Café style relaxation was followed by an upbeat time of worship, after which Lead Pastor Rich Webb set the scene for the day, outlining our vision to see Outward Focused Congregations (OFC’s) set up across North Lincolnshire.
Through brainstorming, feedback sessions and voting with shiny stickers, we were able to identify groups of people for whom church in its current format appears largely irrelevant, and start to formulate plans, which will enable us to meet with these people at times, and in places that suit them. This generated a number of OFC ideas for us to explore.
Rich also reminded us of the need for us to follow Jesus by engaging in Compassion Based Ministries – simply meeting needs in peoples’ lives because that is what Jesus would have us do.
We reflected on how we at SBC had been able through Foodbank to show compassion and love by feeding almost 1,500 people in crisis during the past twelve months or so. This spurred us on to spend time identifying ideas and passions for other Compassion Based Ministries that we could pursue in the future.
The day was designed to enable the SBC community to determine and in many ways decide the future of SBC and our involvement in the local area. We made huge strides of progress to this end, and are excited by the possibilities ahead.
The day ended with a great message from Rich in which he explored with us the things that could hold us back. We were challenged not to allow fear, apathy and tight-fistedness rob us of all that God wants to do in our midst, and encouraged to pursue Him in such a way that we are Transformed by our Hunger for Him.
It was a special day in which delegates were blessed by personal prophecy cards, Thornton’s chocolates, and an incredible buffet provided by ‘On The House’ Catering Services.
Towards the end of the Conference we asked the delegates to give us some key words to describe their experience.
This Wordle is what they told us. (The bigger the word is in the picture the more times that word appeared in the feedback).
Here is some more detailed feedback from some of our members:-
SBC conference - brilliant. Amazing hearing what is already making a difference & how much of a difference this is... super-challenging to re-think what we are not yet about & need to be. Six new OFCs & at least six new compassion-projects where we've already identified we DO have (some of) the resources, volunteers & time. If God blesses it, that will be all we need. We DON'T have an excuse... Had a migraine on & off all day - still wouldn't have missed it for the world.
Jenny Whitehead
Cracking day with the family !!! God bless ya x
Paul Doherty
Thank you to everyone who made our SBC conference a very special experience today.
Eddie Riordan
Enjoyin coffee n danish at start of SBC Autumn Conference comfy chairs too :)
Enjoyable, stimulating & productive day at SBC Autumn Conference today. Great food, coffee & refreshments throughout the day as well :)
SBC Autumn Conference definitely exceeded my expectations today. Bring on the Spring Conference 2012!
Series of Tweets from Mike Evans
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