Looking backwards and forwards at The Lab | James Henley

Jan200803

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Looking backwards and forwards at The Lab

Thought it’d be good to look back and forwards at the Lab a little before I head back to Newport this weekend.

First off, I’ve got to say – I love the Lab. I love my job, I love all the guys who are part of our little community and all the guys who I get to meet. This last 3-4 months has been incredible – I’m so looking forward to the future. :-)

At least from my perspective working for the Lab, I think that the biggest step forward I’ve seen in the last term is a move from the Lab being just a Sunday night youth service to being a community of people. As a community, though, I think "the Lab" doesn’t necessarily distinguish itself from the CU – it’s a very loose group, everyone doesn’t have "the Lab" tattooed on their foreheads.

But that’s a great thing.

With the Newport CU, and the number of students who are part of Bethel – a church we work a lot with – and some guys from Christchurch and other places, there’s this strange, organic thing that’s happened. And I think it’s beautiful. Just a big community of Jesus followers – everyone with different identities, different loyalties, different "labels" – but all together in community.

And although it has it’s challenges, it seems to be a really cool thing that’s going on.

Our mid-week thang, Stuffed, has probably had a lot to do with building a greater sense of community – although in its original purpose, mission, it has failed quite badly, we managed to sidestep into something very different. So I think the plan is to keep going with it – maybe with a different name, maybe with no name but much more informally – into this year.

So, umm, God knows where the Lab will lead in 2008, but here are some of my hopes for the next few months…

Start some "social action"/missional/serving stuff in partnership with the council.
To minister to each other more and more – through friendships, and through building up people to lead and plan different parts of our gatherings.
Speaking of our gatherings – to build them into something more multi-sensory and creative – but also organic. To vary the rhythm of our worship a little more.
Stretch out to include more non-student young adults.
(IMO) To work on a more organic, relational approach to the "Explosion" events we did with Bethel last year for this year.
To explore more and more what self-sacrifice and service look like inside and outside our little community, and let it seep into the way we live day-to-day.

Still can’t believe I get to do this whole thing with the Lab – it’s incredible. :-)

The Lab, Newport | Faith on th

Reflections on 2007

Ive posted some thoughts from my perspective on the Lab from the last few months and some thoughts about this term coming on my blog. Would be interesting to see if you guys see the same picture in hindsight and where you see things going other ...

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