Why a blog?
Why a St. Nic’s blog?
"Well, in a nutshell we thought this would be a great way of instantly and easily sharing news of mission initiatives in and from St. Nic’s. We also hope it can be a place for sharing stories of exciting initiatives from around the country that spark our imagination and inspire us into new ways of becoming an attractive gracious Christian community which is connecting people with Jesus." Steve Bellamy, Autumn 2011
Exploring 21st century mission
If you were at the Mission Shaped introduction course in the autumn of 2010 (yes it really was that long ago!) you may remember the quote from Leonard Sweet who says that “The modern world was grounded. The surface on which we lived was solid, fixed, and predictable. We could get the lay of the land, mark off directions where we were headed, and follow maps and blueprints to get where we were going…Postmodern culture has marched off all maps. (Soul Tsunami: Sink or Swim in New Millennium Culture).
Even if we dislike the phrase ‘post-modernity’, we can’t ignore the fact that our society is changing rapidly; there is not just one culture but many that overlap and are interconnected. Social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook are expanding at a phenomenal rate, anyone who chooses to can set up a Wordpress account and start blogging on any subject they fancy! Friendships that happen via social media may flourish without people physically meeting. Through Twitter you may interact with people you wouldn’t ordinarily come into contact with. Connections are made well beyond our physical parishes and communities.
This fluid culture brings a unique set of challenges for St. Nic’s as we look to serve all the communities in which we find ourselves both on Sunday and during the week and as we seek to bring Jesus to those around us. The way we have ‘done church’, the way we have expressed our worship, the way we have served our community, the way we have told the good news – maybe those ways won’t be appropriate in the culture we now inhabit. Yet, still, our fundamental calling is to be mission-shaped – to serve, to welcome, to learn, to worship, to disciple, to transform communities. It’s just that how we do that in the next few years may not look like it does now. That’s not to say that we will throw out the baby with the bathwater; there are some fantastic things already happening at St. Nic’s and we continue to thank God for them, but we must also be open to where God might be leading us in the future.
Hopefully this blog can be one way in which we can explore and report on some of the ways God is leading us and also open our eyes to what God is doing in our wider community and the world around us. Hopefully it will also be the start of us exploring how social media can help us engage with those who are not connected with church or faith at present.