The Guide

The Guide contains how-to-do-it advice on starting, developing and sustaining fresh expressions of church based on shared experiences.
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22 February 2008

How can we sustain our fresh expression?

A brand new section has appeared in the guide: How can we sustain our fresh expression? Arguably it is one of the most important sections of the guide, which makes it ironic that it is also currently the shortest.

It includes our first shot at sharing some wisdom on sustainability: Sustaining a fresh expression

A metal and rock sculptureDo you agree or disagree with some of the statements made on this page:

  • 'Pioneers should withdraw from their converts as quickly as possible.'
  • 'Avoid getting bogged down by church events.'
  • 'Go back to the drawing board. You can save yourself several years of hard slog on a venture that was never going to last.'

This is far from the last word, and there are almost certainly other themes that we should address. So we need your help.

  • What have you learnt about sustainability from your own experience – from triumphs to botches? After reading the material in this section, would you want to say something like: 'No, it's not like that', 'That's far too simplistic' or 'From my own experience, it's really like this...'
  • What other themes should this section contain?
  • Would you be willing to help us write any of these themes?

Please leave your comments on the pages in this section. We need your wisdom, experience and advice.

 

22 October 2007

Tell us about it

A country road with clouds in the distanceShare went live three weeks ago and since then we've received lots of positive feedback, ranging from 'Fab!' to 'I've just been looking at one of the most attractive sites I've seen for a while - well done!'

It's lovely to read remarks like this. Don't stop – keep them coming. All these warm wishes are good for the soul!

But as I've said to a number of people, if all we've produced is a nice-looking website with a few pretty pictures, then we've failed. The purpose of Share is to connect people so that they can share with each other – lessons learned, and mistakes made – both highs and lows in their work for God.

With this in mind, I have created two new pages – which you should see on the right-hand side of your screen: COMMENT – Things that went well and COMMENT – Things to learn from.

It would be great if you could use these pages to share one or two lessons from your experience. Just click the yellow 'Comment' link on the page, and type your gems of wisdom – even if it's just one sentence. Remember - that nugget of knowledge you take for granted might be exactly what someone needs to read right now.

Close-up of computer keyboardCheck these pages regularly – someone might have replied to your comment, or left useful comments of their own.

And if you enjoyed leaving a comment, please let us know what you think of the rest of the site. Each page has a 'Comment' link near the bottom. We want to know what we've got right, what we've got wrong, what we've missed out, or anything else you want to share with other Share readers.

Keep those comments coming!