WHERE DID ALL THE TIME GO!?

As we get older, it is a common observation that time just flies, whether we are having fun or not!  I think at times I juggle time well - at other times, the juggling gets old: I just want to slow it down, take a nap and punt some things til a week from now. In my coaching work, the subject of time comes up a lot. There is never enough of it, it would seem.

THAT THING THAT ALMOST NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT

There is an item of key interest for all church leaders in the western world that I hear almost no one talking about.

First, what has been observed and noted widely: the losses churches sustained during Covid.  That story is out.

EDGEWALKERS

Last year, my colleague Beth Estock pointed me to a Richard Rohr piece about Edge-walkers.  This prompted me to go searching the use of the term, and to discover a 2006 book entitled Edgewalkers by Judi Neal.  The reason for our fascination with the term: we both have become convinced that there is a new breed of leaders, who are especially helpful in this era, who walk with one foot in the established institutions but with another foot into the world beyond.  These characters become bridge builders, prophets, instruments of renewal and more.

HERE IS HOW A CHURCH IN THE UK TRIPLED IN THREE YEARS!

 

Radyr Methodist Church is in a suburb of Cardiff, Wales.  Like most churches in the United Kingdom, the church has declined, down to only 20 Sunday worshipers by the start of the Pandemic.  Enter Pastor Judith Holliman.  Judith began prayer walking the varied neighborhoods around the church, especially the new housing estates that were being built up.  As Judith led her people outward, from the church house into the community, the word began to spread that Radyr Methodist was a place of life.  The church’s Sunday attendance hit 30, then 40, now over 60 most weekends.  This is abnormal these days in this part of the world, so I have paid close attention to Pastor Judith and her flock. The following story is a snapshot of how they roll at Radyr.