last week our homegroup went down the tubes

On Saturday our homegroup went to see Underground - a dance performance by Motionhouse dance theatre. With a simple stage a bit like a climbing frame the dancers rather abstractly portrayed an underground carriage. The dance was an emotionally charged and thoroughly enjoyable experience. It was a half hour performance in the open air in Cannon Hill Park outside the Midlands Art Centre. The MAC itself is still closed for renovations but the arts programmes go on.

It was good to be with our homegroup at the same time as watching the dance. And Callie really enjoyed playing with the other children in our group afterwards. Thanks to Alan for organising this.

I'm excited about our new homegroups

This week as a church we are launching our new home groups. As a church we tend to meet in four groups midweek and all together on Sunday morning in a community centre. We have had several months meeting in life stage groups. It was good to be able to discuss some parenting issues in ours and for singles, young couples and the older ones to talk about their life issues. But now it’s time for something new.

There is a feeling that as we reorganise this is an opportunity to deepen our encouragement of each other as disciples of Jesus. I feel that it’s time to get real with each other and to grow in our understanding. It’s time for us to allow each other to all get on board, take initiatives and to play our part. It’s time for us to do more interesting and creative activities together, to discuss the Bible over meals together, and to break bread together as well as a time to be outward looking.

I’m excited about the new groups. So this week I have been reading Houses that Change the World by Wolfgang Simson. And I've ordered The Rabbit and the Elephant by Tony & Felicity Dale from Amazon. These are two good books about church in the home. Though these books are more about small churches that meet in homes there is a lot that can be applied to our groups.

Our group is meeting for dinner this Sunday.

Scrolls In The Desert

During the week our church meets in each others homes. As the groups are arranged at present Nettes & I are in a group with all the other parents. This gives us a chance to discuss parenting issues. Last Thursday we organised an evening that we called ‘Scrolls in the Desert’. We had a number of conversation starters partly buried on a tray of sand. The scrolls included a Bible study plan and a page from a parenting course and there were a few books too. We had a really good discussion to what extent our experience of parenting was like a desert or an oasis as people pulled items out of the sand. The dining table was our oasis for the evening where nibbles, cheese, wine, beer and juices were available for refreshment. Interestingly the juices were hardly touched!

The Best Homegroup Meeting Ever

A simple old-fashioned conversational Bible study of Psalm 23. Best ever? Well it did go really well!

Homegroup on Mission

Last week our homegroup was discussing some of the past teaching in the church. Our focus was one message on Mission. We were saying how practicing the presence of God then this will enable us to have an influence for good on those around us. Luke 4 shows us that Jesus came to deal with poverty (spiritually and physically) and to bring insight and bring liberation from oppression and debt. Yes, we too have the same mission. Where are we doing this? We talked about projects such as our kids club and youth club but also our partnership with Karis Neighbour Scheme. But also we can help the poor and oppressed by changing our shopping habits e.g. consider how products are made or farmed, buy fair trade & not trade with companies that oppress people. We also noted the importance of peace (Hebrew: shalom = wholeness) in John 20::21 "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you." and that Jesus gospel involves teaching all principles including shalom and liberation not just what we thing of as ‘the gospel’ in Matthew 28:19-20 "Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you". We were asked at the end what one thing we could put into action this week as a result of this word. I said that we would buy fair trade coffee for the church on Sunday morning before anyone else got a chance to buy any other coffee!