Mission Day God’s Mission « Our Mission « Your Mission

1. Mission Day God’s Mission «Our Mission « Your Mission

2. What can we learn to build mission in our expanding, transient community – how can we reach out and grow as a parish • We would like to be part of the welcome for new members of the community • Just to be a sponge • Opportunity to share and learn with people from other parts of the diocese • Need new life in the parish, and hoping to find some – we are not growing, though the town is.

3. After challenges in the parish family, the church was reopened. Would like to see more people who come staying, including families, and young people. • Excited about the material, and want to hear more. • Excited to talk about mission. Watched community change from agriculture to industrial economic base. • How can we draw in youth and younger couples. • Hard for the parish to relinquish the “old ways”. Looking to see how the new ways DO NOT take away from the past. Find a way to ease the transition for change in the congregation. • Get a boost in enthusiasm, and carry that enthusiasm back to the congregation.

4. Weekly giving challenges causing the congregation to consider going to half time. How to help the congregation to get past the fear, and to trust in using the money they have to serve ministry, and LIVE. • Town growing, some new members coming in. Working to transfer some of the power from the older group, to the new group. Listen and learn, and share experiences in the church and ministry. • Has seen parishioners excited about the community. Interested to discuss what God is already calling us to do, and what God will be calling us to do. Helping to understand mission as small things as well as big, and how do we communicate this. What resources are there.

5. In All Our Needs… How are People nourished? How are your communities feeding others? Who needs nourishing where you are? What are the sources of nourishment where you are? Who are you eating with? Where are you eating?

6. “on the sidewalk” & “at the funeral” came up lots – streamlining churches for end of life doesn’t make for living churches. • Cemetery can meet needs – not a living community though. • Church is very integrated into other things we do and where we need nourishment • Difference in community based on demographic – we focus on people like ourselves. Technology differences too!

7. We often eat alone – use technology for social networking – how many of us are really eating alone? With emails or facebook or radio, not people and community. • Nourishment can have lots of definitions depending on the person and their mindset • Be careful to listen well to what others define nourishment as and how you talk about it. • The group figured out together what we collectively meant and worked that definition

8. Looked at myself and community in a positive light through nourishment that expanded as I heard from others. • Amazing how many resources there are to serve and be serve. And how many we’re not engaging or are fading. • Meeting needs together requires trust and vulnerability and has a degree of risk that we aren’t always willing to meet. • The church has a lot to offer but people still aren’t coming to be fed there. One barrier might be membership/belonging and it’s expectations

9. Work can divide us from community • Some churches are growing while others are shrinking. How is it that we can grow our Christian community? • EVERYBODY needs nourishing! Including us! • Clergy/homeless/youth/single parents/co-workers/community groups/neighbourhoods/farmers/addicted/ immigrants….

10. There was a shorter list of who I eat with than who needs nourishing – although there is overlap. • I can’t be with every group – God Can & is! • God “eats” with us • Where we eat was a longer list than who needs nourishing & who we eat with… • Individuals meeting each other’s needs (eating together) not always communities. • Churches often nourishing only those inside. We’re not seeking to nourish others.

11. Creating opportunities but not always relationships – every “Anglican” is welcome • “Not that kind of…” different senses of group & belonging that can’t be breached. • Nourishing areas don’t always overlap – ie Sports & faith • “That’s Chelsy’s Job” – don’t take the job of eating with others upon ourselves. • Church’s welcome is a “tongue in cheek kind of thing” – don’t really want me, want me to be like them

12. Sometimes we limit ourselves by excluding others • The word “church” & “Christians” can be scary – often when we don’t know a church or a Christian personally • God in his action of nourishment in the world is never limited, is boundless and never exclusive. Using every facility there is, the supermarket as much as the church, the street or the funeral.

13. God’s Mission What does God do all day, Really?

14. God’s Mission • Watches over us • Listening • Loving • Weeps • Surrounds us and is there always with everyone • God builds faith • God has faith in us • Gives direction in a sign/word through many different avenues. What does God do all day, Really?

15. God’s Mission • The intimate universal CEO – managing and in control while entering our lives in the most intimate ways • Brings us back when we’ve gone astray • If he’s manager, then he’s a delegator • He is immanent, and present in everything around us • His immanence is also Working through the love and generosity we express • Gives us courage and inspiration to challenge the cultures

16. God’s Mission Why does God do all this? • Seeks relationship • What is given out is what is received back • To give us hope • Community is in His nature • “All these things that God is doing, is for the purpose of drawing us into that loving community that is God in Godself”

17. Our Mission What did Jesus do all day, Really?

18. Our Mission • Meeting people • Teaching • Feeding, nourishing, (a glutton! ) • Ignored rules • Healing • Walked on water (Miracles!) • Cleansed the temple • Prayed • Challenged authority

19. Our Mission • Showed us who he is, God with us • Showed us what the Kingdom is like – Now! & in the future - How to live together & with God. • Visited the sick, marginalized – that’s where his work needed to be done – restoring community • Empowered the powerless – if you believe you can’t you won’t – Jesus showed us we can!

20. Our Mission • Jesus is the Mission of God • Showed in the margin that God hasn’t abandoned us there. The community that God is trying to build is bigger than we ever thought! • Jesus was eccumenical (even Anglicans are welcome) • Not just to meet a need – Only God can break down the barriers to community – healing the possessed/unclean – calms the storm

21. Our Mission • Removes fear – God is with us, our hope • The disciples had to ask – “Jesus we need you here” – “Son of David have mercy on me” • Where is God with us? We need to ask and look • Church = The way, the body of Christ, the light, bride of Christ – Christ & anticipating Christ • Our Mission is Christ’s Mission • To heal creation – remove barriers to communion with God & each other

22. Our Mission • The mission of the church and mission of the Church are the same – can’t divide the universal Church or the Body of Christ • Christ’s Mission where we are with the people we meet there. • Rootedness – easier to give $20 to someone far away rather than the person we meet. God “pitched his tent” in our midst – we are rooted here as Christ, with his mission.

23. Our Mission What did Jesus do all day, Really? build up the Christian community and change the world

24. Our Mission What did Jesus do all day, Really? build up the Christian community and change the world

25. Your Mission What do you do all day, Really? God’s Mission is Love, He Lives that Mission in Jesus His Spirit Lives that Mission in You

26. Your Mission • If someone bothers you, it doesn’t matter as much. What is important changes. • I react to things differently because I see Jesus in everything I’m doing, and now I can ask for guidance. • The whole day becomes different – that which was a burden, now becomes a blessing. • Gives the day more focus/direction. • The days that I know God is there, are days when the stress is lower. • It creates a thread of consistency in all the things we do. • Helps in keeping promises and commitments in love.

28. What Next? • Let our light so shine… • “How do I get what you have?” - God’s free gift • Nourish the light we have – others have. Do it together for one another • Thought to our actions and relationships • Share what you’ve heard, know, experience • Identify the darkness is where you are, where you can bring Christ’s light in you. Christ is there, wants to be there with you • We are a blessing! See where we are as a blessing for us and others. • Leading & inspiring by example. • Where can change happen? • Face the fear of offending

29. Further Nourishment Where do we go from here? …ask how to live out God’s mission where we find ourselves, with the people we find there. Nourishment in Prayer… Nourishment in Learning… Nourishment in Action… Nourishment in Sharing…

30. Closing Worship Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name in…, thy kingdom come in…, thy will be done in…, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and everything we need in…, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Amen.