LEMnAID

LEMnAID Issue 160

2012-01-19T11:56:00.000Z

LEMnAID160 Local Evangelism & Mission Network Aid

Helping each other to resource evangelism and mission in the local church

Get this in its best format at; www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/lemnaid

This week:-

Barrett’s Burblings
WEBSITE OF THE WEEK: www.christianity.org.uk
MORE THAN GOLD: More ideas for January
Messy Church, More than Gold and the Jubilee
Our Facebook Group
Church website advice: Church homepages
The Community of St Chad
Living in a Changing Climate
Women's World Day of Prayer
Fresh!
We Gather
God, The Future, and Me
Matlosane Trip
The Telford Twitterers #1 and #2
Shrewsbury Incinerator Petition
Mobiles and Church
Cartoon ‘Fun’
Saints and Birthdays
Calendar
WIDER CHURCH RESOURCE

· The Small Print

Barrett’s Burblings

Hello everybody. Sorry for yet another late LEMnAID; I was out of the office all Tuesday, and had rather manic days either side of it. I was down in London for the launch of this year's Back to Church Sunday campaign, and I am sure that you will be hearing a lot more about that from us pretty soon. One good thing about a very late LEMnAID is that I hope it at least partly makes up for the fact there won't be a LEMnAID next week; George and I are both off at the FPE conference Monday - Wednesday, and somehow I don't think I'll be able to fit a full week's work into one day on Thursday!

May I suggest that as this one of our bulging issues, that there will be enough here to keep you going in our absence next week. I can't even begin to tell you where to start this week; I really do have too many highlights to mention! I also hope that you will notice a veritable sea of yellow ‘New Entries’ in the Diary; with us now being well into January; dates of lots of interest events are in place over the next few weeks and months.

RESOURCES AND OTHER IDEAS

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK: www.christianity.org.uk

George’s latest recommendation…is a web site set up by Christian Enquiry Agency.

It’s 12 months since it was set up and it has had 31,000 visits; from which nearly 300 have contacted to find out more and have been sent a Gospel, had a question answered, or helped to find a local church, or prayed with.

Why not put a link to this on your web site, or put it in your publicity?

MORE THAN GOLD: More ideas for January

George passes on; There's an ever growing set of free resources to help your church. You'll find details and the links to get them at www.morethangold.org.uk/resources/free-resources/

They include:

· Advice on running big screen events - inside and out. http://bit.ly/yvC3yi

· A 48 page Event Pack with ideas for the Games and Torch Relay. Plus an all-age sermon, sketches, prayers and outlines for small groups. http://bit.ly/uNw0OB

· A Kids Club programme - five 90 minute sessions full of fresh and practical ideas. Developed in Jamaica, making it wonderfully multi-cultural. http://bit.ly/wWBF91

· Sporty Book of Hope - for 5-12 years, introducing Jesus through colourful pages designed for sports-related children's outreach. http://bit.ly/A16x2k

Messy Church, More than Gold and the Jubilee

Messy Church Adviser Cerys Hughes wanted to share;

· Sports Fun For Messy Churches, a more than Gold approved publication is available now for just £5.99 from www.brfonline.org.uk/9781841018249 I hope to have some copies at Sharing The Mess in Shrewsbury too (in case you really need any more reasons to attend!!)

· Details on Sharing the Mess at http://bit.ly/wpjHUi and in our below calendar

· Keep your eye on www.messychurch.org.uk for downloadable ideas for the Jubilee coming soon

Our Facebook Group

George writes; We invite you to join the Facebook Group for Local Mission and Evangelism in Lichfield Diocese. We will be sending out items of interest and using it as a forum for discussion and sharing good practice. It is called "LME Lichfield Diocese". If you are on Facebook, look us up and join. If not, joining is simple - come and join us.

If you like this, I offer all credit to George for getting this going, I’m afraid that I have made absolutely no contribution. If you don’t, I refer you to the previous sentence!

Church website advice: Church homepages

George brings us the latest free suggestions from ‘Church Edit’, which certainly seem very sensible…

First impressions count and the homepage is usually going to be the first page that visitors will see on your website so it is important that it contains the right information.
Here are some ideas for what a church homepage can contain:

· Welcome from the minister – make first time visitors welcome straight away. This could be a short paragraph which then links to a longer welcome page.

· Exploring Christianity course – if your church is doing a course such as Alpha then highlight this on the homepage so that people interested can see straight away that there is a course just for them.

· Latest updates to the church website – if you have added a new page to the site then why not promote this on the homepage under a 'Latest Updates' section?

· Summary of the upcoming weekly events - if you can update this each week then visitors can see straight away that your website is up-to-date.

· Map showing the location of the church – this could be a small map which then links to an online mapping website such as Google Maps.

· Voting Poll – you could add a bit of fun to your homepage by having a voting poll.

· Links to the latest sermon and sermon notes.

· Contact Details for your church or church office.

Read the full article on the Church Edit website at http://bit.ly/A01VDO

The Community of St Chad

World Mission Director Philip Swan advises that this will...be launched on Saturday March 3^nd 2012 at a service in Lichfield Cathedral at 12 noon. The Preacher will be Tthe Rt Revd Jonathan Gledhill, Bishop of Lichfield. All are welcome. If possible could you inform us if you intend to come. (philip.swan@lichfield.anglican.org)

WHAT IS IT? The Community of Saint Chad is intended to help people to go deeper in prayer, discipleship and mission. The Community is united by a common commitment to a spiritual lifestyle shaped by five Rhythms of Grace, and by participation in a Spiritual Growth Group.

DETAILS: Available from Philip Swan; 07857 703303 philip.swan@lichfield.anglican.org or Barry Wilson; 01782 750205 communityofsaintchad@gmail.com Philip or Barry would be delighted to speak to any groups about the Community of Saint Chad and share more about the range of resources, including the newly printed introductory booklet, which are available.

PILGRIMAGE: Between March 25^th and April 1^st there is an opportunity to join in walking sections of the Two Saints Way; an 88 mile pilgrimage route being developed between Chester and Lichfield. www.twosaintsway.org.uk. This will be in the company of the founder David Pott and Russ Parker of Acorn Christian Listening Ministries and representatives from the Community of Saint Chad The plan for the walk can be found at http://bit.ly/yimjP0

Living in a Changing Climate

The Directors of Transforming Communities and World Mission, David Primrose and Philip Swan respectively, are both keen to endorse this event on the evening of Wednesday 8^th February at meeting Point House in Telford, as a key part of this year’s Climate Justice campaign as launched by Bishop Clive of Wolverhampton.

It will feature Mr Joyantha Adhikari of Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh and more details are available at http://bit.ly/A2DvUG

Women’s World Day of Prayer

In his final contribution this week, World Mission Director Philip Swan comments on this year's date, March 2^nd; this years’ service focusses on Malaysia and has the theme ‘Let Justice Flow’. We are hoping to make available a number of resources coming from our longstanding links with West Malaysia, Kuching and formerly Saba. Please contact worldmission@lichfield.anglican.org for more details of available resources. There are also many people in the Diocese with first-hand experience of Malaysia and whilst I am aware that services may have already been thoroughly planned, I hope that we can draw on this to help us share in solidarity and prayer with our sisters in particular in Malaysia. If you would like to follow up the service, perhaps by developing a parish to parish link with Malaysia, please let me know at the above email address.

Fresh!

Andrew Roberts, the Director of Training at Fresh Expressions (and a founding Lemon J) is keen to mention… a new publication on an introduction to fresh expressions of church and pioneer ministry ‘Fresh!’ is being published by SCM Press in March 2012. Written by David Goodhew, Michael Volland and Andrew Roberts; the book is available at a pre-publication price of £15 including P&P (normally £20 + P&P) until 15^th February 2012 by telephoning 01603 785925 or email orders@norwichbooksandmusic.co.uk quoting the reference ‘FRESH12’

We Gather

Ruth Brooker of Transforming Communities has noticed this conference targeted towards Unity in Mission starting on Wednesday 22^nd February. Details at; www.wegather.co.uk/

God, The Future, and Me

David Syson, the Methodist Training Officer for Stoke and other areas to the immediate North of our diocese has sent in details of this ecumenical vocations conference on Saturday 17^th March. It will be held at St Peter’s Chaplaincy in the University of Manchester and all the relevant details can be found at; www.stpeters.org.uk/gtfam.php

I do love the sound of ‘the world's first ministry speed dating event’!

Matlosane Trip

Richard Westwood, the vicar of St Andrew’s Church in Great Wyrley (between Walsall and Cannock), writes of his exciting plans for the next couple of months;

I will be going to Matlosane in South Africa (one of our companion Dioceses) in Feb and March to help to develop links between churches, schools and community groups, neighbourhoods (etc etc) in Lichfield and Matlosane. I will be there with my wife (Rose) and two of our children (Andrew (10) and Sam(9)).
I would like to get a message to anyone in the Lichfield Diocese who is keen to form links with people in Matlosane Diocese- to invite them to

1. Follow the blog which we hope to keep whilst we are there; www.matlosanematters.blogspot.com (Andrew and Sam will also be keeping a blog when they can; www.westywords.blogspot.com )

2. Complete an “interest form” to help me know what sort of groups and churches and schools in Lichfield may be interested in forming partnerships with others in Matlosane. There is a link to this on the blog or it can be downloaded at www.mediafire.com/?gr3czjzxdk6h0x1 and then emailed back to me (email on the form)

3. We would welcome prayer for our visit- that we will follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit and that we will be good guests and a blessing to those we meet, so that the links between the two dioceses will be strengthened and deepened. We would also value prayers for our safety in travel in our nearly 8 weeks away from home, family, church and school in Great Wyrley.

4. I can provide a more detailed sheet of our visit for anyone who is interested, and hope to put this sort of information onto the blog in due course.

The Telford Twitterer #1

Telford Ecumenical Dean Andy Smith reappears with another twitter recommendation;

https://twitter.com/SJIthoughts

This twitter feed is, as they describe themselves; ‘a free exciting & interactive magazine for teens, twenties & students. Engaging with the world & faith, through interviews, chatter, stories & more’

I have always had a lot of time for SJI after the younger brother of their Director had the misfortune of coping with my snoring for 2 weeks on top of the Mount of Olives! I’m very happy to encourage you to look round their website at www.sharejesusinternational.com, which features a lot of important areas of Mission from their Methodist heritage.

The Telford(ish) Twitterer #2

Another encouragement towards Twitter, this time from Revd Chris Thorpe;

Just to reiterate Andy Smith’s comments about Twitter – we have been using twitter for the last four weeks and it has been really successful – people at the Carol Service commenting that they had come because of the news on Twitter, and now a person signing up for our Christianity Explored Course, just through hearing of it on twitter. Its great when people pick up and retweet your info too! https://twitter.com/shifnalvicar

Shrewsbury Incinerator Petition

An admittedly off-topic request from ‘Telford Twitterer #1’ Andy Smith about the petition against the proposed incinerator in Shrewsbury. He feels that it will ‘pollute the area and massively affect the recycling ability for the next 25 years, not to mention the climate’, and that it is ‘one of those issues the church should have a voice on, since it’s our parishioners who will be directly affected’.

Should you feel similarly, there is a government petition towards increasing tax on Incineration at; http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/2642 .

In the interest of fairness; I wanted to include a link to the what the Shropshire Council say about the plans themselves; but for perhaps understandable reasons they are difficult to locate; but you may be minded to investigate the ‘Waste Services’ area of their website; www.shropshire.gov.uk/waste.nsf

Mobiles and Church

As a final contribution this week from Andy Smith; you too may like ‘one church's light-hearted response to annoying cell phones ringing during services. It at least made me chuckle! www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2_c81Nnsc0&sns=fb

These days my own mobile is always on silent. This stems from an unfortunate moment for me a couple of years ago; when in the auspicious surroundings of Lambeth Palace a moment of hush descended when the then Archbishop’s Evangelism Adviser and soon-to-be-Bishop of Hertford asked for feedback on the ideas for that year’s Back to Church Sunday campaign; and my mobile chose that moment to chime its ‘comedy’ ringtone at a quite hideous volume - the voice of ‘Yoda’ from Star Wars with ‘Message from the dark side you have’.

Cartoon ‘Fun’

With a couple more instances of Twitter-plugging, I thought that at least a couple of you may like an alternative view; www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/2010/07/19/twitter-cartoon/

I promise that I wasn't thinking of either of Telford's finest!

Saints and Birthdays

Saints and Feast Days:

How about St Brithwald, associated with Glastonbury Abbey in the 11th century?

Birthdays: My mischievous nature draws me first to one of the more infamous figures from history in 'the mad monk' Grigori Rasputin. There is another colourful character, and a little more local, in Cannock's former footballer Stan Collymore. Two actors that I think are worth a mention are Bill Bixby and John Hurt. I will also take the chance to mention a 'future' birthday in Star Trek's Hikaru Sulu. But I'd like to finish with a rare creatures - an Olympic Medalist from Walsall in former swimmer Nick Gillingham.

Calendar of Events

Mon 23^rd – Wed 25^th January. FPE 2012 Conference ‘Evangelism at home and away: What would Jesus do?’. The Hayes, Swanwick. With main speakers Robin Gamble and Jim Currin.

The Fellowship for Parish Evangelism has several members from Lichfield Diocese and George Fisher is the Chair. It is made up of people involved in evangelism and includes church members, itinerant evangelists, clergy, bishops, Church Army evangelistic and Missioners.

For more information see; www.fpe-network.org/Conference2012.aspx.

Sat 28^th January – Sun 5^th February. Poverty and Homelessness Action Week. Plenty of materials available at; www.actionweek.org.uk/html/downloadresources.html

Tue 31^st January. Engaging with Muslims. A day event for Christians to explore why and how to engage with Muslims St George's Post 16 Centre, Great Hampton Row, Birmingham, B19 3JG

10am to 4pm. Sessions; Why is it OK to engage with Muslims? What should we know about Birmingham Muslims? Christian Responses to Islam. Mission and Dialogue.

Speakers: Steve Bell, Director, Interserve and Sue Fearon, Children’s Team Co-ordinator, Birmingham City Mission. Cost £20 (£10 concessions) with lunch included, from either;

· Christian Muslim Forum 0207 820 0444, info@christianmuslimforum.org

· Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre 0121 675 1155, jess@nearneighbours.com

Fri 3^rd – Sun 5^th February. Children’s Ministry Conference. Eastbourne. An opportunity for Children’s workers to have a look at up to date resources and learn more about what is happening in the world of Children’s Ministry. Seminars on Messy Church, Schools Work, Nurturing faith in children, Reaching out into the Community and more. Details at www.familyministry.co.uk and clicking on ‘2012 conference’. Diocesan Schools Outreach Adviser Libby Leech recommends it strongly and would love to know if you are going; libby.leech@lichfield.anglican.org or 07891 290564.

Tue 7^th February. Worship 4 Today. An excellent one-day course for Worship Leaders and Musicians, as recommended by Bishop’s Chaplain Peter Walley. St Mary’s Church, Bramall Lane, Sheffield. S2 4QZ. More details at; http://bit.ly/o4eT41

NEW ENTRY

Mon 20^th February. Sharing the Mess. With Messy Church Adviser Cerys Hughes. An excellent opportunity to share ideas and resources. 7pm – 9pm. Emmanuel Church, Mount Pleasant Road Harlescott, Shrewsbury. SY1 3HY. More details and booking at; http://bit.ly/wpjHUi

Wed 29^th February. Going for Growth Course – St John’s College Nottingham. 2pm – 5pm. The start of 5 week course with former Bishop’s Growth officer Ven Bob Jackson. Cost £85 + lunch or supper as required. Booking deadline: Friday 21 January 2012. Booking via Helen Taylor at St John’s on 0115 968 3221, 0115 925 1114, or h.taylor@stjohns-nottm.ac.uk. Booking form at http://bit.ly/ux8TAX, and more details at http://www.stjohns-nottm.ac.uk/going-for-growth-2/

Thu 1^st March. Facilitating Small Groups. First meeting of a short 4-week course at Shallowford House. For people interested in leading small groups in their church or facilitating courses such as The Bishop’s Certificate Course. It will offer some practical tips on facilitating groups and look at best practise in working with small groups. Led by Lindsey Hall, the Director of Lay Development. Cost £18pp, and be held on 4 consecutive evenings. More details are at http://bit.ly/qflXTr. Bookings (and only 16 places) via Sheila Walker on 01543 306223 or at sheila.walker@lichfield.anglican.org

NEW ENTRY

Sat 3^rd March. More Than Gold – ‘Get Set’ Training Day. 10.30am – 4.30pm. Port Vale Football Club, Vale Park, Stoke-on-Trent. ST6 1AW. Cost £10. A wide variety of ideas and workshops to help make the most of the Mission opportunities of this Year’s Olympic Games. All relevant details at; http://bit.ly/xetIbJ; a printable flier at; http://bit.ly/xnIVhi

NEW ENTRY

Sat 10^th March. More Than Gold – ‘Get Set’ Training Day. 10.30am – 4.30pm. Our Lady and St Chad’s School, Old Fallings Lane, Wolverhampton. WV10 8BL. Cost £10. A wide variety of ideas and workshops to help make the most of the Mission opportunities of this Year’s Olympic Games. All relevant details at; http://bit.ly/xetIbJ; a printable flier at; http://bit.ly/xnIVhi

NEW ENTRY

Thu 22^nd March. What do Trades Unions Do? 10.30am – 12.30pm (and a buffet lunch to follow). A joint event from BCUIM (Black Country Urban Industrial Mission) and Unite the Union. For local church leaders, with input from a Union Official, ACAS and an Employer. 6 Victoria Square, Wolverhampton, WV1 1LD. (by Bus Station). More details and booking at bcuim@btconnect.com or 01902 710407

NEW ENTRY

Sat 24^th March. Healing Ministry Training Day. 9am – 4pm. With Revd Gareth Davies, Bishop's Adviser on Healing Ministry. St Mary’s Church, Bushbury Lane, Bushbury, Wolverhampton. WV10 8JP. Booking is via Revd Richard Merrick on revrichstmarys@gmail.com

Sat 21^st April. Evolution v Creation. St James’ Wednesbury. With a variety of speakers including Revd Dr Fr Anthony Moore, Revd Bob Morris, Dr Gillian Pearce, and Mr Graham Warton; tackling the following questions; How did life on Earth begin? Where did the Universe come from? How will the Universe end? Did we evolve or were we created? What does the fossil record tell us about the great flood? All relevant details at; www.stjameswednesbury.com/evolution-v-creation.html

NEW ENTRY

Mon 11^th – Thu 14^th June. LYCIG (Leading Your Church into Growth) 2012 Conference. High Leigh, Hertfordshire. Highly recommended and a limited number of subsidies available from the Parish Mission Office on request. More details including booking available at; www.leadingyourchurchintogrowth.org.uk/?page_id=2

Sat 22nd September. Revised launch of msm Wolverhampton. Trinity Methodist Church, Histons Hill, Codsall, Wolverhampton, WV8 2ER. Other dates and details at www.missionshapedministry.org/westmidlands12 or from administrator Anne Riddle on 01782 769532, or 07974 197806 or by e-mail at anne.riddle1@ntlworld.com.

NEW ENTRY

Mon 5^th – Thu 8^th November. LYCIG (Leading Your Church into Growth) 2012 Conference. The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire. Highly recommended and a limited number of subsidies available from the Parish Mission Office on request. More details including booking available at; www.leadingyourchurchintogrowth.org.uk/?page_id=2

For details of more events happening in the Lichfield Diocese and if you want to upload your event please go to www.lichfield.anglican.org/Index.aspx?Page=latest-events

WIDER CHURCH RESOURCES

HOPE UK: Big Lunch

Hope are asking if you are hosting a 'Big Lunch'

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend provides an opportunity for many mission events. Hope is encouraging churches to host a community 'Big Lunch' street Party and are now asking for churches to say if they are planning to do so. See; www.hopetogether.org.uk/Groups/181443/HOPE/The_Big_Lunch/The_Big_Lunch.aspx

LEMnAID

is designed to help everyone involved in mission and evangelism in Lichfield Diocese to:

· keep in touch with each other with news

· pray for each other

· keep informed about the latest resources

· share great ideas and top tips

· know what is going on around the Diocese

This email group will work best if you are willing to share your ideas, news and prayer requests with others. Send in your news and views to richard.barrett@lichfield.anglican.org

Resources and Top Tips will be put in our list of Resources on the Diocesan Web Site so will be an ongoing resource. If you wish to comment on any of the items why not visit our Blog Site on http://ldfe.blogspot.com/ and set up an ongoing conversation.

If you know someone who you think would value receiving this, please send us their name and email. If you would prefer not to receive this, let us know and we will remove you from the email group.

George and Richard

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:
This message is intended solely for the addressees in the first instance and may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender, delete the message from your system immediately and do not disclose the contents to any other party.

Richard Barrett

Parish Mission Research Assistant

Lichfield Diocese

01922 707863

The Parish Mission Office, The Small Street Centre,

1A Small Street, Walsall, West Mids. WS1 3PR.

www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/mission

______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com
______________________________________________________________________

LEMnAID Issue 159

2012-01-11T16:00:00.000Z

LEMnAID 159 Local Evangelism & Mission Network Aid

Helping each other to resource evangelism and mission in the local church

Get this in its best format at; www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/lemnaid

This week:-

Barrett’s Burblings
RESOURCES AND OTHER IDEAS

· WEBSITE OF THE WEEK: Schools Work

· MORE THAN GOLD: January Update

· Sharing the Mess - Shrewsbury

· LYCIG 2012

· Mission Library Courses

· Healing Ministry Training Day

· What do Trades Unions Do?

· The Telford Twitterer

· Costa Coffee Competition

Cartoon ‘Fun’
Saints and Birthdays
Calendar

· The Small Print

Barrett’s Burblings

Hello everyone. I hope that you enjoyed a double helping of LEMnAID last week, and that it may not have proved too fizzy for you. Ahem. Apologies this is a day late this week; Sunday night was the latest Growth Fund deadline; as you may imagine, the last couple of days have kept me out of mischief with processing a lot of interesting applications. Next week I’m in London on Tuesday, so I promise that I’ll do my best to shock you and actually get LEMnAID out on Monday Evening before I leave!

Lots of good things here, I believe. I hope that you will appreciate the timing from More Than Gold; it certainly made me chuckle. There are excellent training opportunities available for Messy Church, Church Growth, and Healing. Oh, and I always did think my former vicar was a bit of a twitterer; or something like that! J

Finally, why not raid the tidied-up Parish Mission Library for a course that you’d like to check out? Our former Curate did only this morning!

RESOURCES AND OTHER IDEAS

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK: Schools Work

George makes his latest recommendation;

Some great resources for schools work - have a look at: www.schoolswork.co.uk/home/

MORE THAN GOLD: January Update

George advises: The same day we sent out the LEMnAID special featuring More than Gold and the Jubilee, in my in-box came January's More than Gold update so here's the first item of interest from it and more to come next week:

If you do only one thing, make sure your church is well represented at a 'Get Set' training day over the next couple of months.

We are going UK-wide on Saturdays from 10.30am to 4.30pm with choice of 11 workshops. Your church will get new ideas, strategies, skills and resources to help them well beyond 2012. Please get the word out to all who are involved with children, youth, community engagement and outreach.

You'll find all the workshop subjects, speakers and dates at; http://bit.ly/xetIbJ

And for a flier to print and pass on go here; http://bit.ly/xnIVhi

The full-day sessions are on;

· Running a Community Festival

· Using Sport to Impact Every Age-group

· Being a Games Pastor.

Electives are on;

· Reaching Children and Youth,

· The Torch Relay and Your Community

· Prayer

· Using International Mission Teams

· Mission Through the Paralympics

· Games-related Social Justice.

The dates and locations for 'Get Set' are;

February: 4^th Crawley, 25^th Reading, 25^th Cardiff.

March: 3^rd Stoke, 3^rd Bath,10^th Wolverhampton, 10^th Central London, 17^th Greenwich, 17^th Gateshead, 24^th Barnsley, 24^th Weymouth, 31^st Bolton, 31st East London.

April: 21^st Glasgow, 21^st Stevenage, 28^th Belfast, 28^th Nottingham.

Sharing the Mess - Shrewsbury

Our Messy Church Adviser Cerys Hughes has flagged up the latest evening, for Monday 20^th February, 7pm – 9pm, at Emmanuel Church in Harlescott in Shrewsbury. It should once again be an excellent opportunity to share ideas and resources, this time

All the relevant details, including about the essentiality of booking, are at http://bit.ly/wpjHUi

LYCIG 2012

Details of the dates and availability of this year’s ‘Leading Your Church Into Growth’ conferences are now available at; www.leadingyourchurchintogrowth.org.uk/?page_id=2

Coming up first up is Monday 11^th – Thursday 14^th June at High Leigh Conference Centre in Hertfordshire, but the nearest option is Monday 5^th – Thursday 8^th November at The Hayes Conference Centre at Swanwick in Derbyshire.

The conferences come highly recommended, and once again we can offer a limited number of £100 subsidies, for up to two people from each church, and we recommend it as ideal for a clergyperson with a key lay leader. Just get in touch with me if you’re interested.

Mission Library Courses

Before Christmas we had a good tidy up of the resources available here in the Mission Library at Small Street, and we’d love to recommend any of the following; http://bit.ly/zFpbzH

Healing Ministry Training Day

Revd Richard Merrick, the Curate of St Mary’s Bushbury has flagged up this day with Revd Gareth Davies, the Bishop of Lichfield's Adviser on Healing Ministry.

Date: Saturday 24th March 2012 - 9am to 4pm
Location: St Mary’s Church, Bushbury Lane, Bushbury, Wolverhampton. WV10 8JP

Disabled toilet facilities available in the church.

Local services and shops are just a short walk from the church.

So that we have an idea of how many to expect on the day we would be grateful if you could let us know by post, phone or preferably email how many people will be attending.

We hope you will be able to join us.

Contact: Rev Richard Merrick – Tel: 07402 151593 or email: revrichstmarys@gmail.com

Richard briefly slipped into my bad books when I couldn’t find the details for this day on their otherwise impressive church website, but was quickly redeemed when I noticed they were plugging LEMnAID on their notices page instead!

Honestly - http://bushburyparishchurch.co.uk/notices.aspx

Thanks everyone!

The Telford Twitterer

Telford Ecumenical Dean Andy Smith is keen to plug their Twitter account (‘telfordcc’) and also their presence on Facebook (Telford Christian Council). At the time he mentioned that ‘it might also inspire other to use social networks better’.

I’ll let you be the judge of that, he says he always values feedback, (and as he was my vicar for nearly a decade I gave him plenty J).

Andy then recommended ‘@communic8jesus’ as ‘giving one or two suggestions a day to help share the faith’. Happy Tweeting!

What do Trades Unions Do?

An interesting question that I’m perfectly happy to let people wiser than me attempt to answer! BCUIM, the Black Country Urban Industrial Mission, is putting on the following event together with Unite the Union;

What Do Trades Unions Do?

A seminar for local church leaders, with input from a Union Official, ACAS and an Employer.

10.30 – 12.30, Thursday 22^nd March 2012

at 6 Victoria Square Wolverhampton WV1 1LD (by the new Bus Station)

to be followed by a buffet lunch.

For more details, and to book, contact bcuim@btconnect.com or 01902 710407

Costa Coffee Competition

A plea for support from the Bishop’s Healing Adviser Gareth Davies;

My son and his wife (who are worship leaders here (St Andrew’s Sneyd Green)) have entered a song competition with their employer Costa Coffee, the link is below.

If you feel able to do this can have a listen and if you like it please vote? Thanks

www.costafactor.com/videos/view/125

In the interest of fairness, I’m sure you may like to check out some of their competition as well!

Cartoon ‘Fun’

In the same week as we’ve mentioned Twitter in a couple of ways, David Primrose of Transforming Communities pointed out something from a slightly different angle; http://bit.ly/dqjbd0

Saints and Birthdays

Saints and Feast Days:

Next Sunday our Lutheran cousins commemorate the birthday of the famous Civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King, whose teachings and eventual assassination continue to resonate today.

Birthdays:

As well as Martin Luther King, another figure at least remotely connected to an infamous assassination in the 1960s was the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who of course went on to marry JFK’s widow Jackie. There are a couple of very recognizable small screen actors in James Nesbitt, and Frank Thornton turning an impressive 91. But I’ll finish with the glamorous TV presenter Claudia Winkleman, passing a major milestone at 40.

Calendar of Events

Mon 23^rd – Wed 25^th January. FPE 2012 Conference ‘Evangelism at home and away: What would Jesus do?’. The Hayes, Swanwick. With main speakers Robin Gamble and Jim Currin.

For more information see; www.fpe-network.org/Conference2012.aspx.

NEW ENTRY

Sat 28^th January – Sun 5^th February. Poverty and Homelessness Action Week. Plenty of materials available at; www.actionweek.org.uk/html/downloadresources.html

Tue 31^st January. Engaging with Muslims. A day event for Christians to explore why and how to engage with Muslims St George's Post 16 Centre, Great Hampton Row, Birmingham, B19 3JG

10am to 4pm. Sessions; Why is it OK to engage with Muslims? What should we know about Birmingham Muslims? Christian Responses to Islam. Mission and Dialogue.

Speakers: Steve Bell, Director, Interserve and Sue Fearon, Children’s Team Co-ordinator, Birmingham City Mission

Cost £20 (£10 concessions) with lunch included, from either;

· Christian Muslim Forum 0207 820 0444, info@christianmuslimforum.org

· Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre 0121 675 1155, jess@nearneighbours.com

NEW ENTRY

Sat 21^st April. Evolution v Creation. St James’ Wednesbury. With a variety of speakers including Revd Dr Fr Anthony Moore, Revd Bob Morris, Dr Gillian Pearce, and Mr Graham Warton; tackling the following questions; How did life on Earth begin? Where did the Universe come from? How will the Universe end? Did we evolve or were we created? What does the fossil record tell us about the great flood? All relevant details at; www.stjameswednesbury.com/evolution-v-creation.html

For details of more events happening in the Lichfield Diocese and if you want to upload your event please go to www.lichfield.anglican.org/Index.aspx?Page=latest-events

LEMnAID

is designed to help everyone involved in mission and evangelism in Lichfield Diocese to:

· keep in touch with each other with news

· pray for each other

· keep informed about the latest resources

· share great ideas and top tips

· know what is going on around the Diocese

This email group will work best if you are willing to share your ideas, news and prayer requests with others. Send in your news and views to richard.barrett@lichfield.anglican.org

If you know someone who you think would value receiving this, please send us their name and email. If you would prefer not to receive this, let us know and we will remove you from the email group.

George and Richard

Richard Barrett

Parish Mission Research Assistant

Lichfield Diocese

01922 707863

The Parish Mission Office, The Small Street Centre,

1A Small Street, Walsall, West Mids. WS1 3PR.

www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/mission

LEMnAID Extra Fizz - With Added Olympian Diamonds!

2012-01-06T12:35:00.000Z

LEMnAID Extra Fizz Local Evangelism & Mission Network Aid

Helping each other to resource evangelism and mission in the local church

Get this in its best format at; www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/lemnaid

Diamond Jubilee and

the Olympic Games Special

With the 2012 Games following closely on the Jubilee’s heels, it’s a great summer of opportunities to serve the local community and share the love of Jesus. Don’t miss the opportunity! Here are some suggestions we have picked up from elsewhere which we can adapt for our own situations.

(1) Diamond Jubilee (adapted from information sent out from Leicester Diocese)

Celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee over the weekend of Saturday 2 – Tuesday 5 June 2012 (with its two extra Bank Holidays) is a great opportunity for the church to engage with the local community in celebrating the Queen’s 60 year reign. You may well have your own event planned, but sometimes these occasions are missed by the church as they are organised at the last-minute when committees realise that it is just around the corner. There’s an opportunity to start organising this now whilst there is plenty of time to put together a good quality event, invite lots of people and be at the centre of a celebration that people will remember. Just in case you’re looking for ideas, here are a few possibilities:

A celebration service, combined with a BIG Lunch, Sunday 3 June
The BIG Lunch has been providing support for community lunches and street parties on the first weekend in June for the last three years. A BIG Lunch can be anything from a few neighbours getting together in the garden or on the street, to a full blown party with food, music and decoration that literally stops the traffic … The aim is to get as many people as possible across the UK to have lunch with their neighbours in a simple act of community, friendship and fun. The BIG Lunch website provides excellent information on every aspect of holding an event, and you can register your event with them. Get a pack from www.thebiglunch.com Many churches are planning a five minute worship service to start lunch with (and then hosting lunch in the church grounds) and a special grace is being prepared nationally (available in the Spring).

Hope Together are producing a pack crammed full of ideas and resources for the Big Lunch, including grace written by the Queen's Chaplain. See what will be in it and when available here: www.hopetogether.org.uk/Publisher/Article.aspx?ID=291893

If you haven't been involved with the Big Lunch before, here's how one church found it:

"All Souls Church - a local parish church west of London near Twickenham - first got involved with the Big Lunch launch event in 2009, since when we've helped host the street party alongside our local residents' association (NSMRA) each year. The roads that meet at the corner of our church building are closed and we fill the space with tables and chairs, set up a 'bandstand' on the corner - for live, locally 'sourced' music - and provide a bouncy castle, free face-painting and hot drinks in the church garden. It helps, of course, that the Big Lunch date is always a Sunday, so the congregation spilling out of the morning service join with other local residents, young and old, each bringing food to eat and share. Our experience has been that it's a fantastic way to engage with our neighbours, bless the community and open up the doors of church to those who'd never usually make it, even into church the garden. Next year (2012) the Big Lunch is one of the official events helping celebrate the Queen's Jubilee. We'd enthusiastically recommend it for any local church in a residential area." Revd Richard Frank - Vicar, All Souls Church, Twickenham

Diamond Jubilee Beacons, Monday 4 June: The lighting of beacons nationally on Monday 4 June gives many churches the opportunity to engage with the community with a “Beacon Party” or “Beacon Celebration Service”. The lighting of beacons is one of the celebrations coordinated by Buckingham Palace and The Queen herself will be lighting the National Beacon on Monday 4 June following a concert at Buckingham Palace. For more information and to register your beacon visit www.diamondjubileebeacons.co.uk (for advice on the safety aspects of church beacons, please see the website of church insurers, Ecclesiastical,). Jubilee Beacons Advice pdf

Fun Stuff
Ideas abound here – an afternoon tea and sing-along; tea party, jubilee themed variety show, street party, parish sports day concluding with fireworks, barn dance, a flower festival, a “this is how the church was in 1952”, or indeed the parish. Challenge the congregation/parish to have all the ages 0-60 together for a photograph on Sunday 3rd June. And many more ideas….

Arty possibilities
Some artists have already been commissioned to produce stained glass windows to commemorate the Jubilee. Might there be an artistic possibility in your context, and a sponsor for such a project?

Go Eco!
How about planting (60 of something?!), recycling or in other ways relate this to ongoing environmental concerns?

(2) Great web site to look at and use: www.thebiglunch.com/

(3) Olympics

Leicester Diocese has some great suggestions for the Olympics - follow this link to see them: http://bit.ly/yPo4zP

(4) More than Gold December issue.

December 2011

Issue 11

Dear George,

The great year of opportunity has almost arrived. So here comes more of the information you need to make the most of it.

Do please forward this email on to all who you think could use the information and help it offers. They will thank you for it.

And do tell us what you are planning - so we can share and pray. Either email us at info@morethangold.org.uk or post something on our Facebook.

Thank you.

Peter Meadows
Communications Director

In This Issue

Could you host a competitor's family member?

There is still time to pray in the New Year

Songs of Praise to include More Than Gold

Concerned about Human Trafficking?

News in brief

Prayer points

Could you host a competitor's family member?

COULD YOU - OR SOMEONE you know - give hospitality to family members of a 2012 Games competitor? Without this kind of help, the high cost of accommodation will mean many not being able to attend and give their support.

More Than Gold's Athlete Family Homestay Programme was launched last month with Stephanie Cook MBE (pictured), whose family used the programme when she competed in Sydney. Now we just need the right people to come forward.

Hosts provide bed and breakfast for at least eight days for up to two guests. In addition they will also give the practical help needed for their guests to make the most of their stay during the Games.

For all the details just click here.

The majority of hosts are needed in London and the closer to event venues the better. However, hosts will also be needed in Benfleet, Birmingham, Broxbourne, Cardiff, Dorney Lake, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, Weymouth and Portland Harbour.

There is still time to pray in the New Year

WITH SUCH GREAT opportunities to reach out during 2012, churches are asked to welcome the year with prayer. And there are some great resources to help them - including service outlines and prayer topics.

The theme chosen is 'Shine for the New Year'. With churches encouraged to do something during the week of Saturday 31 December to Sunday 8 January. This could be during the Sunday services, a watch night service, home groups or a special event.

To get the picture and a link to the prayer resources just click here.

The call to welcome 2012 in prayer is the first step in saturating in prayer all that will be done through outreach, hospitality and service during the year. This includes responses to the Games, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Euro 2012 football.

Songs of Praise to include More Than Gold

WHEN THE BBC'S Songs of Praise reviews the coming year on 8 January, look out for More Than Gold.

Along with covering the Queen's Jubilee and the spectacle of the Olympics and Paralympics, there will also be a spot for what the churches are doing through More Than Gold.

Featured is Communications Director Peter Meadows and the launch of our Athlete Family Homestay Programme in Trafalgar Square.

Concerned about Human Trafficking?

ONE WAY TO RESPOND to the issues of Human Trafficking in the context of the Games is to pray. And our website now has two great recourses for individuals and churches.

· Gathering Voices is a 7-day prayer guide based on the prayers of women who have been directly affected by this issue

· Responsive prayers - has 3 prayers to use in public worship or in small groups

Our Social Justice team are also working on a range of ways churches can be aware of issues like this and make their response.

News in brief

Ready to use sport as a bridge? There's now a free guide to help sporty and outreach minded individuals from different churches to form a team that can then put on events and activities. For details click here.

In range of the Olympic Park? There's a Prayer Walk there on Saturday 7th January. For details click here.

Games Pastors needed. At major passenger hubs, they will help the thousands of travellers, sightseers and spectators with practical and spiritual help. For information click here.

Churches invited to use Mission Teams. A wealth of talent and manpower is available to help churches in their programmes during the 2012 Games. For details click here.

Our Facebook explodes. 600 new people became Facebook friends last month and will now get the very latest news as it happens. To join them go to Facebook.

Prayer points

Please give thanks:

For the interest already in our Athlete Family Homestay Programme

· For the great response to our campaign to increase our Facebook friends - adding 600 in the past month

Please pray for:

The impact of our coverage in the BBC's Songs of Praise on 8th January - especially that it will wake up those who are sleeping through this great opportunity

· The recruitment of suitable Games Pastors to serve the thousands of visitors

A growing commitment to prayer - especially as churches mark the start of 2012 by taking part in Shine for the New Year using the prayer resources

LEMnAID

is designed to help everyone involved in mission and evangelism in Lichfield Diocese to:

· keep in touch with each other with news

· pray for each other

· keep informed about the latest resources

· share great ideas and top tips

· know what is going on around the Diocese

This email group will work best if you are willing to share your ideas, news and prayer requests with others. Send in your news and views to richard.barrett@lichfield.anglican.org

If you know someone who you think would value receiving this, please send us their name and email. If you would prefer not to receive this, let us know and we will remove you from the email group.

George and Richard

LEMnAID Issue 158

2012-01-04T11:18:00.000Z

LEMnAID 158 Local Evangelism & Mission Network Aid

Helping each other to resource evangelism and mission in the local church

Get this in its best format at; www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/lemnaid

This week:-

Barrett’s Burblings
RESOURCES AND OTHER IDEAS
Moving On

· HELP: Missing Resources

· WEBSITE OF THE WEEK: After Sunday

· This Time Tomorrow

· World Mission 2011 Review

· Children’s Ministry Conference

· Church Attendance Increasing?

· Carol Singing World Record

· Poverty and Homelessness Action Week

· Free to a good home - Risograph CR1610EP

· Evolution v Creation

Cartoon ‘Fun’
Saints and Birthdays
Calendar

· The Small Print

Barrett’s Burblings

Hello everyone, and Happy New Year 2012. I hope it finds you well and refreshed after a reasonable Christmas break. If you didn’t manage a break, then I hope that you may have one coming up soon.

If you haven’t read or heard them yet, may I humbly suggest the New Year Messages of our respective Bishop and Archbishop are well worth checking out respectively at;

· +Jonathan: www.lichfield.anglican.org/news&newsID=849

· ++Rowan: http://bbc.in/sH9q5i

On a similar vein, you will find a message from World Mission Director Philip Swan included later on, which is also worthy of a few minutes.

Hopefully there is no shortage of suitable things included with which to start the year. George starts us off with recommending a resource that appears to have been very much in demand, and there are plenty of other things worthy of investigation.

If you think that this may seem a shorter LEMnAID than normal, do watch out for a very special issue at the end of this week. Yes, I know I’m being a mischievous little teaser!

God bless you all.

RESOURCES AND OTHER IDEAS

Moving On

George brings us details of a ‘brilliant new resource’ by Robin Gamble and David Banbury.

This is a seven session discipleship course, DVD based, the long-awaited follow-on from the Start! Course.

The leader’s manual gives clear instructions for each session and has a photocopiable worksheet for participants. Each session has a 15 minute DVD section which has an introduction to the session from Robin and fellow presenter Phyllis Manners, Vox Pops by down-to-earth people, clear input from Robin or Phyllis, and a testimony interview. The sessions are varied and down-to-earth, using lots of visual images and a time for reflection.

Moving On! helps group members

· consider the benefits and challenges of being a follower of Jesus

· be active and committed members of the church

· grow in their relationship with God

· explore the Trinity and the Holy Spirit

· think about Christian stewardship

· be wholehearted disciples

It asks real questions, uses real people, and gives a real challenge. Well worth £50 as it will be used by many churches over and over again.

Available from www.movingoncourse.org.uk where you will also find downloads of a poster and an invitation course.

If you wish to borrow it from the Mission Library to have a look, get in touch with Richard.

HELP!: Missing Resources

Last year I (George) loaned to someone the course "God is Closer than you think" by Joan Ortberg (book, DVD, workbooks). I cannot remember who it was. Please could you let Richard know for our records.

Similarly, I’m afraid that someone out there has our copy of the excellent ‘Believe’ Course; if it’s you, then I’d love to hear from you.

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK: After Sunday

George resurrects this previously regular feature with a site that offers… Great resources and ideas for 24/7 discipleship. www.aftersunday.org.uk/

This Time Tomorrow

While thinking about this, when I (George) visited Bayston Hill Church back in 2010 they had a slot in the service called, "This Time Tomorrow" in which members of the congregation shared what was coming up for them, and this then formed the basis for the prayers which followed. 4 or 5 people shared very briefly what they would be doing, some church-related, some work, some social or family. It worked brilliantly and is worth trying out.

World Mission 2011 Review

The Director of Mission Philip Swan has published his review of his highlights of 2011, and things that he’s looking forward to in 2012; it’s well worth a read at; http://bit.ly/wPIFnb

Children’s Ministry Conference

Libby Leech, the Diocesan Adviser for Schools Outreach, is keen to…

…promote the Children’s Ministry Conference that is happening in Eastbourne from the 3^rd to the 5^th February 2012. I would love to gather a group from the Diocese to come along and spend a bit of time networking and spending time together. The conference is an opportunity for Children’s workers to have a look at up to date resources and learn more about what is happening in the world of Children’s Ministry. There will be seminars on Messy Church, Schools Work, Nurturing faith in children, Reaching out into the Community and many, many more. Please look at the link to find out more information including ticket prices and accommodation. Please let Libby (Diocesan Adviser for Schools Outreach) if you intend on going so we can meet up during the conference.

More details are at www.familyministry.co.uk and clicking on ‘2012 conference’.

Libby is at libby.leech@lichfield.anglican.org or on 07891 290564.

Church Attendance Increasing?

Telford Ecumenical Dean Revd Andy Smith has passed on the following interest article that is well worth a read. I have no idea as to its accuracy, but it would be lovely if it may be borne out by hard statistics in forthcoming weeks and months;

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8970031/The-return-to-religion.html

Carol Singing World Record

Before Christmas we mentioned the upcoming World Record attempt, so we thought that you may like to know how it went on; At a local level you may like this little piece of feedback from Revd Andrew Hetherington;

The Carol Service at Ellenhall traditionally starts at 7pm (the start of the attempt), and we went for it. The PCC thought it a good idea and used their special publicity to plug it as well as our own. We might normally get 40-50 at the Carol Service but 95 people turned up. Not bad for a village with a population of 120 adults! Obviously quite a number came from elsewhere in our parishes. But it caught people's imagination. I understand the record has been broken.

To find out if Andrew was right, you can go to; www.christmasstarts.com/worldrecord.php

Poverty and Homelessness Action Week

David Primrose and Ruth Brooker of Transforming Communities has mentioned this week, taking place from 28^th January – 5^th February, and flagged up the plethora of materials available at; www.actionweek.org.uk/html/downloadresources.html

Free to a good home - Risograph CR1610EP

A generous offer from Revd Raphael Duckett of St Martin’s Bradley in South-East Wolverhampton;

We are doing a bit of early spring cleaning and have discovered a Risograph CR1619EP that is now surplus to our requirements. Until September it was under a maintenance contract and so is in working order, has some ink and masters.

It reproduces text really well, line drawings well and pictures ok.

It is available for collection for a good home.

If you think that you could be the person to offer it a good home, then get in touch with Raphael at; revraphael@blueyonder.co.uk or on 01902 650101

Evolution v Creation

Fr Kevin Palmer of Wednesbury St James has publicized this intriguing event taking place at his church on Saturday 21st April. It will feature a variety of speakers from different viewpoints including Revd Dr Fr Anthony Moore, Revd Bob Morris, Dr Gillian Pearce, and Mr Graham Warton; and plans to tackle the following questions;

· How did life on Earth begin?

· Where did the Universe come from?

· How will the Universe end?

· Did we evolve or were we created?

· What does the fossil record tell us about the great flood?

All the relevant details are available at the church website at www.stjameswednesbury.com/evolution-v-creation.html

Cartoon ‘Fun’

I think I quite liked this rather different approach to New Year’s Resolutions;

www.reverendfun.com/?date=19971231

Incidentally, as I was taking the service the New Year’s Day service on Sunday, I encouraged our congregation to create a little ‘time capsule’ of their individual hopes and goals for this year, which I promised to return to them unopened at the end of 2011. While we’re still in the first few days of January, why not try something similar yourself? Just write it down, seal it in an envelope, and make sure you leave it alone until the end of the year. I am very curious as to what may appear at that point, and see how many of our aspirations may have been realised.

Saints and Birthdays

Saints and Feast Days:

For Sunday, how about someone a bit different in Harriet Bedell, a missionary in the early part of the last century, whose calling led to working with indigenous people in two very different parts of the United States; Alaska and Florida!

Birthdays:

An excellent week, I think, with lots of intriguing characters. There is definitely a musical flavour with three significant figures; David Bowie turns a surprising 65; Shirley Bassey is exactly 10 years older; and if you choose to believe certain conspiracy theories, then Elvis Presley will be celebrating his 77^th birthday somewhere with Lord Lucan and Shergar! Seemingly operating on a different intellectual plane to almost all of us is the theoretical physicist Steven Hawking, reaching a significant milestone at 70. But as a committed sci-fi nerd, I just have to finish with the first-ever ‘Doctor Who’ in William Hartnell, unsurprisingly long-since departed as he was born 104 years ago.

Calendar of Events

Mon 23^rd – Wed 25^th January. FPE 2012 Conference ‘Evangelism at home and away: What would Jesus do?’. The Hayes, Swanwick. With main speakers Robin Gamble and Jim Currin.

For more information see; www.fpe-network.org/Conference2012.aspx.

NEW ENTRY

Tue 31^st January. Engaging with Muslims. A day event for Christians to explore why and how to engage with Muslims St George's Post 16 Centre, Great Hampton Row, Birmingham, B19 3JG

10am to 4pm. Sessions; Why is it OK to engage with Muslims? What should we know about Birmingham Muslims? Christian Responses to Islam. Mission and Dialogue. Speakers: Steve Bell, Director, Interserve and Sue Fearon, Children’s Team Co-ordinator, Birmingham City Mission

Cost £20 (£10 concessions) with lunch included, from either;

· Christian Muslim Forum 0207 820 0444, info@christianmuslimforum.org

· Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre 0121 675 1155, jess@nearneighbours.com

Sat 22nd September. Postponed launch of msm Wolverhampton. Trinity Methodist Church, Histons Hill, Codsall, Wolverhampton, WV8 2ER. Other dates and details at www.missionshapedministry.org/westmidlands12 or from administrator Anne Riddle on 01782 769532, or 07974 197806 or by e-mail at anne.riddle1@ntlworld.com.

For details of more events happening in the Lichfield Diocese and if you want to upload your event please go to www.lichfield.anglican.org/Index.aspx?Page=latest-events

LEMnAID

is designed to help everyone involved in mission and evangelism in Lichfield Diocese to:

· keep in touch with each other with news

· pray for each other

· keep informed about the latest resources

· share great ideas and top tips

· know what is going on around the Diocese

This email group will work best if you are willing to share your ideas, news and prayer requests with others. Send in your news and views to richard.barrett@lichfield.anglican.org

If you know someone who you think would value receiving this, please send us their name and email. If you would prefer not to receive this, let us know and we will remove you from the email group.

George and Richard

Richard Barrett

Parish Mission Research Assistant

Lichfield Diocese

01922 707863

The Parish Mission Office, The Small Street Centre,

1A Small Street, Walsall, West Mids. WS1 3PR.

www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/mission

LEMnAID - A very Lemony Christmas to you all...

2011-12-19T16:12:00.000Z

LEMnAID (Loosely!)

Local Evangelism & Mission Network Aid

Helping each other to resource evangelism and mission in the local church

To all our Lovely Lemons

Thank you for all support, ideas and prayers in 2011.

We hope that you will have a Fantastic Christmas,

and a Very Happy New Year in 2012.

God bless you all,

From George and Richard

P.S. Just one little link for you this week. When my old vicar sent me an email called ‘Dr Who - Carols of the bells' the weekend before Christmas, I’m afraid that you couldn’t realistically expect a fan of the ‘Gallifreyan Gentleman’ like me NOT to share the following fun clip of some happy memories of the last few years; http://bit.ly/u5ejVz. Other Christmas TV will of course be available!

Richard Barrett

Parish Mission Research Assistant

Lichfield Diocese

01922 707863

The Parish Mission Office, The Small Street Centre,

1A Small Street, Walsall, West Mids. WS1 3PR.

www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/mission

LEMnAID Issue 157

2011-12-13T11:42:00.000Z

LEMnAID 157 Local Evangelism & Mission Network Aid

Helping each other to resource evangelism and mission in the local church

Get this in its best format at; www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/lemnaid

This week:-

Barrett’s Burblings
RESOURCES AND OTHER IDEAS
CHRISTMAS THINGS
Is Christmas on your church website?
HOPE Christmas Special

· Big Screen Nativity

· The New Pair Of Shoes

NON-CHRISTMAS THINGS

· Messy Church Milestone Fast Approaching

· Small Church Music

· HAY-ULP: Banner-Making in North Shropshire

· Engaging with Muslims

· Churches urged to apply to new £10m Government green fund

· ‘Remembering’ the Books of the Old Testament

Cartoon ‘Fun’
Saints and Birthdays
Calendar
WIDER CHURCH RESOURCES

· The Small Print

Barrett’s Burblings

Hello everybody; I hope that you are getting along ok, and that you are not finding things too manic with everything that I’m sure that you’re needing to get done over these next couple of weeks. What is it about the month of December that days seem to disappear so quickly? Unless you’re under 11 of course!

Not quite such a bulging issue this week as last, but hopefully still plenty of good things. The contribution from HOPE is almost worth a LEMnAID on its own! If you do have a few minutes to spare this week then please do take the chance to update your ‘A Church Near You’ page with your Christmas services; and if you’re running a Messy Church, and have not registered on the national list, then please do so to help to make our day!

Just to also say that if any of you may have the misfortune to be ploughing through Walsall crowds Christmas shopping this Saturday, and you may like a breather, then why not check out the Crossing at St Paul’s next to the bus station. I’ll be on the top floor running a prayer labyrinth of various reflective stations, and if you’d like to see it for yourself, or maybe you’d just like to say ‘hello’, then do please just pop in.

CHRISTMAS THINGS

Is Christmas on your church website?

George writes; For many people, Christmas is one of the few times they will come into a church each year. Right now, there may be those in your neighbourhood who are looking at local church websites to find out about Christmas services.
Make sure that you have a page with all your Christmas events and don't forget to include an invite for people to come.

Also, please don’t forget the excellent new ‘A Church Near You’ visitor-friendly page; www.christmasnearyou.com/. It genuinely looks great, but it only shows up those

churches that get round to uploading their Christmas Services onto ‘A Church Near You’. For instance, I won’t embarrass the churches concerned by saying where I live, but only one of the 3 churches that I know are in my parish appear to be having a Christmas service. If I wasn’t a regular churchgoer, but was indeed looking for a Christmas Service near me; take a guess which two churches I definitely wouldn’t be gracing with my presence!

So please, please put your Christmas services on there this week! If you’d like to know who your ‘A Church Near You’ editor is, or better yet volunteer for the little job drop me an email, or give me a call on 01922 707863.

HOPE Christmas Special

All sorts of things from HOPE; what can I say but ‘enjoy’!?...
Roy’s Christmas message

Christmas is a time to bring hope, to reflect, and to be encouraged. As we move into 2012 we have an unprecedented kairos moment available to us. A kairos moment is an appointed time in the purposes of God; the time when God acts. It’s a window of opportunity that the Church must grasp. The year ahead provides some key kairos moments where God’s people can step up their united mission and make a massive difference – through the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics. Christ came to earth at the Lord’s designated time, the prophecies came together and Jesus became our gift of hope (Isaiah 9:6-7). Roy Crowne is HOPE’s Executive Director

Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012

Make a date: Celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee with a Big Lunch on 3 June in your street, with your neighbours, at the heart of your community. More at http://bit.ly/sOMKU3 It's an amazing mission opportunity (http://bit.ly/u60YN4). The Queen’s Chaplain is writing a special Grace to say together at the start of this special Sunday lunch. Early in the new year it will be available to download along with a host of other resources and ideas to use in your community, in schools and with senior citizens. (http://bit.ly/tAilFT) Book the date and, in the New Year, start planning to take part on Sunday 3 June, when up to six million people are expected to sit down together for a Big Jubilee Lunch.

Carols on the pitch
Footie fans will replace crowd chants with something slightly more tuneful when they take part in football stadium caroling this Christmas. Carol services can be sedate with candlelight in Cathedrals, but not these events – fun, relevant and in a unique setting. Andy Rimmer, Chaplain for AFC Bournemouth shares about his role and the Cherries’ event - faith and football can mix; http://bit.ly/u0artL

Local mission; national media

In 2011 churches have realised that being part of HOPE as a national movement gives local mission more impact. Our communications team has given national publicity to more than 35 local stories of HOPE in 2011. Monthly press releases, magazine features and radio broadcasts are sharing how HOPE is making a difference in communities. We’ll be stepping up our output in 2012; make sure we can tell your story too by emailing Lucy Cooper at lucy.cooper@hopetogether.org.uk

Christmas Outreach - better together
At this time of year, lots of churches, across the UK, prepare thousands of Christmas hampers for families in difficult circumstances in their communities. This festive season, more churches are working together to make a bigger impact in their area. Rev Yemi Adedeji, Associate Director of HOPE, gives the example of Churches in Barnet who are involved in two Christmas initiatives which are blessing people and building links between churches of all sizes; http://bit.ly/rDodeV

2011 highlight: Textify

A highlight of HOPE this year was the Hope Revolution Textify campaign. We were blown away by the impact it made – helping young people talk about their faith with their friends. Lauren was one teenager who led her friend to Christ as a result of Textify. Read the Textify stories from young people who encouraged each other with this challenge; http://bit.ly/tq6v1V

Share hope this Christmas
Christine from Chelmsford is just one of hundreds using the opportunity to share hope with neighbours this Christmas, (http://bit.ly/ucboq6) writing to each of her neighbours and make a very bold statement in lights! A card, a friendly chat, carol invitation or a free mince pie, can begin friendships and open up moments to share Jesus. Share with us what you are doing by emailing Lucy Cooper at lucy.cooper@hopetogether.org.uk or via Facebook at http://on.fb.me/tRrQeS or on Twitter at http://bit.ly/sdkCvL

Swansea HOPE to launch night shelter

Churches across Swansea are joining together to provide rough sleepers with a hot meal and a bed each night during the coldest spell this winter. For a while the churches have known the needs but it has taken Swansea HOPE (www.swanseahope.org.uk/) to get the project co-ordinated. 7 churches host rough sleepers on one night a week from 3rd Jan. Read more about the Shelter project and future vision at http://bit.ly/twLpTt

Brand new prayer website

Effective words and actions for the Kingdom are embedded in prayer. The HOPE Prayer website will launch by next Friday (16th Dec). Share your contributions with us and join us in making prayer a priority for 2012; http://bit.ly/vM0RRr. Watch our Why pray? video at http://vimeo.com/33408116 to give you a taster of what to expect on the site - more videos plus creative ideas and resources. www.hopeprayer.org.uk

What gives you hope this Christmas?

Amid talk of more gloomy recession and retail stats, gift pressure and Santa overload what is giving you real reason to hope this Christmas? Even if you are facing a tough challenge in life, often it’s those small moments when you realise what life’s about that give you hope. Join the discussion on Twitter at http://bit.ly/sdkCvL or on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/tRrQeS and share it with us!

Have a wonderful Christmas and a hope-filled new year, from the HOPE team.

Big Screen Nativity

Telford Ecumenical Dean Andy Smith had passed on the following ‘creative and effective way of telling the Christmas story’; http://bit.ly/ux1aBZ

I like it, but I think it would take quite a bit of planning, so if you might like to do something similar next year, then maybe you’d better start thinking about it now!

The New Pair of Shoes

Penny Wheble, of St Martin’s in Walsall, has sent in the following seasonal story, written, apparently, by a ‘David L Griffith’;

On a cold day in December, a little boy, about 10 years, old was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold. A lady approached the boy and said, "My little fellow, why are you looking so earnestly in that window?"

"I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes," was the boy's reply. The lady took him by the hand and went into the store and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her. She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with a towel.

By this time the clerk had returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy's feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes. She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, "No doubt, my little fellow, you feel more comfortable now?"

As she turned to go, the astonished lad caught her by the hand, and looking up in her face, with tears his eyes, answered the question with these words: "Are you God's Wife?"

Hopefully at least a few of you may like it…

NON-CHRISTMAS THINGS

Messy Church Milestone Fast Approaching

‘My sources’ have told me that there are now 997 different Messy Churches listed on the National Website. While that is a fantastic number (the 997 was often the bus I caught home when I was banned from driving!), wouldn’t a four-figure number be so much nicer!

If you’re running a Messy Church and you haven’t registered it on the National website, please do so at; www.messychurch.org.uk/5270. I can’t tell you exactly what, but I also think that there’s a nice bonus waiting for whoever ‘becomes’ Messy Church number 1000! Go on, I promise that it only takes a minute!

Long-term Lemons will have got used to the fact that I love these little milestones, maybe it’s the old mathematician in me. We’ve been hovering just under 600 Lemons for a while now; come on, give me a nice little Christmas bonus of breaking our own little barrier!

Small Church Music

www.smallchurchmusic3.com/

George writes that; David Bickersteth has found this web site – you can download the words and music to organ with words and pictures. This could prove ideal should you ever be without an organist – or just for the words or to check out tunes etc.

As one of my own regular Saturday tasks sorting out words and often music for the following day, I’ll certainly be bearing it in mind.

HAY-ULP: Banner-Making in North Shropshire

On Monday Morning, I had an interesting request from Revd Linda Chapman, based in Cheswardine near Market Drayton;

There’s group of ladies in my village who are hoping to make banners for the church. (I’d like)… to take them to visit churches in the North Shropshire area which routinely use banners within the building. They can then view the sorts of banners and designs that fit in an ecclesiastical setting, perhaps meet other groups who do this sort of thing. …

Can you suggest the names of fairly local churches to us who have banner-making groups, or at least use banners in church?

Are there any volunteers / suggestions? I’m afraid I drew a blank, but I was sure that there might be a helpful Lemon or two out there!

I know that Linda and her colleague Angela see this as a real Mission opportunity, as the various ladies concerned are not Christians; so this is a real opportunity to encourage them into the life of the church through this craft.

Engaging with Muslims

Revd John Barnett, the Interfaith Officer for the Wolverhampton Episcopal Area, has sent in the details for… a day event for Christians to explore why and how to engage with Muslims

At: St George's Post 16 Centre, Great Hampton Row, Birmingham, B19 3JG

10.00 to 16.00, 31 January 2012

Sessions:

· Why is it OK to engage with Muslims?

· What should we know about Birmingham Muslims?

· Christian Responses to Islam

· Mission and Dialogue

Speakers:

· Steve Bell, Director, Interserve

· Sue Fearon, Children’s Team Co-ordinator, Birmingham City Mission

· Places £20 (£10 concessions), lunch included, from
Christian Muslim Forum 0207 820 0444, info@christianmuslimforum.org
Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre 0121 675 1155, jess@nearneighbours.com

Churches urged to apply to new £10m Govt. green fund

David Primrose writes; A fund is being created by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the 'Local Energy Assessment Fund', which gives community groups, explicitly including churches, the chance to bid for about £10m of apparently new money. It will provide grants for around 200 community organisations to undertake energy efficiency projects and renewable energy generation in their area. The first round closes at noon on 22 December 2011 (sic) with successful applicants notified in the week beginning 9 January 2012. The second round will close to applications at noon on 20 January 2012 with successful communities notified at the end January.

Details are available at; www.greencommunitiescc.org.uk/ or contact the Diocesan Environmental Officer Revd Paul Cawthorne at paulcawthorne@tiscali.co.uk or on 01952 510333 to discuss.

‘Remembering’ the Books of the Old Testament

My ‘baby’ sister Hannah (now 28!), has come across this song aimed at helping kids remember all the Old Testament books; www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7GLF9zfXso

Now let’s be honest, I think it’s basically fun, but not actually that useful; but she disagrees, and as a Primary School and Sunday School Teacher, I have to admit she’s probably better qualified to comment than I am! What do you reckon?

Cartoon ‘Fun’

This weekend I suspect that most of our churches will be frantically doing all manner of things to prepare for what can often be our busiest service; might any of the following look vaguely familiar? www.cartoonchurch.com/content/cc/christmas-preparations/

Saints and Birthdays

Saints: For Sunday, how about St Flannan? The 7^th century Irish Saint took an interesting life journey from being the son of a chieftain, becoming a bishop, and being regarded as a great preacher.

Birthdays:

A good place to start seems to be with prolific Director Steven Spielberg; he’s due to turn 65, but I for one am pleased that retirement doesn’t seem on his immediate horizon. Regular faces from the big and small screen are Brad Pitt and Robson Green respectively. A glamorous face from the past is Betty Grable, and more recently, the singer Christina Aguilera. But I’ll finish with the prolific hymn-writer and co-founder of the Methodist Church in Charles Wesley, born the small matter of 304 years ago.

Calendar of Events

Sun 18^th December. World Carol Singing Record Attempt. Organised by ‘Christmas Starts with Christ’. More details at; http://bit.ly/qy3xXG

NEW ENTRY

Sat 25^th December. Christmas Pantomime. 5pm. ‘Cinderella in Rhyme’, in an Urban contemporary situation performed by children of West Bromwich on Christmas Eve, at St Philip’s Church, West Bromwich. Tickets (£3 for over 5s) & further information, contact Revd Pam Daniel on 0121 525 6190.

Mon 23^rd – Wed 25^th January. FPE 2012 Conference ‘Evangelism at home and away: What would Jesus do?’. The Hayes, Swanwick. With main speakers Robin Gamble and Jim Currin.

For more information see; www.fpe-network.org/Conference2012.aspx.

NEW ENTRY

For details of more events happening in the Lichfield Diocese and if you want to upload your event please go to www.lichfield.anglican.org/Index.aspx?Page=latest-events

WIDER CHURCH RESOURCES

Faith to Faith resources

Global Connections now has a 'Faith to Faith' resource centre which brings together various resources, see www.globalconnections.co.uk/faithtofaithresources/

SION 'Foundations for Mission' weekends

The SION Community are running training weekends for the new evangelisation, see the flyer at http://evangelismuk.typepad.com/files/foundations-for-mission.docx

More dates for Roman Catholic 'outreach to non-Churchgoing Catholics'

A recent regional conference on this topic was 'full house', so more dates are planned, see www.catholicchurch.org.uk/Catholic-Church/Home-Mission/Non-Churchgoing-Catholics

Australian research informs UK evangelism

A research project in Australia has revealed interesting comments like 1 in 2 do not identify with religion and 12 % say they are spiritual but not religious, see: http://bit.ly/s0nVfF

Viral Bible Project

The Evangelical Alliance are promoting the Viral Bible Project aimed to get friends sharing favourite Bible verses: www.viralbibleproject.com

FX Advent tweets

Fresh Expressions have invited various mission leaders to tweet a message in Advent, see www.freshexpressions.org.uk/advent

LEMnAID

is designed to help everyone involved in mission and evangelism in Lichfield Diocese to:

· keep in touch with each other with news

· pray for each other

· keep informed about the latest resources

· share great ideas and top tips

· know what is going on around the Diocese

This email group will work best if you are willing to share your ideas, news and prayer requests with others. Send in your news and views to richard.barrett@lichfield.anglican.org

If you know someone who you think would value receiving this, please send us their name and email. If you would prefer not to receive this, let us know and we will remove you from the email group.

George and Richard

Richard Barrett

Parish Mission Research Assistant

Lichfield Diocese

01922 707863

The Parish Mission Office, The Small Street Centre,

1A Small Street, Walsall, West Mids. WS1 3PR.

www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/mission

LEMnAID Issue 156

2011-12-07T12:18:00.000Z

LEMnAID 156 Local Evangelism & Mission Network Aid

Helping each other to resource evangelism and mission in the local church

Get this in its best format at; www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/lemnaid

This week:-

Barrett’s Burblings
RESOURCES AND OTHER IDEAS
CHRISTMAS THINGS

· Bishop Mark’s Christmas Letter

Just God, Simply Christmas
‘More to Life’ DVD Offer

· Youth and Children’s Bulletin

· Amos Trust News

Christmas Pantomime
NON-CHRISTMAS THINGS

· Healing and Deliverance Conference – Update

Alpha News
MSM Wolverhampton Update
Discipleship

· HOPE Latest Updates

· MORE THAN GOLD: Double Friends

HAY-ULP: Rugeley Schools Work

· New Grove Book: Updating your ministry status

· D: Sign

· York Courses: New Lent course for 2012

· Urban Issues: Social Housing

· What About Love?

· Faithfulness Matters

Cartoon ‘Fun’
Saints and Birthdays
Calendar
WIDER CHURCH RESOURCES

· The Small Print

Barrett’s Burblings

Hello everyone. You’ll see from the long list of things above that this week is not so much a ‘Diet’ LEMnAID as a full-fat one. I’m not going to try to pick out many highlights as there are simply too many to mention, but I personally really liked the contributions from a couple of ‘Mark’s in the Bishop of Shrewsbury and the Youth and Children’s Adviser; Rylands and Hatcher respectively.

CHRISTMAS THINGS

Bishop Mark’s Christmas Letter

Bishop Mark of Shrewsbury has written a challenging piece on our concept of Christmas, that personally I found brilliant, and I really do think is well worth a read; www.lichfield.anglican.org/news&newsID=848

I think that his closing paragraph sums it up most neatly;

The child in the manger came to his own and his own received him not. He was born an outsider in a world that would kill him; he was recognised by nobody except vagrant shepherds and foreign wizards. He came not merely to rescue, but to disturb us.

Just God, Simply Christmas

An offering from Revd David Primrose of Transforming Communities;

ALTERnativity began in the churches. Its aim is to recapture some of the values of the first Christmas despite the commercialisation of the season. There is a growing yearning for something different and a dis-ease with what’s on offer. Many people comment on the greed which surrounds Christmas, the pressures to conform, the overindulgence in food and alcohol. Christmas can appear to be a relentless marketing exercise.

The story of the Nativity offers some markers for a Christmas with integrity:

· It was a simple occasion

· Many of the characters were poor — the powerful didn’t come out of it too well

· The message of peace was loud and clear

ALTERnativity offers a range of resources enabling you to reflect on the real meanings of Christmas well into the New Year. This year find ways of doing it more simply!

Information at www.alternativity.org.uk

‘More to Life’ DVD Offer

Revd Lynn McKeon, the Curate of Christ Church Gentleshaw (near Lichfield), has made the following offer;

Free to good home - 100 copies of "More to Life", a 13 minute evangelistic DVD, of real life stories of people who have found more to life through faith in Jesus. Each of the stories on the DVD are true, All of the people you will see have discovered something that is so good they want to share it with others. The one thing they have in common, is that they have all found out for themselves that there really is more to life.

The DVDs have a Christmas Cover (can be removed) so they are ideal for distribution during Christmas Services.

Contact the Rev'd Martin Butt on 01543 684329 if interested.

Youth and Children’s Bulletin

Mark Hatcher, the Diocesan Youth and Children’s Adviser, has produced his latest offering, which is chock-full of all sorts of Christmas Resources, with lots of short videos; hopefully you may like at least one of them; http://bit.ly/uNU1SX

Amos Trust News

George has passed on the latest Amos Trust mailing and it includes a 'Bethlehem Pack' with all sorts of resources to use at Christmas.

Please follow the link to read the online version; http://bit.ly/sifROi .

Christmas Pantomime

A plug from Revd Pam Daniel in West Bromwich;

A Pantomime on Christmas Eve for all the family. Come and watch this amazing performance of Cinderella in Rhyme, performed by children of West Bromwich on Christmas Eve, at St Philip’s Church, West Bromwich. The show features Cinderella in an Urban contemporary situation. The show starts at 5.00 pm; costs £3.00 per adult, free entry for children under five. It is really worth seeing - full of humour and fun.

For tickets and further information, please contact Revd Pam Daniel on 0121 525 6190.

NON-CHRISTMAS THINGS

Healing and Deliverance Conference - Update

After requesting your prayers last week, it seems only fair to give you a little update on what happened last week. Thank you to all those of you who I know were praying for us last week, we genuinely do appreciate it. At times I think it was hard work for all the team, but between us and through God’s good grace I think we delivered what I genuinely consider a successful conference.

Specifically we asked we also asked you to pray for the mother of one of our original speakers in Jeff Leonardi. On my return from Swanwick, I found the following message from Jeff under the title ‘prayers answered’

Thanks for your LEMnAID invitation to pray for my Mum.

I heard from the hospital yesterday that, having had a good and comfortable day, my mother gently passed away from this life at tea time. I had been there with my family on Monday and was fully expecting to be there to see her again today (Wednesday 30^th – RB). I had feared a painful time for her before the end and this has been a mercy, however sudden and therefore shocking for us. The funeral is to be next Friday, 9^th December.

Can I therefore again ask you to remember Jeff and his family this Friday?

Alpha News

A few hopefully helpful snippets;

1. Run an Alpha Course and you can have a free banner when you register your Alpha course. – go to the Alpha website at www.alpha.org or phone 0845 758 1278.

2. Did you know that a recent Mori Poll reveals that 25% of British Adults recognise the Alpha Course?

3. Alpha has new DVD parenting courses, one for parenting children and one for parenting teenagers. See the Alpha website at: http://relationshipcentral.org/

MSM Wolverhampton Update

An update from local msm leadership team;

After much deliberation the msm Wolverhampton Leadership Team have decided to postpone the msm course to a September start date rather than 28th January 2012 as planned.

This decision has not been taken lightly but is believed to be the right one in order to allow us to raise the profile of mission shaped ministry in the Wolverhampton area and to make msm Wolverhampton the best one ever! A Fresh Expressions Day which will be an excellent ‘msm Taster’ day will be held at Trinity Methodist Church on either Saturday 21st April 2012 or Saturday 12th May 2012 and we would like to invite you to come along and support us.

The new msm Wolverhampton launch date will be on Saturday 22nd September 2012 at Trinity Methodist Church, Histons Hill, Codsall, Wolverhampton, WV8 2ER.

The remaining course dates that are now set through to 2013 will be:-

· Weds 17th Oct 2012 (7.30pm)

· Friday 16th – Sunday 18th Nov 2012 (7.00pm Fri / 9.00am Sat through to 5.00pm / 9.00am Sun through to 4.30pm)

· Weds 5th Dec 2012 (7.30pm)

· Weds 16th Jan 2013 (7.30pm)

· Weds 13th Feb 2013 (7.30pm)

· Sat 16th March 2013 (9.00am through to 5.00pm)

· Weds 17th April 2013 (7.30pm)

· Weds 15th May 2013 (7.30pm)

· Saturday 15th June 2013 (9.00am through to 5.00pm)

More details will follow. In the meantime if you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact Anne Riddle on 01782 769532 or 07974 197806 or by e-mail at anne.riddle1@ntlworld.com.

We thank you for your support of mission shaped ministry in the Lichfield Diocese.

Yours in Christ,

Revd Ian Heath, Leader msm Wolverhampton 2012; Revd Arun Arora, Leader msm Wolverhampton 2012; Mr Mark Berry, Leader msm Wolverhampton 2012; Andrew Roberts, Director of Training Fresh Expressions; Revd Jeff Reynolds, Superintendent Minister, Stafford District & Chaplain Stafford HMP; Revd George Fisher, Director of Mission, Lichfield Diocese; Mrs Anne Riddle, msm Administrator (West Midlands).

Discipleship

George advises that; the December 2011 edition of Witness6.7 is an eight page thematic edition on Discipleship, brings together discipleship stories and resources from a variety of different countries and contexts. It is now available to download or read online at www.anglicancommunion.org/ministry/mission/ecgi/newsletters/index.cfm

HOPE Latest Updates

George advises that you can read the latest HOPE update and see their resources and find out what is happening elsewhere at: http://bit.ly/pToaMW

MORE THAN GOLD: Double Friends

George has passed on their latest request; with 2012 now looming very large indeed;

Since launching our Double Friends Campaign, we have gained almost 300 new friends. A good start but still 700 to go. So please act now.

There is so much news about to break and we don't want anyone to miss it.

Of course, if you've already done your bit - 'thank you'.

If not please:

Go to our site right now by going to www.facebook.com/, sharing our page on your newsfeed and asking your friends to 'like' us to be kept in the big picture.

If you are not already a friend, uh oh! Go to our Facebook page at; www.facebook.com/pages/More-Than-Gold-UK/117009724976998 and 'like' us.

How do you 'share' our page?

Go to the left hand side of the More Than Gold UK Facebook page and you should see a link called 'share'. This enables you to share our page on your newsfeed and ask your friends to 'like' us.

Thank you.

HAY-ULP: Rugeley Schools Work

A request from Lisa Knight; the Children and Families Enabler in the Stafford Team;

I currently visit Horizon School in Rugeley on a half-termly basis. This is a school for moderately to severely autistic children and young people, many of whom reside there too.

The school came to Stafford church looking for 'spiritual support' and to build a relationship to enable them to develop the spiritual needs of the school and it's pupils. They are extremely supportive and appreciative of my visits and as I am in my last year of role as Children and families enabler, I would dearly love to be able to introduce the school to someone else who can continue this journey with them.

If you think you could help please contact me, Lisa Knight on 07751 009043.

New Grove Book: Updating your ministry status

Revd Richard Moy may be about to move on from being our Diocesan Fresh Expressions Adviser for pastures new, but I’m delighted to say that he will now be our ‘London Lemon’.

He has just co-written (with Anna Drew) book L6 in the excellent Grove Books series on the possibilities in social networking, written, as he says, for ‘those who know nothing about Facebook & Twitter etc in ministry right through to those who know a lot’ and also cheekily suggests that ‘It'd make a great vicar Christmas present!’. Check it out at; http://bit.ly/s0CNBx

D: Sign

George brings us thoughts on the following opportunity for having Conversations on Living Life to the full.

D:Sign is a three part resource. It is aimed at stimulating conversations on what living life to the full might look like for people at any stage of their life and any stage of their faith journey (or none). For more information please read the article at; http://starttheweek.typepad.com/files/how-to-use-dsign.docx

York Courses: New Lent course for 2012

Handing on the Torch –Sacred words for a secular world.

Synopsis of 2012 course: Christianity is the largest movement our world has ever seen. It continues to grow at an immense pace – especially in Asia (including China), Africa and Latin America. At the same time, Christianity in the West struggles to grow and – perhaps – even to survive. In this course we consider some of the reasons for this and what it might mean for individual Christians, for churches and for Western culture, in a world where alternative beliefs are increasingly on offer.

The participants on the course CD are:

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu

Rachel Lampard, responsible for the Methodist Church’s engagement with political issues

Clifford Longley JP, RC journalist and broadcaster

Find the relevant course flier at; http://starttheweek.typepad.com/files/hott-a4-flier.pdf

Course Synopsis at; http://starttheweek.typepad.com/files/course-synopsis-lent-2012.doc

Urban Issues: Social Housing

An opportunity passed on by Ruth Brooker of Transforming Communities;

A meeting is being planned for February bringing together representatives from churches whose parishes contain a significant proportion of social housing. If you would be interested in participating, please contact David Primrose (Director of Transforming Communities) at david.primrose@lichfield.anglican.org or telephoning 01922 707864.

What About Love?

Revd Nigel Carter of St John’s Walsall Wood has passed on the following inspiring video created by his church school of the same name;

The children made the film with the people (Creative Beat) who do a lot of musical work with the school. It’s actually an entry for a competition held by the people who make the “Friends and Heroes” TV series, and is their version of “Portia’s Song” from the series. When I saw it I just thought it was a wonderful clip as a stand-alone film.

Find it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdR0g3-MoUc

Faithfulness Matters

An interesting campaign also passed on from David Primrose;

The Faithfulness Matters campaign has been set up to protests against the companies who run websites which directly encourage people to have affairs. The campaign believes that no one should be making money from helping to break up relationships. Check out their website at; http://faithfulnessmatters.net/

One example is the company Global Personals, based in Windsor, who operate the website Marital Affair. This and other affairs websites are increasingly being advertised publicly on billboards. Since the campaign began, Global Personals have pulled out of one of their affairs sites and the campaign team is meeting with the company in early December.

The campaign has been backed by the Methodist Church, URC and Baptist Union and many other Christian organisations.

The campaign has a Statement that people can sign up to if they agree – please read the statement at http://faithfulnessmatters.net/what-is-the-problem/ , and if you agree with it add your name to the List of Signatories at http://faithfulnessmatters.net/list-of-signatories/

Saints and Birthdays

Saints: Not a great offering for this Sunday, but how about Saint Damasus? The fourth-century Pope originated from modern-day Portugal. A controversial figure in some ways; he can however claim at least some of the credit for the Vulgate translation of the Bible.

Birthdays: Next Sunday there really do appear to be slim pickings. There’s David Brewster, the Scottish inventor of the Kaleidoscope, and Everton and sometimes England left-back Leighton Baines. In entertainment there are TV Presenter Ben Shephard, and one of the original Jackson Five in Jermaine Jackson. But for me the most intriguing is the 2004 U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry; how might the world be different if the deciding and close –run state of Ohio had swung his way and not to George Bush?

Cartoon ‘Fun’

With what I consider one of Mark Hatcher’s best bulletins included this week; how about a simple guide to all of the likely equipment that a good Youth Worker may be expected to utilise; www.cartoonchurch.com/content/cc/youth-work-trolley/

Calendar of Events

Fri 9^th – Sun 11^th December. Messy Weekend. A guided retreat from the BRF with hands on experiences and practical ideas to take home. For anyone involved in running a Messy Church, including Teenagers and Children. More details at; www.brfonline.org.uk/the-messy-church-weekend/

Sun 18^th December. World Carol Singing Record Attempt. Organised by ‘Christmas Starts with Christ’. More details at; http://bit.ly/qy3xXG

Mon 23^rd – Wed 25^th January. FPE 2012 Conference ‘Evangelism at home and away: What would Jesus do?’. The Hayes, Swanwick. With main speakers Robin Gamble and Jim Currin.

For more information see; www.fpe-network.org/Conference2012.aspx.

Do you have any mission events taking place? Let us know so we can include them in the diary.

For details of more events happening in the Lichfield Diocese and if you want to upload your event please go to www.lichfield.anglican.org/Index.aspx?Page=latest-events

WIDER CHURCH RESOURCES

Christian Nightlife Initiatives newsletter

Please find attached the November edition of the Christian Nightlife Initiatives newsletter. The newsletter is our opportunity to continue story telling about all exciting things that are going on across the country in the night time economy and the wider community.

Find it at http://starttheweek.typepad.com/files/novembercninews.pdf

Inspire awards for local mission projects

Inspire, the magazine to inspire Christian witness, has awarded various local mission projects with a prize in Parliament, see; www.inspiremagazine.org.uk/news.aspx?action=view&id=5753

Latest RC mission briefing

The latest mission briefing includes the topic 'first love at the heart of evangelisation', see www.catholicchurch.org.uk/Catholic-Church/Home-Mission/Latest-News

ReJesus / Christmas + 16-25 year olds rank Jesus 123rd

The reJesus website has a new blog post about Christmas, including a link to research among 16-25 year olds suggesting Jesus is only ranked 123rd of people most admired: www.rejesus.co.uk/blog/post/the_jesus_silly_season

Shine for the New Year

More than Gold and other mission networks are encouraging all Christians to pray the New Year in - to shine for Jesus in mission during 2012, see;

www.morethangold.org.uk/your-church/prayer/shine-for-the-new-year.html

Baptists Missionscene mailing

The Baptist Union produce a mailing of all sorts of resources helpful for the wider church, see http://issuu.com/bugb/docs/missionscene_dec11

CTE Presidents say Hope is a 'gift'

The Presidents of Churches Together in England met last week and said Hope was a 'gift' for the mission of the church, see; http://bit.ly/sQyLeU

LEMnAID

is designed to help everyone involved in mission and evangelism in Lichfield Diocese to:

· keep in touch with each other with news

· pray for each other

· keep informed about the latest resources

· share great ideas and top tips

· know what is going on around the Diocese

This email group will work best if you are willing to share your ideas, news and prayer requests with others. Send in your news and views to richard.barrett@lichfield.anglican.org

If you know someone who you think would value receiving this, please send us their name and email. If you would prefer not to receive this, let us know and we will remove you from the email group.

George and Richard

Richard Barrett

Parish Mission Research Assistant

Lichfield Diocese

01922 707863

The Parish Mission Office, The Small Street Centre,

1A Small Street, Walsall, West Mids. WS1 3PR.

www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/mission

'Diet' LEMnAID Issue 155

2011-11-28T17:14:00.000Z

‘Diet’ LEMnAID 155

Local Evangelism & Mission Network Aid

Helping each other to resource evangelism and mission in the local church

Get this in its best format at; www.lichfield.anglican.org/chadnet/lemnaid

This week:-

Barrett’s Burblings
Urgent Prayer Request
Youth and Children’s Bulletin
Christian Aid Advent Calendar
Calendar

· The Small Print

Barrett’s Burblings

Hello everyone. This week I’m afraid that we only have time for a very slimline version of LEMnAID, as I have lots of preparation still to do for this Wednesday’s conference, not to mention a chunky meeting with the national Back to Church Sunday Team tomorrow.

And this week we start with this week’s conference…

Urgent Prayer Request

George and I would really value your prayers for this week’s Healing and Deliverance Conference. Over the last two weeks two of the key speakers in Gareth Davies and Jeff Leonardi have both had to pull out because of the failing health of very elderly parents. Coupled with that, George is making only a slow recovery from a reoccurrence of a nasty virus that has laid him very low. I am also aware of at least 2 delegates with their own health concerns whose recovery has not been going as was forecast and expected.

The team have not felt that all of this has been coincidental, and believe that it is an indication that at least some force may not wish the conference to go ahead.

Can I please eagerly request that this week you may pray for;

· The health of Jeff’s Mom, Gareth’s Dad, and George himself.

· Safety for all those concerned, particularly in travel on Wednesday Morning and Friday Afternoon.

· Our remaining speakers George Fisher, Peter Mockford, and Roger Vaughan, and for all those they love.

· Similarly for all the 51 delegates, for Sally Vaughan as our co-chaplain (with Roger), and myself trying to bring the ever-changing practicalities together.

· That anything any unhelpful forces may be afraid of happening – may very much happen just the same!

Youth and Children’s Bulletin

Last week our Youth and Children’s Adviser Mark Hatcher produced his latest bulletin, which is full of lots of good stuff for Christmas; and it is well worth a read at; http://bit.ly/sZ6HjX

Christmas Aid Advent Calendar

Only today I’ve received the following from my old chums at Christian Aid;

A thought-provoking, chocolate-free countdown to the Christmas celebration

Yesterday we launched our online Advent calendar: a series of short daily reflections as virtual candles light up against a backdrop of faces of those whose lives are being changed by our work. The reflections take visitors on several journeys - Mary and Joseph's visit to Bethlehem, our own personal journeys from darkness into light, and thoughts from various Christian Aid partners from around the world. See it at www.christianaid.org.uk/advent

Calendar of Events

UPDATED ENTRY

Wed 30^th November – Fri 2^nd December. Conference: Equipping the Church in Healing and Deliverance and their psychological and spiritual dimensions. The Hayes, Swanwick. £140. Following on from several successful day conferences, and looking at these areas more thoroughly. With Speakers George Fisher, Pete Mockford, and Roger Vaughan; and Chaplains Roger and Sally Vaughan. Lay people attending need the agreement of their Vicar. For more details go to http://bit.ly/nnSctJ and for a booking form go to http://bit.ly/r5yCfN.

NEW ENTRY

Wed 30^th November. World Aids Day Service at Lichfield Cathedral. 7.30pm From David Primrose of Transforming Communities; Thirty years after the ‘Don’t die of Ignorance’ warning; How have things changed for those living with HIV and AIDS? Think and pray with us at our service on the eve of World Aids Day with the theme of ‘Out of sight’.

Fri 2^nd December. Christmas One Hope. Meole Brace Holy Trinity. Two showings, 2pm for Shropshire primary schools and 6pm for families. The new 50-minute interactive show from Saltmine Theatre Company. More information on 01743 362399 or at;

www.trinitychurches.org/latest-news/christmas-one-hope-at-trinity-churches.php

Sun 18^th December. World Carol Singing Record Attempt. Organised by ‘Christmas Starts with Christ’. More details at; http://bit.ly/qy3xXG

Mon 23^rd – Wed 25^th January. FPE 2012 Conference ‘Evangelism at home and away: What would Jesus do?’. The Hayes, Swanwick. With main speakers Robin Gamble and Jim Currin.

For more information see; www.fpe-network.org/Conference2012.aspx.

Sat 28^th January 2012. Launch of 2012 MSM (Mission-Shaped Ministry) Course. Codsall nr. Wolverhampton. £285 if booked before 1^st December. With speakers Pall Singh, Ashley Cooper, Julie Jones, George Fisher, Godfrey Stone, Andrew Roberts and Jeff Reynolds. 24 units over 3 Saturdays; a residential weekend, and 6 or 7 weekday evenings. More details at www.missionshapedministry.org/westmidlands12 or from Administrator Anne Riddle at anne.riddle1@ntlworld.com or on 01782 769532 / 07974 197806.

Do you have any mission events taking place? Let us know so we can include them in the diary.

For details of more events happening in the Lichfield Diocese and if you want to upload your event please go to www.lichfield.anglican.org/Index.aspx?Page=latest-events

LEMnAID

is designed to help everyone involved in mission and evangelism in Lichfield Diocese to:

· keep in touch with each other with news

· pray for each other

· keep informed about the latest resources

· share great ideas and top tips

· know what is going on around the Diocese

This email group will work best if you are willing to share your ideas, news and prayer requests with others. Send in your news and views to richard.barrett@lichfield.anglican.org

If you know someone who you think would value receiving this, please send us their name and email. If you would prefer not to receive this, let us know and we will remove you from the email group.

George and Richard

Richard Barrett

Parish Mission Research Assistant

Lichfield Diocese

01922 707863

The Parish Mission Office, The Small Street Centre,

1A Small Street, Walsall, West Mids. WS1 3PR.