- Do you have a decent church website?
- Is it up to date?
- Is it responsive – ie does it work on mobile phones?
- Does your own online profile feature your ideas and hopes and dreams other than a desire for people to turn up to church?
- Do you know what you are doing with twitter and facebook?
- Who could you learn more about social media from?
- Do you have a compelling reason why people should come to your church other than where it is or what denomination it belongs to?
- Can everyone in the church tell you in one sentence what that compelling reason is?
- What is your beginners’ course like?
- What comes after the beginners’ course?
- Do people like the preaching?
- Do people enjoy the music?
- Have you dealt with conflicts from the past?
- Are the people friendly?
- Do you have any new groups starting soon?
- Do you talk about making the world a better place?
- How will people experience joy if they come to your congregation?
- If someone from your past turned up unexpectedly at worship how would it make you feel?
- How do you identify newcomers and what do you offer them?
- What problems will arise if you do grow and how will you deal with them?
- Do claims that you welcome everyone stop you working at welcoming those who traditionally find it hard to find a home in church?
- Do you use language that is inclusive of everyone?
- How do you know?
- Is there any identifiable group of people that you can’t explicitly say are welcome because of how an individual or group in the congregation will react?
- Do you want to grow or not?
4 responses to “Retreat”
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Retreat
Interesting choice of theme for the Advent retreat.
Mary Magdelen was of course know to be an energetic, implusive and caring woman. Quite a dream really.Unusual combination of food stuffs lentils and banana, anyway.
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Retreat
Just struck by the coincidence that you and I were on retreat at the same time. While you were considering the place of Mary Magdalene I was being led to listen more deeply to my dreams. Through a process of table fellowship and sharing I came to find much meaning in what seemed like a completely random collection of items which regularly arise during the silent hours of the night: medical pots; gas masks; military apparel; a purple stole; a half-mauled rabbit; a friendly ghost and a bottle of single malt. I was really appreciative of my fellow retreatants one of whom, realising it was my first time, was very gentle with me and showed me the ropes. The other, the slightly more talkative of the two, showed a persistent yet Liberal interest in delving deeper into my darkest recesses to see what might come up. If your retreat was anything like as rich as mine you should have enough to chew upon for a very long time, Kelvin. Thanks for reading this anyway.
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Another dream
I don’t know what that retreat started but since posting that last message I have had yet another dream. In this latest one there were two soldiers carrying a sofa up a glen!!! What on earth does that tell me. Any offers of help most gratefully accepted. -
Another dream
As a person of quite mature years, let me share with you my thoughts on your dream.
I see the soliders with their uniforms as a sign of discipline – perhaps you are searching for someone to take you in hand and put more structure in your life. The sofa to me represents comfort and familiarity maybe this is what you are searching for but combined with the rugged landscape of the glen are prepared to take the rough with the smooth. Sometimes our dreams are like a humane mouse trap, we are lured in with the promise of something nice to taste but in the end we are trapped and at the mercy of someone elses hand to release us back into the wild.I hope this has been of some help to you. Thank you for taking the time to read the ramblings of an old woman anyway.
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