Vista Community

Dates for 2008/09

2008-06-19T14:57:00.003Z

Some dates for your diaries:

October 17th/18th - GROW - conference for all carrying responsibility in church, workplace, family and community. 7pm Friday through to Saturday evening.

Venue for leaders conferences: Central Hall, St Mary Street, Southampton

January 27th - 29th, 2009. Leaders retreat with Roger Forster. The Oast Houses, East Sussex. Details to follow

Bioenergetics

2008-04-07T08:24:00.000Z

The psychology of Bioenergetics is capturing the attention of
forward-thinking churches, having been honed into an insightful
model that serves uniquely their discipleship, leadership training
and team development.
The model observes five different character styles in the way that we relate
to the world, based on the forming of the body in conjunction with the ego.
Our muscular make-up gives insight into how we conduct relationships, why
we favour certain negative behaviours, and how we think.
Nobody needs another way of carving people up into categories. What
Bioenergetics offers is a level of awareness about how differently people
operate that can liberate our understanding of ourselves and transform our
relationships to others.
It can help us to be kinder.
Suitable for audiences of any ability, the training from the beginning focuses
on experience. Delegates gain more understanding only as a by-product of
the deeper experience of truth to be had in exploring Bioenergetics together.
Group exercises, frequent comment and question times, and some fun ways
of exploring the model bring the sessions alive. How to engage with different
types of people is emphasised, leaving delegates with practical ways to work
with others and bring out the best in them.
The trainer Gabriel Smy is based in Cambridge. An English graduate
from the University, he is the author of discipleship guide Deeper. He
has spoken at Soul Survivor and Spring Harvest, and founded the new
student movement Fusion Cambridge, directing it alongside City Life
Church work. He has teamed up with coach Jim McNeish for the
‘Daybreak’ event and book.

24-7 Bolier Room day

2008-03-28T08:52:00.001Z

Details of a day being hosted by 24-7prayer Guildford Boiler Room:
Adam Cox training day in Guildford - June 7th
God Story and Organic Church growth
10am – 4.30 pm
Cost: £10 including light lunch
We are pleased to announce that Adam Cox from the Kansas City Boilerroom will be in Guildford for the day on 7th June. Guildford Boiler Room has invited him over as we feel there is loads to learn from the Kansas experience at a time when Boiler Rooms are taking shape
Kansas Boiler Room is a vibrant community which is now seeing consistent conversions through smaller collectives and groups. Jon Petersen recently raved about how the hard work in laying foundations and values is now beginning to see growth and multiplication. The growth is organically through friendships, interests and relationships and making disciples is the focus in two’s and threes
Kansas also initiated ‘God Story’, an innovative community based approach to the Bible, which has had a lasting impact on all Transit students and is now being adopted by a number of Boilerroom and communities.
We want to open the Saturday out to anyone who would like to join us - the day will have 2 parts:-
God Story – what is God Story, why is it important and how can a community build itself around God’s word. It is important to hear Adam’s heart on the God Story approach as well as being very practical
Being church where life happens - how do we make disciples through organic friendship groups? What are the key principles and lessons to learn
Please email Daniel.jones@24-7prayer.com to register and get travel/ location details.

Dates for 2008

2008-03-15T10:07:00.002Z

Some dates for your diaries:

May 10th - a morning with Dale Gentry at Revelation Church, Chichester. 9.30am - 2.00pm (including lunch). Cost will be around £15.

June 20th - 22nd - Daybreak leadership programme run by Jim McNeish and Roger Bretherton. Venue - Revelation Church, Chichester. Cost will be around £70.

October 16th/17th - conference for leaders. Lunchtime Thursday - lunchtime Friday. Invitation only.

October 17th/18th - conference for all carrying responsibility in church, workplace, family and community. 7pm Friday through to Saturday evening.

Venue for leaders conferences: Central Hall, St Mary Street, Southampton.

Disengagement

2007-08-23T10:28:00.000Z

I imagine we all know people who have disengaged from church; who have found it too painful or taxing or frustrating or confusing to keep coming back. I’m thinking in particular of leaders, who want to believe that church is a good thing, but have battled against too much evidence to the contrary.

Often they get sins pinned on them as the reason for their disconnection. Perhaps they don’t pray enough or have inappropriate relationships. Perhaps they need more faith, more vision, more repentance. Or perhaps they need someone to actually listen to the things they find hard, to acknowledge the contradictions that do seem to come with being church, and to help them find creative and real ways to navigate those tensions.

In October we are hosting the ‘Engaged’ weekend in Cambridge, which is a conversation for those who find themselves disengaging or are friends with those who are. It will be creative, participatory, real and engaging. It is about still loving Jesus even if we can’t make sense of the rest.

Together we will explore staying engaged - with God, each other, with church, society, and with theology. It might just open up new possibilities for each of us to be what God made us: a contribution to the world in which we live.

Date: 27-28 October 2007
Details: www.citylifechurch.net/engaged

Who said preaching was dead?

2007-06-28T15:46:00.000Z

On Monday evening I went to hear Rob Bell. A blank stage in a theatre. A stool and a plain white light. Rob appeared on stage. No singing. Not even a prayer to open. An hour and 15 minutes of preaching. No notes. Sort of John Cleese meets Eddie Izzard meets Bill Hybels. Stories about Jesus, creation, the Scriptures, Jewish culture applied to our current global scene. Really challenging stuff. The audience - mainly young adults - was rivetted. At the end no appeal just applause.

Next Vista Community gathering

2007-06-20T07:27:00.000Z

Dates for the next Vista Gathering...

Friday 11 - Saturday 12th January 2008

Venue: Luton's Thistle Hotel

Accommodation cost: £49 all inc.Includes Fri evening meal, Sat breakfast, Sat lunch.

There will be an additional charge for admin/programme etc. More details to follow.

Putting it into practise

2007-06-12T21:05:00.000Z

Been very challenged by Graham Cray's talk about sabbath last week. The biggest challenge is.........putting it into practise. We had a long talk in our team today about diary management and developing some common practises to avoid burn-out and stay healthy. Saying 'no' to people is really difficult. Any tips?

Event for men

2007-06-08T18:49:00.001Z

We have Eric Delve speaking at a Men's Day on Saturday July 7th at Central Hall, Southampton. The day runs 9.30am - 4.30pm. It will be very good. Details here.

Let the party begin

2007-06-05T20:30:00.000Z

Welcome to the new Vista Community blog. An opportunity for us to share some cyber space together as we learn and grow and discover what God has for us. I'll start with a summary of the last couple of days we spent together at the beautiful Oast Houses in Kent (or was it East Sussex?).

About 35 of us from a wide variety of churches and mission organisations gathered yesterday, 4th June, for 24 hours of friendship and exploration. We kicked off with a time of sharing and updating and praying for one another. We had an especially great dinner together - great because the standard of cuisine in Christian Retreat Centres aren't normally that great! After dinner Roger Ellis shared a paper he had written, 'Where does the new church movement go from here?'. We'll publish the paper on here soon. There was some lively discussion after which we opened a few bottles of wine and whiled away the rest of the evening.

After breakfast we spent some time in worship and prayer before Bishop Graham Cray led a session on maintaining our personal spiritual life. He talked about developing regular sabbath rhythms weekly, monthly, annually but stressed the importance of changed character not simply changed practise. The discipline of rest and renewal is simply a framework to allow God's Spirit to do his work in us.

It's about the 4th time we've met like this and it is starting to feel like real community. We'll use this blog to let people know about future dates, conferences and events that we think might be helpful. We're also creating a Facebook group to keep in touch.

First Post!

2007-06-04T08:19:00.000Z

Testing, testing...