Our churches first million pound signing?

Another quick update on our search for a more permanent home for Grace Church.  We've continued praying and pushing doors, though so far all are remaining firmly closed.  Peel Holdings say there is nothing suitable for us in their portfolio of land and properties.  And so last week we contacted an estate agent about the acre and a half of land on the corner of Hayfield Lane and First Avenue to ask if they had any details of the site and a potential guide price.

It's an acre and half which is compose of an old car park and some wild grass land and trees all in an L-shape.  It's much bigger in many ways than we need but would allow us to provide the community with a park and outside play area which it is currently lacking, and provide scope for our youth work as there is no local park to do things at.  It is also one of the few sites available for sale.  Maybe I was being naive but I was utterly shocked by the reply I received.  In terms of guide price we were told that they were looking for offers in excess of a £1,000,000.  That seems to be the going rate for land in and around this area, due in part to the development at the airport and the existing and upcoming airport link roads.

How are we reacting to this?  Well, some people have said that kills any thoughts of pursuing that piece of land, others have said maybe we should start fundraising, our God is sovereign after all.  We need to take some time to stop and pray and think though exactly what it is we want to do and what is feasible.  We are a small church, working in a predominantly not wealthy area, though with new estates rising rapidly, and more proposed for the near future, that is beginning to change.  What is feasible?  What is right?  And what our vision is?  Seem to be key things we need to stop, pray and think through.  As ever we'd value your prayers.

Am I a Questionner

Are you good at conversation? I guess many of us feel like we struggle to build new relationships, we know we should go introduce ourselves to others but how do we actually do it?

The first thing is to genuinely care about people, I need to pray and ask God through his Spirit and for the glory of his Son to enable me to love and see people as he sees them not as I see them. I also need to pray that he will remind me that rejection is not failure, refusing to try to build relationships is.

Everyday we are surrounded by people we could build relationships with. The person who is always on the same bus as us, the lady who always serves us in the paper shop, why not ask them how their day was? begin building a bridge. The neighbour who walks the same way we do to pick up his or her kids from school, why not head out the same time and ask how the weekend was? Or how school is going? Just show that you are interested and genuinely listen to their responses.

It is interesting in reading the gospels you notice that Jesus uses a lot of questions with people to engage them in dialogue, in fact at times you wonder if they wished he would just give them a straight answer, after all he already knew it. But Jesus questions, I think, to build relationships.

Building relationships

I guess most of us struggle to build relationships. The work place is not really geared up for friendship but productivity and many of us seem to have lost that easy ability we had as children just to chat to someone.

So how can we go about building friendships? Mark Greene says "Find a way to bless people that opens up conversations - bring chocolate biscuits to work 1 day a week; pass on a press cutting about a topic you know they're interested in; think about the issues in their life and perhaps offer a good book on the topic; start a reading group; invite people to a party...; invite them to something you enjoy doing."

Some of those we may feel more comfortable with than others so why not find one that suits and do it. You never know where it may lead.