On Tuesday morning, back in the office I again had several meetings, one of which was with Rev Vicki Atkins. During our meeting we discussed ideas for the South Cluster. We talked about a confirmation course which we hope to run in the coming months especially for our young people, two of whom are thinking about membership. We also talked about youth generally and how we might continue to build upon our work in all areas such as TNG, Junior Church and the uniformed organisations.
On Tuesday afternoon I went hospital visiting to Heartlands Hospital, again I am glad to report that those I saw were well and truly over the various ops. and procedures and looking forward to coming home.
On Tuesday evening I attended a circuit meeting at Selly Oak Methodist Church. This was a meeting of the new Worship and Learning Forum - a group whose remit it is to explore and facilitate worship, music, small groups (such as house churches), communication, circuit cohesion and training. With my heart for training it will come as no surprise that I came away tasked with convening the training strategy group for the circuit, which I am more than happy to do as I am one of those rare breeds that actually gets quite enthusiastic about training and development.
On Wednesday morning, back in the office to meet with Kath for our regular catch up and a chat about the notices and so on. I also began planning my two services for Sunday, one of which is Breakfast Praise and the other, an evening service at Acocks Green. Wednesday afternoon, back to hospital visiting - this time to Solihull where two of our members are undergoing treatment. Wednesday evening I attended the management meeting met where there was much discussion about property and financial matters and priorities for work needing to be done on the building.
Today is Thursday. As usual I began my day in the office at church - I had planned to do the shoppers service plan today but our student Rachel came along and was happy to undertake the job for me while I prepared some information for our church strategy meeting. After a spot of lunch we both went hospital visiting and have now just returned. So, here I am taking a few minutes to update the blog as we wait for a meeting at 6.00pm.
After that meeting I plan a night off and a little space to catch up with Annie and Stu to see how this, their first week at Uni is going for them.
So there you are, a week (or at least four days) in the life of the minister at SMC.
I hope you are all enjoying this glorious weather - make the most of it though its almost definitely the final fling of summer.
God bless, Jayne
PS At one point during the course of these busy few days I popped into Sainsbury's, Shirley and couldn't resist taking this picture of the stunning autumn trees in the car park. The photography is a bit rubbish but the colours are glorious and well worth seeing before the Autumn is through.
