Great few days with Bob and Mary Jackson and Howard Pesekett as part of the MA I studying. Looking at the issues to do with church and mission. Lots of stuff from fresh expressions and good to get such a long term view from Bob. Interesting to hear Howard’s views on the links to his mission experience and start to put it altogether.
Also with a lot of background material about church planting it helped me make sense of a lot things I had observed over the years. Good to relook at some stuff I had not seen in a while particularly, Warrens model and entry points for church planting (worship, mission, community). Also The church armys Encounter from the Edge series by George Ling, one of which reinforced the need to start with community. Together it gave me more of a context and rationale for several questions I have had in the past around church planting in UPAs and explained (at least in my head) one of the historic weaknesses that I often saw in church plants that often aimed towards the entry point of worship.
Some good implications for the Church on the edge, and need to build community, and how this can correlate. When we see mission and worship in a more wholistic sense, how more important the building and growing and exploring community stages identified so far in the church on the edge project are. Both as a startpoint and as way to move beyond some of the current models.