St. Joseph’s Church, Merry Hill, Wolverhampton

MS = Morning Service. AA = All-age worship. HC = Holy Communion. Nse = The Noise!

10.30am Themes:

Nehemiah—Building the Kingdom (3^rd May – 12^th July): Returning to the place where God wants us to be, rebuilding the Church, renewing the Community, reviving our relationship with God, restoring God at the centre of our thinking. These are all central concerns in Nehemiah, as they still are today, especially as we begin new patterns of worship.

Fun in the Sun! (26^th July – 6^th Sept): Over the weeks of the summer holiday period we’ll be looking at episodes in the life of Jesus based around water and beaches, as we explore the life-changing message of the Kingdom of God.

Evening Services:

Prayer Focus. Praying churches are also growing churches. Join us as we worship together, and pray for the life of the church and community.

Holy Communion. A more traditional service of Holy Communion as part of our monthly variety of evening events.

Presence. The usual mix of worship, word and ministry as people from across the parish come together for a more contemporary style of service.

“Youth”. Different monthly events for youth and children, including one-off socials and the afternoon NOISE events.

We also meet on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month at 11am for a midweek service.

The report on 2008 is now up on the site – enjoy!

Sunday 5^th April 2009

It is being announced today that I have been appointed the next vicar of Trinity Churches in Meole Brace, Shrewsbury. I will be taking up the post towards the end of September 2009.

It goes without saying – but needs to be said – that leaving St Jo’s is the toughest decision I have taken in a long time. Tracey and I have wrestled long and hard as we’ve sought the Lord on our future ministry. We have so enjoyed the six years we have spent working at St Joseph’s and in Merry Hill. The exciting work which has taken place here has far exceeded our expectations when we arrived from Canterbury in early 2003. And yet we now feel the call of God to “pass the baton” onto others to run the next stage of the amazing journey of faith at St Joseph’s.

Looking west….

As of September Tracey and I, with our children, shall be heading half an hour down the M54/A5 and new challenges there. I will be vicar of the three church communities which make up “Trinity Churches”, based in Meole Brace on the south-west edge of Shrewsbury. As with Merry Hill, Warstones and Finchfield the area is very diverse, including the “village” of Meole Brace, the more deprived area of Meole Estate, and Radbrook (imagine Perton and you’re about there). It is the second largest parish in the diocese, an electoral roll of 400+, and with a current staff team of nearly twenty full-time and part-time members. So I shall have my work cut out!

You can imagine that when I was asked to look at the post I felt drawn towards the many opportunities for mission and ministry in Shrewsbury. They share the passion of St Jo’s – and my heart – for seeing the gospel in the lives of people of all ages in their local area. With a brand-new church centre and a cafe in the local shops, a community evangelist and a church primary school, there are many opportunities for being and sharing the good news of Christ with others.

I feel immensely daunted but also incredibly excited to be invited to lead the Trinity Churches into the next chapters of their growth and development.

Looking back….

I hope there will be many occasions in the next few months for us to thank people properly and personally. I have often said it, but the level of commitment, creativity and support from the church family of St Jo’s is awesome. One of my favourite writers on leadership says “the local church is the hope of the world”, and talks about how there is simply no other organisation like it on earth when it comes to changing lives, touching communities and bringing hope. Thank you St Jo’s. You have helped me to see that so much more clearly.

Looking ahead….

I’m aware that there is no ideal time for a leader to leave a church – unless, of course, the whole congregation are praying that the minister will leave, in which case the answer is “the sooner the better”! I have wrestled with when the best time would be to move onto being a vicar and the challenges which that will bring. For various reasons – not least wanting to be settled for our children’s future education at secondary school – there was a ‘window of opportunity’ open to us early in 2009 if the ideal job presented itself. When Meole Brace was advertised in January – for a second time – we believe such an ‘ideal job’ had presented itself, and I began the application process.

Where does this leave leadership at St Jo’s, particularly as we embark on a new pattern of worship? I shall be at St Jo’s until the end of July, and so will oversee the first three months of the trial six month period of changes to our worship. In autumn 2009 we will need to call on the gifted team of authorised and lay leaders which we have at St Jo’s and across the parish who will lead the church’s worship. The DCC will then be responsible for evaluating whether the transition to a new worship pattern has been successful, and to make changes where necessary.

At the same time the process of appointing my successor can be carried out. Jeremy Oakley will be working with the church wardens, action group leaders, DCC and PCC to think about what the leadership needs of St Jo’s are. I gather from Bob Jackson the archdeacon that this can proceed as quickly as appropriate. In his estimation it may be possible for someone to be in place for the new year of 2010, and thus an “interregnum” of only four months at St Jo’s. This is only a little longer than the three month period which had been envisaged for my sabbatical this year, which I now shall not be taking.

Looking Up….

Let me finish with an encouragement…. which may one day be a sermon before I leave! I’ve been reflecting many a time recently on Matthew 14. Peter was in the boat with his friends, a place of comfort, security, familiarity and safety. As St Jo’s is to Tracey and me, and it would be a wonderful place to stay for many more years. But in the same way that Peter glimpses Jesus walking on the water, we have felt God “passing us by” and shaking everything up with the call to “get out of the boat and walk on the water.” As John Ortberg says in his great book on this passage, “God’s general method for growing a deep, adventuresome faith in us is by asking us to get out of the boat. More than hearing a great talk, or reading a great book, God uses real-world challenges to develop our ability to trust in him.”

By leaving St Jo’s and taking up the role of vicar of Trinity Churches I feel I am trying to live out that trust in God. I simply encourage all of us at St Jo’s to do the same. Along with Peter in the Bible story I’m sure there will be many times when we feel we are sinking, and find Jesus strong enough to reach out and catch us. But – from time to time – we will walk on the water!

So do please pray for Tracey and me, Lottie, Hamish and Barney. These are exciting but daunting weeks and months ahead for us as a family as we prepare to move. And we continue to pray for you and with you as we work together to see God’s Kingdom come. My licensing in Meole Brace is on Wednesday 23^rd September at 7pm with the Bishop of Lichfield, at which of course we very much hope many from St Jo’s will be present to support us in our next stage of ministry.

Grace and Peace

A PDF version of this letter, more suitable for printing, can be found here.

Phil Cansdale speaks about the rollercoaster ride that we go on both through Lent, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost, and even more so in our lives as Christians, taking the classic passage about Jesus’s Palm Sunday arrival in Jerusalem from Luke 19:24-48 and also a video version of that (but you’ll be able to follow it from the audio).

I finally got the opportunity to catch up with Phil Cansdale after tonight’s penultimate Lent prayer meeting (even with holiday club and Holy Week things going on, we’ll be meeting again next Wednesday at 6.30pm at St Jo’s). We’d had a great 45 minutes of quiet time together – or rather this time just as individuals prayerfully seeking God – and despite a non-stop day Phil was in fine form (unlike your correspondent, who barely managed to get any questions out). Listen here, or by going over to iTunes and finding the St Jo’s podcast in iTunes store, to what’s going on at St Jo’s over Easter, and also to Phil’s take on What’s Going On With Easter.