My latest post for the Big Bible website is here.

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I knew Bangladesh was different the moment the scooter rider tried to punch the cycle taxi owner as they both blocked all the traffic in a multi-vehicle kaleidoscope of traffic chaos.

It had already taken me 10 minutes to work out which side of the road you legally drove on. I say legally because it’s actually a fiction. Apparently it’s just as natural to drive side to side or diagonally.

Use of the horn is clearly a mandatory part of the driving test and one all people pass with no difficulty. Perhaps it’s the compensation for the otherwise gentle nature of the Bangladeshi people who are unfailingly polite to visitors, even when telling you that you are in their way.

That summary of Bangladeshi nature is, of course, a huge over-simplification. Historic anger at Pakistan isn’t even skin deep; student anger is prevalent.

But if you are a guest you are treated with huge honour.

My visit was to the Church of Bangladesh (COB) – 18,000 people in a nation of 120million. The Methodist Church is one worldwide partner with COB as it influences the society for the Kingdom of God in this beautiful land.

As David Hall, one of the mission partners there, says, the church consistently punches above its weight through social development programmes such as its engagement in hospitals, medical mission and education.

If it kept itself to being a worshipping community it would disappear into insignificance, but it lives on a bigger map. I went as Head of the Mission & Advocacy Cluster of the Methodist Church here in Great Britain which includes some responsibility for the World Church Relationships team.

My privilege was to visit some of the projects that we help support, along with a number of other churches and agencies. More of that later.

During the visit I tried every form of Bangladeshi transport except a train - we couldn't get a ticket - and sitting on top of a bus; officially not allowed in the city, but then a lot of other things aren't either.

There is more about the project visits I made on the Methodist World Church blog at http://worldchurch.posterous.com/#!/

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People grumble about over-use of the online world and perhaps there's something about that. But when it's used well and with creativity there are wonderful possibilities of communicating holy truths in exciting ways.

Today we went to a nativity that told the age-old story of God becoming human for us in Jesus. Children were important to the cast and the looks on their faces as they help draw us in were great.

But those who planned looked for something extra and used technology to take us further: with a TV ad to remind us that giving is important and a superbly-creative use of Twitter, Facebook and much more to tell the Christmas story in a very different way.

You can see the Digital Story of the Nativity here. Please do, it's terrific.

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One of the other rich experiences of being at the Extended Cabinets meeting of the Methodist churches in Europe has been to watch and hear people respect each other's languages.

I often felt inadequate at my lack of facility with language and increasingly angry that I was refused the opportunity to learn my native language, Welsh, when I was in school (partly to do with living in Monmouthshire which, until 1974, was administratively a mongrel county - neither in Wales nor England).

But it has been a joy to realise how much of a language's meaning you can deduce from inflexion and tone, even if you can't understand the words: Russian for example. I found that I could follow parts of the German more easily.

The photograph above is of the German pastors singing to us at the final evening worship. It was almost impromptu: done with about 30 minutes notice at the request of Gita, a Latvian minister, and their harmonies were terrific.

But one of the richest uses of language came during the worship as the week together unfolded. Every Bible reading was heard in at least two languages - usually German and English - and occasionally in Russian as well.

We often sang hymns that could be sung in multi-language versions and in the German Methodist book were printed in German and English. On the morning the EurAsian delegation led our worship we sang:

Holy, holy, holy

My heart, my heart adores you

My heart is glad to say the words

You are holy, Lord

and we sang it in Spanish, Russian (with a phonetic translation on the screen), German and English.

There was resistance from some people to using the translation headsets for the main seminars, but for those who were willing to be a part of that way of joining together it was another sign of the unity of this event.

And so now I'm home in Britain with invitations to Norway and Russia (Moscow, St Petersburg and Siberia) and with groups from Latvia and Germany thinking of making visits to see Fresh Expressions projects fror themselves.

It brings home afresh what a responsibility it is to carry the message of God's grace in action - and what a privilege it is to be a part of the way he moves beyond the barriers we think exist.

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We three Brits presented our Fresh Expressions material, which generated a remarkable number of conversations over meals and in snatched conversations. In truth, we’d been talking to people since we arrived on Sunday because the level of curiosity is really high about how to answer decline in inherited church. But of course the position in a number of countries is so different to Britain (more on that later).

In the afternoon I got my first bit of fresh air in more than 48 hours as most of us walked into Braunfels, the small town where the German Methodist church owns the retreat centre we are staying in. The chapel in the centre is also the town’s Methodist Church so we were juggling our use with a youth group last night.

• Pictured: a Fresh Expression of outreach? Fresh Expressions missioner Stephen Lindridge in the stock at Schloss Braunfels

The walk was another chance to talk to people about their life as pastors. In many ways we share the same dreams: to see a confident Methodism reaching out as a Discipleship Movement Shaped for Mission.

But, for example, it’s a lonely business enthusing the saints for the work of ministry when you are a minister in Finland, your nearest colleague is 160km away and you only meet other Methodist leaders twice a year. At the same time you harbour dreams of spending half your year working as a Fresh Expression missioner to Hells Angels/Bandidos and the thousands of other Harley riders in Finland, but have no way of seeing where the money is coming from.

Nonetheless, the enthusiasm for new ways of being church is plain to see and the common understanding of being connected not just by our faith in Christ but also be the worldwide family of Methodism is so strong.

Within moments of arriving here on Sunday I was being thanked for the financial support that the Methodist Church in Britain had given leaders in Siberia and other parts of the former Soviet Union to visit Oxford. I had nothing to do with it, but I represented a church that had enabled these pastors to learn.

In return, I have been humbled by hearing how people with virtually no money or other resources are so passionate about sharing Jesus with their communities. It's not without it hardships.

While we heard about the birth of a new Methodist church in Romania, with liturgies in their own language written just this year, we also heard about the Methodist Church in Hungary's struggle to be recognised by the government. It is now the only member of the Council of European Churches that isn't recognised in its own country.

It used to be but, following the collapse of Communism, the new government decided to "rationalise" the number of official churches - a euphemism for reduce - and cut the number to a level which excluded the Methodists, who are now just an association. There's a chink of light that when the law comes into force in January they may be able to get a reversal of the ruling but not huge confidence.

Celebrations in some places, struggles in others ... and all the time wrestling with how to be faithful followers of Jesus.

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Day two of the Extended Cabinets meeting in Braunfels, north of Frankfurt, included a time of sharing stories.

The reason I'm here is that three of us from the Methodist Church in Britain have been asked to come and share about Fresh Expressions. I'm with Stephen Lindridge, the Methodist missioner from the Fresh Expressions initiative and one of the initiators of Mind The Gap in Gateshead, and Peter Hancock, Northampton District Chair and a founder of The Bridge in Hinckley, Leicestershire.

I'll be talking about Tubestation in Cornwall, not surprisingly.

But yesterday we sat in small groups and heard stories from Siberia to southern Germany of how God is inspiring people to plant new churches and risk new things.

• The Belarus pastor whose work isn't officially recognised by the government because she's not allowed a sacred space but where the children go to school and tell stories about how they love their mothers because they pray for them.

• The church in Finland slowly being brought back to life after one old man sustained it and believed in his vision from God that people would come. Now they are, one by one.

• A German church where a pastor heard the call to go and rescue a dying congregation and moved home. Now the fellowship has grown from a handful to a systainable church, mainly recalling former members but beginning to impact its community.

• A teenager who used the Latvian version of Facebook to bring together 30 unchurched young people to begin a youth group. Now some of them are inquiring about baptism.

There were many more stories but that's a flavour of what was shared yesterday. We also heard two lectures on why adults came to faith, much of it interesting but probably too rooted in the German cultural setting to need repeating here.

Today we tell our stories, thrilled to know that we will simply be adding to the good news others have already shared.

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I'm at the meeting of the European Cabinets of the Methodist Church in Braunfels, Germany, where the leaders of Methodist communities from all over Europe have travelled to talk particularly about evangelism and Fresh Expressions.

My role is as one of three people from the Methodist Church in the UK who have at one time led Fresh Expressions - new ways of being Church - and may have something to say to the leaders here.

Perhaps there'll be more to say about the presentations we make and what I say on Tubestation - the church on the north Cornwall coast which resonates so well with surf culture.

But what struck me tonight was the amazing worship - or at least the amazing experience of being in the opening worship.

Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, one of the four bishops in Europe and our host, is holding together a community of maybe 70 people in this extended Cabinets meeting: from Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland and other countries ... as well as interlopers like me.

For the first evening's worship, it meant running the worship in two languages - German and English - and therefore choosing hymns which could be sung in both. It meant providing a transcript in English of the German-language sermon, as well as a headset translation for those who only spoke Russian.

But for the time of open prayer the invitation was to use our own language and for some time we shared as people poured out their prayers. We couldn't understand most of them and yet, in an extraordinary, we understood exactly what was going on.

The community of faith was reaching to God, holding each other up before their Father and longing for the best. It was a remarkable moment - and a great note on which to begin five days together.

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My latest post for BigBible's digidisciple blog pondered on how social media can make events bigger than they are physically:

Max Boyce, high priest of Welsh rugby fans, once waxed lyrical about yet another glorious victory by the men in red, declaring: “I know ‘cos I was there!”

Since the brilliant Christian New Media Conference #cnmac11 it’s struck me more forcibly that for people who spend as much time online as communicating in physical space, the new mantra is actually “I know ‘cos I wasn’t there”.

To read the whole piece, go here

For more on the BIGBible Project, go here

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I'm already being told I'm too late for organised preachers, but maybe there are others who haven't sorted out their Remembrance Sunday services yet. So, for them, here is a hymn.

We stand for brave and selfless friends,

who sacrificed today.

In our remembering, Lord give faith,

and teach us how to pray.

We stand for all who die for us

- and have no more to give:

those we have never met or known,

those we should not outlive.

We stand and honour lives laid down –

futures that conflict stole –

and sing of one who died to end

the warring in our souls.

We stand to gain a greater prize

than any war can claim,

if we can hear the Saviour’s voice

as he calls out our name.

You stand for peace and truth and light:

we pledge our faith for now.

And when you wipe all tears away

all nations’ heads will bow.

Gareth Hill    Copyright © 2011 Gareth Hill Publishing/Song Solutions CopyCare, 14 Horsted Square, Uckfield, TN22 1QG www.songsolutions.org

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This is a hymn I wrote the day after the twin towers fell on September 11, 2011. A few years later Joy and I went to Ground Zero and spent some time in nearby St Paul's Church - which had in a remarkable way been untouched by the carnage of the attacks despite being yards away.

The church had become the place where exhausted rescue workers went to sleep on the pews and had also become a place to show photographs and collections of badges sent by emergency services around the world who wanted to identify with the work of the heroes of 9/11. It was for me one of the most emotional moments to see, at the top of one pile, a badge from Gwent Fire Service - my home area.

It was, somehow, an example of the final verse that we bear the pain together ... but also that in God there is also a promise of a future time when warfare will cease. Without that hope what have we?

When mountains that we thought secure

lie crumbled where we stand

and pain and helplessness endure

- all from another’s hand -

Help us to bear the prophet’s mark,

to stand apart from hate

and witness to the Father’s call

for justice in the land.

God is our strength and refuge still

though all the earth give way;

our help at every time of ill,

the light of our dark day.

And as his people in the world

we bear the scars of grief,

but echo faith’s resounding note

- and still for justice pray.

There is a place of holiness

where God makes warfare cease.

There is a day of hopefulness,

a promised time of peace.

So, here today, we bear the pain
of inhumanity,
but pledge our lives to live for truth
so justice may increase

Recommended tune: Vox Dilecti

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If you are a Methodist the month of September brings with it new starts of all sorts.

As well as the school changes that everyone else copes with, and the 'empty nest' heartache as new family members head off to university for the first time, we have a New Year.

Presbyters and deacons who are changing jobs do it now and so are getting used to the regular cycle of meetings but with different groups of people. For ministers, especially Superintendents and District Chairs, the next few weeks are chaotic.

The diary is crammed night after night and the mileage rises as church councils, welcome services and harvest festivals mount up.

Our chaos is of a slightly different nature. My new role as Head of the Mission & Advocacy cluster in Methodist Church House at Marylebone Road, London, begins on September 5 but we can't move from Cornwall to our new home in Winchester for a further 10 days. Even after that Joy's work doesn't finish till the following week!

So if your mind is spinning with the prospect of the next few Methodist weeks, remember that God is in control - even if he doesn't plan the Connexional diary - and reflect on these lovely words from a Paul Field song.

'Go peaceful, in gentleness

through the violence of these days.

Give freely, show tenderness

in all your ways.

God speed you,

God lead you,

and keep you wrapped around his heart.

May you be known by love.'

Go Peaceful, Paul Field from New Hymns for the Modern Church

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It's been a week when people have been sentenced to four-year prison terms "as an example" to other rioters, and courts have sat until the early hours to deal with the massive numbers of cases generated by the outbreaks of violence in English cities.

Some politicians have been quick to demand exemplary punishments while others have called for restorative justice with criminals having to apologise face-to-face to the people whose homes and businesses they destroyed.

The tension is now between people who talk rather than former neighbours who acted, many of them illegally and with devastating consequences.

As Christians we try to continue our task of sharing the Good News of Jesus while working to build community with those who have burned it down and those who have had it ripped from under them.

God of our sunrise and light of the morning,

dawn on our worship, renew us today.

Come by your Spirit and fill with your passion,

set us on fire with the Gospel we pray.

We are your people, the Church you have chosen.

We are a gift to the weak and the strong.

We are the shape of your love for all people.

Help us to live that the world may belong.

Jesus your cross is the hope of the hopeless,

guide of the blind and the staff of the lame.

Here, as the nations are grieving and limping,

Give us compassion to live for your name.

Jesus your cross is the world’s consolation,

object of pain yet the strength of the weak.

Here, as we struggle for peace and for meaning

Jesus we ask for your courage to speak.

Jesus your cross is the birthplace of justice,

cloth for the naked, refreshment for thirst.

Here, as we seek ways to live out the Gospel,

May we repent of our need to be first.

Jesus your cross is the mystery that beckons:

drawing us close till we see face to face,

sharing your love with the world in its turmoil,

blessing with your uncontrollable grace.

Recommended tune: Great is Thy Faithfulness 

Copyright © Gareth Hill Publishing/Song Solutions CopyCare, 14 Horsted Square, Uckfield, TN22 1QG www.songsolutions.org

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Let's get this on the table straight away: I am really excited about my new job. My friend Steve said to me in the pub last night: "It's God's will, mate." Without trying to sound arrogant, I believe that. In fact it would be awful to start working for the Church in such a role if it was outside God's will.

So from the start of September I go from being a pioneer minister in Cornwall to being the Head of the Mission & Advocacy cluster of the Methodist Church central office team, based in London. It's about as big a shift as you can imagine: from planning my own day in one of the most beautiful parts of the world to being part of a group of people who depend on working closely with each other to help the Church speak well of Jesus.

From the age of 17 - when I began preaching - I have had a nagging sense that "I still haven't found what I'm looking for". Urging the Church, or chapels, to dare to reach out for God's best vision has been a part of my DNA and, I would argue, part of Methodism. It's often meant challenging people to lay down part of a traditionalism (not tradition) that has keep some of the Church locked in a dying past.

So new is always best then - well, not necessarily.

The heart of everything that's good about Christian faith - everything that grows - has always been community.

The heart of everything that's good about pioneering ministry - everything that grows - has always been community.

The heart of everything that good about the future of the Church - everything that will grow - has always been community.

For the past three years, Joy and I have lived in a small village of just 400 homes and about 1,000 people. It's the first place where we have really become a part of the community beyond church: joining the panto society, being part of the Sunday night pub quiz and where I've become "our minister", even to people who have no intention of going to chapel.

Last night I was in the pub, where we've held Lent film groups and village Harvest and Christmas events, and the only pub where Joy and I have ever sat at the bar, feeling quite at home.

One of the regulars, who had heard I was leaving, came up and said: "I'm really sorry you're going. There are good people and GOOD people and you are GOOD people. I hate God but I really like you and you'll always be welcome back."

That's what will make it so hard to go, even though we are sure it's the right thing. There are great new things ahead - we believe that firmly. It's a really exciting and challenging time for the people called Methodist and a thrilling time to be joining the Connexional Team.

We know, however, that a chunk of our hearts will be left in Tregony where God is at work through people who would be surprised to realise they are a part of his plan.

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So folks, after almost 20 years in Cornwall, we're on the move.

It's come very suddenly but this week I've been appointed Head of Mission and Advocacy for the Methodist Church, working with an incredibly creative group of people in London. The title sounds like I'm heading all mission and all advocacy but actually that's far from the truth: the team is brilliant and my role is to enable their skills to be harnessed as effectively as possible by the church.

The official announcement is tomorrow and the job starts on September 1 so the task begins of packing up one home and finding another much nearer London.

It's not sunk in for us properly but we have to prepare to leave somewhere very special to us. However, Joy and I sense this is the right move at the right time. Pray for us please.

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We make this bread in brokenness

and tentatively mould its form.

But life within creates, unseen,

a greater whole.

We bake this bread in hopefulness,

and wonder at the mystery

as fusing seed and rising yeast

commune as one.

We break this bread in faithfulness:

then eat and find ourselves renewed.

Bread for the world, work of our hands,

and blessed by God.

We ache for bread enough to share

with all whose hearts and hope are cold;

but ‘til that day when love flies free

God must send us.

Copyright © Gareth Hill Publishing/Song Solutions CopyCare, 14 Horsted Square, Uckfield, TN22 1QG www.songsolutions.org

Tune: 337 H&P Almsgiving

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Hundreds of people took a pilgrimage on the beach at Southport during the weekend of Methodist Conference as they walked a sand labyrinth created by volunteers.

The team, led by Cornwall's Youth Enabler Andrew Nicholson, offered the chance for people to reflect on their lives by following one of the most ancient methods of pausing in the middle of this hectic age.

People were offered a piece of rubbish and invited to walk through the labyrinth - almost a quarter of a mile all told - leave the rubbish at the centre on a rubbish tip topped by a cross and then walk back with a pebble that they could keep.

It's such a simple idea and yet the conversations were so profound: with people who had no faith; with Sikhs; Moslems; with whole families; with children who jumped over the sand humps and with people who asked if they were allowed to walk the labyrinth.

On one day alone, 276 people left the 'rubbish' of their lives at the centre of the labyrinth and walked out ...

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The bridge near the conference centre in Southport.

Cornwall District Chair the Rev Steve Wild caught out just after parking his bike!

Ordinands, their families and friends and Conference delegates gathering for the Conference Worship on Sunday morning.

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You never see them in the same room - I think we should be told.

Leo Osborn

Windsor Davies

(thanks to Joy for spotting it!)

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The Representative Session of Methodist Conference begins tomorrow in Southport and I obviously didn't do a bad enough job with the blogging last year because I've been asked to do it again.

That means my energies will probably be mainly concentrated here - http://www.methodistconference.blogspot.com/ - for the next few days so come on over and join us.

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