Perfection, Stress, Worry and Guilt

The splendid people at Mind and Soul are running a day conference in the Autumn on Perfection, Stress, Worry and Guilt. If you can't make it but are interested in exploring faith and mental health, then the site has an excellent back catalogue of talks, interviews, handouts etc. on lots of topics in this area.

Lovely Links List

A recent Jubilee + conference on 'Churches that Change Communities' - lots of talks and presentations now online, on things like food poverty, housing, ex offenders, mental health etc.

Presentations and audio from the recent Headroom conference on faith and mental health are now online.

The latest Research Bulletin from the Church Army's Sheffield Centre is now online. I must admit I still can't tell my modal from my sodal, and I'm not sure I want to, but I'm sure it's all very important.

I subscribe to the Lead On email from CPAS every month, it usually has a thought provoking short article and lots of good links to websites and leadership resources.

The new Mission Scene newsletter from the Baptist Union is just out, this is one ebulletin I read cover to cover every month, great way to find training opportunities and learn about new mission initiatives.

Archdruid Eileen has posted 'her' 3000th post. Cue rejoicing all round. This is the kind of creative mind we need to redraft the women bishops legislation.

Whilst we're on anniversaries, the excellent God and Politics has been going for a year now, a deserved popular and well recognised blog. It's worth reading what Gillan thinks he's learned over the past year, both about blogging, and about God and Politics.

David Cameron Speech Wordle: the Cat Version. Is 'Leadership' Enough?

this shape seemed somehow appropriate.

What struck me most was Camerons continued references to leadership. The word crops up 19 times, both in terms of national government, and in fleshing out some of the 'Big Society' stuff - leadership as the bottom-up response to social challenges, schooling, health, citizenship, business growth, jobs etc.

But..... I agree with Cameron on the importance of leadership, and have said many times on this blog how important leadership is within the church. But leadership on its own isn't enough. It has to go together with character. Colonel Gadaffi, Fred Goodwin and Alan Sugar are all leaders, and in their own way have been very effective. But leaders characterised by brutality, greed and the unscrupulous pursuit of money aren't the kind of leaders we need.

It's having the right mix of competence and character, leaders with integrity. And right now if you look in politics, media, business, sport, pretty much every high profile area of national life, where are the leaders of good character? And how are we going to raise up a generation of leaders who see integrity and compassion as more valuable than riches or fame?

New Wine Leaders Conference - random notes from Harrogage

A few random thoughts roughly halfway through the conference

- Great atmosphere, and lots of high quality input from speakers on mission, leadership etc. I particularly like the emphasis on setting up 'core groups', small groups with the explicit agenda of helping people grow and develop as leaders, through prayer, accountability and honesty.

- New Wine leaders dress code (male): jeans and crumpled pinstripe shirts on day 1, moving into a time of Chinos on day 2.

- Good chance to catch up with lots of people I knew from theological college and 'previous lives'.

- Pleasantly low on the politics: Archbishop Henry Orombi's input strongly focused on Jesus and mission rather than internal Anglican affairs.

- Challenging and provocative stuff from Carl Medearis, the main speaker, on how 'Christianity' puts people off but that the gospel is about Jesus. 'Can you present the gospel from the gospels'? Good question, most of our standard gospel texts are from Paul, not from Matthew, Mark Luke or John.

- A new enterprise to deliver theological depth at the local level, through a network of 'hub' churches and a course developed to bring together passion for ministry with challenging theology. I like the idea: very often the two have been split - you go to YWAM (Youth With a Mission) to get fired for God, and to an academic theology course to get the knowledge, but the New Wine project is trying to unite the two. I'm not sure if their model is workable, time will tell, but the idea is excellent.

- Catching up with people I know only via Twitter and blogland. Fun!

- Just back from a great seminar by Patrick Dixon on how to be more effective in ministry. My first question for our staff team next week will be "what do you think it is I do which has the most impact?" and then, if we can agree, looking at how I can increase the time I spend on that, and reduce time spent on stuff with less impact. If this blog goes quiet, you'll know that they thought it fell into the second category!

Must go, more loud guitar-led worship on the way, and then a chance to try out yet another eating establishment. My one suggestion to the leadershp of the conference would be whether we could trial some different styles of worship. Having 30-40m of worship led by a rock band at roughly 3 hour intervals through the day is certainly a change from the norm, but there are times when I just want to be quiet, or have something to meditate on, write down, or mull over. But perhaps that's just me.