Growing vision.

Yesterday was the quarterly Trustees meeting where the progress of the Centres is reported. Hearing of the amount of people we are reaching in the three existing centres and all the good things that are happening is really encouraging. So, despite all the realities of finance and administration that have to be dealt with, the overall impression I came home with is of a dynamic part of God's Church which is demonstrating what faith in Christ can mean.
The commitment to opening new centres is great as Sheffield gets under way and plans are taking shape for Birmingham. Beyond that there is vision for more centres, maybe of a smaller type, wherever we can sustain them. It is an exciting thing to be involved with a movement that is able to get things done-maybe there's something you could be doing.

Committees=excitement?

The LJC Management Committee meets today, part of the necessary structure of running a Charity. When we started planning and preparing for this Centre the whole business of committees, minutes, business plans and the rest of it was rather daunting and was not the way most of us were used to operating. However, over the four years that we have been involved we have learned that all these things can be tools that help to run an efficient and worthwhile project. Beyond the practicalities we have also found that such meetings become an opportunity to thank God for the progress that's been made and, even more importantly, times of unity and envisioning.

Lord continue to anoint every part of our activity, releasing Holy Spirit life into this place.

New week, new opportunities, new life.

Life has its rhythms and often we find the Monday morning bit is not the best but the Christian week starts on Sunday with worship and inspiration: something to set us off on the right track. Probably most of us never quite reach the aspirations of our best moments but, the realization that there is grace and forgiveness to enable us to put the past behind and keep pressing on to fulfil our calling in Christ, is liberating and makes it possible for us to say "I DO like Mondays."
Have a good week.

One last Anastasis comment.

We have heard back from a visitor that she enjoyed the Anastasis exhibition more than one she had recently visited at the Royal College of Art.

Social Network Developments.

In line with generally getting in touch with contemporary realities the London Jesus Centre page on Facebook is now up and running. It also appears that posts from this blog will be relayed to Facebook as well, so we can all sit looking at our screens and save the trouble of going out, only problem is there won't be anything to talk about if you're not here; we're easy to find, centrally located, Curd makes great coffee and we can put up a post about you after you have visited.

What people are saying about Anastasis.

'Joyful and inspirational.'
 'Lovely! A delightful mix of ideas.'
 'I am most impressed.' '
I think it should be a regular thing, it's so cool! I also like the way it's set out'
'Inspiring creativity,spiritually uplifting.'
'This is absolutely fantastic! I didn't expect to see so many different kinds of artwork here.
'Wow!'
'Speechless.'

The exhibition continues; Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoons and Friday evening from 8pm.

Creativity.

A corner of the exhibition featuring Steve's
 'Lost and Found' in London installation.

The 'Anastasis' exhibition is all installed and looking good. We've had a few visitors  who seemed to enjoy it. It's been great to see how the exhibition has a unity even though the artists come from very different backgrounds and have very different approaches. The works are very varied with lots of installations and 3D things but there is a definite 'New Creation' feel about it. It has been encouraging to see people who have not done any art work for years have found confidence and come up with something truly original which conveys something of their faith.
Lots of us have been away for the Fellowship's 'Alive' weekend where we were thrilled to see Constantine, who came to us as a drop-in visitor, getting baptised,  and Jacques, who met us through our Immigration Advice service, being recognised as a Baptised Member.

Clots and comments.

It is good to hear from James- 'Anastasis' (as most of you will know) is the Greek for resurrection, the theme of the exhibition is broadly around the concept of resurrection. 'Anastasis' at the LJC has been a thirteen week creativity course which we hoped would lead to enough material being created to put on a show and all sorts of people have found themselves inspired to have a go. We are now putting the finishing touches to the exhibition and there is an amazing variety; installations, sculpture, mixed media and painting. It opens on Tuesday and we hope lots of people will come along.
When I lived in Somerset (many years ago) clotted cream seemed to play a significant part in the diet of the local people and there appeared to be a great many who survived to a ripe old age.