22/04/08
The Game's Afoot
I was both excited and encouraged by last Saturday morning's cluster leaders meeting. Eighteen Clusters were represented, some very new and some not so new. There was opportunity for each Cluster to share their vision and to receive prayer and words of encouragement from the other Cluster leaders.
What was really exciting for me was the second part of the morning when the Cluster Leaders outlined their plans for multiplication and growth. There was so much creativity and inspiration around and such a willingness to move outside of our comfort zones. I would encourage those of you who were there, which I think is nearly all, to remain focused on your vision and be disciplined about your plan for multiplication and God will give you forward momentum.
I shared with some Children in assembly recently about Paul's words in Philippians 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
To illustrate my point I used the film 'The Incredibles' where we at first see the huge form of Mr Incredible crouched behind a small desk in a small office obviously out of place involved in the wrong job. We see him next being ticked off by his dimunitive boss while outside a man is being mugged, a thing Mr Incredible is designed to stop. At the end of the film however Mr Incredible and his family are flying into the city on a really wild ride to defeat the evil robot. They are having an amazingly exciting, risky time ultimately triumphing and feeling a sense of deep satisfaction.
My sense on saturday was a set of leaders who had by and large identified that for which Christ had taken hold of them and they were ready to take hold of it. The game's afoot. I for one am looking forward to the ride.
John Marsh <><
Please send any comments on this thought for the week, or suggestions for future topics, to John Marsh. Thank you.
15/04/08
God Blobs
Mick has been giving some helpful thoughts about Clusters recently both at Cluster leaders huddle and on Cluster Sunday at the 7pm gathering. I thought you might like a summary of what he said.
When should Clusters meet? Once a month or whatever you think best, its up to you!
What is a Cluster? A group with a vision that has a desire to multiply, its a Cluster when it becomes in some way two.
How do we do Cluster? Cells do the 4 or more W's (see earlier article), Cluster is the OUT part of the Triangle, and we do some sort of OUTreach on Cluster Sunday, or sometime in the week leading up to it usually.
Why do we do Cluster? because God loves... (some people we know or know about)
Mick recognised and wanted us to recognise that Clusters are made up of people and therefore don't look like neat triangles but are more Blobby. They are God Blobs and when people come across them they are welcomed in and belong.
So don't worry about having straight edges just get on with meeting friends, meeting God and living life better in your own peculiar* way.
* from the Old English meaning particular or specific, and the New English meaning odd / strange.
For the download of the sermon follow this link or get a CD from the church office.
John Marsh <><
Please send any comments on this thought for the week, or suggestions for future topics, to John Marsh. Thank you.
08/04/08
Joseph called Barnabas which means Son of Encouragement
To give courage is a great gift. Faith might be spelled R I S K or might be "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" Heb11:1, but I think sometimes its about holding your nerve. When you sign up for the God thing and particularly when you respond to vision it brings excitement. At some point down the road however there is the time when you need to hang in there and hang on to that which God has called you to. That's when encouragement is vital. Someone gives you the courage to keep your nerve and keep faith for the R I S K you have taken and the fulfillment of the thing you are certain of but cannot see.
For me one of the most telling exchanges in the Bible about the reality of closely following jesus is
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.
Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." John 6:66 -68
Sometimes you hang on by your fingernails because there is no where else to go, but God is faithful.
So be encouraged that you did hear from God and keep on keeping on with the great cloud of witnesses surrounding you and if I can bring you a word of encouragement I will.
John Marsh <><
Please send any comments on this thought for the week, or suggestions for future topics, to John Marsh. Thank you.
01/04/08
I was / am on Holiday. (This is /was not an April Fool)
25/03/08
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
Some people call them Mid-sized communities, others missional communities, we call them clusters. They are called clusters here because of their organisational origin of being a group of cell groups. I think the word 'clusters' has become a well known term and an understood concept so I don't propose we change it now. However if we were going to re-brand clusters I would call them missional communities because that describes exactly what their function is and should be.
I thought about this when I was talking through what clusters are and how they work to someone new to the church. I think out loud and so I am trying to cultivate the habit of listening to myself in case I say something that might be useful later. What I said on this occasion was along these lines and the more obersvant may notice that I have said some of it before.
When new people join the church we invite them to belong to a cluster because we want them to see themselves as a missionary. They have 'people of peace' that God has given them to witness to. The cluster therefore should provide challenge and support to them as missionaries to their people as part of the ongoing process of cluster. The cluster should also provide events that these people can be invited to which will engage them with the wider Christian community.
The right cluster to belong to then is the one which will support you in your relationship with your people of peace and provide appropriate events that you can bring them to.
Like I said, just thinking out loud...
John Marsh <><
Please send any comments on this thought for the week, or suggestions for future topics, to John Marsh. Thank you.
18/03/08
Palm Crosses, Chocolate Eggs and Laptops
Perhaps being Holy Week this thought should be Holy and Biblical and profound. Its not going to be. In fact its a bit of a do it yourself thought for the week. I went with some other people to give out Palm Crosses and Chocolate Eggs on Crookes today. I wanted to tell people about Jesus and if truth be told wanted to have some testimony or inspiration for this epistle.
We prayed before we went and we decided that 'people of peace' would ask us questions. Most people happily accepted a palm cross and some chocolate eggs with a smile and a thanks.
I'm just going to tell you about the others and if you can see a spiritual lesson in it email me.
One lady shopkeeper told us she wasn't religious but gave us some sweets. One lady told us she had God issues but wouldn't elaborate. All the pub landlords took one but all the customers refused. One shopkeeper was apologetic about being open Good Friday, I told her that they probably didn't stop trading for Jesus getting crucified 2000 years ago, I don't know if it helped. Two ladies were manning a food outlet and it was their first day. I told them we would pray for their business to be successful. One shopkeeper asked if we knew anything about laptops as his screen display was rotated 90 degrees. By rummaging around in properties we fixed it and he was overjoyed, the cross and the eggs seemed a bit secondary to him. One catholic lady took a cross because she had lost the one she kept by her husbands photo, he had died. She also took six chocolate eggs, one for each grandchild, she seemed moved.
So that was that. I was going to sum it all up with something profound but maybe on reflection I'll think of something next week. Until then email me your thoughts.
11/03/08
I've got this Bromeliad ...
I don't have green fingers, my wife does the gardening, but a few years ago now I found out how easy it is to grow certain house plants. I grew and propagated Spider plants, two types of Tradescantia, Money Trees and even a Rubber Plant, although that was hard work! When visiting a garden centre, under a certain amount of sufferance, I saw a Bromeliad for sale and the bloke behind the counter said it was easy to grow and propagate so I bought it, £4.95, a steal.
I put the Bromeliad on the window ledge and watered it faithfully. After a while it grew an offshoot and when that reached a certain size I split the two leaving a bit of root on each and re-potted them separately. Sure enough over time both continued to grow and send out more offshoots. Now I have two Bromeliads in pots but the original has four offshoots and the 'baby' itself has two. Really I need to re-pot them now but I haven't got round to it yet partly because of time, partly because it's messy with all the compost and partly because with splitting the roots comes the danger of injuring or killing the plant.
Dear reader I hope that either you are ahead of me at this point and can see how this applies to Clusters already or that you are patient enough to wait for the punchline which is coming now....
The Kingom of God grows, normally and naturally, it grows and it grows by multiplication. My Bromeliads grow in the same way, if I have the time and inclination and courage to take them apart and re-pot them I can grow more and more. Currently they are stuck in two pots, when I have re-potted them they will grow again, I can move them around into more rooms so that they brighten up more places, and I can give them away for other people to grow them.
You can do all that with Clusters.
John Marsh <><
Please send any comments on this thought for the week, or suggestions for future topics, to John Marsh. Thank you.
04/03/08
Constant Change is Here to Stay!
In my role as ‘clusters’, job title on a postcard please, I have conversations with people about new Clusters starting, old Clusters winding up, and hopefully soon old clusters multiplying. The Clusters are part of the organism of church so inevitably there is life and death involved.
My observation is that most people do something radical with their Clusters every three years, either multiply it or close it or re-envision it.
My experience is that, as Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." Jn 12:24
When Mick came he asked us to close down all the clusters at that time in existence in Crookes. For myself and my wife and our co-leaders that was a real wrench. We had been leading Kernel Cluster for 3 or 4 years and had invested a lot in it. The request to close it lead to a lot of soul searching about our place in the church.
After prayer and consideration we decided to close Kernel. From Kernel came Extended Family and then Xtend, Barnabas and then Grace, Walkabout and then Bridge.
Jesus died that we might have life. Let’s embrace the change God takes us through and hold lightly to the things we think are ours.
John Marsh <><
Please send any comments on this thought for the week, or suggestions for future topics, to John Marsh. Thank you.
26/02/08
The 4W's and another W or maybe 2
Being a Cluster leader or Cell leader isn't easy but it shouldn't be too onerous. It also shouldn't be a job for life, at least not with the same group of people anyway. The mechanics of cell life and the search for new leaders is made easier by the 4W's and maybe 2 other W's.
Phil Potter in his book 'The Challenge of Cell Church' identifies 4 activities that cells should do each week
Welcome - tea, coffee, squash and biscuits with an icebreaker question such as Favourite Book?, Best Holiday?, Most memorable teacher? etc The welcome is often fun but can often be poignant and helps you get to know better the people you think you know well.
Worship - can be a guitar and a few well known choruses or light a candle and have some silence, draw your idea of heaven or write a psalm etc. Worship can be very creative and give opportunity for lots of different styles and spiritualities to be expressed.
Word - We copy and paste the reading from Biblegateway.com and the questions from the notice sheet and then take it in turns to lead it, see Tip for the week on 22/01/08. Probably the easiest part of the evening to lead.
Witness - An opportunity to share testimony about conversations , prayers etc with non-Christian friends and colleagues, see last weeks thought below.
We added 2 W's of our own to fit with St Tom's style and cluster structure.
Wonders - We pray for healing etc laying on hands style and then for concerns and for witness in twos and threes or boys and girls depending on issues.
Whats On - We share information about what's coming up in cluster and get volunteers for next weeks W's
I would heartily recommend this method of doing cell. It gives everyone a sense of ownership and it encourages and identifies new leaders.
Some initial ideas are found here.
Any ideas you have or other feedback contact me as usual, John Marsh
19/02/08
Prayer as Evangelism
How do we share our faith effectively? Its a question we should be asking ourselves and getting everyone in our clusters to ask. Obviously people share their faith already in numerous ways; telling people that they attend church, sharing a Christian perspective on a news story, staying sober at the office Christmas party are but a few.
One way I have found to be helpful in making my faith relevant to others is by offering to pray for them.
Usually the people you know well at work will at some point share with you the difficulties in their lives. It might be an illness in the family, money worries or relationship troubles but there will be something. When they share with you why not offer to pray for the issue and then next time you see them check back how its going. Continue to pray and check back. At the very least people will feel cared for and will appreciate your concern but what will happen is that God will answer your prayers for them.
When people are used to the idea of you praying they'll start to request it and that will give you perhaps opportunity to pray with them perhaps with a hand on the shoulder.
Try it see if it works let me know.
John Marsh <><
Please send any comments on this thought for the week, or suggestions for future topics, to John Marsh. Thank you.
12/02/08
Missio Dei and all that
Last week I had opportunity to talk to George Lings of the 'Sheffield Centre' based at the church army college in town. The Sheffield centre collect and analyse information about mission from around the country and I wanted to hold up the mirror of their experience to our approach to mission through cluster. Apart from a reading list for me, two things came out of the discussion which I think you will find very encouraging.
Apparently there are two major strands in thinking about mission around at the moment, the first is Missio Dei which is God's Mission and a major proponent is David Bosch in his book 'Transforming Mision'. The second approach is from the Orthodox church which looks at the nature of God and says that God is community in mission.
Missio Dei is the approach I alluded to a couple of weks ago. It seeks to see what God is doing and then get involved. This way of doing things has been a staple of St Thomas for all the time I have been here and certainly pre-dates clusters. It is good to know and not surprising that an emphasis on listening to God and holding on to vision is seen to be theologically the mainstream of mission.
The God is community in mission approach is slightly different and is in many ways the Cluster approach. The idea is that God is a community of three persons who are mission focused and therefore if that is the nature of God then it should be the nature of the church. Cluster is about communities of belonging aimed at people outside coming in to belong. Clusters are communities in mission themselves. George added that where they were seeing growth was where there was a high quality of community.
So there you have it, keep looking to see what the father is doing and join in, and keep making your cluster a place where people can belong, believe, and behave in that order.
Next week on a more practical note prayer as evangelism
John Marsh <><
Please send any comments on this thought for the week, or suggestions for future topics, to John Marsh. Thank you.
05/02/08
Whats so amazing about Grace?
Someone once said to me that they didn't think they were good enough to be a Cluster leader. I immeadiately agreed and added that I thought they were rubbish. This is obviously someone I know well and the point I was making was that no one is good enough or worthy enough to be a Cluster Leader or in fact to serve in any way in the church. God has not picked you on merit but he has picked you.
I think the way to be 'successful' as a cluster leader is, to be cheesey for a moment , to do your best and let God do the rest. Grace is God taking your best and making it great. I am sure that we have times as cluster leaders when we feel things are not going well or that breakthrough isn't going to come but Paul, tells us that in our weaknesses we are strong.
Grace cluster met recently on Sunday to host their first cluster meeting and it was really good. I know Alan and Stella had all sorts of doubts but God took what they offered and came through for them. Thirty seven people came to the event and half of them were guests. Alan preached well, on, you guessed it, Grace and there was a real sense of fellowship.
So be encouraged in doing your bit for God as you see it and let Him bring the harvest.
John Marsh <><
Please send any comments on this thought for the week, or suggestions for future topics, to John Marsh. Thank you.
29/01/08
What do you see your father doing?
When I meet with visitors on 'Visitors Week' or at other times I am often asked why St Thomas is 'successful'. I take their assessment at face value because defining 'success' in church is a very moot point and wastes time. There is obviously something good here that they have seen which they wish to understand better and so they ask.
My answer runs something like this, 'I have been a member of this church for about 20 years with three different Team Rectors all of whom have tried to find out what God wants them to do and then done their best to do it.' End of story!
John Wimber often quoted John 5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. From this I think we can assume two things, firstly If Jesus could only do what he saw his Father do, then how much more do we need to know what God is doing before we can do anything. Secondly it must be possible for us to find out what God is doing because we are in Christ.
To me this is the heart of Vision. We talk a lot about vision at St Tom's and what we usually mean is finding out what God wants us to do and doing it. I would suggest that an even better way would be to find out what the Father is doing and join in. Not only is this the way that Jesus expressed it but it implies going with God rather than being sent out by God.
In Clusters this is the bedrock of our OUT, there are so many things we could do, there were so many things Jesus could have done, but what we need to do and what he did was see what the Father is doing and join in.
John Marsh <><
Please send any comments on this thought for the week, or suggestions for future topics, to John Marsh. Thank you.
22/01/08
Why we do what we do
One of the important things about Clusters is that they are led by lay people and organised and run from the 'bottom up' if you will excuse the phrase. This is important because there is far more creativity in the many of the body than can be expressed by the few of the staff. In Acts 2:17 Peter quotes Joel, 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
Our Clusters are based on people gathering around a vision which is OUTward looking and seeks to bring in the Kingdom of God in some way. The people in Clusters can join with the church's UP on Sunday at one of the gatherings and join with the church's IN by going to midweek Cell but its at Cluster that they join with the church's OUT.
In many ways OUT , through Cluster, is the most difficult of the three to do because it is the newest and most unfamiliar pattern of Church and the one which attracts most opposition from the enemy. To overcome this difficulty we tend to overemphasise OUT as if it were more important than UP or IN, which we know it isn't. We also ask new people joining the church to choose a Cluster rather than a cell group or particular Sunday gathering. If people join a gathering then they will identify most with a particular style of UP, likewise if they join a cell then they will identify church membership most with IN. When they choose a Cluster first then they hopefully make their active church commitment a commitment to OUT.
Tip for the week: In cell group we ask people to share their response to the 'Word' part first with one other person, then with the whole group if they want to. We have found this gives everyone opportunity to voice their thoughts on what God is saying even if they are quite shy. Try it and let me know what you think.
See you next week for John 5:19
John Marsh <><
Please send any comments on this thought for the week, or suggestions for future topics, to John Marsh. Thank you.
15/01/08
The Language of Cluster
Welcome to "Thought for the Week" where I intend to bring you a Thought for the Week, or sometimes two Thoughts, or more probably a Stream of Conciousness which you will have to make the best of.
Language is very powerful stuff, "In the beginning was the Word", and how we name and describe things is important. Historically we have described Clusters as a group of cell groups (or even more historically small groups). This is of course true, organisationally they are, however that actually doesn't say very much about their purpose.
The purpose of Cluster is to allow people and encourage people to take part in the OUT part of the church, so we need to have a different way of describing and defining Clusters so that they will operate that way. The language you use to describe and define Cluster determines how you will lead it and what the members will do. A Cluster defined as a group of cell groups will fulfill its description simply by meeting together. A Cluster defined as "a Missional community" or "the place where we do OUT" has a different agenda altogether.
If your Cluster is "the place where we do OUT" then that will define how you lead it, what it will do when it meets and how its members will view it.
If language is powerful to define and describe it is powerful to communicate. I think probably the biggest challenge in my new role on staff is how to communicate and build relationship with so many different cluster leaders. Cluster leaders huddle is obviously a start but I don't necessarily see everyone on that evening. Therefore I am going to try different means of communication to see which work best for different people, please let me know how we can make this work better. I will try texts, emails, this website, the phone, seeing you at church / huddle and even joining something called Facebook?
Perhaps the easiest way to build communication is for you to be aware that you can always approach me to talk about Cluster issues using email clusters@stthomascrookes.org (which I can pick up from home) or when you see me around at church.
See you next week.
John Marsh <><