On Monday evening I went to hear Rob Bell. A blank stage in a theatre. A stool and a plain white light. Rob appeared on stage. No singing. Not even a prayer to open. An hour and 15 minutes of preaching. No notes. Sort of John Cleese meets Eddie Izzard meets Bill Hybels. Stories about Jesus, creation, the Scriptures, Jewish culture applied to our current global scene. Really challenging stuff. The audience - mainly young adults - was rivetted. At the end no appeal just applause.
Thursday, 28 June 2007
Who said preaching was dead?
On Monday evening I went to hear Rob Bell. A blank stage in a theatre. A stool and a plain white light. Rob appeared on stage. No singing. Not even a prayer to open. An hour and 15 minutes of preaching. No notes. Sort of John Cleese meets Eddie Izzard meets Bill Hybels. Stories about Jesus, creation, the Scriptures, Jewish culture applied to our current global scene. Really challenging stuff. The audience - mainly young adults - was rivetted. At the end no appeal just applause.
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
Next Vista Community gathering
Dates for the next Vista Gathering...
Friday 11 - Saturday 12th January 2008
Venue: Luton's Thistle Hotel
Accommodation cost: £49 all inc.Includes Fri evening meal, Sat breakfast, Sat lunch.
There will be an additional charge for admin/programme etc. More details to follow.
Friday 11 - Saturday 12th January 2008
Venue: Luton's Thistle Hotel
Accommodation cost: £49 all inc.Includes Fri evening meal, Sat breakfast, Sat lunch.
There will be an additional charge for admin/programme etc. More details to follow.
Tuesday, 12 June 2007
Putting it into practise
Been very challenged by Graham Cray's talk about sabbath last week. The biggest challenge is.........putting it into practise. We had a long talk in our team today about diary management and developing some common practises to avoid burn-out and stay healthy. Saying 'no' to people is really difficult. Any tips?
Friday, 8 June 2007
Event for men
We have Eric Delve speaking at a Men's Day on Saturday July 7th at Central Hall, Southampton. The day runs 9.30am - 4.30pm. It will be very good. Details here.
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
Let the party begin
Welcome to the new Vista Community blog. An opportunity for us to share some cyber space together as we learn and grow and discover what God has for us. I'll start with a summary of the last couple of days we spent together at the beautiful Oast Houses in Kent (or was it East Sussex?).
About 35 of us from a wide variety of churches and mission organisations gathered yesterday, 4th June, for 24 hours of friendship and exploration. We kicked off with a time of sharing and updating and praying for one another. We had an especially great dinner together - great because the standard of cuisine in Christian Retreat Centres aren't normally that great! After dinner Roger Ellis shared a paper he had written, 'Where does the new church movement go from here?'. We'll publish the paper on here soon. There was some lively discussion after which we opened a few bottles of wine and whiled away the rest of the evening.
After breakfast we spent some time in worship and prayer before Bishop Graham Cray led a session on maintaining our personal spiritual life. He talked about developing regular sabbath rhythms weekly, monthly, annually but stressed the importance of changed character not simply changed practise. The discipline of rest and renewal is simply a framework to allow God's Spirit to do his work in us.
It's about the 4th time we've met like this and it is starting to feel like real community. We'll use this blog to let people know about future dates, conferences and events that we think might be helpful. We're also creating a Facebook group to keep in touch.
About 35 of us from a wide variety of churches and mission organisations gathered yesterday, 4th June, for 24 hours of friendship and exploration. We kicked off with a time of sharing and updating and praying for one another. We had an especially great dinner together - great because the standard of cuisine in Christian Retreat Centres aren't normally that great! After dinner Roger Ellis shared a paper he had written, 'Where does the new church movement go from here?'. We'll publish the paper on here soon. There was some lively discussion after which we opened a few bottles of wine and whiled away the rest of the evening.
After breakfast we spent some time in worship and prayer before Bishop Graham Cray led a session on maintaining our personal spiritual life. He talked about developing regular sabbath rhythms weekly, monthly, annually but stressed the importance of changed character not simply changed practise. The discipline of rest and renewal is simply a framework to allow God's Spirit to do his work in us.It's about the 4th time we've met like this and it is starting to feel like real community. We'll use this blog to let people know about future dates, conferences and events that we think might be helpful. We're also creating a Facebook group to keep in touch.
Monday, 4 June 2007
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