Day: 19 July 2010

Dream – update Jul10

Richard White, pioneer minister of Dream and now Canon for Mission and Evangelism at Liverpool Cathedral, has seen many changes since the network first saw the light of day eight years ago.

Dream now has six groups; five in the Liverpool area and one in New Zealand. We have seen networking develop through the groups themselves and increasingly via the website.

Dream logoA close relationship has also developed with the cathedral and that relationship can be seen in a number of ways. During Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture in 2008, we set up a small installation in the cathedral where people had an opportunity to reflect and, if they wanted, leave their email address and contact details. Several hundred people did that during the year. This was a sign that people were connecting with us in some way, and wanted to do so again in that incredible building and in other places too.

The biggest personal shift in emphasis came in September last year when I became Canon for Mission and Evangelism at the Cathedral. This was the next step in quite a journey with Dream. When I came to the end of my curacy I had been appointed half time to oversee Dream, half-time with CMS. The Diocese of Liverpool then offered a full-time opportunity to oversee Dream and as two of the Dream groups were already linked with the cathedral by then, the cathedral played a growing role in Dream's development.

What has become clear is that there is tremendous potential in that relationship and we are now looking at a whole range of possibilities to work together even more closely. To my mind, that's very much trying to live out the whole mixed economy thing. It is different from the inherited but is no way detached from it.

The two biggest challenges for us involve:

Going deeper into discipleship

People are not just responding to Dream as a safe place to come to faith but also see it as a place to deepen that faith. As a result some have taken on the Dream 'Rhythm of Life', committing themselves to a way of life built around practices that have been central to followers of Jesus down the centuries.

Jesus' summary of the most important commandments gives our rhythm its shape: Loving God with all our passion, prayer, intelligence and energy; and devoting ourselves to loving others and ourselves.

Keeping missional

It is very easy to slip back into being comfortable. Yes we want Dream to be a safe place but we also want it to be a dangerous place because we all need to be pushed out of our comfort zone.

Dream - Lady ChapelDream has also instigated guerrilla worship on several occasions. It's about taking simple, creative, genuine acts of worship out of the church box and into the 'marketplace'. These have been great fun; the first held in the Liverpool One shopping centre and another on the beach at Crosby where we had a labyrinth near Antony Gormley's iron men installation. Both have had thousands of hits on YouTube.

The Dream network currently meets at:

  • L19:Dream

  • Dream in Ormskirk

  • Dream in Haydock

  • Dream in New Zealand

  • All Age Dream

  • Dream in the Cathedral

All Age Dream and Dream in the Cathedral both meet in the Lady Chapel. We are trying to develop the reflection zones to engage both children and adults simultaneously.

In a further development this year we launched e-Dream, a weekly email newsletter with Dream To Go reflections, Dream Lectio Bible readings and regular updates from the Dream network.

Dream

Richard White traces the story of dream.

Dream was born in 2002 when a group of young adults began meeting together to experiment with worship and discuss what 'church' might look like for their peers. Since then it has grown to a network of groups in the Northwest of England with a much wider age spread. Of the five current groups, one meets at Liverpool University, another at an artist's studio, two in churches, and the fifth at an NHS primary care trust. While diverse in their styles, the groups all seek to express four 'CORE' values through being:

  • Christ-centred: We seek to develop a spirituality centred on Jesus, and lives that are formed by following him.

  • Open: We welcome and seek to include anyone who is seeking Christ or exploring spirituality.

  • Relational: Building communities rather than putting on worship events.

  • Experimental: Seeking to re-imagine church through creative experimentation and exploration.

Dream spaceThree of the highlights of the past year have been:

Seeing the network grow

Especially among groups who may not have had the confidence to start a fresh expression of this sort without the support and resources that the network brings.

Increasing numbers of formerly unchurched or dechurched people

Who now count one of the Dream groups as their spiritual home.

Opportunities to take 'Dream' into the market place over the past year

Including:

  • A Dream marquee with café and labyrinth at the St Helens show, where we had over 1000 participants.

  • The Faith zone at Merseyfest, with chill out zone and installations for all ages.

  • Essence courses in homes, a health centre and a community centre.

  • Regular 'spiritual spaces' at two of the work places of members of the Dream community.

Perhaps our biggest challenge is now discovering what lasting discipleship looks like in this context.

Riverforce

In just a few years, Riverforce has become an official staff support network in Merseyside Police. The workplace church is involved in the formulation of any policy before its implementation in the force.

It also receives funding from Merseyside Police and its leadership team has grown to six, covering virtually the whole of the force which provides policing services for the five local authority areas that make up Merseyside – Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and the Wirral.

Recent developments at Riverforce have also seen the setting up of a counselling service. Weekly or fortnightly cells now operate in most areas of the force while joint celebrations at police headquarters in Liverpool city centre regularly bring together up to 90 officers.

Merseyside has a population of 1.4m, with the police workforce – as of December 2009 – standing at 7899 (including officers, staff and specials). A city-wide Christian prayer event at the waterfront Liverpool Echo Arena in 2009 saw 250 officers from Neighbourhood Policing Teams join the 4,500 audience. So successful was the Redeeming Our Communities launch that Merseyside Police requested a follow-up celebration in 2011.

Riverforce members have recently been going out to local churches to help them work more closely with the police. The first event attracted 150 people.

Chief Inspector Peter Owens, who launched Riverforce in 2006, has now retired but continues as a manager with the Occupational Health Team – and as chairman of the missional cell network. He is very encouraged by the developments:

We have had a lot of interest from other parts of the country and other organisations. On an individual level too there are some amazing testimonies. We will be running a force-wide Alpha course in the autumn. It's hard work but worth it.