Derbyshire (again)
Am back in Derbyshire at the moment for a couple of things.
Currently hauled up at The Hayes in Swanwick for Baptist Union Council. A few Baptist bloggers here but not much comment as yet, probably due the nature of the agenda which varies from session to session. Interesting session on the European Baptist Federation this evening, which covers a huge geographical area. Some inspiring and challenging stories of churches and pastors risking for the gospel.

Tomorrow off to a dissertation day at Cliff College. I've done my 4 modules, so just the dissertation to crack if I want to get my MA! I see I'm missing Andrew Jones by 1 day, as he's a guest lecturer on the emerging church course on Thursday, at the invitation of Ron Willoughby, with whom a previous set of emerging church module students (myself included) shared a few fun conversations in the local watering hole a year or so back.

Nice day for a trip to the peak district
Today the sun was shining. So it was good day to be going to Cliff College for a research conference.
The day started (after the drive up the M1) with Professor Elaine Graham giving a lecture on "Word made flesh: Becoming a practical Theologian", which was worth getting there for.
Then we had "colloquia" giving outlines and discussing our dissertations. I'm way behind most of those who presented in terms of how far I've got (partly because when I joined the course I only signed up for PG Dip but have since jumped in to the full MA). Some good questions being examined, from the role of Bishops in post-war Sudan, to sci-fi show Firefly (see this blog).
Then it was back down the M1 with the sun still shining.
Good stuff.

Quick Catch Up
Been lots going on since Easter, such as:

• An away day with leaderships from 2 churches in Chippenham, Wiltshire
• My home church weekend away at Pilgrim Hall
• A training with a church on teaching the Bible to young people
• Assignment for my last college module (just the small thing of dissertation to look at now!).

Clicking the link to Cliff College, I see the postgrad department has got some new titles happening such as "Mission and Religious Pluralism", "Celtic Mission and Evangelism", and "Mission and the World of Work". Looks good...

Meanwhile it's our 10th Wedding Anniversary tomorrow! (That makes me feel old!).
And a week or so off work, which I'm looking forward to.

Back at Cliff
I'm back at Cliff College for my 4th intensive study week. It's the second "Leadership, Renewal and Mission" module: "Renewal: Spirituality and Discipleship"
I was greeted by snowy scenes from about junction 28 of the M1, but all cleared here now.
Looking forward to another challening and thought provoking week.