A relational Gathering
What: The Gathering
When: Friday 29 November - Saturday, 30 November 2019
Where: City Church, Cambridge, UK
Why: Because we are Relational Mission
We are excited to be holding our next Gathering event at City Church, Cambridge on 29-30 November. Please note that this IS on a Friday and Saturday. If you are a leader in the marketplace or an elder not employed by the church, or if you are from a non-UK setting, we hope that this weekend option will mean you are more easily able to attend.
We will be doing something a little different from our usual Gathering format, to enjoy some unhurried time together on the Friday evening, followed by a day of worship and teaching on the Saturday.
The details:
We are continuing with our apostolic and prophetic theme of courage, by looking at having the courage to rest over this weekend.
In John 15:4, Jesus says; 'Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.' We believe that rest is essential to leading a fruitful life and will be looking at a number of different aspects of this over the two days.
Over the past year or so, we have been on a journey as a family, of learning to go a bit deeper in our relationships with one another, being encouraged to be open and vulnerable in order to learn and grow. We have hopefully communicated how important it is to prioritise our relationships with one another - to be relational in its fullest sense. To that end, please come on the Friday evening with a heart to have fun together, however that may work for you. There won't be any teaching or worship, not even an interview or RM update... we are simply prioritising enjoying one another's company.
* Vegetarian option available!
Our guest speaker:
On Saturday, we are delighted to welcome our guest speaker, Alan Palmer. Alan lives in Lowestoft and is Chaplain at the James Paget Hospital in Great Yarmouth. Prior to this role, Alan served for 23 years as a minister in the UK, Canada and Belgium, working in Vancouver and serving an international ex-pat community in Belgium which included 26 different nationalities. He has combined his parish duties with teaching and training at universities and schools, and researching and authoring publications.
Alan spoke at our Empower Conference earlier in the year and we are looking forward to him leading us through a day of considering how to prepare, pace and protect ourselves for leadership in the longterm.
Mike Betts will also be speaking and we will enjoy times of worship and prayer together.
A real family
We have an exciting vision as a family of churches, and we place a high value on the ‘Mission’ part of our name, but we also place a high value on the ‘Relational’ part. This is why we call ourselves a ‘family’ of churches, not a network or an organisation - we’re a family, and families need to invest in their relationships as well as working together on the tasks they need to complete.
We are looking forward to taking (nearly) 24 hours out of the busyness to focus on this aspect of our life together.
Timings:
Friday night 19:30-21:45
Saturday 09:00 for a 09:30 start - 17:30