Saturday, January 14, 2006

emerging church postcards : England2

dream200.jpg

For words about the image : birth : values : music: mission


Words about the image; The attached photo was taken from a service that Dream hosted at Greenbelt last year (that’s 2005!) called “Out of the Darkness.” Our blurb for it read “when ultimate life came through a tree of death, how do we find signs of God in the seemingly god-forsaken and bring hope to others?” The red-lit barbed-wire covered cross stood as a centre piece throughout the worship and people were invited to attach strips of cloth with their own personal ‘darkness’ written on as one of the stations.

How were you as an emerging community birthed?; Dream was birthed in 2002 out of a group of 20somethings that had been meeting together regularly for a year experimenting with worship and discussing what ‘church’ might look like for their generation and peers. The energy and drive of these people gave birth to an exciting experimental community.

What do you as an emerging community value?; Dream has four core values: Christ-centredness, in that we focus our exploration on the person of Jesus and seek to follow where he leads; Openness, in that we welcome any who want to engage in this journey regardless of where they might place themselves faith-wise; Relational, in that we seek to build authentic community rather than simply having worship ‘events’; and Experimental, in that we are prepared to try new ideas and are not afraid of getting in wrong. (Yes, it is an acrostic spelling CORE!)

What music track sums up your year?; Yahweh by U2, which is not afraid to ask God the awkward questions but carries great hope in the struggles. A particularly pertinent song given the global disasters of 2005.

What was your best mission moment in 05?; Our best mission moment in 2005 was Merseyfest, a massive regional social action mission taking in 200 local community projects organized by churches in partnership with local authorities and community groups and staffed largely by Christian volunteers. The final weekend was a massive free festival, to which some 40,000 people came from across Merseyside. Dream ran the ‘Faithzone’ marquee, which had a large family-friendly labyrinth, a chill-out tent and an 8 station interactive installation on creation. Hundreds of people came through and many were deeply affected by the experience.

Want to e-visit this emerging church group?

Want to see a postcard from your emerging church group?

Want to see the whole set of postcards?

Posted by steve at 10:50 PM

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