Share

It was a shock to the system when I started training for Church Army a few years ago. I had to do something I'd never done before – write essays! My first few marks were mediocre to say the least, but I think I got better as I learnt from my mistakes and realised what I'd done wrong.

Towards the end of the course, a few of us in the final year were asked to bring an essay to show to those in the first year. While others opted to bring their very best essays with the highest possible marks (some of them even had shiny silver merit stars on them), I deliberately fished out one of my bad ones. I reasoned that if I showed people some of the mistakes I'd made, it might help them avoid making those same mistakes themselves.

Similarly, a friend of mine visited Egypt earlier this year and had a memorable experience on the Nile. The cruiser he and his wife were travelling on got stuck on a mud bank. Over the next few minutes he observed with some amusement that all the boats behind them were getting stuck too. He asked why this was happening, and was told in all seriousness that the captains weren't communicating with each other because they worked for competing companies.

This mess could so easily have been avoided if the first captain had radioed to the boats behind him. If he'd been kind enough to warn them of his mistake, they could have steered round the mud bank and sailed on ahead.

Which brings me to Share. Can you see where I'm going here?

Share is a place for us to share our mistakes with others, our joys and successes, and to pool all the lessons we've learnt. Share relies on contributions, comments and suggestions from those involved in fresh expressions of church. If people don't share, then Share won't work!

If you register with the site, you can log in and leave comments at the bottom of each page. Have we got something right? Have we got something wrong? You can comment on this blog as well, or get in touch via the Contact page.

I look forward to learning from you as we share together.

Andrew Wooding