Monday, May 30, 2011

New England meets Old England

I am really looking forward to my first trip to London this week. I love to travel because I get to explore the local culture and traditions and meet lots of new people. I will be headed to Holy Trinity Brompton to work with some of my colleagues there and I can't wait.

I love all the British expressions I hear when we chat... you know like: He's a bit dodgy... (somethings not quite sincere about him so watch out).. faffing about (procrastinating) ... Bloke (a guy) and my all time favorite (I have been hearing this expression a lot lately when I volunteer or share an idea) That's BRILLIANT!!!... (great, wonderful, fantastic) I am sure they must enjoy my Bostonian expressions as well ... take the word WICKED for example :0)

As I have been praying and preparing,I began to think about New England meeting Old England...Many times I hear it said that of all the different regions of the United States, New England is most like Old England with it's post Christian culture. I am looking forward to learning more from folks at Holy Trinity Brompton about how they are reaching beyond the walls of their church into the community to advance the Gospel and impact the lives of those far from God.

Holy Trinity Brompton holds 10 worship services at three different campuses with roughly 4000 in attendance each Sunday. Alpha is run three times a year and average attendance on each course is roughly 300-400 guests. HTB has planted 8 churches, who have now gone on to plant other churches. Though the church is well known for giving birth to the Alpha Course, there is so much more going on there than meets the eye. Holy Trinity Brompton is a church for the community. Outreach, church planting and multi campus worship are all woven into the DNA of the church, and it seems that HTB was equipping and sending out missional teams to establish missional communities long before these Evangelical buzz words were even thought of.

As my home church, Grace Chapel, also has a vision and calling for planting new campuses as well as discipling, equipping and empowering believers for outreach, I am really looking forward to learning more about how they serve and reach out to the community. One of the questions we are asking at our new campus in Wilmington is, if the church were to disappear tomorrow, would anyone in the community notice? So stay tuned for New England meets Old England part 2 ... I hope they like New Englanders in London... I was told not to mention Lexington and Concord during my visit ...

Blessings, Lisa