The Week That Was...

Its been a whole week since I blogged?

Actually, for some reason I've been a bit listless and lacking. Came to the end of the teaching block on top of some big church commitments and just stopped...cleared the marking of assessments away plus my 2 holiness essays...a few early nights and I'M BACK! So while I've been a bit tired this week I have managed to clear the decks.

So, last Sunday we had 120 people turn up to our cafe outreach - thats pretty good when you understand that our core community is 70 people. Some great connections and we're hopeful that a number of them will be with us this Sunday as we start our new series: "Which Fork Do I Use?" Preparing For Christmas Dinner. You wouldn't believe the food either, the decor and the whole feel of the place - what an unreal team we have!

It was cool because the Saturday was our final cessionIcore advance for 2004 - it was great talking about how far the community had come and then to see it go another step forward the next night. We got a bunch of things laid out for next year and it feels good to be organised and have a number of new ministries rolling out in '05. A great team of people.

Also had our first Council meeting with me as National Secretary. I went out and bought a large broom and swept vigourously in preparation for this meeting. Thursday's meeting was a good next step for the "new order" and I think there was general appreciation at the prospect of strategic discussion emerging from beneath the clutter of meaningless administration. I'd probably see me as obnoxious and insistent but people seemed to enjoy being organised. There are some people who need to learn some hard lessons about bringing clear recommendations rather than thinking they can turn up with 4 page reports and expect discussion of them...I'm not sure that I'm everyone's best friend it has to be said!

So today is relatively free which is nice - I spent the day off writing my holiness essays - so its good to not have more than 2-3 hours of work to do and no sermon to write either, so even my Sunday afternoon is looking OK between services. Luxury!

So, I need to start thinking Christmas shopping. My wife has nearly finished buying. She has given me a list of things she wants. This could be seen as demanding and unromantic - however the list is long enough (!) for there to be some measure of surprise and ultimately its nice to have the back up of a sure thing if I don't get inspired to be original!

Right. Girding up the loins. Polishing credit card. Shop.

Jonesbargain