Tuesday 19 October 2010

The Feast: Kairos Launch & the Bishop's challenge

On Friday 15th October we gathered at the Yorkshire Hotel - 116 Kairos people and guests with Bishop John Packer to give thanks and celebrate not only our existence but our emergence into the new thing God has called us to. It was a great privilege to see the range of people, all so different yet a real buzz of unity, of shared hearts and minds for the sake of the kingdom.
We started the meal by breaking bread together and then between courses we had stories of life-transforming moments as people have encountered Jesus and followed him. We committed ourselves to the heart of our faith in the words of the baptismal promises and affirmed our commitment to Jesus.
After the main course the Bishop said a few words to us - words of really helpful challenge which I have reproduced below for you to reflect on.
A great evening - as always the people made it special.


KAIROS CHALLENGE – OCTOBER 2010

I Corinthians 12 vv 4-13 (The Message Version) 
 4-11God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:
   wise counsel
   clear understanding
   simple trust
   healing the sick
   miraculous acts
   proclamation
   distinguishing between spirits
   tongues
   interpretation of tongues.
   All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.
 12-13You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.


 The Bishop challenged us.......

  1. To celebrate the gifts of individuals given by God; and for members to celebrate the gifts of others.  Owning the variety of ministries, and taking risks as the Sower spreads his seed so generously.
  2. To develop the ‘option for the vulnerable’ and ensure that there is a particular concern for those in need on the part of the life of Kairos.
  3. To ensure that the communities are indeed mission-shaped:  that they are so designed as to speak to those who have not yet heard God’s call to them.  So the communities will grow, change and flourish.
  4. To develop a unit across the network and beyond, so that there is mutual support within Kairos and with the rest of Christ’s body in Harrogate.

1 comment:

stuart said...

It was a great night and even better weekend of missional activity. We in Vintage MSC feel released to go, sow and grow!