Great to bump into Paul Cookson on Walton Lane last night, en-route to Goodison. Somehow we managed to miss each other at Greenbelt this year so it was good to hear his news - an update on his Poet-in-Residence post at The National Football Museum, Preston (his home town), and more excitingly still, the three-page feature on him and his poetry in the current edition of essential footy rag The Evertonian (pictured here).

I was so excited by all this that the Boys Brigade tonight were um, treated to a performance slot by me reading some of my Cookson Everton-themed favourites, and of course his classic The Footballer’s Prayer:

Our team
Which art eleven
Hallowed be thy game
Our match be won
Their score be none
On turf as we score at least seven
Give us today no daily red … card
And forgive us our lost passes
As we forgive those who lose passes against us
Lead us not into retaliation
And deliver us from all fouls
For three is the kick-off
The power and the scorer
For ever and ever
Full time

download a pdf of the brochure

re:source begins a second course in january 2006. i am on the core group for the course and am excited about it. the first time we ran the course it went really well. this time it will be even better as we have learned from the first year and hopefully improved on it.

if you are involved in leading an emerging church/fresh expression of church/church plant or are thinking about starting one this could be a great course to sign up for. it is aimed at people who are doing it i.e. practitioners.

it consists of 5 weekends through the year, each in a different location, on the themes of mission, culture, leadership, church and transformation. like all these kinds of courses as well as some teaching, discussion, reflection, coaching and so on, one of the huge benefits is meeting a bunch of other people on similar journeys round the country to learn from each other. mentoring and assignments are also part of the course.

the stated aims/aspirations of the course are that by the end of it you will:
• be equipped to create church in emerging culture
• develop mission strategies for your specific context
• explore and apply skills in leadership and discipleship
• develop your capacity for spiritual and personal growth

full details are in the brochure. if you would like a brochure sent to you e-mail beth who now works part time to make re:source happen and is doing a fab job and she will send you one. you can also download a pdf of the brochure
here (approx 500k). one of the challenges with all of this emerging stuff is that it is often tucked away so if you know anyone you think would be interested please pass on the info/pdf - these kinds of things spread best by word of mouth and we haven’t got a huge advertising budget anyway. the course is pretty good value i think at £420 (plus £200 if you want us to provide accomodation).

there is a re:source web site but it is in the process of being updated so look back there in a week or two.

CMS are one of the partners helping run the course, hopefully offering some nous and experience about mission into the mix. i am intending to be at all/most of the weekends so maybe see you there?…