The Road to Emmaus

I was very taken by a little bit of reading I did about the road to Emmaus this morning and the 7 'steps' it talked about

1. Jesus comes along side us when we're lost and confused - Luke 24:15-17
2. A lot of people and us sometime don't recognise Jesus when he appears - Luke 24:16
3. Often Jesus has to correct us or tells off before we can get to a place where we understand that He 'means what He says and says what He means!' - Luke 24:25
4. When we want answers to problems we need to go to God's word - Luke 24:27
5. We need to take time to commune with Jesus to sit and eat with Him - Luke 24:29-30
6. As you spend time with Jesus and in the Word of God your eyes will be opened and you develop a passion for Him a fire in your heart. Luke 24:31-32
7. Once Jesus has rescued us and answered our prayers we need to tell others. Luke 24:33-35

God be with you this week wherever your road may lead you.

Sitting at the feet of Jesus

I read a book called ‘Sitting at the feet of Jesus’ that tells of the story of a three week conference in Australia set up to talk about that activity. It was a conference attended by ninety church leaders and several well known speakers were invited to address it. When the day came, all of the speakers were unavailable except the one who had said he would not address the conference as any sort of expert, but he would attend and participate in it. So the organisers went ahead with this huge speaker-less event hoping that God would respond and give them some guidance before the event began, but he didn’t. For three weeks the pastors, all busy leaders, met together and prayed and worshipped each day without any sense of direction – there were no speeches, no grand plans; they just met and prayed and talked. At the end, the speaker turned participant said it had changed his life. Where they might easily have endlessly discussed sitting at the feet of Jesus, what they had done was to do it for real.
I found this inspiring. I can’t imagine how those organisers managed to carry on with the event when it must have felt like it was falling apart. They must have really wondered whether they had misunderstood God’s intention, but God was looking at it differently and wanted more for their relationship with him than they had understood for themselves.

What I was up to on Sunday - Spirited Exchange

I went to a Spirited Exchange Facilitation Training weekend in Oxford run by Jenny McIntosh.

The facilitation training was for people interested in Spirited Exchange Groups or similar gatherings which help people who have left church but are still ‘journeying on’ in their faith. Annunciation Trust helped the weekend financially and I went along as supporter of Jenny’s work. I could only go for the Sunday but found it challenging and inspiring. There were five participants (plus Jenny and myself) on the Sunday morning. Another two had been there the previous two days but had needed to leave. A couple of others had to cancel just before the event.

Jenny is attempting to spread the work of contacting and supporting people who have left church down to a local level. As the sole facilitator she can only do so much centrally. This process does require skilled facilitation allowing stories to be told in an atmosphere of acceptance and respect with no agenda accept to help the individuals on their journey wherever that might lead. The training weekends are essential for this ministry to grow.

The group were people who had been on the journey themselves and had been involved in a group and/or starting a group. I chaired one session and participated in another which mainly consisted of people telling their stories. We discussed the way we can encourage groups to grow when and where they are needed and find the contacts of people who need a group. The stories of the people there were moving and reminded me of how important listening to stories is to facilitate spiritual growth.

I think the conclusion of the workshop was that gatherings such as the weekend were the way forward to encourage and facilitate local level work and that too much planning and organising could not be done. It can only be organic growth with ever changing needs and groups which will come and go and hurting people who will often be averse to joining yet another group. It is real challenge for Jenny to progress this work with limited resources in such a free flowing way. Also we touched on the need to communicate more about people that do leave churches and whether some people could remain in church if their journeys were respected and valued more by the church.

My own view based really just on my gut feel and some anecdotes is that there are a lot of people out there that are looking for a community that can support them in their faith journey outside of church. They often feel vulnerable and lonely and yet they are not that easy to find. It was excellent that Annunciation Trust could provide some support to a ministry which addresses a need which I think Ashley could also make a contribution to.

Jenny will be with us at Ashley on Sunday 15 November to talk more about her work.

Roy Gregory

And the next creative writing title is........

"Someone who is pretending to be something or someone they are not".

Jesus Encounters the Woman at the Well

Here is a UTube dramatic representation of the woman at the well I used last Sunday.

"Describe an interesting person you have met whilst on a journey."

The newly formed Creative Writing Group meets Wednesday 7th October at 8pm at Ashley.

But, for those who don't intend to be at the meeting, but are still interested, I thought it might be good to be reminded of the task for the month.