This letter is from a friend in England. He leads a church but is also a full-time physician. We know him well. He is a great guy! This is the church we were involved with during our time in England in 1994-5. It is exciting to hear what is going on, even as we pursue communities impacting communities...your thoughts? Bring them this Sunday...
Dear Mark
“How do you turn a church of members into a church of missionaries?”
That was the question we asked ourselves nearly 4 years ago. Since then Waterfront Church has gone through a quiet revolution and during the last month we have passed a series of important milestones - including a symbolic change of name to ‘Exilio’ and culminating last Sunday in the launch of six missional clusters that we are calling ‘Clans’.
I am writing to you because your personal friendship and support has meant so much to me and Judy over the years, and I am sorry I have not been better at letting you know what was going. At this time of fragile new beginnings I thought it was time for me to apologise, turn over a new leaf, let you know what is going on and to ask you to pray for us as we embark on this new adventure! More of that later.
But first let me give you a bit of the back story...
Inspired by Willow Creek in Chicago, Waterfront was one of the first churches in the UK to be orientated around reaching unchurched non-Christians with the objective of creating a safe place for them to hear the dangerous message of the Gospel. As we look back, we have been wonderfully blessed and have so much to give God thanks for. But a few years back we became aware many of our ‘core members’ were struggling to play their full part within our existing structure – and furthermore many of their friends were still finding it difficult to connect with anything that smacked of ‘organised religion’ no matter has disorganised or irreligious we were in practice!
So the changes we are putting in place are as a response to those challenges. Our focus is still the same – to “go and make disciples...” but we are making some fairly fundamental changes in how we go about this.
The most obvious change is that we have developed a ‘Clan’ structure. Each clan has a clear identity and missional focus. They all have appointed leaders who are responsible for developing apprentice leaders with the intention of them leading new clans themselves in the future. The intention is that the Clans will become the primary place of nurture, support, learning and service for those involved in Exilio. The clans will then gather together on average once month for what many would recognise as a more conventional ‘church service.’
Maybe a story would help here...
Eighteen months ago a couple in the church decided that one way they could meet new people and share the Gospel in their neighbourhood would be to start an environmental group. So they printed some business cards, set up a web site and got going organising a litter pick.
About six months ago, one of that growing band of litter pickers pulled a burnt out motorcycle out of the local woods. As he did so, he discovered a bird table – his bird table. It had been stolen from his garden 3 or 4 years before. He told me that it had sentimental value for him because it was given to him as a ‘thank you’ for playing jazz piano at a friend’s funeral. One thing led to another... and he came to an Exilio pre-launch meeting. As a result he began to read the gospels... I can’t tell you the end of the story, it hasn’t yet been written... but I can tell you that he was part of the Exilio launch and guests arrived to the sound of him playing jazz piano in the Blues Bar we had rented for the occasion.
And the couple that started that litter-picking group? Well they are now apprentice leaders in a clan called “Living Lordswood”. The focus of the clan is to go and serve the neighbourhood and live out the kingly rule of Jesus.
Last week, that Clan kicked off by meeting with about 15 people from the estate to plant 400 daffodil bulbs in the woods – kindly donated by the City Council. The core of the group will meet for prayer and Bible study most Sundays and also mid week.
Next weekend (20th November) the church is hosting a Ceilidh and we are hoping to have over 120 from the clans and their friends coming to that. ‘Living Lordswood’ will be there, and have reserved a table for their friends in the litter picking group. They are praying that some of them will pick up an invitations to come back to one the monthly gatherings or come to the Christmas carol service.
Lastly, let me mention one or two of the big challenges and opportunities we face in the next couple of months. I would love to develop a team of people who are praying for us and this might give you a glimpse into some areas that a critical at this stage:
Leadership development and support.
From a small tight-knit leadership team we now have 10 leaders leading 6 clans. Although some of the clans are small at this stage – each has a clear sense of mission and there is a heavy weight of responsibility on the shoulders of the leaders – and some of them are real rookies. Not surprisingly some are already facing challenges they were unprepared for and some feel under attack spiritually. Moreover I need to learn on the job about how to help support, train and equip these leaders without overburdening them.
Clans
Please pray that those in the clans really ‘get it’ and move from a ‘member’ to ‘missionary’ mindset. The potential for the Clans to become ‘Holy Huddles’ is great – but the opportunity for those involved to take risks and reach out is immense. Please pray for the leaders to lead well and teach the Bible well and for God to fan the spark into flame in all our hearts.
Gatherings
Over the next couple of months we have four Gatherings planned: the Ceilidh to build the fringe (20th November), our first gathering for the Clan members (5th December), “Joy to the world” (Evangelistic carol service - 19th December) and a New Years Day walk to build the fringe. I think these are important for a sense of momentum – and we are still trying to figure out how to integrate Clans and Gatherings.
Infrastructure
We are trying to develop the website
www.exilio.org.uk and get office systems in place and desperately need to recruit an able administrator with some finance skills to help us. (Start date in January - closing date for applications is end of next week!
Thanks for your part in our story this far. I hope you might want to continue to play a part in prayer but I understand that you may be overloaded with requests already. If that is the case please don’t feel bad about clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email. However if you commit to pray, I will commit to send you quarterly updates!
Thanks again.
With my best wishes
Peter
Peter Short
Exilio Office
35 The Avenue
Southampton
SO17 1XN
