Saturday (St Antony)

I've been off the grid for the last couple of days because of travel. I flew down to Texas to pick the brains of two individuals--Canon Victoria Heard, who oversees church planting for the Diocese of Dallas, and Carrie Boren Headington, who is their Evangelism Officer. I've been wanting to do this for quite some time, and was actually scheduled to do so in the spring of 2013 when a whole bunch of travel plants were cast aside in favor of having heart surgery. It was an immensely worthwhile endeavor. I shared the grand schema was have developed for our mission strategy in Springfield and received their candid feedback, which is mostly supportive. I learned a whole bunch more about church planting than I previously new and came away with several concrete tools for helping our Eucharistic Communities strategize for mission in their geographic parishes. I met with two of the successful church planters in the Diocese of Dallas, as well as spending some time with their cathedral dean, who is a widely-renowned coach and consultant around issues of parish ministry and congregational dynamics. This was a thoroughly invigorating and inspiring trip

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