Acceler8

So, the summer has been pretty full of events to organise.

First there was Life Camp, where we got the church together to spend a bank holiday under canvas, and to hear from John Groves from Winchester Family Church.

Then there was Park Life, our first ever tent mission in a park in central Southampton.

Then, just because we deserve to go to at least one event we're not involved in organising over the summer, we went to Together On A Mission in Brighton.

But, not content with too long a respite, we went straight into Newday where I was leading the Global Cafe team. It was well worth the months of hard work to pull it off, and great to be part of something bigger!

We were then faced with what for us as a staff team was the biggest single undertaking so far since planting Life Church Southampton: Acceler8. Acceler8 was a regional bible weekend led by Chris Kilby and hosted by Guy Miller, bringing together over 1,200 Christians in the Newfrontiers region we call Wessex. Terry Virgo came to speak, travelling down to Brockenhurst from Brighton, just before heading off on a cruise. The weekend far exceeded my expectations, and despite it being a long, hard slog to get everything done, I am so aware of the grace of God on this event. I learnt so much being a part of the management team alongside such wonders as Steve Hunter (Weymouth Family Church), Mark 'Commander' Coppard (Dorchester Family Church) and Peter Smith (Winchester Family Church) - I've been so blessed!

So now, Accelerate is over, as are the other events of the summer. And now we're into the autumn. Today we inducted our new FPer for 08/09, did some more planning for the next few months, and I finished an article for the Newfrontiers UK newsletter, Connect.

I'm quite looking forward to getting back to my usual routine - it's only slightly less work than the seventeen-hour working days we were keeping at Acceler8, but it's what I signed up for - the nitty gritty of building the local church day by day, week by week.