Pentecost

Sunday brings the joyful, empowering, challenging and glorious festival of Pentecost. Hurrah!

A quick search in the CL archive reveals some twenty downloadable resources for all-age worship - service outlines, pictures, dramas and sketches. And a recent peek at our 'download-ometer' bears witness to the large number of subscribers who have been accessing them as they prepare for Sunday.

Of course, many subscribers will be preparing their own original materials for Sunday.

Here at CL, we'd be delighted to know what went well - and to share ideas and materials, with your permission, with others via our website. You can contact us via cl@cpas.org.uk.

Meanwhile, we're commissioning a brand-new service outline and back-up resources for Pentecost 2010.

(The splendid image above comes from St Mary's, Warwick.)

He must increase

Here at Church Leadership, Advent has just begun - a splendid Oasis reflection for the October issue of the magazine has arrived.

Author Jane Williams ponders John the Baptist's words: 'He must increase, but I must decrease.' (John 3:30)

She writes: 'All the gospels agree that John the Baptist had a very high-profile and successful ministry. People came to him in their droves, and hung on his every word. Although he was perfectly clear that his mission was to prepare a way for someone else, could he really have expected to be so utterly swept away when the one for whom he had been waiting came? Was no part of him expecting to be at least second in command, with a continuing ministry of his own, in support of Jesus’? This one little sentence in St John’s Gospel suggests otherwise. John the Baptist knew when to step aside.'

Mrs Williams continues with a thoughtful and perceptive meditation on the sacrifice and solace of knowing when, as a leader, it is time to 'let go'.

The picture above would have been instantly recognized by contemporary viewers as depicting Jesus' cousin John - from the symbolic Lamb, and from the upward-pointing gesture, acting out the famous 'increase/decrease' remark.

More info on subscribing to Church Leadership here.

Women in Mind

It's almost a year since the publication of Rosie Ward's paperback Growing Women Leaders.

Practical, perceptive and provocative, the book has been well received both for its biblical integrity and for Rosie's can-do emphasis on opening doors to women at all levels of the church.

And with practicality in mind, Rosie has produced two three-session courses in the the style of book-group discussion materials. They are available as free-of-charge downloads from the CPAS website.

One is for mixed groups, while the other has a special focus for groups of women-only participants.

The emphasis is on user-friendliness for ordinary men and women in today'c church - these are definitely not dusty academic tomes!

Every blog has its day

Here at the CL blog we're excited about positive exposure thanks to Dave Walker, editor of the Church Times blog.

Today's post focuses on the work of Si Smith, celebrated here recently.

Check out Dave Walker's work here!

Want to learn more about CPAS Church Leadership - click here, please!

Today's Church Times links directly with Church Leadership 69, focusing on the developing story of the pioneering church of St James in the City, Liverpool.

Led by the Rev Neil Short (blue shirt), the fledgling congregation has recently moved into a formerly redundant listed church building, built at the height of the city's mercantile prosperity.

Bishop James Jones (purple uniform, no helmet) was on hand to join in the celebration of the congregation's first adult baptism - of Jessica Main (no uniform).

The church still lacks a water supply, so a friendly firefighter (uniform and helmet) was on hand with a plentiful supply of H2O.

Read the full story of the 'vision journey' of this new congregation on pages 8,9 of CL69.

Jesus Leeds

CL subscribers are familar with the work of artist Simon Smith creator of our popular Stations of the Cross images.

Si is currently at work on a new series of images that will be launched in CL71 (February 2010), this time depicting the 19 'Stations of the Resurrection'.

In common with many other artists of religious themes, Si has chosen to depict the New Testament events as if they are happening here and now.

And in Simon's case, 'here' equals Leeds. So above we can see his depiction of John 21:9-13 with the Sea of Galilee appearing in the guise of Roundhay Park's boating lake.

The images will be accompanied by a series of texts for meditations, created by the Rev Ian Adams of the Maybe community.

Click here for more information about Si, and to download samples of his work.

And click here for the CPAS website.

Vision on!

Here comes CL69 - plunking onto subscribers' doormats towards the end of May.

This issue has a special focus on the key leadership topic of vision and direction-setting.

Check here for a preview of James Lawrence's article In the right direction.

Of course, being CL, we offer brand new resources for seasonal events - and this issue carries a challenging all-age service for harvest from Kelly Betteridge.

Based around the narrative of Exodus 16, the materials include tip-top illustrations from the inimitable Brent Clark.

On a more reflective note we have included useful materials for services of  'commemoration of the departed' - in recent years these have become a greatly appreciated aspect of the local church's link with the surrounding community.