Lichfield Diocese Fresh Expressions

New Resource - an 8' steel heart!

2010-06-07T19:28:00.003+01:00

Look what the Parish Mission Office were able to inherit at the weekend (I apologise for the horrible knees!)

Can you think of a practical use for it? We're not looking to give it away, but it's happily available for any church or group that may like to borrow it for something, perhaps as a focal point for a Mission or amongst some prayer stations or similar.

If you'd like to borrow it, just contact Richard on 01922 707863 or richard.barrett@lichfield.anglican.org

Meet Kevin!

2009-11-29T18:39:00.011Z

Back to Church Sunday 2009; over 100,000 people around the world were welcomed as cherished guests to their local church. Excitingly, 2000 of those people were here in Lichfield Diocese. The Parish Mission Team had reports of people from 6 to 94 years old coming to church by personal invitation - with plenty in between! We hope and pray that lots of them may still be coming along, and genuinely part of congregations in weeks, months, and years to come.

On 26th November the Diocesan team were invited to a 'Gerbil' day at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church on Trafalgar Square. Gerbil? More of that later.

Anyway, as the day went by, at one point they briefly announced the 'top ten', those dioceses that were most successful in encouraging churches to take part. We were really honoured to hear that we actually came in first place; just ahead of our neighbours in Birmingham.

Our prize, was presented here by B2CS Chair (and Chief Exec of Southwell Diocese) Nigel Spraggins (left) to yours truly Richard Barrett, one of the team in Lichfield Diocese;

And the person nabbed to be behind the lens was the National Mission and Evangelism Advisor Revd Paul Bayes!

Yes, it was indeed a real Gerbil; 'Kevin', named I believe after Roland Rat's erstwhile sidekick. Meet the star of the piece;

Believe me that it took a lot of attempts to take that picture - he's a frisky little fellow!

My sister and I had a fun challenge on Thursday night making what we hope was good living conditions for the little nerk;

Which he seemed to enjoy exploring!

I hope you'll also be pleased to know that Kevin has now found himself a permanent home (my pooch Ben was VERY jealous that attention was diverted away from him!) - SuperKev will now be living with my cousin Jayne - and most importantly her little son Jacob, who is very excited at the prospect.

Anyway, why 'Gerbil'? Well, one of the things that I thought I'd never know or need to is that gerbils don't tend to fare too well on their own in the wild, and are always better in pairs; and hence as the key vision for B2CS is one person inviting another, it makes them a very suitable mascot for B2CS...

It also stands for the slightly shoe-horned acronism;
GEt
Right
Behind
It
err...
Love

Let's see if we can live up to that next year and stay in first place!

You can read up more on B2CS at
http://www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/church-sunday

TGIS

2009-10-26T10:01:00.004Z

"Thank God It's Sunday" happens in a tiny village called Criftins, near Ellesmere, Oswestry. It's been running for two years on a bi-monthly basis at 11.15 on a Sunday morning in the local school. When I (George, Lichfield's Director of Parish Mission) was there it was about 20 adults and 10 children, a good mixture of church folk and non-regulars. After some good food - a late breakfast of sausages in a bun - people got stuck in to the craft activities. The theme was scarecrows and everyone was asked to come in appropriate gear - hence my hat! It ended with a time of worship. What a brilliant event. It just shows - it can be done anywhere - and it works! For details contact Rev'd Anne Netherwood at rev.netherwood@btconnect.com

The Mission-Shaped Ministry Course is coming to Shrewsbury!

2009-08-24T14:13:00.002+01:00

You can read far more about this at;
http://www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/frexpression

But I've also been sent a few pictures of the msm course 'in action';

Psalm Readings

2009-06-01T12:20:00.004+01:00

At this year's Stafford show 'his nibs' George the Parish Mission Director tried using the following verses as 'Psalm Readings'-you can read how below.

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers … what are humans, that you are mindful of them?”
Psalm 8:3,4.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”
Psalm 19:14.

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul."
Psalm 23:1-3.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?”
Psalm 27:1

“I will instruct and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.”
Psalm 32:9.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” Psalm 34:8:- "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Psalm 34:8

“The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
Psalm 34:18

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”
Psalm 46:1

“Be still and know that I am God.”
Psalm 46:10

“Yet I am always with you, you hold me by your right hand.
Psalm 73:23.

“Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
Psalm 84:5

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
Psalm 119:105

I reckon this would work at any event where you have lots of unchurched people - Fayres, Garden Parties, etc etc. I printed off 12 different verses from psalms ( e.g. 27:1, 46:1 etc) about 12 to a side of A4 so each verse was on different coloured card. I set them out on a small picnic table, put a small stone on top of each pile to stop them blowing away and a sign that said "Psalm Reading take a card - free". Most people were quite happy to do so when invited to have a 'psalm reading'. I had only a handful refuse me. They are invited to choose a card, any colour. They then naturally read what is says and I ask if it means anything to them and explain it a bit. It's a wonderful way of connecting people with God. Just two stories from last Wednesday:
I was talking to a Methodist lady when Lynne suddenly came into the tent with 6 teenagers. They went straight up to the Psalm Reading table and took a card each and started reading them. Lynne was talking to them about it and I said to the woman, "Look 6 young people reading the bible!"
At the end of the day one young woman as just leaving the tent and I invited her for a 'psalm reading'. "Why not?" she replied and came across. "Pick a card, any card," I said. She picked up Psalm 34:8 and started reading it. As she did, I noticed her t-shirt said on it "Home Brew" and realised she was from the Home Brew tent. The psalm says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." What a gift - it was so easy to talk to her about God.
We don't use it to ram the message down people's throats but just open them up to God and they can take the card away as a reminder of his word to them for today.
If you want to try it out, I can send you all the verses and sign by email so you don't need to type them all out. All you will need is some coloured card, some small pebbles, a small table, the right occasion and off you go.
I recommend it. Simple. Cheap. Brilliantly effective.
Have any of you used this? If so, please tell us how you found it.
Email me for the details. george.fisher@lichfield.anglican.org

You can also download a master document of all the Psalm Readings here; from where you can produce your own with some pretty coloured card and a nice tablecloth!

Mr Redeemer Lives

2009-03-09T10:21:00.002Z

Hello all

I thought you may like this moving story sent to me this week by email.

A son asked his father, 'Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?'
The father who, despite having a heart condition, says 'Yes'.
They went on to complete the marathon together.
Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying 'Yes' to his son's request of going through the race together.
One day, the son asked his father, 'Dad, let's join the Ironman together.'
To which, his father said 'Yes' too.

For those who don't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever.
The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer bike
ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island, Hawaii.
Father and son went on to complete the race together.

Richard

Messy Church

2008-11-09T13:32:00.000Z

Yesterday, I was with another 50-odd people hearing all about Messy Church, a really exciting new initiative endorsed by Fresh Expressions designed to attract young people and their carers for genuinely all-age worship.

The basic idea is to enjoy various fun craft activities based around a certain theme, a very short time of worship, and then have a shared meal together.
Why not have a look at their website and have a mooch round; there's plenty of good craft ideas at the very least; mooch on!

http://www.messychurch.org.uk/

That's got Cod Sall to do with Fresh Expressions.

2008-11-08T20:54:00.000Z

Ahem!
A few great pictures here from Codsall's very special midweek service, StNics@StNics.
It meets actually not in the church building, but in the school that shares it's name; St Nicholas' First School.
Not a 'Messy Church' by name, but it looks like it by nature!
You can see a load more pictures here;
http://s289.photobucket.com/albums/ll218/LichfieldFreshExpressions/StNicsatStNics/

Boom-band-a-bang

2008-09-24T13:58:00.000+01:00

Deton8 - a well exciting Youth Event that took place in Wonderful Wolves a couple of weeks ago. I meant to go, but I got waylaid. Apparently it was awesome.

Don't take my word for it; check out the video...

(Cool, my first video blog - next I'll be doing 3D interactive holograms)
(Or not)

Stig - coming to a church near you...

2008-09-24T13:25:00.000+01:00

An entirely unreliable source telss me that ths Stig (yes that's right,the lanky mysterious chap on the left, has been zooming around the diocese recently trying to find a church that would make him feel welcome, with drastically differing results.

Problem is, most people now are getting used to that mysterious white helmet, so now he's joined up with our Mystery Worshipping team. That way no one needs know who he is!

Fact is, he cold be almost anyone, maybe even one of these...

If you'd like the Stig or another Mystery worshipper to visit your church, or maybe you'd like a go at being Mystery Worshipper yourself, just let Richard know...

St Editha's Prayer Trail, Church Eaton

2008-07-29T14:59:00.000+01:00

This looks great!
loads of photos already up on flickr, so I'm not going to duplicate Peter Ashby's hard work, but do have a look at the page;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pegash/sets/72157606241110989/
It was set up to coincide with the Scarecrow Festival - what a great way of incorporating a spiritual dimension into a community event!
If you're keen, I can happily send you some details of the text that was used.

Harass you all soon!

Renew 08

2008-07-21T14:16:00.000+01:00

Hullo Folks

A few snaps I've just posted from an exciting festival just taken place in Leigh in Staffordshire. It looked pretty awesome!
Check out their site at www.hopeforleigh.org.uk if you'd like to see more...

Who needs a service book?

2008-07-07T12:48:00.000+01:00

Service books; who needs 'em...
Well everyone I guess, unless you're rich enough to buy a projector, techie enough to make it work right every single time, and together enough not to forget something.
And bear in mind that Murphy's Law suggests (just as the back row of any given church will feature more hearing aids than a Daniel O'Donnell gig) that those who have the most dubious eyesight in church will sit as far away from any screen as possible, and at the most acute angle possible to it. If they can move their seat to line up at least 3 pillars in the way as well, so much the better...
Anyway...
Saw these briiliant books in a lovely little church in West Brom this week, and thought they were a really nice approach;

I thought these were really nice, not going go as tatty as quickly as a normal book, flexible if you want to change service patterns, attractive thought-provoking images on the rear of all the inserted sheets, easily wipe-clean-able if a clumsy heifer like me spills coffee all over it, or replaceable at worst. Brilliant!

Can we have some?

Is your church 'full'?

2008-07-07T12:41:00.000+01:00

When assessing the minor miracle of a full petrol tank last week, I saw this lonely B2CS pen and got me thinking. How well would we cope if 50 new people turned up on Sunday. Would it be a great opportunity , or a difficulty. Would your congregation rejoice, or chunter that they've lost their seat and have to wait longer for communion? Just a thought...

B2CS 2008 T-Shirts

2008-06-20T21:43:00.000+01:00

You ask, we listen (sometimes!)
By popular demand, please find this Years Back to Church Sunday T-Shirt modelled slightly more glamorously than my filing cabinet could manage!

Choose any comments over the model very carefully; she's my 'baby' sister!

Soul Purpose 08

2008-06-12T23:10:00.000+01:00

3 posts in one day - I'm flying!
A re-entry for Mark Salmon, this time at the Church of the Holy Spirit bringing 110+ kids, 50-60 Adult helpers from 15+ churches in the Shrewsbury area together for a weekend of worship, work, fun fellowship & food.
Cheers Mark
(And other people are actually allowed to give me material as well!)

Build it and they shall come

2008-06-12T16:53:00.000+01:00

Woh - two posts in one afternoon - I'm flying!
George and I each spent a day helping out in this tent at the Stafford Show on the 28th & 29th May.
As you'll see from the weather, George had a rainy day, whereas my day had glorious sunshine. Chalk one this time for the monkey, not the organ grinder!

We were offering free refreshments to the weary punters, with various interesting (hopefully) prayer stations, clowns, giant Jengas and Connect 4s all thrown in. We got to speak to an awful lot of people,

The weather helped us both really - on the Wednesday people came in to get out the rain, on the Thursday they did to get out the hot sun.

Hard work at times, but if a few people went away thinking positive things about Christians, and most importantly, Christ, it had to be worth it!

Annoy you all soon!

Back to Church Sunday 2008

2008-06-12T15:15:00.000+01:00

Are you ready? Are you excited?
Are you a small Australasian Marsupial with unnecessarily large ears?
If the answer to all these is Yes, I'm astonished.
A load of our materials have arrived this week - don't the T-shirts look cool?

If you don't know anything about B2CS 2008, check out;
www.backtochurch.co.uk
If you want your church to be involved (for free if you're in Lichfield Diocese), buzz me.

Mission-Shaped Ministry 2008-2009

2008-05-15T11:25:00.000+01:00

I'd like to say that exactly what's going on here - but I'd be lying!
It appears that the Mission-shaped Ministry Course likes tying people up in knots!

There's space available for the 2008-09 one year course
If you're interested contact Mrs Diane Woolridge on 01785 824965 or diwoolridge@btinternet.com.

Xperience - Wetley Rocks

2008-04-22T10:31:00.000+01:00

Hello guys and gals.
No pictures this time - but an interesting ling to someting exciting in Wetley Rocks.
Xperience meets on the 3rd Saturday of each month in the Village Hall.
Check out the Link...
www.xperience.org.uk

Annoy you all again soon...

2008-04-09T09:34:00.000+01:00

Hello readers!

Did you think we'd forgotten you?
There's some great images here from The Holy Spirit Church in Harlescott (Shrewsbury-ish!)
It looks like the poor vicar Mark Salmon's got his hands full!
They're taken from their weekly 'Sunbeams' service, aiming to give both a meaningful act of worship for toddlers and also the chance to play with toys for their carers! Ahem.
Seriously, we know of a lot of churches around the diocese offering midweek toddlers services in various forms, but Harlescott's just about the one with the highest numbers we've been told about - and definitely the one with the best photos!

Here's the link to their 'A Church Near You' page...
http://www.acny.org.uk/venue.php?V=4308

As I said, we know of quite a few other churches doing similar, so if you're looking for another 'Tots Service', thinking of trying it yourself, or want to show off one you've already got - just buzz me!

St Matthew's Asian Congregation Walsall

2008-03-27T11:38:00.000Z

Hullo readers
Thought that you might be interested in the following, very different church that meets at 3 every Sunday, entirely made up of asian members
If you'd like to know more, check out the following pretty-darn-fine website

http://www.stmatthewsasianchurch.co.uk/

There's some photoes below too, but frankly, the quality's rubbish.
All abuse to the usual address.

Easter 2008 Chuckery St Luke

2008-03-27T10:11:00.001Z

Hi everyone - first one's a bit of a cheat - this is my own church!
But the vicar asked me to put it in the service book without me even thinking of this as a service.
The Labyrinth has 10 landmarks helping you to focus on yourself and your relationship with God, and you go around it your own time in your own way.
if you'd like to know more, best to look at;

http://www.labyrinth.org.uk/index.html