New Resource - an 8' steel heart!

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!

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

"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!

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

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

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

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/