'Seize the Day' podcast #11 - December 2009: Bob Hopkins talks about how clusters balance gathering and scattering. (17 mins)

We had previously, as non-Christians, been in Brazil. We came home to England, and a question the churches asked us was: 'Oh, you've been in Brazil, you get involved in mission' - thinking that mission was in places like Brazil. But we'd seen enough of Brazil to know that the church in Brazil was much healthier than the church in the UK, and that, therefore, the UK was a major mission field, in the state of the church at the moment.

In this podcast, we're talking for a second time to Bob Hopkins about clusters - mid-sized missional communities. This month, we're talking about how clusters resolve the tension between gathering for worship, teaching, and encouragement, and scattering for mission.

Bob and his wife Mary work with Anglican Church Planting Initiatives. They have pioneered the 'Clusters' approach to missional church-planting, at St. Thomas Crookes church in Sheffield, and now in a growing number of churches around the world.

This is the second of three conversations with Bob Hopkins. In February, we will be talking to Bob about making the transition from traditional church to cluster church.

Also in this programme, we're reviewing 'Clusters: creative mid-sized missional communities,' by Bob Hopkins and Mike Breen.

Slipstream November 2009, with Denis Alexander and Ranald Macaulay

2009 is the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and the 150th anniversary (this month) of the publication of 'On the Origin of Species.'

Evolution continues to be a contentious issue for many Christians. In this anniversary special Slipstream podcast, we talk to Denis Alexander from the Faraday Institute, author of 'Creation or Evolution: do we have to chose?' and co-author (with Nick Spencer) of 'Rescuing Darwin.' We also talk to Ranald Macaulay from Christian Heritage Cambridge, author of 'Rescuing Darwin or wrecking the Faith?'

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