I returned last week from the Total Church conference in England. (I wanted to post earlier, but was having some technical difficulty). In attendance there were 50 church planters from around the world, many were hybrids, traditional churches looking to become more missional or house church movements. The central theme was gospel & community. Tim Chester led excellent morning devotionals that were portraits of Jesus life. The first was dealing with Jesus came eating & drinking, dealing with messy community life reaching to the margins. The second devotional was Jesus at the table, which sprang from the women washing his feet. The final devotional dealt with Jesus' interaction with the men on the road to Emmaus.
Steve Timmis led mid-day sessions that sparked conversation. Over the next few days, I'll post a few summaries on the sessions. Some highlights of the posts to come:
Things that make Steve Timmis go 'Hmmmm…' – Steve held a session where he brought up a few issues that churches have to think through and offered commentary on these. I'll post a few of the ideas which included people's fascination with new ways of doing church, preaching workshops, gender specific ministry, video venues & big churches.
Leadership Development in the Local church – A discussion on developing leaders, church planting and the ongoing role of elders leadership in local churches.
Sharing Lives – More on how the Crowded House makes decisions with the community in mind. Something that will always rock our American sensibilities.
