge for single folks to defer marriage until they were 25, to give their best years to God.  I don't know why they were caught unawares; pastorally, this has been the best advice for many years.  It's particularly relevant where folks are selected to be part of a church-planting team or new community foundation, and need to balance the privilege of the call with responsibility to give it their best shot.

During the tea interval I caught up with Hilary.  She normally does all the meals for the marquee team from a catering caravan parked on the site.  "What did you do with the couple of free days?" I asked.  Sensibly, she'd resisted giving over the time to more audit work.  The day was beginning to feel like a speed dating event.  All the people you'd bump into over four days, but only half the time to spend talking with them.

Taking baptisms at Northampton Jesus Centre is an interesting challenge.  The tank is inset in the main stage.  It's so short that there isn't room to stand in the water, lest the poor candidate should crack their head on the steps when they get immersed.  To officiate you squat like a garden gnome over a fish pond, and lean forward you won't lose your balance.  I discussed the arrangements with Joe from Channel 4.  He had previously interviewed a brother from Birmingham, and the deal was that they would film his baptism.  We had two guys to baptise from Yorkshire.  I agreed that one of them would go first, so the camera crew could anticipate the best shots.  Being centre-stage, we introduced everyone so the whole audience got drawn in.  When I checked my phone, Josh had texted, "Stop playing to the camera".  Hmmm.

The great thing about staying at Kings for Bank Holiday Weekends is the Sunday morning cooked breakfast.  This being Easter Day, all the children seemed to be tanking up on chocolate, too.

At the morning event, John had a Jesus Centre spot.  He related how his in-laws had worked abroad, including Jordan.  Here they'd been at state banquets that involved four "sittings".  First the kings and top diplomats dined.  Then they withdrew to a second chamber and were joined by the next-level-down officials and guests.  After this spread, they went to a third room where anybody and everybody attended.  Finally the poor, outcasts and homeless came to the banquet.  This provides the background to Jesus' words, "The last shall be first and the first shall be last".

In the evening "Kids' Splot" teams of nine-year-olds competed to embalm a victim in the manner of eastern burials.  At the response time later, some interesting old friends sought out Mary and I for prayer.  There was an encouraging healing of one sister's knees (sorry it sounds strange).  Paul drove the minibus home.  I was impressed to find we were back by 11.20pm, until someone pointed out that all the clocks were an hour out. 

If you want to listen to the new dvd released over the weekend, Ignite, click on:
https://www.facebook.com/jesus.army?ref=ts&fref=ts