Steve and I are co-leaders of Colchester Boiler Room, a 24-7 Prayer Community. We recently have been asked to job share a community worker role through a project called Abbeyfield Community Project. This project is supported by 7 local churches and has a vision to plant local missional churches on 6 newly build estates around the Abbeyfields in Colchester.
Part of this role comes with use of a large 4 bedroom house that over the last 3 1/2 years has been used by our community to be a home to a family of 3 and prayer community. The combo has worked really well and Steve and I are excited by the idea of continuing this with a bit of a twist.
The twist being that we are hoping to share the house with a few different people.
Steve, Clare Field and I are all current members of the Colchester Boiler Room and are over joyed by the idea of moving into the house to live missionally for Jesus on our estate. But we want to ask for more. Steve and I have been married for the last two years and are in our late 20s early 30s and Clare is in her mid 20s. We all work full time jobs in Colchester and have a heart for prayer, people and Jesus.
Are you coming to live in Colchester.... Would you like to?!? Want to live in a missional house with 3 other people?
We seeking a 4th person join us to live in the house and share our passion for Jesus, Community and Prayer. This is not just about a house share, its an invitation to join intentional living and being missional. The type of person we are looking for is someone who is about prayer, wants to help keep the prayer room open, creative and prayed in. The person would want to help us be hospitable and creative to our neighbours. They would like the idea of eating together, studying the bible together and being nice to people. They MUST love Jesus and want to make him a priority in their life. Ideally we would love this to be a single man, as this would help to give balance in our house. We also would love it if they were only working part-time or less (or studying at uni!?!) and could be around and available in our community and house. (and since we have been blessed with the house the cost of living is going to be minimal). We would love for them to have a heart for local mission, English people, prayer, neighbours, being creative, a heart for 20 to 30 year olds and a desire to meeting new people. We'd also loved them to like the idea of living in Colchester and really blessing this normal town. If you know someone that is looking to get involved in a Christ- centred prayer community but not sure how to make it happen, have them contact us. Or if it is you, then contact us!
We are all planning to move into the house in September 2013. So spread the word. If you or someone you know is moving to Colchester or is already in Colchester and wants to get involved in a local, missional, prayer community then have them contact us. Email either Steve (mctkz@aol.com) or Tina (rockstartina83@gmail.com) or give us call on 07904207238 (steve) or 07769978216 (Tina)
We would love to chat with you about what is all involved and seeing if it is a good fit for us all. Really look forward to chatting with you!
CHECK OUT COLCHESTER BOILER ROOM'S BLOG:
http://colchesterboilerroom.blogspot.co.uk/
Its popular in church pioneer efforts and emergent churches to really want to" stick it to the man"... maybe a better way to say it is, a deep desire to let go of the institutional way church has settled into western society.
as churches perfect the "business of church" pastors become CEO's, elders become "board members", and the church community becomes "members" or "consumers".
so how do new church expressions break away from this cycle?
that has been the topic of conversation at my local church "Scum of the Earth". For those of you who don't know, Scum of the Earth Seattle is a church plant from the Scum of the Earth Denver church that was started by the punk band Five Iron Frenzy.
I don't really know much more about the church history, other then there is deep recoil from systems, structures, and the idea of an organize or institutionalized religion. Sounds good doesn't it? Especially if you find yourself a post-modern baby that has grown to love the art of "hating" or put more PC "the art of deconstruction".
But really where does this leave the development of the church? Over the last 6(ish) months I have been very honored to sit in on some meetings as my loyal, passionate, and young church leaders started wrestling with developing the growth of their church.
As hour meetings turned into two hour long, and then 3 hour long meetings...As planning sessions were labeled "to be continued".... I began to wonder about this new way of being...
in the long of it all... you know what we came to find? we hate "titles" and "labels"...
so you know what we did... we labeled titles "non-title" labels and now we hold our breath and wonder if it will make a difference...
Instead of a Lead Pastor, or Assistant Pastor, or a Music Director... we opted more to refer to our leaders by their names and then a "talk to me if you are interested in worship, prayer, etc" describing what they knew or did through the chrurch. (Scum of the Earth Denver).
I'll go with it if it going to make a difference, but i hesitate a bit.... the only reason for my hesitation is I don't get "pretending" to be something different... when really the same structure as before is being used, just different clothes are being put on?
Then I wonder if my attitude is more shaped by the culture I live in or am I letting the culture I live in shape me? I don't know. Trying to be a church and trying to be different is hard... just as hard as it was back when the first churches were being born. Our struggles are the same (we just blog about them now instead of staying up all night throwing ashes on our head in prayer and lamenting).
All this is to ask? is there a good structure for church? should leaders be known in that structure? does putting people "in charge" only herald the days of institution and the heresy of empty religion?
As my church leaders wrapped another meeting and put the dot dot dot out until our next gathering I just tried to stay centered on our one connecting point that churches should model Family and that each family is an intentional community.
I also ran into a church that had organized "small groups" or "discipleship groups" that referred to themselves as being a part of a sonships and daughterships (playing off Jesus call for us to following him as disciples and sons and daughters).... I like the sounds of these and will bring them to my next church meeting as we try and find title for our "leaders" and small groups that represent family and also give everyone in our church community a sense of belonging and involvement...
what types of title are in your church? what is your church model?
I am trying to understand what people consider skills? My church is talking about making a regular space where people can come and share their skills with others. I feel like most are eager for this space, yet when I ask people "what skill do you have? what will you do?" most people get oddly quiet and even distant. As if they are scared to either A) say what they are skilled at or B) are petrified to actually use their skill in front of others.
Why is this? I realized within 20 min of talking with people... trying to get them to share their skills with me... that I am going to have to be a collector of skills, so that in a moment I can get people to realize they have skills and then in a diverse and unique way encourage them to use their skills for the benefit, of not just themselves, but others...
i love it... us all bringing what we are good at or what we know together to try and help each other live life more fully and productively! skillshare! what a great idea!
If your community was going to put together a skillshare what would people have to offer?
Can I collect your skill, tell others about it, and hopefully inspire others to use their skills to help others grow?
don't be offended if i harass you over the next couple of days as I try and post 40 skills that ultimately will help people live life not just better individually but better collectively in an effort to love God, care for the earth, love others, and take the gospels to the nation...
in other words just another way to try and redefine my love for building community!
About Me
- Teen Bean
- I'm just some regular girl trying her best to be a good friend, woman, christ-follower, wife, mom and adventurer (in no particular order). I love variety, trying new things and meeting new people and sharing experiences with others. All of which in one form or another can be found in this space. WELCOME!
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Stevie and Beanie
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