Latest / Woodlands Church Academy's Podcast / The Nature of Neighbourhood- Church Planting Basics- Tim Dobson, Dave Grice, Jason Bullock

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The Nature of Neighbourhood- Church Planting Basics- Tim Dobson, Dave Grice, Jason Bullock · Woodlands Church Academy's Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Uh press go and uh um uh great well um yeah welcome and it's um this evening we're doing kind of the I think this is probably our the fourth of our sessions.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um so we the first one we did was on the kingdom of God, which is when we had the c our curry night.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: So uh if you remember um when we talked back in this sort of springtime, early summer, uh we said there's probably kind of uh 18 or so topics that if you're gonna plant the church, it's really good for at least a kind of a significant number of people who part of the church plant uh to talk through uh some topics.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: So uh with the kingdom of God with the current curites, said it was one of Jesus' obsessions.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: If we're going to follow Jesus, be his um apprentice, uh then what he's obsessed by, we should be obsessed by.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: And although we are church planting, uh actually we're kingdom seeking.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a kingdom seeking first, and as we seek first God's kingdom, church is part of the means by which God's kingdom will come.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but if we put the church before the kingdom, I think we can get a bit in a bit of a muddle.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: So we look at the kingdom of God and how we seek first God's kingdom, righteousness, evangelism, peace, social action, joy, pastoral care, Holy Spirit, we need a lot of those for it to make it happen.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um that was the first session.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the second session um was part of our Monday evening uh small good leader training, which was on uh discipleship.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think it was just David and uh Ruth was there, uh and Lydia and Lydia came along to that one.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um and again, just looking at discipleship, that when Jesus uh sends out his disciples um he gives them the Great Commission, uh it wasn't in the end, it wasn't to plant churches, actually, it wasn't even to make converts, it was to make disciples.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so that even we looked at what what does it mean to make disciples?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and not only make disciples, but make disciples who make disciples.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: Because if if a church is going to grow, if you're going to uh reach a community, actually you need a multiplication uh rather than just an addition.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: So uh the universe thinking about how how does discipleship work?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh what does it mean to bring our lives under the lordship of Jesus?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, to say that he is not just our saviour, but he's our Lord.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and how do we then uh help other people to bring their lives under the lordship of Jesus?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: So we looked at how small groups help discipleship to happen, we looked at how mentoring helped discipleship to happen.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um so that was our uh second evening.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Our third evening was um last time we were here was looking at uh the nature of church and particularly at some of those kind of biblical images uh of what the church looks like.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: So, memory test.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: We did four.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um those of you here last time, uh what were the four images of church that we looked at?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: Family.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: Family?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: Church is family.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: So as we plant a new church here, we're not this is not a business, it's not an enterprise, it's not a social concern.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, it is it is family.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: One Heavenly Father, brothers and sisters together.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: Bride, bride.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: Bride, what does it mean for the church to be the bride of Christ?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, again, just that mystery of the fact that Jesus loves his church, and there's something about uh the bride making herself ready for the return of Jesus, being holy and spotless.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: What does it mean to be a holy people where um we uh yeah, we look at the kind of lives that we're living, um, and we try and say, here's a church that's kind of that's radiant, it's like a light into the world, it's the the bride that's welcome Jesus.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: And and do we love the church like Jesus loves the church?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um sometimes we can get a bit grumpy with church, can't we?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: But actually, in the end of the day, what we're seeing here is gonna be it's part of the pride of Christ.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: And Jesus obviously loves the church so much that we should too.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_02: So, family bride, body, body, the body that had the bodies made with different parts, and as we um uh yet see this new church established here.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, we there's many different kinds of parts of the body, many different skills that we're each going to bring.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh again it was talking to Matt before he headed home this morning, and he was he was saying that um uh yeah, just trying to get a little audit of uh for some of the conversations that he's had with with probably some of you here, and uh he'll go back and say, Oh, so-and-so, they really love doing this, or they've got a real passion for this, or they've got experience at this, and actually making a little kind of audit of what it kind of what parts have we got of the body of Christ that can work uh together connected to the head, uh his thoughts, his dreams, his hopes, but we each play our part in that.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: Temple.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: Temple.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, just this amazing image, the God who's everywhere can be somewhere.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um as we gather together here, uh that we are we are living stones being built together, and somehow there's there's a spiritual dwelling.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: And our prayer and our hope is that as people come through the doors, that uh they don't just meet people, but they meet God.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's the kind of thing and to meet his transforming power and so uh we also want it meant to be a temple.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: So that's that's the kind of the session so far.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: So uh uh uh this evening we're gonna look at um the nature of neighbourhood.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um nature of neighbourhood.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I'm just gonna pray and um then we're gonna look at some Bible stuff and then we're gonna look do a little exercise with maps here, and then David and Jason are gonna say a bit about some of the information for the local neighbourhood here.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: But um, if I could just pray as we start, okay.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, God, we uh say we commit tonight to you again as we uh think together about uh a new church that will be starting in this uh building, where there's been Christian witness for many years, and as we think about kind of how things will uh how things will be here, and the the vision that you give to us corporately as a group.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: And we pray as we think uh tonight about uh this idea of of neighbourhood and uh and community and um what you intended that to be and and how fulfilling the part of that great commission involves us identifying locality and place.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um and will you help us as we uh talk together?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: I pray in Jesus' name.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: When I first moved to Bristol, um I uh had a job working with the George Muller Foundation.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you know the George Mueller Trust.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh and me and my wife had to choose a church to belong to, and so um we joined High Grove Church, which was led at the time by Robin Pam Scott Cook.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and one of the reasons we joined the church there is they had a real vision for uh locality, uh, had a real vision for evangelism that was going to make a real difference to every street in a locality.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, the hope that in every street there would be a light, there would be a household where people loved Jesus and somehow there were a light to their street.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um not only did they have a vision for that church in Sea Mills to have a light on every street in Sea Mills, but he kind of had this vision of what if there was a church in every locality, every neighbourhood around the city of Bristol, maybe every electoral ward had a church that was vibrant and uh full of uh expectant people who were going to become Christians, encounter the power of God, the love for the Heavenly Father, the forgiveness that comes through Jesus' death, the power that comes through his Holy Spirit.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, what if there was a church in each area that worked together with the existing churches that we could see kind of a network of churches that every man, woman, and child had the opportunity to hear about the love of Jesus?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought that was a great vision.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: I thought that was a great vision because sometimes people have a vision of church.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: We want to be a big church, we want to be a preaching centre, we want to be a church that kind of people will travel and commute to, we want to be a church that has a particular franchise or a particular flavour.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um I love this idea that it was about local neighbourhoods.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: How can we see the love of Jesus?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: Touch a local neighbourhood, and actually the local church needs to be the vehicle to take the gospel to a local neighbourhood.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I think as we look through, as we look through scripture, um obviously the uh the New Testament uh churches were planted in places.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: So when those churches first started, it wasn't as though there was a uh a kind of a franchise, a Baptist, a Methodist, a vineyard, uh, New Frontiers.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: It was just literally people would move into an area, they would share with their neighbors and their people who came in.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: Paul, as he was making his tents and people were buying his tents, he would just chitter and chatter about about Jesus, and people would become Christians in that area, and in that area there a church would would form, and that church would seek to share the good news of Jesus in that locality.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: So Paul planted church in different places.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: We see as he travelled around the um uh on his three missionary journeys, as you go through the book of Acts, you you you see the names of places, places that he went to.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: Some places kind of he just seemed to pass through.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: Philippi, oh, kind of there's uh right, he gets chucked in prison, there's an earthquake, they don't want him to be there anymore.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: He sees something start and then he has to move on.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but there's some places where you see he he has a real passion for a locality, for a place, for a neighborhood.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: He had this idea, this strategy that um in in Antioch in Acts 11, 27, he said that he was there for uh a year, he spent a year in one place, in a locality, Antioch.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: This uh this city thinks actually I want to see a city established here.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: A bit later on, it's kind of after one of his missionary journeys, he went back to Antioch and he stayed there a long time.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um he wanted to be somewhere where he could see church established.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um in Corinth, he travelled to Corinth and Acts 18, it says he was there for a year and a half, um a year and a half in a place.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: He wanted to see uh a vibrant expression of the body of Christ in that city, because he knew that if there was a vibrant expression of the body of Christ in that city, then the locality and people travelling into that city for commerce or for jobs or kind of for trade actually would encounter Jesus and take it back to where they are.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: In Ephesus, um uh between two and three years.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: Where when it's in in Acts 18, it says he's there for two years preaching.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: When he's saying goodbye to the Ephesian elders, he says, Remember the three years I spent with you and the tears I shed.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it seems though maybe up to three years in one place.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: Here's Paul with that amazing encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: He could have done a kind of a world tour, whistle stop tour, stopped at so many more places, but he thought, no, place, city, locality, town, actually, space is really important.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: The gospel needs to touch a community.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so he had this idea that when you're church planting, uh, the neighborhood, the community, uh understanding how that works, which is which is why, I mean, a space like Ephesus, it was on a great trade route, a trade route from from Rome through Greece out to the Far East, and he and and things travelled east to west and west to east.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: And he knew that if there was a vibrant church in Ephesus, then through those trade routes, people traveling through actually the good news of Jesus could get to Rome, the center of the kind of the Roman Empire, and could get out to the to the far far east.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so tactically he understood that that space, that neighborhood, that place was uh was really uh important to him.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: In some ways, I think um Jesus uh when he sent the message to the seven churches in the book of Revelation.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, they were pla they were places to the church in Pergamon, Smyrna, Ephesus, Philadelphia, Sardis.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: They were places, there were places where people had become Christians and and a group of Christians that had gathered in a town to be an expression, to be a light in that space.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think I think being located somewhere has always been part of God's intention.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: So part of his rescue plan, um, even with the call of Abraham in Genesis, um, the call was to bless him so that, and his his descendants so that the whole world could be blessed.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: But part of that was, but it needs to start somewhere.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: There needs to be a space, a place.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: So the Lord said to Abraham, go from your country, your people, and your father's household to a land I will show you.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, there's a there's a place where my intentions for you and for your gen for your descendants will take place.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: Here's a space we see from um uh when they finally from Egypt come through the Red Sea, through Sinai, through the Wilness, and eventually um the territory through Moses that the allocated, the twelve tribes allocated a space, a place.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, here's a space where you're going to live, where you're gonna thrive, here's a space where you're gonna thrive.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, there's identity of those tribes in those different geographical areas.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: As uh Joshua uh takes the people into that promised land.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh again, uh, I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, from the great river the Euphrates, uh, all the Hittite country to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: And again, there is a sense of your kingdom come, you will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, wherever you put your feet, that will be space where I will see my blessing come.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: I will I will give you that space.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so, in some ways, um, when we think about church planting, the idea of what is the space, where's the geography, where's the neighbourhood that um God uh is entrusting to us?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh in the Old Testament again, when the people were in exile, they were disconnected from neighbourhood, from space, or kind of how can we sing the Lord's songs in a strange land?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, we belong in that neighborhood, that community, that that that geography was the place where we were supposed to be, and we're now in this part, this geography here in Babylon, Persia, or wherever it was, they were exiled to.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's interesting, I think, when when Jesus um sent out the 72 in Luke chapter 10, um, again he sends them out and says, Um, don't just kind of go, oh, just go out and just tell people about the kingdom.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, he sends them out to villages and towns, whether he actually gives them the exact name and says, Okay, Andrew and Peter, you go to this town, kind of Simon and kind of uh kind of Judas, you go to this town, uh, kind of whether he kind of but actually says after this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out two by two ahead of him, to every town and place where he was about to go.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: And he told them the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field, into these towns, into these localities, into these neighbourhoods.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um go, I am sending you out as uh lambs um among wolves.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, do not take a purse or a bag or sandals, do not greet anyone on the road.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: When you enter a house, first say peace to this house.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh if someone who uh promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: If not, it will return to you.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: Do not move around from house to house.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is uh offered to you.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: Heal the sick who are there, and tell them the kingdom of God has come near you.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: And again, Jesus said, Commission them, say, uh, what I want you to do is I want you to go to a neighborhood, to a community, to a town, to a village, and and stay there.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: Find somebody who's a person of peace.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't know if you've come across that phrase before, but again, in church planting um uh theory, uh, people of peace are quite often what church plants would talk about.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, when you find a new geography, when you're trying to plant a church in a new area, uh you share as much kind of peace of God with people as you can.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: And if it rests with somebody, uh if then they are they're people peace, actually spend some time with them rather than just thinking we're gonna leaflet every house, we're gonna knock on people's doors, we're gonna do this kind of thing, we're gonna just tell everybody.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, first of all, start with people who find your peace resting with, and that, and and and stay with those people, work with those people, with those people, pray with those people, uh, actually see those people become Christians, and and somehow those people are peace, then we'll know other people in the community and who know other people in the community, and the gospel is spread.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um so um I think for for Jesus he understood that that neighborhood communities uh were important as part of this strategy of this good news going out to the whole world.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think it is uh as Jesus talks in Acts about sending his Holy Spirit, um, he says, You'll receive power when my Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: And again, it talks about places, space, kind of in in Jerusalem, in Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um here's some places where my good news is going is going to go.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so for me, I think in in thinking about those those spaces, there's the space of um Jerusalem, the space of Judea, space of Samaria, and then the ends of the earth.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I suppose for me that's part of the deal with church planting.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: How do we understand what is our Jerusalem, what's our Samaria, uh what's what's our Judea, what's our Samaria, and how are we committed to the ends of ends of the earth?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh which for me is is part of the deal.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um I don't know, hi there, nice to see you, welcome.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: Is it Tina?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: Nice to see you, Tina, welcome.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um do you can um we've made a little start, that's okay.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh I think I understand so as we start a new church, understanding the the space that we're trying to reach or the strategy we've got, um, I think is is quite important.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh as I say, when when um about two or three years after I moved to and was working with Rob Tokook, um we formed a little uh network of church leaders.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: And it was network, um and we call the network uh the community evangelist team, because we realized that actually you need to evangelize a community rather than just a person.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so it was just a little network of Jesus who felt actually we we are we understand that there's a bit of territory, a bit of um Bristol, or a bit of the old county of Avon.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, we understand that this is a bit of the territory actually we feel called to, committed to, making the love of Jesus, his gospel known in.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um and we're gonna seek in whatever way to evangelize this community.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: Now obviously it includes sharing the good news with people, but it like seeking first of the kingdom, it is about social accent, it's about pastoral care, it's about seeing the impact of the Holy Spirit through through prayer and prayer walking and intercession.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and and so we had uh a team of people who felt really committed to uh a locality.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I wonder whether this evening, um, for a little exercise uh we consider um what is our Jerusalem?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: So when Jesus says, I want to you to go when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, my witness in Jerusalem.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: Now, Jerusalem is where they is where they were, was kind of the space with which where they lived.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um Judea was the the surrounding neighborhood.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: So you when there's a host of it, you'll be my witnesses in the space that you call home, actually you'll be my witnesses in the space that is around where you call home.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you'll be my witnesses in Samaria.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: Now Samaria was around where they called home, but actually it was uh culturally was culturally different.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: So um in Samaria they were kind of, it was the northern ten tribes that that under the Assyrian kind of uh invasion they'd all been mixed up and and people from there who'd been kind of uh exiled out, and people from other countries who've been conquered were exiled in, uh, and there was a real kind of mishmash.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: So in in Saria, there was um they were kind of culturally, they were kind of like the Jews, but they were kind of culturally different to the Jews.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh and and obviously there was real hostility.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: So the the parable of the good Samaritan.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, it was it was outrageous that this person culturally different, and maybe racial hatred, was the was the very person that um that helped.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: And Jesus talking in John chapter 4 uh to the woman of Samaria, um, she was the largest largest woman in the Bible.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you knew that.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: The woman of Samaria?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh and she again she she was she was someone who was culturally different, but Jesus knew.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: And there was kind of arguments around well, how should we worship?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: You say you should worship in Jerusalem, we say you worship on a mountain, kind of uh we're kind of a bit the same, but we're kind of different.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um and again, I I think um around in this part of the town, actually, there's people who would probably say I'm British, but actually they're they're ethnic.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Origins may be Somalia, or maybe Pakistan.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: Again, they're sort of they're in our locality, but they're culturally different.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, the good news of Jesus we need to share not just with Jerusalem, not just with Judea, actually with Sumeria.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: How do we touch those communities, those groups that are kind of like us but kind of not like us?
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: And how's the good news of Jesus which knows?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, the ultimately, how do we keep an eye on the whole world?
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: Which is why as church, as Woodlands group, the church of the Woodlands Church family, actually, global partnership has always been something that's been really important to us.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: We want to have a real commitment to a locality, this locality.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: We want a real commitment to the city, the area.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, we want a commitment to reaching different ethnic groups and international students coming with BISC or whatever it is that kind of within our city, and we want to have an idea for the rest of the world as well.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I suppose the question that where have we gone?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: The question that again, if Matt had been here, that he would ask is um for this new church plant, where would be our Jerusalem?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: Where should be our Judea?
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: Where should be our Samaria?
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: And how do we keep an eye on the ends of the earth?
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: So uh yeah, so so so I've I've put some I've put some maps on your table.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um so what I'd like to do is in in your groups there'll be some people who live in the area, maybe some people from outside the area.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: And for you to think um, I I don't know what what's I mean maybe ask this question first.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um what size of community do you think a local church can effectively reach with the good news of Jesus?
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Are you talking about households?
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh uh Yeah, households.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: So how many households, or or how many people, roughly there's kind of four people per household uh across Bristol.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um so how many households or how many people do you think a local church, like the church that's going to be planted here, if we're going to say we want to have a heart to be able to share the good news of Jesus over the next four or five years, so that every street uh kind of had the opportunity to in some way hear about the good news of Jesus, what size of community do you think uh a local church could have a sense of call and commitment uh to reaching?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um so maybe talk about that one first, and then once you've had an idea of that, you obviously from a map you can't tell kind of how many people that is.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: But again, just from geography, if you felt okay, for the new church plant that's that's here, um what prayerfully do we feel would be uh a reasonable area to think?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, we could be committed to praying for this area, we could be committed to seeing the good of Jesus touching these streets.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh um is that okay?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll give you about kind of ten minutes or so.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe ask that question first.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: What size of neighborhood could we effectively reach as a kind of a new church here?
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then ask that question.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: But maybe just start with a question: where should be our Jerusalem?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: So so where should be the place where we feel a real commitment to reaching?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Is that is that okay?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: So uh if you don't know people in your group, do introduce yourself and then have a go.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: If um if you wanted to use the marker pen to actually at some point when you've had a discussion to actually mark out an area that you think we can effectively reach, that would be great as well.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm gonna press pause here.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: Do you remind me to press go again?
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right, again, Tim.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: So um if you don't know me, my name's Dave.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've lived in this area since 2010.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've moved a couple of years ago to St.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Anne's, but I lived in this area for more than 10 years, and and just as significantly also been working here at Chelsea as the community worker for eight of those years.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, looking at the room tonight, I would say about a third of the people here, I would say roughly live in this area.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: About a third of the people were part of the church here, but don't live in this area, and there's about roughly a third of you who aren't from this area, and probably this will be more beneficial for you than the others.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: But um what I'm gonna say, please do.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't fact-checked this with Claire, which is probably a big mistake.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: So if any of the guys want to chip, uh Dave, I think you've got that wrong.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Please do.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, are we recording?
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's recording.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is recording.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, let's now how does this work?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Just yes, here we go.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, just to I'm just gonna profile quickly this area from my experience and from the experience of how we've what we've done in church here.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what three words would I use to profile this community?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just gonna pop them straight up.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: I would say, first of all, it's diverse.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, every community is diverse, but I would say this area of Bristol is probably the most diverse part of the city culturally.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the third the second word I would use would be creative, I think it's a very creative part of town.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, within this community, you'll find a lot of artistic types of people.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of um yeah, musicians and and artists, and and creative businesses, and entrepreneurs, and and and so on, and so forth.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the third word I would use would be intense.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe a better word is urban, but um, I think living in this area, you you notice there's a lot of life on the streets, um, it's it's kind of street intense.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I live in St.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Anne's now, and and like someone walks past my door once every two hours.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: When we lived in Carlisle Road, it was every you know two minutes.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot going on, it's a happening part of town.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: So diversity.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some of you would have been here when earlier in the year when Claire shared a few um few stats from the the census, um, the 2021 census.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna regurgitate that um in its entirety, but I want to just put this little graphic up, which just kind of gives it a flavor of just the ethnic diversity in this area.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: The key thing to pick up there, if you can see that, um, is that about 68% of the population in this area would say they're white.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: So the equivalent 30 plus percent is obviously not white, it's it's it's B A M E, that's the term we we still use.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: So uh black, Asian, multi minority ethnic communities.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um part of my graphics gone there, Tim.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't quite know what's happening.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's on the next slide.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: They were too small, so you did that, did you?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: What happened there?
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go again.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, good.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, um, that's just the census information from 2021.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um largest minority ethnic groups in this area, Somali, 2%.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's it's I think I'm right in saying, I think it says there actually that the Somali community is is is I think the fourth largest in England, the one in Bristol.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: So a big, big part of the community.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um considerable Pakistani community, um, considerable Indian community.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Also, there's a lot of Polish people live in this part of town as well.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um but if you go if you head down to you know Stapleton Road, you will find people from almost anywhere.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Syria, um there's a large Kurdish community, Iranian, Turkish, Sudanese.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: The list is is endless.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: And um also speaking about diversity, just I thought I was interested just looking at LGBT plus diversity not just in ethnicity but diversity in gender and that sort of thing.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: The the roughly 10% of people in this area would identify as being non-binary, non-heterosexual, whatever.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a that's a significant diversity that affects, I think, you know, the the flavour of the culture we we're living in here.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um now what I've tried to do, and this is where it gets a bit snazzy, because I wanted to just make sure that you show you that not just Tim can do snazzy slides, I can do it too.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: I've tried to I've tried to put on there um the main religious centres.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um so for those of you who don't come from this area, just to give you a bit of orientation.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to go through them one by one, but you've got at least three mosques in the area, um, one of which over here, Green Bank Masjid.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: You've got the Bristol Central Mosque over here, and then down on September Road, you've got Eastern Jamia Mosque.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's a Sikh temple on Chelsea Road, you've got a Hindu temple on Church Road, and then also, as we've mentioned, there's a number of churches in this area that we've really enjoyed good relationships with over the years.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer for Eastern, some of you were here, uh, I think it was last week.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's a strong sense of interchurch community and and working, and just over here we'll have St.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Anne's Church.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the nearest church to us, but not too far away, we've got um on the Tudor Road, the House of Praise, Church of God of Prophecy, Black African, Caribbean, Pentecostal Church.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: Then um, thinking a bit further afield, we've got um Kensington Baptist Church, or KFC as I call them.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, a bit naughty, and then going even further down at Sableton Road, Eastern, sorry, Ian's laughing, ECFC, Eastern Christian Football Club.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: Family centre, sorry, I'm being silly.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: But we've enjoyed really good relationships with those guys over the years and worked with them on a number of projects.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: We've also got Croft End Church just over here, just up as we go out towards Speedwell.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I've just had one on here at the end, which is um I completed my slides, and then and then Tim reminded me we didn't put our friends from St.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Gabriel's Tabernacle, who are down uh near Bannerman Road School, and they are a fantastic little community.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: They're probably smaller than this gathering here, but they do an awful lot of incredibly good work down there, and so you know there's diversity, but there's within the churches that there's a lot of community and a lot of work together.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um so thinking about centres of community other than religious centres, East Side Community Trust is probably a main hub of community life in Easton.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that's just off the cycle path as you go down of Whitehall Road, and they run Felix Road Adventure Playground, which is another part of the trust there.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: They do a lot of work in that area, and I would I would imagine most lot they do a lot of signposting to a lot of support groups and and and you know mental health support and poverty food poverty.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um all kinds of you know, groups would be would be either working in that building, or we or they would signpost you to where they are.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Schools and nurseries, we've already talked about that.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's at least three or four in this this kind of like immediate sort of triangle between between you know Stapleton Road and Whitehall and the cemetery.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: You've got you've got Whitehall Road, uh Whitehall School there, Bannerman Road School further down, and we've got May Park, which is the biggest school, I think, in the area.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and a little one called Evergreen School over near Junction 3 Library, but at least three primary schools in the area, numerous nurseries, um, and and child minders, and it's it's a very I would say this this this area is is is it's family rich.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of families with a lot of preschool or primary age children in in this area.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: Parks, shopping, cafes, and arts.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: As I said, it's it's quite a bohemian sort of creative part of town.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: So if I if I put my next slide up, so it's gonna get a bit complicated now, so try and go with me.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: But um, so now we're looking at so so the the the white circles are are the the churches, yellow ones are the other centres of worship, and then I've I've blue is is um that's Felix Road and East Side Trust, and um you can see the orange circles 23, 24, 25.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's base 23 is is St.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: Mark's Road.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I think has anybody here never been to St.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: Mark's Road?
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: You've all been there, it's a fantastic place.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: I you should go down there, it's just a it's just an extremely vibrant street.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then 24 is Stapleton Road, which is um again, it's a long, long road that straddles the the the the eastern highway, very diverse, lots of lovely restaurants, independent shops, and number and 25 is Church Road, of course, over in Redfield and and St.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: George.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: So they're the main shopping roads.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um parks.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've put on there in green.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: There's a there's numerous little parks in little pockets all over the area.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got one on Bellevue Road, we've got St.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: George's Park, we've got Eastville Park, but there are others here and there, community gardens, here here and there, lots of spaces for communities to to meet and gather.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, so coming on to just thinking about community support and what what is going on in the area.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's it you know, obviously, the church churches are doing a lot.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: We've done an awful lot in our church, a lot of other churches doing many, many other things, but there's significant groups working in the community, obviously in hope.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have Andy here tonight, and um all the work that goes on down there, the Wild Goose Cafe, East Bristol Food Bank, um Spring of Hope, the Life Recovery Group.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: So reaching out to people who are you know struggling with mental health issues, food poverty, yeah, um addiction recovery.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um then, of course, another factor that's very predominant in this in this part of town is there's a high amount of refugees, asylum seekers living in this part of town.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just a little aside, on Friday, I had to I I had a friend from Ethiopia staying with us, and he'd heard, we'd heard from somebody in our Tots group that there was a lady on Septon Road who who makes and sells fresh in Jira.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what injira it is in?
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: So my friend's from Ethiopia said, I'm gonna cook you some food.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Oh, I've heard there's a woman who sells in Jira, down somewhere opposite the Eastern Leisure Center.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we said, Let's go and find her.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: All we had was a name.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we started to walk in shop by shop to find this woman.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we did find her, and we got some injera, and it was amazing.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: But every single shop I went to was like a little burrow, you know, there's a shop front, but then a lot of them are like little mini marts, and there were shops within shops.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: You've been there, Ben?
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_01: Ashley, can you tell us what angira is?
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: Anjira?
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, oh, it's a it's a kind of fermented flatbread that that they make from Tef, which is a grain in Ethiopia, and you have your curry in uh Njira, and anyway, maybe another time.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: But we um but let me tell you that that whole area is just so diverse.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you've not been down there, it's I mean, I think it really truly is the ends of the earth in terms of the analogy you used here tonight.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but there are a lot of refugees and asylum seekers um in our community, and quite a number of charities and organizations such as Bristol Hospitality Network and Bristol Refugee Rights are working in the area.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I've kind of put them on there as well.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's getting a bit complicated now, but as you can see, there's an awful lot going on in our community, reaching an awful lot of different types of people.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's not an exhaustive list by any means, but hopefully it's giving you a flavour of what's going on in this these streets and the surrounding areas.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think I've kept that to nearly ten minutes.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: So thanks, Daniel.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_02: So um, in some ways, kind of how our Jerusalem in the church part here, actually, those are some of the kind of the issues that we'll be facing, thinking about.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um but we thought it'd be kind of obviously the people from woodlands who are further away on East Bristol, so thought we'd hear from fish ponds as well.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_02: So do you want to say that a little bit about again some of the as you move further out some of the different communities that are there and what they feel like?
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I think issues now.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_01: So fish ponds.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um so just to kind of boundary that a bit, I've looked at fish ponds really at one end.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: You it it's kind of got two parks at either end.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got East Hall Park at one end, and then you've got the Aldbury Court and State at the other.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, really picking up on what Dave was saying about diversity, intensity in creative, fish ponds is less of that.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's more of a transition area, I would say, from what you've got here as you move out towards the suburbs.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll see that in some of the some of the things.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: But a bit of history about fish ponds.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um this area used to be part of the Royal Forest of Kingswood, if people have heard of that.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: So all this used to be a wooded area.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then over the centuries, um you know, there's been mining, there's been quarries, villages grow up around those kind of industries.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the quarries were filled in.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um so, although it's called fish ponds, there's no longer a pond there, there is one on Alcove Road, which I think is still owned by a fishing club.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um and interestingly enough, around I had a friend who did a years ago helped put a video together on history of the local area, he did one on fish ponds.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: So there used to be a fish ponds house, and there used to be an Albury Court house.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: So anything of historical interest kind of all got demolished and knocked down, and that's a bit like fish ponds.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the pub where Bristol Rover started is derelict, it's the one just by Morrison's if you drive along Fish Ponds Road.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I always felt that fish ponds was a bit like had the and it all you know all got smashed down there.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um a lot of industrial development around the kind of 19th into 20th century, so lots of different industries you know, around that area.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: There was kind of a bit of aerospace work supporting Rolls-Royce, printing, and various uh different stuff that's um grown up in that area.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I picked just some data.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: So Froom Vale is part of fish ponds, it's not all of it, but it it just kind of illustrates if you compare that to what Dave was showing earlier, so the it's less Asian, it's less black, it's more white.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: So you're getting that transition from this area, I think by the time you get out to a down M Bromley Heath, that's predominantly white.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um similarly with age profile, if you compare it against um a UK average, there's a big blip, and there's a reason for that.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_01: Which is 14% students.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_01: So at the other end of fish ponds, you've got the uh the Glenside campus, you're not too far from UI.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: So surprisingly, there's a reasonable students population around.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: But the demographics, apart from that, follow pretty much a national national average.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um interestingly, when you look at religion, more people are saying no religion and less are saying Christian than we're seeing nationally, but a significant um Muslim population.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: Similarly, if you look at places of worship, you've got Life Church, which used to be up in kind of Fishbonds, now moved to the Albury Court Estate.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's an Assemblies of God place growing significantly.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think they've moved out of one place that was too small for them into somewhere bigger.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um you have the Anglican, which is a team team rectory with some Ann.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, St.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Mary's and All Saints.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: St.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: Joseph's, which is the Catholic Church.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: We've had links with them in the past.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: We used to meet as East Bristol pastor in their play school before we came here.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: And we we know a few people that are a part of that congregation.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_01: Fish Ponds Baptist, which Andy will know very well from Food Bank.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_01: I used to go to Fish Ponds Baptist before I went to Woodlands.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_01: And there is a mosque.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: It looks to be quite small, fairly new, and that's on Lodge Causeway, above a shop.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: So community in and around Fish Ponds.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_01: There's the food bank at Fish Ponds Baptist, which is long established.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: Eastville Park.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_01: There's a friends of Eastville Park.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: So there's an active movement of people, I think, trying to improve the use, the accessibility, and the community feel around Eastville Park.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: There's a part run there.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm part of the part run team at Eastville Park.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm on the core team.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_01: There are a couple of other Christians on that team as well, Methodist minister and uh someone from Fish Ponds Baptist.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I think a real feel of reclaiming that and making it into a community area.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_01: Friends of Fish Ponds, sorry, Friends of Eastville Park have a cafe that they open periodically in the summer.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_01: There's a movement of people who want to open a Lido at the top end of the park.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a petition that you can sign up.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_01: So there's definitely a feel of it could be a really vibrant centre for community.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: Right at the other end of Fish Ponds, you've got the Vassal Centre.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: There are plans in place to redevelop that and repurpose that, turn it into a community hub, and then uh specific housing for homes for the elderly and disabled.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then on Philwood Road, which could be another interesting development, is that the old graphic packaging site, which is very near Gary's house, so kind of behind Lodge Causeway, they want to close that whole site and potentially put a thousand homes in there.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_01: So you get a whole new community of people.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry?
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_01: So if you kind of go up Lodge Causeway and on the left there, that's where they're planning on doing that.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that's in discussions at the moment.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that was it, really.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_01: So some exciting new things that could happen in the area.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: There are signs, I would say, of a little bit of gentrification.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um few new cafes opening in fish ponds.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: You've got the crafty egg, and the Porto Lounge is now massive, and there's a little uh down end of the might break it into fish ponds.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the other the other thing with fish ponds is you've got the metro Bristol Metropolitan School.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: When when I used to live in Stapleton, I think that was George Whitfield School, and it had an awful reputation.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I remember one year they had like 200 places per year and they had like 80 applicants.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_01: And now it's completely turned on its head.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_01: So you know it's one of the schools to apply for, and I think that has a knock-on in terms of people wanting to be in that area as well.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_01: So um I think there's there's real signs it could be on the up.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um I I think uh again that there's food for thought and for prayer, there isn't there?
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_02: Of how does the good news of Jesus touch different communities?
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_02: And how how does that kind of work?
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_02: And how within the church kind of plant here, how do we have a focus on a Jerusalem but encourage things that are happening, like yeah, parkrun, kind of Jason our missionary to parkrun uh within East actually, what whatever you do within your yeah, life, leisure kind of that's is within the East Bristol part of our city.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, we we do want to encourage that.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um again, it it's our I suppose it's our prayer that um within three or four years actually this building is jam-packed by people who hang Jesus for the first time and that we might have to plant another church.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_02: Again, fish ponds maybe the next place we plant a church.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_02: So we we always want to have a vision for Jerusalem.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_02: But actually, we want to have a vision for Judea and for Sumeria as well.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh so um yeah, in church planting, as we go on this journey together for the next few months, uh, we'll probably come to decide on well, yeah, actually, this is kind of a patch that when we launch the congregation, um, where do we advertise?
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: Where do we kind of a mail drop?
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh again, I think you said that you delivered to those areas.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um again, tactically, we used to deliver to an area.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um actually in the end, we got the post office to do their delivery, so we could actually do more households.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_02: It cost a little bit more to do it, um, and that obviously the the prayer, the post kind of postman didn't pray along the streets as they delivered the leaflets.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_02: So kind of there was kind of um uh but it did mean that kind of uh yeah, 10,000 households could be covered um uh with uh a newsletter came from the church.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_02: So um, yeah, so all those kind of things to think about.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_02: But just for the last five or ten minutes, um uh it'd be great to take a chance to uh to pray.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh I I did wonder about whether where it says in Joshua about every place we put our foot, whether we did just do a little ten minutes, put our feet on some of the streets around here, but probably because of time, we'll you can look at the streets and if you want to put your feet or your fingers on the on the streets, lay hands on the map.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um actually to pray pray for this community, uh to pray for um for the the team that that gathers around the vision here, uh, to pray for the wisdom of God to know where Jesus is calling us to.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um again, when he sent out the 72, he he knew where he was sending them out.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_02: And he knew that he was going to come there and be there.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, we want Jesus to come and touch these communities and and um to for us to feel where we're called to.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_02: So I just wanted on on the tables, just for five minutes or so, to pray for the pray for the areas, pray for some of the things that you've heard, uh, of whether it's the local cow to here, whether it's fish ponds, uh um the different ethnic sociological groups that are part of the group.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_02: So, okay.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_02: So um just for five minutes, I take a chance to pray.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_02: Let's let's do that.