The work that Frontline Community Church do in Liverpool has gained so much attention that the Guardian produced this film exploring their approach, and asking questions about how faith groups can fill in the gaps left by recent and forthcoming government cuts.

I especially love what the church leader says when he is interviewed, and the testimony from those who the church has helped. This is why we do what we do in Newport, and it’s great to see other Christian communities with the same approach who God is leading to do similar things.

HT: Dave

Missional Meals

With The Lab, we have always found food to be a great way to grow community. In this blog post at the Resurgence, Tim Chester agrees:

Jesus didn’t run projects, establish ministries, create programs, or put on events. He ate meals. If you routinely share meals and you have a passion for Jesus then you’ll be doing mission.

Read the whole post here.

Experimental Youth Work in Hull

Thanks to Jonny for pointing out this video, showing some of the incredible work at Hull Youth for Christ, supported by Church Urban Fund. Over the last couple of years, I’ve increasingly become aware of CUF and how amazing they are - unfortunately though they only fund projects in England, not here in Wales.

I have friends who have visited Hull YFC and been very impressed with their work and the way the team there live their lives in such an open way to the community around them. I loved seeing pictures of the breakfast club they run - a great, really simple idea.

Those of you involved in youth work, or even just wanting to live for Jesus in your community - how could you change the lives of young people in your area by supporting their whole families?

Found this clip from King of the Hill really interesting.

Is the problem that Jesus was too packaged-up with youth cultural baggage, or that the Dad wasn’t willing to accept a kind of Christianity because the culture around it was too alien to him?

What do you think? Was there a need for less contextualisation/inculturation or more tolerance of a different culture?

Thanks Rethinking Youth Ministry for the clip.

As a postscript: Does the church lose young people when they grow up because they grow out of the cultural fads that we’ve wrapped Jesus up in in trying to reach them, or because we fail to fully contextualise the gospel in a way that makes sense for their own culture?

Shared Leadership

One of the big things on my mind at the start of a new year for The Lab is the idea of sharing out leadership responsibilities and creating a sense of shared ownership.

I’ve spent three years leading The Lab, and have felt what it’s like to try and do everything - it’s time to give some other people the chance to do some!

This is a great piece by Jonathan Dodson on sharing out leadership responsibilities.

Planning missional projects - Resources vs. Needs

Thought I’d try out video blogging since I didn’t have any time to write anything for whilst I’m away on holiday. Enjoy.