It was fantastic to launch another missional community this week: Elevenses.  This new community reaches out on a Saturday morning, and builds their life together at other times through the week.

Each Saturday they provide a warm, friendly welcome, make donated household goods and clothes available and provide a place to meet up with others over a drink or something to eat. Francis Rayner, the communities leader spoke very powerfully of the way that God had changed her and called her into this:

God has changed me and now there is nowhere I would rather be on a Saturday morning than with the people God has brought into my life through Elevenses.

It was such a thrill to see the platform full of people involved in the journey.

As a wider church community we agreed to pray:

• For continued protection and peace on Saturdays (“there is always a lovely, happy atmosphere except once when we hadn’t prayed together and there was a horrid feeling all morning, taught us a lesson!“)
• For our People of Peace, that we will take the opportunities God gives us to share our faith stories naturally and easily.
• For those God is prompting to join us, that they will have the courage to say ‘yes’.

A missional community is an extended family of relationships on mission together. It’s a shared-life community that connects with God, is intentional about its discipleship and shares in a common mission. In this new season Burlington is seeking to launch many missional communities.  Having emphasised our gathered life we are now seeking to balance that with a much greater emphasis on being dispersed. Our attractional mission is becoming incarnational too.  More here  Find out about our other missional communities here.