From Kerry Thorpe - Senior Minister.

So now we know. We don’t know much, but we do know the direction of the next step. I have been appointed to a new role as Canterbury Diocesan Mission and Growth Advisor. It is a fresh task, created within the new Diocesan Framework, as part of the Local Church Development Team. The Job Description starts with the phrase: ‘will lead on all matters to do with mission and growth’. It sounds like a suitable challenge. If the question was, ‘where do we take all the experience and lessons learned from thirteen years of HARVEST’ then this has the mark of being God’s answer. If we believe that this is God’s answer for Eunice and myself, we also clearly believe that it is similarly God’s answer for HARVEST. We have always understood that a major part of HARVEST’s calling was to stand as a prophetic sign within the wider family of God’s Church. If that has been true up to now, then it will certainly continue to be so for the next step.

One of the greatest challenges facing newer forms of church is the transition from its founding vision into the next phase of its continuing life. HARVEST Leaders and Diocesan Senior Staff members have all expressed a firm commitment to pursuing the continued flourishing of HARVEST, its life and ministry. We don’t know what shape that will take. We know that there are options and possibilities. The direction of these next steps are as much a matter of adventurous faith as was the original founding vision and early days of turning that into reality.

So the call is sounding for all of us to take the next step of faith. No one is left out in this particular challenge. How will we demonstrate once again the amazing faithfulness of God to lead through seemingly impossible situations to a place of blessing and the manifestation of his glory? That is the question of the moment. It draws us all into a place of faith. Experience shows that this is likely to be a time of profound personal growth as we each shoulder our own share of the coming responsibility. God is faithful. He does not promise that the whole journey will be beside still waters. He does promise right pathways.

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