Mission in Action

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Busy Week #2
Been a busy week – out nearly every night which is something that will have to stop.? Some things that have left their mark on me this week:

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TCH is pretty flexible.? A week into a time when one congregation has had to come back to join the main one, there is talk already about planting three new household congregations next year.? Everyone seems to have taken that in their stride.? The idea is to mix up the two congregations and have a go at planting some people out into households who haven’t left the “building” congregation yet.? Could be interesting.

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TCH has a high level of community.? People “pop” in or call you up and ask you around. It’s meeting up with everyone everywhere!? Not all the time, but pretty constant.? We’re in the process of figuring out which night will be off-limits and what times during the day Jill and I will just wander into the city together for a reflective coffee.? Already had one lot of baby-sitting though, with offers of plenty more – so it can’t all be bad!?

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TCH congregations rarely meet except at leadership level.? It seems strange that once a congregation is planted it’s pretty much allowed to get on with it.? Leaders meet on a regular basis, but it takes other planned nights, like tomorrow’s network “Prayer and Praise” night to get other people from the congregations together.

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TCH has a high social-justice element.? I’m going to write a book called “The Little Church that Could”? (hands off that title Rory, it’s mine).? After a sermon on justice from Proverbs the congregation we’re part of has gone out to see what issues of justice are poorly covered in Sheffield.? I was pretty impressed with the groundwork that was done in just a month.? Bottom line is they will be looking at something such as buying a house for use as a half-way house for prisoners, and setting up three congregation members in it.? There’s that flexibility again.

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TCH needs more entrepreneurial leaders.? It seems that there are plenty of twenty somethings who are good leaders, but they need some of the ten-to-fifteen-year leader types many churches have.? The congregations are youngish, though not exclusively so.? The BIG question for me, and it is a BIG question, is What will happen with twenty-somethings start getting married, becoming thirty-somethings, and have kids?? ? Can this level of commitment be sustained? Will people revert to the privatized once on a Sunday existence many Christians opt for??

written by Steve