Even though I was otherwise engaged in a maternity ward at the LGI I've written my second-hand account of Sunday up. For those of you who weren't there - 'here's what you missed....'
We began by sharing the picture people previously had of water in the desert, probably the strongest picture we have as we’ve prayed together for God to work at and through Connect:
In the picture, it’s the dry season, there has been no rain for months and the land seems dry and dead. All life there is has to struggle to survive, either gasping in the bottom of a shrinking waterhole or walking half exhausted through the dusty plains – forced to drink stagnant water just to keep alive. Just at it seems like the occupants of the plains will all die the rains which have drained down from the mountains swell the rivers….at first the water flows into the channels and pools that were filled with water previously and were ready and waiting (like us) then as these overflow with life giving transforming refreshment the water breaks down the barriers and rushes over the barren desert – everywhere it goes it carries life and food and refreshment with it. As it flows it wakes life that has been laying dormant and turns grey dust into vibrant living colour.
It really is worth watch these beautiful clips to see it happening:
Clip1 and Clip2
We then read Revelation 22's description of the 'river of life' and prayed into that for Connect's new season.
Thinking of our vision one thing that is key is that we want to follow Jesus' example and to be his disciples. We did an exercise where we each looked at chapters in Matthews gospel and brought together the characteristics and commandments of Jesus from these , we then used this to write ideas of how we can apply these characteristics to our venture –in areas of mission, spiritual growth and relationship. The results of this can be seen in the photo's below:
The mission aspect of our worship was acted out this week by prayer walking round Bramley in areas we want to work, people then came back together to feedback and share their faith stories whilst we ate lunch. If you were there and I've missed anything or there was anything you particularly found useful add a comment and tell us.
For those people who want their diet supplemented we will be adding links to good podcasts each week you can listen to. This weeks is entitled The Sacred Waste and helps to frame some of our thoughts about why we're doing what we're doing. Just click the link and you can download it or listen online.
