So, what was supposed to be a quiet few days off has now turned into the most famous holiday of all time – thanks to a little administrative error… apologies if you are one of the people who have been bombarded with Autoreply emails from me – turns out that if you’re not careful with your autoreply settings, the computer tries to reply to every single email you’ve ever been sent.  Oops!  (coughs with embarrassment and shuffles off to pack his suitcase)

It’s going to be quiet on this blog for a few days, as Susan and I catch a wee break together (and leave the phone and laptop switched off – the only way to have a proper holiday in the new media age!)

So I thought I’d leave this video up on the website, and hopefully you’ll get a chance to look at it – and pray the prayer – over the course of the week.  Initially filmed for The Dock’s first birthday party last November, it feels even more relevant now.

When we get back from holiday, The Dock will be entering another new era.  The next few months will see us constituted as a Limited Company, seeking support from a wide range of politicians, trusts,and other bodies with lots of initials in their names, fundraising our little hearts out for the boat, and continuing to call and hope and pray for a true Shared Medley of involvement from people of all sorts of backgrounds.

Big, scary days – but not faced alone.  We aren’t a bunch of businesspeople embarking on a new profit-making venture – we’re a group of people with faith, seeking to walk our talk, convinced that God matters in the Titanic Quarter and that a group of people living his way can bless and strengthen and add value to the emerging community.  Some days, the process of living that out looks a little businesslike.  Other days, it looks breathtakingly exciting.  Other days, it just looks terrifying.

But as Drake’s prayer reminds us (watch it now!), we believe in a God who “pushes back the horizons of our hopes”.  In these unprecedented days, we want to keep dreaming bigger.

The Bennetts have recently moved broadband provider – and what a transformation! It used to be the case that posts to this blog took forever, as each picture or video uploaded pixel by weary pixel. But now, in the new era, this blog can be transferred from my brain into the ether and onto the world wide web at the speed of thought itself! Continue reading →

Well that was another amazing weekend.  The team from Glasgow Harbour were just fantastic – warm, witty, creative, visionary, and so incredibly encouraging towards everything that’s going on in Dock-world.  I’m a bit sad that they’re gone! Continue reading →

Dock-world has some international visitors this week: Alex and Sally Smeed are visiting the TQ from Glasgow Harbour, as a sort of ‘Fresh Expression of Church in an Emerging Trendy Dockland Area Exchange Scheme’ type of thing.  I first met Alex back in the very early days of The Dock, and it’s been really fantastic to connect again.  Here’s Sally to make the introductions: Continue reading →