The 'Vision to Venture' road show hit the North West for its penultimate outing. 50 church leaders from across the region and North Wales gathered at Frodsham Methodist Centre, where a warm welcome and excellent hospitality were appreciated (especially the food!).

The day was hosted by the Chester and Stoke Methodist District at the instigation of Gordon Etheridge, who commented "we were very pleased with the attendance - mixed both ecumenically and geographically - and especially the number of Methodists from across our own area".

Nick Cuthbert once again gave an excellent exposition of where the church is at and where the church could be, drawing on his own experience and insight and also from a wide range of reading and connections with other churches. Under the title of 'Pioneering in a New Environment', Nick managed to bring concepts and vision into attainable reality through simple bullet points (available for download here ) and infectious enthusiasm.

A time of Q & A followed which gave those attending a chance to interact with the teaching and relating it to their own circumstances.

After (the excellent) lunch 4 other speakers grounded some of the morning's teaching by relating stories of what God is doing in the ministries they are involved in:

Shelley Gregory spoke about the new Cafe Church in Kidsgrove. Shelly's passion for the work God has called her to shone through.

Mike Kennerley gave a rural perspective, telling of the Methodist church in the village of Huxley where they are open for tourists every Saturday.

Bill Dolling, a Captain in the Salvation Army, is being sponsored by Churches Together in Ellesmere Port, the Church of England and individual Christian business(wo)men to be a 'Retail Missioner' (though they desperately want a better name) - to the workforce at Cheshire Oaks. 3000 people are employed there, often in uninspiring work and antisocial hours - mainly in their 20's & 30's. Bill sees his mission as 'Building Bridges into the workforce'

Andy Glover, Run member and Baptist minister at Hoole, talked about a particular project they are running called, 'Who let the Dads out?' - aimed at fathers with children on Saturday mornings. Following exposure from 'Care for the Family' this has now been replicated by other churches. (Follow the links (activities>Lighthouse Centre News) at http://www.hbc.org.uk)

The day was rounded off with a time of worship.

The Feedback from the day has been encouraging: Nick's teaching was commended as inspiring and challenging; the stories were well received. Gordon Ethridge indicated that very positive comments had been made both from those church leaders who were new to the concepts of 'Pioneering in a New Environment' and from the churches who were further down the road. Many of the Evaluation forms filled in expressed appreciation of the work of RUN, as was evidenced by 10 new members on the day!

If you have further comments on the day please contact the office info@run.org.uk adding 'Chester Conference' in the subject line.

If you would like to explore the days teaching further - why not enter a comment on the forum and see what others thought?