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Friday, May 22, 2009

Things are changing

After we finished Alpha, (which we felt went well, although numbers diminished towards the end) I have asked Stephen Henry, Paulette Samuels and Cath Jonker to help lead the group. Stephen is a newly returned believer with, I feel, a lot of sensible things to say. Cath and Paulette too have shown commitment and have an insight into things.

Recently we had a meeting together to discuss where we felt God was taking us as a group. Numbers have been a little low of late. Jessicca reminisced how we had a thriving group about 18 months ago when lots of people came. Those sorts of numbers don't seem to happen any more and we discussed why that might be.

Work always seems to be a pressure, we felt, and people can get discouraged. We also felt there was no time to "get to know you”.

The purpose of the group is to glorify Jesus, learn from Him and to be a little oasis for people. We want to be available for people to ask for prayer for whatever situation they find themselves; and to be open to all.

We do have a sense of unity though: we all come from different backgrounds and persuasions. We have a good track record of answered prayer.

The trouble is some feel a little like "second class citizens" within the Town Hall with not much sense of equality for us. We felt we wanted a higher profile so people knew we are there and available.

To help us on the way we have asked a couple of local church leaders and Rev. Alan Green (Chair of the inter faith forum) for advice on how things are doing and for us to be the best we can be to serve the group and Tower Hamlets.

Eventually we hope to produce a "statement of faith" which we could show to Michael Keating (Scrutiny & Equalities head) with the hope of getting some equal standing in the borough.

We want to do something major for Christmas to highlight our prescience here and for next year do something around Easter time; ideas are most welcome.

We do want to encourage people to come and if there is anything you wish to comment please don't hesitate.

Steve