First Day...

Today is the first day of my sabbatical. I'll be blogging each day, as a way of recording the journey, and a way of sharing the experience.

I've called the blog "organising ministry" because the focus of this time is the relationship between Community Organising and Christian Ministry. Is there a form of ministry that looks a lot like organising? How can I develop my leadership skills, so I am better a organising the ministry of others?

I'm going to be doing aome background reading (so expect some book reviews) and and I'll be doing some work with Citizens (MK and UK). I've got a course lined up and will be laying the groundwork for a longer research project... Here in Milton Keynes, I'll be doing some work with Refugees Welcome and taking part in Daily Prayer.

Today was a gentle start to the journey. I had a bit of paperwork to finish up, and sent some "organising" emails linked to Thursday's CUK Council and next week's CMK Leaders' Forum.

This afternoon I had an interesting meeting at the Red Cross, looking at how we might rethink our resetlement process. I think this is going to raise some interesting questions over the next few months which I will reflect on later...

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Leaders Forum

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This evening we had the Citizens MK Leaders Forum - which is the event where representatives from the twenty member institutions come together and agree a long list of campaigns for the coming year. The idea is that we end up with five or six "problems" that are then developed by "research teams". The research teams will then produce achievable goals that will be put to the "delegates assembly" in February. I've chaired this meeting for the last three years. It's a tough one because there's a lot to squeeze in - particularly the rounds of institutions where they present their two suggested problems. This year I took a back seat, operating more like an organiser than a leader. I wrote the script and supported the chairs. This was a great learning experience for me, and it was good to see the evening run smoothly. My main reflection is on the importance of leaders. At one point it looked like people were keen to pursue ten different campaigns....
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Agitation

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