Morning or Evening with Bob Jackson

Wednesday 13th October, EITHER 9:30am-1pm, St. Paul’s, Oadby
OR 7:30pm-9:30pm, the same day, at Emmanuel, Loughborough
Best selling author of Hope for the Church and The Road to Growth, co-author of major new welcome course, Everybody Welcome, experienced parish priest, and former Archdeacon of Walsall/Growth Officer for the Diocese of Lichfield, Bob Jackson is one of this countries most respected experts on church growth and welcome. With a wealth of anecdotal experience and statistical evidence, he brings a fresh, and at times challenging, take on church growth. During the longer morning session and repeated in slightly shorter form the same night, Bob looks at what it means to be a welcoming church, set in the wider context of the changing times we live in. Everyone is welcome to this important session together.
There is no cost for the morning, but booking at least a week before hand is essential (although places are limited and demand expected to be high so book soon to avoid disappointment!). Bookings to Carol (carol.gibbons@leccofe.org or 0116 248 7411).

Morning on Mission Action Planning

Wednesday 28th April, 9:30am-1pm, St. Paul’s, Oadby
Would you like to know more of the tools available for discerning and implementing a mission plan?
This morning looks specifically at what Mission Action Planning is, before four people present tools they have used, together with a critique of the kind of situations they work best in (and less well for). After hearing a summary of all four, there’ll be opportunity to spend time with one of the presenters looking in more detail at the tools/he is sharing. The tools covered will include Natural Church Development, Growing Healthy Churches, the Grove model for envisioning and a home grown tool. There’ll also be opportunity to discuss how tools might be best used and adapted for your context. Everyone is welcome to this important session together.
Due to numbers and the reduction of budgets, lunch will not be provided, but refreshments
throughout the morning will be. There is no cost for the morning, but booking at least a week before hand is essential (although places are limited so book soon to avoid disappointment!). Bookings to Carol (carol.gibbons@leccofe.org or 0116 248 7411).

Mission Partnership Joint Choral Evensong

The next in our series of Mission Partnership Choral Evensong services will take place at St Peter's Church Oadby at 6.30 pm on Sunday 14th February. A joint mission partnership choir led by Janet Arthur from Smeeton Westerby will lead the singing at this traditional Book of Common Prayer service.

Do come along for what promises to be a treat for those who love choral church music.

St Luke's Six - Everest Base Camp 2010

Six worshippers from St Luke's Church are on their way to Everest Base Camp.

The 19 day trip will be a tough test as they raise money for The Hope of Glory Foundation and CLASP, The Carers Centre. Follow their progress (internet connection permitting) at their blog.

Vicar serves hot drinks to sledgers at Thurnby

On Saturday 9th January when the county was covered in snow, Thurnby families turned out in large numbers to enjoy sledging down the hill behind the Rose and Crown pub. Jon Barrett, vicar of Thurnby, went along with his family and using St Luke's new insulated coffee dispensers provided hot drinks for all.

A great time was had by all - the initiative was a great success and everyone was delighted, especially as the coffee was free!

Mission Initiative: Community Choir at Foxton

Caroline Johnson, reader at Foxton writes:

Back in October, a small group at Foxton studied "The Square Mile" using the DVD and booklet from the Evangelical Alliance which challenges people to think about mission in their mile of influence.
One of the group, Andy, was challenged to look at the way we reach out to Gartree, an area of the parish where we do not have much influence. Both Andy and our daughter Becs were unemployed at the time and met up each week for lunch and came up with the community choir idea. Becs is a music graduate specialising in singing. Having had the Gareth Malone choir on the TV recently this was the inspiration. They produced a very attractive leaflet and then went round Gartree one Saturday knocking on doors and asking if people would like to sing in a choir at the Christmas carol service. Subsequent targeted knocking in Foxton resulted in 35 people aged 7 – 85 turning up to the first practice in November. Andy had followed up the visit by texting people to remind them to come along and 5 people from Gartree came none of whom has had any contact with the church. Becs made us practice silly warm ups and we provided coffee afterwards to get everyone to know each other. At the carol service we sang ’ O Holy night’ with one of the newcomers, Shelley singing the solo. There were a number of new faces in the congregation many of whom had been invited by our singers. Sarah’s husband came to church for the first time in 23 years, Elaine’s husband to his first carol service in 15. Liz had invited her work colleagues who had never been to church and initially were very scathing. Three days later we went carol singing round the village with the same singers and had mulled wine and nibbles afterwards. Billy, a prison officer, and Liz both brought their families to the midnight and Christingle services.
We hope that the new guys have found the church community friendly and welcoming. The singing conducted by Becs was certainly of a higher standard than usual and lifted the congregation.
What next? We are planning a follow up event at Easter – a musical evening with gospel music.
We were challenged by the fact that our new singers asked all their friends to come to the carol service – how many of the normal congregation brought someone new along? Not many I fear.

Growing in Wholeness Course Part 2

The Growing in Wholeness Course Part 2 will begin on 27th January, the last Wednesday of the month, and run for 6 consecutive Wednesdays with a break during half term week. The first week will be held at St Luke's Church, and the following five sessions at St Luke's School, starting at 7.30pm and finishing at 9.30pm.

Part 2 course is for those who have completed Part 1. Please contact Helen Bence if you would like to enrol on 011 2707820 or email helen@thurnbychurch.com. Part 1 will run again later in the year.

Advent Video Calendar

For a free automatic Advent Video Calendar Go to www.damaris.org/advent to get Philip Yancey, Krish Kandiah, Anna Robbins, Andrew White and many others on your website through Advent.

Reasons to be cheerful; sharing faith in everyday life

Saturday 14th November, Samworth Enterprise Academy, Trenant Road, Leicester, LE2 6TF - 9.15am - 3.30pm

This is an opportunity for laity to spend a day with the Bishop of Leicester reflecting on how it is that we can both enjoy and share our faith more fully in everyday life with guest speaker the Rt. Revd Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Reading.

Bishop Stephen has worked in parishes in London, Chichester, as Pastor of Peterborough Cathedral, as Missioner in the Wakefield Diocese and as part of Springboard, the Archbishop's evangelism team. He has written widely about evangelism, spirituality and discipleship. Among his recent books are 'From the Abundance of the Heart: Catholic Evangelism for all Christians (DLT 2006), Do Nothing to Change your Life; discovering what happens when you stop (CHP 2007), Hit the Ground Kneeling; seeing leadership differently (CHP 2008) and a book of Lent and Holy Week meditations The Things He Carried (SPCK 2008). He is married to Rebecca and they have three boys.

The Programme

9.15 - Arrival and Registration

9.14 - Introductions

10.15 - Bishop Stephen Cottrell

11.00 - Coffee

11.30 - Bishop Stephen Cottrell

12.00 - Group discussions

12.45 - Lunch (please bring your own)

1.45 - Questions & Answers with Bishop Stephen

2.15 - Questions & Answers with Bishop Tim

2.45 - Worship

3.30 - Close

NO COST - ALL WELCOME

Refreshments provided

Visit the diocesan website and download the booking form