Finding the Way

1. Finding the Way Day Conference with Canon Robert Warren

2. The marks of a healthy church • is energised by faith • has an outward-looking focus • seeks to find out what God wants • faces the cost of change and growth • operates as a community • makes room for all • does a few things and does them well

3. Leadership implications The call to leadership is a call to the adventure of creativity in a unique context. Mike Starkey: Ministry Rediscovered.

4. What’s it all about? The pursuit of the knowledge of God The great fact for which all religion stands is the confrontation of the human soul with the transcendent holiness of God. John Baillie, Our knowledge of God

5. UPto God in personal faith, corporate worship and daily living spirituality IN to one another as a life-giving community OUT to all around us engaging in God’s loving purposes

6. The gospel for today’s culture God’s way of being fully human has been demonstrated in the life of Jesus Christ, is available to all through the work of the Spirit and is currently being demonstrated in your nearest local church or is it?!

7. Exploring together... Our response to what has been said so far Identify key questions, issues, comments

8. Church and spirituality... fewer and fewer people are attracted to Christianity in the ‘First World’ countries because there is so little spirituality in religion. Matthew Fox, Creation Spirituality

9. Church and spirituality... It is disturbing and revealing to hear that the criticism of the church by spiritual seekers outside is no longer that it is ‘boring’ or ‘out of date’ or ‘irrelevant’. It is criticised instead for being ‘unspiritual’. David Runcorn, Spirituality Workbook

10. Facing obstacles tyranny of the urgent silo thinking confusing means and goals loosing sight of God’s agenda

11. I am persuaded that religious people do not with sufficient seriousness count on God as an active factor in the affairs of the world. ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock’, but too many well-intentioned people are so preoccupied with the clatter of effort to do something for God that they don’t hear Him asking that he might do something through them Thomas Kelly, A Testament of Devotion

12. exploring together... Which obstacle most affects your church? Is there another one apart from these? Questions, issues, comments

13. Developing Distinctives listening

14. To really listen... To really listen and to understand their needs is a profoundly Christian activity, since it takes others seriously and does not presume we know what makes them tick. It is also the first step in understanding how we can enter into other people’s world. Alan Smith: God-shaped mission

15. listening to God... Many churches overwhelm themselves with actions, meetings and projects... which are often a squandering of their resources rather than a faithful commitment to engage with God’s call on their life together. Laurie Green, Let’s Do Theology

16. Developing Distinctives listening vocation generosity

17. exploring together... what might be the distinctive characteristic, God is calling us to give expression to in and through the life of our church?

18. Mission is... ...the good news of God’s love, incarnated in the witness of a community, for the sake of the world. David Bosch, Transforming Mission

19. Mission weaknesses Silo thinking Means not goals Loss of distinctiveness Lack of creativity and imagination

20. Doing through church organisations and activities Being communicating faith through the church’s ethos, values and quality of relationships Living out of the faith by church members in the whole of their lives.

21. Developing mission distinctives Prayer Listening Quality of relationships Self-giving love

22. exploring together... What does all this say about your church’s engagement in mission? What might be the next steps for your church in its engagement in God’s mission? What issuesand questionsremain?

23. Mission terminology Kingdom: God’s action in bringing humanity and all creation to its intended fulfilment in Christ. Mission: sharing in God’s loving purposes for the wholeness of humanity and all creation. Evangelism: the processes whereby people become disciples of Jesus Christ. Spirituality: how encounter with God is experienced, expressed and nurtured. Church: lived embodiment and outworking of mission, evangelism and spirituality

24. Current weaknesses Limited to physically needy Plus crisis management ‘comfort’ the goal Hierarchical assumptions/expectations Lack of help to the healthy/able

25. Growing whole church pastoral care Growing whole-church/life pastoral culture Mutuality principle Awakening dynamic Listening focus: ‘market research’ Small team: 3 people 3 times year Agreed area of exploration Development of culture of faith exploration Team growth out of the visited

26. exploring together... Key insights from the day Next steps back home issues and questions remaining

27. Spirituality Buildings Mission

28. Spirituality enabling people to have such a relationship with God that they live out of a sense of wonder, generosity and vocation in the whole of life, and, through the life of the church, share in generous serviceof others.

29. Buildings Bringing our activities onto one site in a building that speaks of wonder, peace and generous welcome that provokes people to seek God and is a great facility through which the service of the wider community takes place.

30. Mission To find ways in which to engage with, learn from, andwork for the good of the people of this town in such a generous God-given way as to provoke curiosity, wonder and the pursuit of the knowledge of God and practical expression of the goodness of God

31. UPto God in personal faith, corporate worship and daily living spirituality IN to one another as a life-giving community OUT to all around us engaging in God’s loving purposes