steve

Welcome to Jim Collins.com

Link: Welcome to Jim Collins.com. An interesting guy writing a lot on movement.

design tools for free

I've always secretly loved design... and am currently designing a display for cathedral on www.nightchurch.org.uk

Always hated the fact that design software is so much to buy, adobe photoshop etc.. so great to see open source alternatives Gimpshop is great and www.scribus.net (MS Publisher - ish) .

I'm trying them out at the moment

love the whole church

Generous Orthodoxy and Streams of Living Water are real classics for the Jesus follower in the postmodern context, teaching the Christian not to be boxed in by theological labels and ecclesiological expectations but to borrow and own from the riches of Christian traditions, movements and spirituality. If you are labeled an evangelical why not try some ignatian meditation, if you're labelled a catholic why not enter into some informal charismatic praise. Etc.. For more rant on this check out flavours of www.nightchurch.org.uk

The Change the World in 80 Days Project

coming soon at a cinema near you!

watch this space

Just incredible ride at the moment

I've been riding the best wave for a few days now, everywhere I turn are people I needed to meet, I don't have to seek them out they just arrive. "Commit thy networking to-eth the LORDeth and thee shall prosper-eth", thus sayeth the LORD.

Mischa:

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Me and mischa chatting about stuff

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What a super sunday!

Very occasionally I have a day that is so full of God guiding my board on the surf, today was such a day.

Chatting randomly to one lady on a muddy walk about a great secular local charity I was meeting this week, "Oh," she said,"that's the one I'm the treasurer of" .!!! For you sceptics, the basic probability of that happening are maybe a few 100,000 to 1 - taking into account of local population.

I was then talking to another random friend about a prayer room started in Reading, "Oh," she said, "that would be the one I helped to start!" For you sceptics, the basic probability of that happening are again maybe a few 100,000 to 1.

Plus stories of creative miracles where, in Jesus name, bones grew instantly, stories told by trustworthy people who were there. For you sceptics, the basic probability of that happening are ..... not. What a great day. I'm shattered though. G'night.

TheBolgBlog

Link: TheBolgBlog.

Met this guy a few months back, written a great book on Emerging Church

blogging by a pond

Sitting by a pond at Exeter University about to meet a theologian from Singapore for lunch, he's the dad of one of my kid's friends and sounds really interesting. I get so inspired by these theologian guys that commit their lives to grappling with scripture on our behalf but I guess sometimes they can feel dis-located from the generalmass or body of the church. St Mary's in London have a resident theologian - how cool is that, training folks for ordination and ministry etc... A top theological mind but integratedintothe life of the church, feels loved, feels part, feels the joy of belonging .. anyway off to see him now and the ducks send their love.

Steve

Later... He was amazing and selling Karl Barth to me as a dude to read - and from what he was saying about Barth it looks like some good stuff. His whole PhD research programme is on Barth.

Leadership: from mischa (aged 10) no help from me

1.A leader should never be bossy.The whole team should make decisions while the leader will mabye make suggestgions to improve on the ideas.This leads us onto the second piece of advice .

2. Professional leaders make the team feel safe and confident.Try to explain about your profession to your group to let them acknowledge your ability -they should soon feel confident about who and what they are working with.

3.If you are working with a company/business then ,it would be best to give your team time off.And if there is any big events then slowly prepare them ,mabye by doing a couple of small services/about us programs!

4.Be the glue.Once you have chosen to be the leader

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I Wish I Knew: You are your own brand equity

Link: I Wish I Knew: You are your own brand equity.

I love Tom Peters - my favourire ranter

a new week begins - SUNRISE

SUNRISE I guess what is great about a life following Jesus is that each new week is literally completely fresh, yes we can learn from last week and I will. But actually I'm able to wake up tomorrow with complete freshness and new start-ness.

As I'm, getting older I'm realising each day needs to be lived to the full, full of loads of love for all the folks I meet.

A week pretty normal in terms of it's pattern but not normal in what will happen. My hopes for this week are ...

1. I am finding jogging really helps in loads of ways, so 3 jog sessions.
2. I want to start each day with some time just with the Lord in some way.
3. Keep loving everyone I meet.

Gnight

late at night

Had an amazing week full of the excitement of a roller coaster with God as the driver. I have not been bored for years, \But wanting a refreshing weeknd with the family, they need a piece of me right now. G'night, join the ride, there isn't a better one around.

The best (free) stuff on movements » Steve Addison’s blog » World Changers

Link: The best (free) stuff on movements » Steve Addison’s blog » World Changers.

some great free books here for world changer type people

Bono's preach - this is a mega speech, keep listening to the end

testing video insertion - a fresh expressions video

today

Got a staff meeting with ENC then some MORE sorting, how cool is that? Then tonight got my 4mation group which is 4 guys getting together and sharpening each other, setting goals for spiritual formation and other areas of our lives, then praying for each other. It's a very powerful process.

another sorting day

I should be perfect by the end of the week with all this time to "sort it". Sitting in the sun with my laptop "sufferingfor Jesus", pray for me in the midst of my pain!!????

Got given this free ebook the other day, interesting stuff if you wanna change the world

10pm Off for a late night jog with mr missiome - we're trying to get ready for the GT West Run but I'm not doing enough miles per week but still got 7 weeks so plenty of time. Hope you've had a great day, I didn't quite get done what I would have liked but some time tomorrow.

G'night

luv Steve

a whole day to sort it!

I've just got a massive back log of admin so today is the day to break it's back. I love playing around with this blog, I met a guy, Steve Addison, last week that really inspired me to use this blog to create some great conversations, his blog has sky rocketed with thousands of hits etc...

I want the day today also to be full of God's peace and love too, there was once a monk guy called Brother Laurence ( I think ) who wrote a book 'practicing the presence of God' and he spent much of his life washing dishes but turning that mundane into something beautiful, something transformational. TURNING THE MUNDANE INTO the MAGNIFICENT' ... like it...

Peace

Steve

testting a new blog writer called ecto

testing a new blog writer called ecto using flikr and techorati.

Had a great evening with a guy called Daryl Fulls, he came and ranted to ENC Leadership about leadership, loving the whole church. Some great stuff, he chairs SWYM too, a great youth work initiative here in SW England.

REFRESH

Chap from Desert Vineyard - David Parker.
Talking about generosity and refreshing others - as we give, we are refreshed. Just so aware that when I'm away on these things, Larissa is at home with the kids, slogging away... God bless her, may she be refreshed too, even more than me.
I wish we could do stuff together much more but I guess we did chose to have 4 kids.

Met some interesting folks already, Steve (from Oz) and Ian (from St Marys) from christian resources - I love these equipping type people who network and generally catalyse the Kingdom of God - gonna get interviewed for steve's blog.

Just been prayed for... 1. forgiveness - I need to. It's very true, there are people I need to forgive and put things right with. 2. "I can do it" - recently i've had a bit of a crisis in confidence (i was dreaming about these days for over a decade - far too long) and the Lord was reminding me , "Steve, you can do this." Wow, I really do take that on board. I need to chat to ian/steve and resident theologian chap - crispin, + next year I wanna come with laris here. Suffering - responding right is so key ...

Jon Peters - notes from session 4 -

paradoxes are cool ... Just forget the things of youth, forget the pain and failure of the past (out of Bible, Isaiah 54) God is nice and He likes me. (this guy has a great sense of humour)

Session 5 - David Parker.

Great stories about God's compassionate healing power.
I would love to see more of God's power around my life, I wonder how? How nostalgic we get, selective memory of the past. Nostalgia has really ripped into my life, the past is better, etc.. The present can and should be the best.

Session 6 - Jon Peters.

I like this stuff - he is ripping into the split dualism between being and doing, the idealist view that we can "be" without doing. Jon is expounding that it is okay to have our identity wrapped up in what we do, as well as who we are.

St Marys Day 2 Refresh

Session 1

Had  a great morning so far, been listening to Debbie from Trent Vineyard. She was so great about God's power and how we need it, she wasn't triumphalistic like some ( all the good stories but not bad stuff ) she shared about some great miraculous stuff but also things that didn't work. I find that so refreshing.

A real encouragement to "do the stuff" - to keep praying for folks, to listen to the Spirit, to pray for healing, to ask God for supernatural knowledge about people, to see people freed from stuff that holds them back. What a great calling, to do all that stuff. There is nothing better to spend my life doing. I'm so sorry when I'm happy with a powerless Christianity.

Had a great chat with Liz, part of enc leadership, she has just finished a PhD in postmodern related type stuff.   

Session2

David Parker, I love this really relaxed, chilled out californian/SW England charismatic spirituality. 

growing into new roles

This last few months have been an amazing trip of picking up new roles and ways of being and to be truthful I've struggled with the amount of change that has been happening - joining an amazing church ENC and trying to find, with others, the right role there. I'm getting there and I now oversee the children and some of young peoples work plus developing "missional" strategies around families including exciting projects and businesses. I'm so excited about all this. I will blog more as these things develop.

Then I was setting up a coaching and training business that I have now called [generous]. Again mega exciting and it has worked and loads of potential within it. It's development is a bit on the back burner but it'll come to the front soon.

But along came in Novemeber time-ish, a wonderful opportunity to release some of my time to innovate in the cathedral. To plant a church and train some pioneering leaders within that marvellous space - the best gothic architecture in Europe. The questions I had were around, what is this going to do to the tribe? And how can I effectively plant two things at the same time, am I mad?

I concluded that no .. I am not mad, just a little. Let's have a bash and put some of the old theory into practice, base it around the Jesus Model of doing things, can't go too wrong. Family seem happy with the idea and it means I can be around when they are around as much of the church will be night based. thus nightchurch, beta site here  .

more later, I'll blog on this conference today.

thought I'd post from London

Hi again, I'm in LOndon on a REFRESH Conference at ST Marys  . Great to be with the great team from ENC, lots of chat and fun with some of the best people on the planet.

LOts happened since last time I blogged, started some new stuff at ENC around social action and putting the church back at the HUB of the local community through serving so exploring soome stuff with loads of different partners. Loving that

Also been employed by Cathedral to start a fresh expressio of church called nightchurch draft here. Really exciting but a massive challenge on 1 day a week. Do pray, if you do, for me and this whole initiative, amazing opportunity for great things.

Family are well now after a few weeks of illness, I love them so much, here's me and Nat - he's great and really growing at the moment.