The “Dream of a Church” was given during an all night prayer and praise event “Sacrifice of Praise” held at Bulmershe Leisure Centre in 2001. The words of the dream appear at the top of our homepage. How can we work together with The Holy Spirit in order to actually experience the dream?

Members of the Brookside Leadership Team (BLT) have recently returned from their first meeting of a new “Learning Community” held at and facilitated by St Andrews Church in Chorleywood. Together with five other churches spread across the UK we worked hard at looking how we might establish specific communities of people who share a common purpose in making God’s love tangible to any given community group or project.

We have already talked about Brookside being a “Lifeboat Church” and we are now at the stage where we are advertising for a Mission Communities Leader who will help lead and oversee this exciting new vision. God is leading us to a place of radical faith as we rise up, partnering together as a church community in order to fulfil the dream and turn it into an exciting reality. These are not times for standing on the edge! 

Over the next six months the BLT will be working hard to help make the vision clearer and to fan into flame what will be a Holy Spirit inspired, but people led vision. The beauty of such a vision is that it is very much in the hands and responsibility of everyone at Brookside Church to own and provoke. We will be unpacking a few more details about this vision at our significant Communication Meeting on Sunday evening 5th July 2009 at 7.00pm at Brookside.

 

Just as Jesus sent His followers out into the highways and byways in order to connect with people and to actually demonstrate what Good News is – we are convinced that our God is still a sending God, and that His heart yearns for a loving relationship with every man and woman. We are going to make a priority of seeking ways to communicate with great clarity about what God has been showing us and we believe you as a Church will have an intrinsic part to play in the weeks and months to come. We completely understand that we will each be in different places in terms of our readiness to engage - some will be champing at the bit, whilst others of us will need more time to understand and embrace a fresh vision. The following link may help you as you come to terms with the direction we are moving in as a church; the words are written by Palmi Marin as she shares her feelings on the barriers that some of us may be facing; they may help you to understand how others feel as we move forward and outward together as a church into the community.

1. Pray for the person who God is calling to become our Mission Community Leader?
2. Put the date of the Communication Meeting in your diary and prioritise being there?
3. For those of you ready to get going, begin to ask the Holy Spirit to lay a particular burden on your heart and in your mind for a specific project or people group in the community somewhere in the area. For those not in this place yet, ask Him to help you and speak to you, and bring what you uniquely need to embrace all that He is leading us into.
4. Listen out for great clarity in respect of the vision for Mission Communities and then become an active shaper of what this might look like through our church at Brookside?
5. Pray for the leadership team as we continue to pioneer and inspire and motivate the church?