Update Tuesday 31/01/12 - a glimpse

Last week I got a glimpse, a moment where I saw a little of the past and a bit of the future while living in the present.  When we began this journey of a new work in Hamilton, and as we started to sense that we were moving in the direction of small house fellowship, a vague image of what that might look like began to form.  I could begin to imagine what a group meeting in a living room, singing, praying, studying and asking how God wants to work in us and through us to impact the world might look like.  As we have begun to move forward, a small group of us has started to meet here at my home each Tuesday evening and we have begun to paint that picture together.  We live out some of those principles and pray about the group growing as we move forward.  Last night, however, I got a bit of a glimpse of things to come.  We did things a bit differently last night as we kept our kids, youth and adults together for the evening.  Included in our group were our two Korean students.  There was a memorable moment where I looked out over the group huddled in my living room as I strummed the chords for the hymn we were singing.  Here was a multi-generational, muti-cultural group, all at different levels of maturity in the faith, singing of our Saviour.  This group would spend time singing, praying and learning together.  For me, it was an encouraging vision as I saw our house fellowship moving towards that picture in my mind.  The picture in my mind's eye is a bit impressionistic in nature, every little detail is not in focus which gives us the freedom to allow the group to develop as it will, but the general forms are all there.  What we saw last week was a glimpse of what things might look like as they come into focus.  It was an encouragement to keep moving forward and working to develop this image.  So we will continue to meet, to sing, to learn and to pray as we participate in the creation of this work of art, as we bring this image to life.
If you are interested in some of the thoughts and initial ideas then feel free to follow the link below.  It was one of the first attempts to organize and articulate what we thought God was calling us to begin.  The Update Tuesday posts that followed fleshed out some of the ideas a bit further.  Some of the language has changed a bit, and some ideas have been refined but the basics are all still central to what we are doing. 
Vision