Generosity is an important word in our community. It’s our hope that we look at the decisions we make through the lens of generosity.

I recently came across an amazing talk by novelist Chimamanda Adichie. She tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

About this time five years ago we arrived in Exeter. I remember it being a strange time. We didn’t know anyone and we had virtually no responsibilities. The weather was great, the London olympics were on and we enjoyed exploring Devon. We had no idea how the whole ‘church planting’ thing was going to work out, but we were excited.

Back in April a few of us headed up north — everything seems up north from Exeter —  to attend the Nomad Gathering. Nomad is a podcast run my two guys called Tim and Dave, each episode they interview different authors, theologians and practitioners about community, mission and the future of the church.

A phrase we’ve been throwing around a lot lately — particularly in relation to our weekend gatherings — is ‘thin places’. This metaphor isn’t a new concept, it’s roots our found in Celtic Christianity. Originally the phrase was a way of describing those places and moments where it feels like heaven and earth meet, that the space between them is so thin, that you can actually catch glimpses of God.