November’s vlog: strengthening the Network

Steve Bell from the Mahabba Network team talks about being a relational network and the latest that's been going on.

Each month a 3min vlog-clip will be released to unpack issues raised in the Network Update; as well as respond to any questions you have. We know the whole Network will benefit from these. But we feel the vlogs will be ideal for use in local group meetings too. Please increase the impact by forwarding vlogs to anyone in your circle of friends who may be drawn to the Mahabba vision through them.

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Transcription

Hi, Steve Bell again, and just reporting on the back of the Network update to keep you in the loop.

And at the moment what's trending is that the updates are unpacking our refreshed vision and strategy. And we're also reporting on how things are working out across the Network.

The October headline was that Mahabba exists to see ministry among Muslim people become a normal part of church life. And this is our preferred future for the British church.

Now since the last vlog that I did, we've been at The Right Way conference in Birmingham, some of you watching now were there. And we were profiled, and we also brought the message to around 1000 delegates at the Operation World Conference in Leeds, where J. John was there and speaking and promoting his book, natural evangelism. And by that he means praying, caring and sharing.

And it was fantastic chatting to J John that he was delighted to hear that Mahabba champions natural evangelism, but with people of Muslim families, and we call it grace and truth, but it's very much the same thing that he's doing for indigenous white Britons.

So we told J John that to make ministry among Muslims, a normal part of church life, Mahabba chooses to be a relational network. And this gives people of Muslim heritage, a chance to find and follow Jesus in ways that are appropriate for them. So he was really engaged with that.

And since I came into Mahabba, I've noticed that being a relational network means that we tend to attract attract team players.

But Lone Rangers and prima donnas tend to jog on. So that's brilliant.

But here's a little bit of breaking news about what we're doing to strengthen relationship in the network.

We've just set up a WhatsApp group for local group coordinators. And it's not a discussion forum like these things normally are because we've already got that in Discourse.

So this one is a one way tool that the Network can use to ping to you and to everybody, as we do to everybody, to be able to ping through alerts, bitesize news. And to do that quickly and easily so that we're all connected, which is vital if you're a network.

Now, the other thing that is helping our relationship, groups in different areas are starting to meet as clusters. So clusters of groups like bunches of grapes in my head.

And my diary has included such network clusters in Dundee, Reading, coming up Manchester in the New Year, and Wakefield and London.

So, slowly, these things are happening and just to close, the Bible Society newsletter has captured for me the potential of network in a really powerful way.

When their newsletter says you can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you can't count the number of apples in a seed. And it was like, pow, you know, Mahabba has now nearly getting on for 70 local groups.

And so my question is how can we assess the impact of all those lives on the goal of making ministry to Muslims a normal part of church life.

The potential is huge. An apple tree can be in a seed, but how many apples are going to come year on year on year on year on year? So what a vision.

So, that's it for this time and chat a little bit more in December, but I promise you it will be in the hush before the rush of Christmas.

So God bless. We'll talk again. Bye

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