I had hoped to post much early, but a number of things have put me out of action this week. Last Friday I and 5 young guys from Bunyan and other churches embarked (and I hasten to add completed) an 18-mile walk from Bishop's Stortford to Stevenage. Over fields and along country roads we walked through the night and early morning. There was a great sense of encouragement and friendship as the six of us walked. It took us 8 hours.
After a few hours sleep, I got up and went to a training day on church planting @ Bunyan with Stuart Murray. It was really useful to have Stuart with us - to teach and advise - as we explore a church plant here in Stevenage. Stuart was able to articulate the big choices facing us as we discern the future.
Sunday saw us do the whole church communnion sunday I spoke about in earlier post. There were a few things for us to learn, but in the main I thing there was a real sense of our togetherness in Christ. It is something I would like the church to do more regularly: the more we grow in our understanding and experience of being around the table, the more I think we will learn what it is to be the body of Christ.
Monday evening to Tuesday evening I read the latest Harry Potter (and the half-blood prince). Is it a sign of good book or bad one that I read it so fast? Rowling does develop good journeys with some of characters and the question of what is good character. Something I'll write more about another time.
Tuesday night saw Hannah and I watch Hotel Rwanda. This was a film I missed on the big screen back in Jan/Feb time. It was a powerful display of the moral failure of the West to intervene. I recommend if you've not seen this film, rent/buy now. Brian McLaren writes some good thoughts here and there is a good article at the metaphilm site.
One last thing is to highlight Chris Erdman's 5-part series on preparing to preach: part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4; and part 5.
Well done for the walk, sounds like you've had a busy time!
Posted by: Anderson | July 21, 2005 at 06:23 PM