start joining in - by richard w

Thanks for all the replies about the idea of inviting others from Dream to "join in" when you're doing something.

The overwhelming consensus was that email was the best way to communicate, so I'm going to set up a new "join in" email list. Those of you who have already said you are 'up for it', will automatically be on the list.

If you haven't replied and want to get the invites, PLEASE just email me (richard@dream.uk.net) saying "I want to join in".

For now, if you are doing something and want to issue an invite also just email me until we've got an automatic system set up.

And to kick us off, we're having a barbeque at our home on Sunday from 1pm. If you wanna join in, then tell us you're coming and turn up with some meat, salad, drink or whatever. (don't worry, I'll put the footie on at 4pm if anyone's still around and wants to watch England get knocked out of the world cup ;-)

travel notes for a rescued people - by malcolm c

The Dream network has been asked again to lead a service at this year's Greenbelt Festival, and last night members of 'Dream in Liverpool City', 'Dream in Haydock' and 'Day-Dream' met together to begin to put it together. Planning worship by committee can be a long, even drawn-out, process, but it can also be incredibly creative and inspiring - a powerful act of worship in and of itself. Last night was the latter!

We started by reminding ourselves of Greenbelt's overall theme this year - 'redemption songs', before 'mind-mapping' (I think that's the correct way of putting it) our ideas and thoughts. We had some great discussions around the following areas...

1. the act of remembering being important to the faith journey; but remembering is not just about calling to mind past events, it's about reminding ourselves of our identity and our future. So often we're trapped by our past, but in the act of redemption we have been released to live in the 'now' and hope for the 'to come'. Faith is a struggle at times, which is why the act of remembering who we are, who we belong to and where we are journeying toward is so important.
   
2. the sense of being strangers both in 'the world' as followers of Jesus, but also often in the church too. One member spoke of only feeling genuinely 'at home' and 'normal' at Greenbelt, and feeling increasingly disconnected from the church. This led us into a discussion about our journey with Christ as part of 'a people' rather than simply being one individual in a group of individuals. We follow in the footsteps of the Israel of the Old Testament as an 'exiled people' who know we've been rescued and are on our way home. We are in the process of 'becoming'.
   
3. the journey of faith being dynamic and engaging rather than static and defined, but with a clear direction, director and end point. The concept of journey is important in Dream, with a high value placed on giving people the space and freedom to make their own journey. Alongside this we place a high value on our journey being Christ-centred and focussed.
4. the place of appropriate (not triumphalistic) celebration of the above.
   

Through all this we came up with a working title for the service... Travel Notes for a Rescued People, which kind of holds together all of the strands and opens up great possibilities in terms of stations as 'travel notes'!

We're not sure yet how this will all work out in the service itself, but it should be a fun and engaging ride! If you're at Greenbelt, look out for us at midday on the Saturday, and come and be a part of it.

Join in - by richard w

Here’s an that idea I’ve been pondering and want to try out.

We’ve been talking quite a bit in some of the Dream groups about building community recently, and how to do that in a way that is natural and ‘organic’ but also deliberate and inclusive.

So instead of big organised (contrived?) ‘socials’ which loads of people can’t make and loads of others don’t enjoy because “I’m just not into barbeques/ salsa/ underwater-basket-weaving”, how about if we find a way where as we all get on with our lives we’re able to simply invite others who are part of the Dream community to “join in”.

For example, last weekend someone else in Dream told us about the Africa Oye festival. We told a few others that we were going and they could come too if they wanted. No-one felt pressured to come because they ‘should’, and we’d have been quite happy as a family going on our own. As it was a few did come and it was fantastic.

What if we all found a way to let everyone know when we were doing a picnic, concert, walk, barbeque, café, museum, sushi, morris-dancing, train-spotting, etc and wanted to invite anyone else to come too.

It would be crucial that whatever we were doing was something that we’d still enjoy if no-one else took up the invite, and also was very low on organisation. E.g. “the bbq will be on from 5-8, bring your own food and drink if you wanna join us” vs “RSVP with numbers and special dietary requirements a week in advance”!

-Could this work?
-Does it appeal?
-What would be the best and easiest way to ‘announce it’ (email, blog, other)?

I reckon it might have lots of mileage, but would love to hear the opinions of others, and whether we should give it a go.

BTW. I’m emailing this to the Dream Haydock lot and also posting it on both my blog and the Dream blog as part of the experiment as to where people will get info.

Dreamers of DREAMs - by Richard L

It's common when thinking about our dreams and our future to imagine someone peering out across the sea, feeling called to leave the world they've known, and search for new shores. That was what we did at DREAM in Haydock last night, with the help of a meditation on St Brendan, one of the great Celtic saints, and a range of creative ways to express this for ourselves.

My own preferred medium is digital art - manipulating photographs , Flash animation, 3D rendering etc. Below is the image that came to mind.

Last night's DREAM got me thinking about how we release digital creativity in worship ... how about "bring your laptop and hook up to our wireless projector" ... whatever is created in the shared space can be uploaded to a central computer connected to a video projector, or screens, so everyone can see it, and perhaps downloaded to an iPod for people to take away. Geek speak aside, I have two visions for this:

1. To build a creative space where people can explore and express their spiritual search in their preferred artistic medium, and then share it with others ...
2. "Creative Prophetic Prayer" - to release creativity in the context of the prayer life of the church, not for self-expression this time, but as a way to express whatever God shares with us for the people and world around us i.e. it's about prayer first, and creativity second.

Would you be interested in either of these? Any thoughts or ideas? Responses?

Richard L

(P.S. That's a person floating on the water in the image below - click for a larger image)

dream baby

Rob Sykes created and adminstrates the Dream website as well as being a member of 'Dream in Liverpool city centre'. Here's a picture of him with Lydia Jane who was born at 5.14 am today.

(For those who are really into babies, there's also a video of her crying here.)

CONGRATULATIONS Rob and Kathryn!!