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Jun 27 2013

Keep Trying!

I’ve been reflecting this week about the communities we’ve been part of.   In the last ten years or so my wife Helen and I have led 4 communities.  Each has lasted a few years, all of them ended;  some well,  some more painfully.

Each community had a good life,  and in each we found some brilliant collaborators, many of whom are still good friends.

Here’s the thing though,  I think each one worked a little better than the one before,  I certainly think we got better at leading them.

I know a few people who have been part of communities and have found that it’s got difficult, or failed in some way.  That’s normal,  these things are hard work.   What is sad though is that for some that is their only experience of belonging in, or leading a community.

That’s a great shame,  because I think you get better each time you have a go.  Which means your next community will be stronger than your last.

• Perhaps you lead a church or network of missional communities. How do you help your people get back into the game after a perceived death or failure of a community?

• Maybe you’ve been part of a community but have backed off since things got tough.  Is it time to get back on it and have another go?

Ben Askew lives in Harrogate, North Yorkshire where he has just moved to take up the post of Pioneer Curate at Kairos Church.  He is married to Helen and has two children.

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