community action

COMMUNITY ACTION mtg one - 27 09 2006

Hey all,

Thanks so much to everyone who was able to make it last night. It was so encouraging to see everyone’s enthusiasm, openness and participation.

For the benefit of those who were not able to get along, in brief:

. I shared a little of my heart,
. we opened up some good dialogue on the subject of community action,
. a few people shared about some of the things they are currently involved in/ ideas they currently are thinking on
. then we ended with a bit of prayer.

Where do we go from here?

The general consensus was to meet up again in a month’s time, keeping to a Tuesday slot.
(4 weeks time is half-term – so lets meet the following week – Tues 31st October, 7:30pm in Room 1 again)

And in the mean time to keep the communication going we are going to setup a blog to post ideas and different streams of thinking, from which people can comment on. At this stage, we’re not sure if this is the best medium – but we will go with it for now and see how things go.
Chris L has also offered to setup a website for us should that be something we want to pursue further down the line.

Below is a summary of the notes that Si and I took down last night which hopefully may help to jog our memories of some of the conversations we were having


Thanks again so much,
Keep praying, pondering, chatting to anyone and everyone about this & encouraging one another

cheerio
Mat

______________________________________________

summary of mtg:

need to make sure any potential projects are covered by legal stuff
. child protection
. food hygiene
. insurance
. risk assessments etc

cover all that we are doing/ about in prayer
. Ed would be happy to setup a monthly prayer meeting
. Karen suggested more informal prayer – going for bike rides around the estates and praying as we go
. part of our ethos would be supporting/ facilitating what we are doing & what others are already doing – and prayer hopefully will be a major part of that
. One of the ‘roles’ of the group is to be an access point/ a hub – where we can pool talents/ encourage diversity
. Being a facilitating group
. Stuff is already happening – being an extension of that, in prayer, support & encouragement
. doing stuff integral to us
. an ethos/ mindset
. small steps
. not blowing our trumpets to the church congregation
. creating/ nurturing a community which serves in practical ways
. a right heart not simply ‘projects’
. about building relationships

importance of finding out where the need is first
. no point creating stuff for sake of it
. lets find out the needs
. be strategic
. speak to the people in the know
. the Bob Lights, the council (Laura/ Laura’s contacts), the Volunteering services etc
. prayer

set up a blog to post thoughts/ flesh out their ideas – and for people to comment on
. are blogs good/ the right medium for communication?

How do we engage with others in the church without alienation?

3 general strands of thought
a) bottom-up (non-project focused) like the example set by Freedom Funk, through friends supporting/ challenging one another – community building as an overflow of the heart. Could be with your neighbours, getting involved in local stuff etc

b) supporting existing projects – whether they be through Southampton Volunteering Services (could be worth someone visiting the next ‘Discovering volunteering’ monthly meeting), or existing church projects (supporting Bob Light on Flowers Estate, Kelvin with work on the busses are just a couple of examples). At some stage it would be useful to also get an idea of what other churches in Southampton are involved in – to either support or as a minimum not get in the way/ duplicate

c) set up new ‘project(s)’, initially attracting evening congregation participation (but not exclusively so) that promote serving and allow ownership

Heard input from several folk:


Chris Pantrey - FreedomFunk
. shared some of their journey as a community
. a lot to do with allowing people to share their stories/ sharing/ all about participation, rather than up front leaders of typical church model
. connected with Billy’s talk on ancient paths – FFunk bit like a modern monastery (focus on community, word & discipleship)

Andy Mcneil – James St
. doing stuff together is really important
. Andy has been really blessed helping out at James St
. the kids on estate love football, they love the Sunday Fundays
. David S had a suggestion of putting together a football team to play in league (parents permission needed)
. There are boys/girls groups happening at daisy dip - can we connect areas together and not duplicate?

Debs Ramsey - Cafe project
. heart for Christmas time (those who don’t have family/ support/ don’t . enjoy Christmas – can be a hard time for people
. idea of running a Christmas cafe over week running up to Christmas/ over the Christmas period
. a place of sanctuary
. being ‘something special’
. something to start small & perhaps build on it
. in church / outside church?
. where? cook house, James St, orchard lane, aster house, is the building a put off?
. use pool of people of Sunday afternoon SACH
. participation from morning church

Laura Waterton - council
. currently working for council
. applying for a job as a community development worker
. be great for us to be a prayer support to Laura

Ed – 'red bus'
. Project run by Kelvin taking a bus to some of the Southampton estates
. currently needing a driver

and a verse for us to be thinking on:

1 Cor 9.19-22

19 For though I am free from all men,
I have made myself a slave to all,
so that I may win more.
20 To the Jews I became as a Jew,
so that I might win Jews;
to those who are under the Law,
as under the Law though not being myself under the Law,
so that I might win those who are under the Law;
21 to those who are without law,
as without law,
though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ,
so that I might win those who are without law.
22 To the weak I became weak,
that I might win the weak;
I have become ALL THINGS to all men,
so that I may by all means save some.


thats all folks

______ \o/ __________

posted by mat comer @ 7:35 pm