BEGINNING UNLIMITED

Mentoring These extracts from the book are four years old. Since then the mentoring programme has grown in size, but retains its  individual  approach, and a central part of our schools outreach work. Friday 6th November 2015 People never seem to get bored of the age-old witticism, ‘Of course, you only work on Sundays, don’t you?’ We hear that on a more or less weekly basis. I presume they are joking. I’ve got to think that or else it would really start to wind me up. But even if they have given any thought to what James’ work might be beyond the obvious on a Sunday, I’m guessing they would be totally wrong about today. He, and about ten team members from church, have spent the day on Dartmoor. Climbing, abseiling and doing high ropes in the middle of a forest. In torrential rain. A team-building activity day. It was wet, cold and great fun, I’m told. With them were ten students from St Luke’s school, students who had been identified by the school as struggling or v

It is so exciting that tonight at church we have Bishop Jackie coming for a baptism and confirmation service. We have had many over the years. In swimming pools, with giant inflatables, in a freezing stream on Dartmoor. In church with an inflatable pool and a cream tea. Tonight everyone is invited to join us for dinner (it's curry) before we move into the service. Candidates, the church and their families will all join together to eat before we celebrate with them this wonderful moment in their faith. Here is just one extract of another Unlimited baptism... Sunday 24th November 2013 Laura got baptised today. She is a bright, bubbly drama student. She seems to be always laughing and smiling. Over the past year she has gradually got to know us and trust us. God has steadily been drawing her back to this point, drawing her back into a living relationship she knew as a child. Today she publicly acknowledged her faith before friends and family. It was a big deal for her. She

Eating Together As I've said before, food is massively important to us as a church. Every week you will find us tucking into homemade cakes on a Sunday, and at our Wednesday cafe. But perhaps my most precious moment of the week is on a Tuesday night, where the core of the church meet together for a meal at 6.30pm. Often there are around thirty of us. All the food is prepared on a flat-packed table with two hot plates and a rice cooker. There is no hot water in church. Washing up is done in stations with bowls filled carefully from the urn. It is amazing what you can do with what seems like very little. Initially we were not brave in our food choices. Chilli, sweet potato and chicken curry, sweet and sour chicken and a spring chicken casserole came out month by month. Now a team of student chefs have varied the menu amazingly. No two weeks looks alike. They also cope with gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian and vegan options. Something we had honestly hoped to avoid but have

We don’t have favourites in our family. I can’t bear the thought that one child might feel more, or less, loved. I’m so determined to love my children equally it has become a joke. “I’m the favourite” is often to be heard being loudly declared by one or other. Often they try and trap me into expressing a preference. But as much as I will not have favourites in my family, the same rules don’t apply to the Bible. Because when I read the Bible I really do have favourites. Take the gospels. My favourite is Mark. I love the immediacy and the urgency with which he tells the story. Everything is ‘now’, ‘then’, ‘immediately’. He’s in such a rush to tell the good news he doesn’t stop to tell us about Jesus’ birth but jumps right in with the baptism and testing of Jesus. So keen is he to tell us about Jesus’ ministry he simply ignores the first 33 years of his life. And the read is breath-taking. The whole book can be devoured in a two hour sitting. Marks’ gospel was the book of the bible I k

‘This is what family must feel like’ Food has always been central to our church. In fact in the six years that Unlimited Church has existed we have never held any form of church service or meeting without food of some kind being involved. And it is not particularly because we ourselves are that interested in food. We are just convinced it is a brilliant way of bringing people together, loving them and valuing them and encouraging community. Every week we go out as a church and talk to young people in and around Exeter City Centre. We have done it right from when we started. We actively go out and talk to the young people of Exeter. We are not expecting young people who don’t do church to come and find us, so we are committed to going out to where they are.It is a small city and we find there are often large numbers of young people hanging around the shopping centres and cathedral green. The thousands of students at the sixth form college appear to have a lot of collective free tim