What it's all about

Sunday was the best - a baptism service for two people in the congregation.  We had a packed church and a great service.  Quite apart from the boost that baptism gives to the people going under the water, the church gets a lift from it.  Because this is what it's all about for Christians (Baptists in particular?).  Seeing grown ups deciding that they want to take the plunge - as it were.  

You see, we don't christen or baptise babies or children, though we are happy to give thanks for them and pray for them.  We figure that it's something that kids need to make their own minds up about, and in due course, when they are old enough, we baptise them.  We use a lot of water too.  Maybe it says something of the extravagance of  grace.  

Came across a great passage from a children's book just last week about baptism and how wrong people can get it.  This is from the point of view of a child:

"I'd heard about Baptists from Jacob Henry's mother.  According to her, Baptists were a strange lot.  they put you in water to see how holy you were.  Then they ducked you under the water three times.  Didn't matter a whit you could swim or no.  If you didn't come up, you got dead and your mortal soul went to Hell.  But if you did come up, it was even worse.  You had to be a Baptist."  

Robert Newton Peck, "A Day No Pigs Would Die"

It's true we're a strange lot.  But surviving baptism doesn't make you a Baptist.  It's a public declaration that you have become a follower of Jesus - other denominations are available. Though, obviously, they aren't so good...  

A great day.  For all the things that we are involved in as a church - this is what it's all about.

What's the opposite of happy-clappy?

I only ask because there was a story in the paper at the weekend about a vicar who has resigned due to pressure from a minority of parishioners who objected to the style of some of his services.

You can read it here but be warned of the side-bar of shame as it's from the Mail Online.  Vicar encourages clapping in services is how the Mail on Sunday reported it and further reading reveals that the last straw for some seemed to be clapping in family services to "Shine Jesus Shine" and "He's got the whole world in his hands" (Modern?!  When was the last time you sang that!)  Despite him laying on traditional services as well, people decided this was not the done thing in 'their' church and the choir is reported to have walked out of a Wedding Service in a terribly misguided protest.

The Comments section is quite illuminating and includes a lot of his ex-pupils (he taught RE in a Secondary School) giving him glowing references, as well as a lot of the general readership being supportive, and a few being glad he has left.

My instinct is to side with the vicar, but then I would say that, wouldn't I?  I offer four pieces of supporting evidence.

1)  This man annoyed some by preaching that they should give their life to Christ.  He did this on a regular basis.

2)  In a village of 900 people he was reported to be getting 50-60 kids coming to services.  This is incredible!

3)  He refused to comment when approached by the press, which suggests to great integrity.

4)  Some have commented that there must have been something going on if the choir walked out.  Such people don't know human nature so well.  There's the adaptable joke - "What's the difference between an organist / worship band / choir and a terrorist?  You can negotiate with a terrorist."   And before anyone adds it, I dare say you could add vicar / church official / person of your choice in the place

10,000 Reasons

Amazing news this morning - Matt Redman has gone and won two Grammys for his worship song, "10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)".  This is a great new song that we were introduced to by Stuart Townend (along with several thousand others at New Word Alive) and have since been singing in church.  It's been a special song for me in that time and it seems slightly surreal that it has won Grammys.  But 'Yay' for Matt!  Take a listen... 

"Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me

Let me be singing when the evening comes"

Searching for a place of peace

Read this on the Church Times website and have to say that I think a lot of this makes sense in my situation too, it's not just an Anglican thing!  Justin Welby - who becomes the new AB of C, makes some pertinent points here.  There are people lost and looking for an alternative, will they find a place of peace that shows them another way?  

Justin Welby - he does a mean Selwyn Froggitt impression

Bishop Welby went on to say that he thought that the present moment was "the greatest moment of opportunity for the Church since the Second World War". Since the banking collapse of 2008, "all the idols on which our society was based have fallen. They've been toppled."

But, he said, "the Church needs to be a place of peace if, now that the idols have fallen, we are to show people. That doesn't mean that we all agree; it means that we love each other when we don't agree. . .

"If you look back on some of the arguments we've had over the last few months in the Church of England, it is poison to the mind of those who are outside the Church. It anaesthetises them against the gospel."

He said that the Church needed to find "a way forward" on women bishops and the debate over sexuality. "The Church at a national level has to be outward-looking and a body that is engaging, not looking inwards and consumed by its own problems. . . I am optimistic we can make progress."

Townend in Town

Huge excitement today as I can reveal that the church has booked Stuart Townend to come to play at the local school in April.  This is a major event for us, we are a small church of around 70 and Stuart Townend has a worldwide following.  His best known hymn is probably, "In Christ Alone" and so it seemed only right to wordle it to celebrate.  I like the way it looks a little like a tree.  Can't wait for the event, very excited!

Why Men Should Not Be Ordained

Have to confess that this is lifted wholesale from Ben Witherington's Blog - you can find him
here.  Sent it by a friend who I ought to keep anonymous and I love it; funny and clever.  Don't get the vestments things at all though... 



Top 10 Reasons Why Men Shouldn’t Be Ordained

(Kudos to Jason Jackson for this).

10. A man’s place is in the army.

9. For men who have children, their duties might distract them from the responsibilities of being a parent.

8. Their physical build indicates that men are more suited to tasks such as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be “unnatural” for them to do other forms of work.

7. Man was created before woman. It is therefore obvious that man was a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment, rather than the crowning achievement of creation.

6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. This is easily demonstrated by their conduct at football games and watching basketball tournaments.

5. Some men are handsome; they will distract women worshipers.

4. To be ordained pastor is to nurture the congregation. But this is not a traditional male role. Rather, throughout history, women have been considered to be not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more frequently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.

3. Men are overly prone to violence. No really manly man wants to settle disputes by any means other than by fighting about it. Thus, they would be poor role models, as well as being dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.

2. Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep paths, repair the church roof, change the oil in the church vans, and maybe even lead the singing on Father’s Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the Church.

1. In the New Testament account, the person who betrayed Jesus was a man. Thus, his lack of faith and ensuing punishment stands as a symbol of the subordinated position that all men should take.

Reconciliation

Long time, little in the way of blogging, in large part because there has been a lot going on that it would be wrong to blog about. There has been trouble at the mill which made it necessary to have a morning service of Repentance and Reconciliation on Sunday, a time to forgive one another and move on.

It was largely very successful, the weeks before had been well spent by some to have some difficult conversations that had previously been avoided. In the service we looked at what Jesus has to say about our need for reconciliation (Matthew 5.21-24) and how we go about being reconciled (Matthew 18.15-17).

That second passage in particular is very practical and clear instruction.  It’s also very scary and so we often chicken out of doing what we are told to do in these passages. 

There are things we are told not to do – don’t pretend that everything is alright, don’t slip away from church without telling anyone why, don’t grumble and gossip about the situation.  Jesus doesn’t even tell us to win the argument, just to win the person back; be reconciled.

As a leadership team we have taken good advice from others in our position (and more importantly Jesus!) and repented of listening to anonymous feedback.  This has been crippling us for some time and so we needed to make clear that we will listen to and engage with anyone who brings any complaint to us, we will make every effort to listen (a word that comes up four times in those three verses) and respond accordingly, whether it’s to explain, clarify, apologise, or whatever. 

But we will no longer respond to anonymous feedback of the nature “a lot of people think” where those people are not prepared to say who or to be identified.  (From experience, “a lot of people” can mean anything from most of the church to a single person.)  Such feedback gets us nowhere.  We don’t know who is upset, how many people are upset, why they are upset, how strongly they are upset, we don’t know who we are supposed to listen to and talk to and we have no opportunity to work together to be reconciled.  It leaves the person or people with a complaint feeling frustrated too because no-one seems to be listening or caring and nothing changes. 

So, confessions of a dysfunctional church leadership, that was how we were and we made things harder for ourselves.  We have repented, turned from old ways to new ways – better ways – and are determined to do it the way that Jesus says, face to face, graciously, gently, boldly, lovingly, honestly, openly. 

The full sermon that was preached on Sunday can be listened to here or downloaded under Reconciliation here.  Pray, all the time, that you never need it!     

Vagabonds

Not sure how I missed it but last year Stuart Townend released his album 'The Journey', and a fine listen it is too.  I already knew and loved a few of the songs, but the one that really did it for me this morning was the wonderful 'Vagabonds'.  Great track which should be played loud, preferably in a car so you can sing along without being stared at.  Or alternatively dig out your penny whistles and join in.  Click the link in the long-neglected, top right hand corner of the blog; 'Our Friends Eclectic' and turn up the speakers.  Enjoy! 

On Sunday I preached in church on this verse:

"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart."   (1 Peter 1.22)

As I mulled this over and read around the verse I discovered that there are two different types of love referred to here.  The Greeks had (and, for all I know, still have) more than one word for love, depending on what kind it is.  In this verse the sincere love is philadelphia, a brotherly love, the love of a good, functional family.   The "love one another deeply, from the heart" is agape, a tougher, unconditional love. 

It seems that Peter has reason to remind the churches that as family together they should already have a brotherly love.  But now it needs to go even deeper, they need to love each other in tough times. 

I suspect that we all gave assent to this when we read it together and prayed about it afterwards.  But then two days later (just two days) we had a Church Meeting where we seemed to forget all that. 

How painfully slow we are to change. 

And how patient God is. 

Christmas is coming...

The national poster campaign for churches this Christmas has been revealed.  Provocative and profound, I really like it.  What do you reckon?

The dangers of preaching...

 

When cricket umpires preach?

I was preaching yesterday about Jesus' command to 'love one another' and pointed out that this is as old as the hills, referring to where God's people were told to do this in Leviticus.  Or I tried to point that out. 

Genuine laugh out loud moment this morning on receiving this email today.  I'll leave you to look up the passages to see why:

Hi Steve,
Good sermon on Sunday morning!
If you ever preach it again though you might want to revisit the second slide in your presentation.
I think that you probably meant to quote from Leviticus 19 v 18, however the actual verse you wrote on the slide was Leviticus 18 v 19. It added a whole new perspective to the point you were making........... :-)
Best Wishes,
Dave

15 years ago

Long time no blog.  I've been on holiday for a couple of weeks and it's hard to blog when you are in a temt in a field without mobile signal, let along electricity. 

 

I've just noticed that today marks the 15th anniversary of Princess Diana's death, one of those 'you must remember where you were when you heard' moments.  I was in Suffolk on a weekend away with friends and had got up very early to my (at the time) only child, the one who took her GCSEs this summer!  Bleary-eyed I switched on Radio 1 (okay, so I've changed) to find sombre classical music playing.  Which threw me somewhat.  In due course the news was given, the kind of news that takes a while to sink in.  The friends we were with hadn't got children 15 years ago and so I had to play with my wee girlie for two or three hours before it was decent to wake the others and tell them. 

The rather bizarre reaction to all that then unfolded, a nation taken by surprise in it's grief.  For some years afterwards I would visit people on the local estates for the church and it wasn't unusual to find a framed picture of Diana on the mantelpiece; whether as a saint or one of the family it was hard to know.   

15 years ago was also my last day of working with students for UCCF.  It was a brilliant time, I learnt so much through working there, much of which I still use today.  It shaped me for time in church ministry as did the great church that I was a part of and went on to serve.  Because 14 years and 364 days ago I started working for a church full-time.  More simply, tomorrow is my 15 year anniversary of being paid to work in a church.  I may be middle aged but I did a lot of other things first, no bad thing in my book. 

Church ministry is a great adventure!  Some amazing highs and some serious lows but rarely a dull moment.  Actually some dull moments would be nice; just occasionally.  It's amazing that we're allowed to do this, we who are fallible, flawed, but forgiven.  I regularly marvel that God uses me to lead a church but then he has previous history on this, in the Old Testament he spoke through a donkey.  Despite the occasional escape fantasy, I really can't think of anything I'd rather do. 

15 years in, what really matters is the next 15 years.  I am grateful that I don't know what lies ahead, but in the words of Paul in Philippians 3, "one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal."     

Buddha and the Cowboys

'Buddha and the Cowboys' might sound like a film mash up but actually it was my experience last Friday. 

The church premises were rented by a charity for the day and they took advantage of the summer weather to use the car park at the front for selling some of their wares and to run some stalls.  It was my favourite parishioner who alerted me to the fact that they had a stall selling various staues, including a couple of big ones of Buddha.  I had to gently point out to the organisers that this was a bit of a issue for us because, "We don't really do Buddha here" and they were lovely and apologetic and there was no issue about it at all.  

Then came the cowboys.  The charity had booked a re-enactment of some wild west heroes (they got permission from the police) having a shoot out in the car park in order to attract attention.  Well it certainly did that (though I would have thought that if you were looking to draw a crowd then the sound of gunfire might not be the best ploy.  The cowboys concerned were heard to remark that the sound of the guns bouncing off the wall around them made it really loud and apparently it was loud enough to panic the bank on the corner into thinking that a real life raid was taking place.  And I thought Church Members' Meetings could get a bit wild!

I've been lying low ever since.  The last thing we need at the moment is headlines - local or national - about a gun fight in the Baptist Church car park.      

Answered prayer

Very excited last night to hang around while some of our musicians rehearsed.  The church has been praying for musicians for at least seven years (I know that I started some six months before I arrived).  The good and faithful people that have served for so many years - decades - are now no longer able to get up in the organ seat and at the beginning of this year we were able to start using a very simple (but good quality) band with piano, drums and voice.  As you can see from the picture, there are now even more options and the quality is just fantastic.  Can't wait for Sunday, just hope the sermon is up to standard! 

Back to work, back to reality...

...as Soul II Soul never quite sang.

Well, I'm three weeks back after a three month sabbatical and it's been an interesting time to say the least.  It was always going to be a bit of a challenge to get back into the groove and, actually, who's to say that it's a good idea to get back into the old groove?   I've been trying to catch up with people and situations, some of which (both the people and situations) I'm finding rather perplexing but the rest and recharge of sabbatical have been beneficial and have helped me through. 

After two difficult weeks it was good to get back on track with what it should be all about, as we celebrated 'On Your Marks', a Holiday Club for 80 children.  It was a great team effort and tonight I eagerly await the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games knowing that the Holiday Club team played a blinder.  A day of rest tomorrow and then Sunday morning brings around my favourite service of the year - the Holiday Club service.  Bring it on!

The picture?  I got pied today as the villian of the 'On Your Marks' drama.  Messy Church just got messier.   

Rafael Benitez - Church Guru?!

Very interested to read two very different things this afternoon that said the same thing. 

The first was the book Simple Church, (Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger) whihc advocates that you first work out what your philosophy of church is and then reflect that through everything you do, ensuring a process between one thing to the next.  Recruitment is made on the basis of people buying into your church philosophy.  Ministries either serve that philosophy or they become ex-ministries.  You do the stuff you are there to do and scrap the rest.  Quite radical.  Quite scary.  Quite obvious.  Quite rare.

The second thing I read was Rafael Benitez' piece in the i newspaper today that advocates pretty much the same thing.  He advocates establishing a philosophy for your football club: "England above all need the clubs to decide on the style of football they want to play, from academy through to first team.  They must then coach  the coaches in that style and then coach the players."  Otherwise, he says, the ones who aren't quite up to Premiership level end up going out on loan under managers with different philosophies and different styles of play, which is unhelpful. 

He goes on, "You must decide on a system; deciding, for instance, that  you want to play the ball on the floor, not in the air, and then you need to create a philosophy at your club where everyone has the same one."  This would translate in Simple Church terms to all the ministries pulling in the same direction rather than doing what each ministry leader likes best.  He also suggests recruiting on this basis too - "You stick to it, no matter who is manager, and you appoint a manager with that vision."
 

Woman only speaks for 25 minutes!

On Sunday morning, my favourite parishioner preached for the first time on a Sunday.  She has spoken to groups before, children, pensioners, people in between, but she has never preached on a Sunday, in a church building, to men and women, using a lectern. 

Some people that I love will be joyful at the opportunity she had to speak on Sunday, some others (who I also love but disagree with) will be upset that a woman preached on a Sunday.  I suspect that most people in church aren't all that bothered either way and that most people outside the church must wonder what we are like if we are even still having this conversation.  

It has been interesting on my sabbatical to visit churches that have been recommended to me as places doing a good job. Every minister I have spoken to has been gracious and generous with their time and thoughts.  I've asked each one if women preach at their church.  Each has said that they do (although the overwhelming majority of preachers are men) and that it's not an issue for them as a church.  It's of particular interest to me as we are in the middle of discussions as a church about this very thing.  We've been studying the Scriptures as a leadership and trying to work out what they say because, like it or not, neither side of the debate can say that it is straight forward.  It's not altogether clear.  I, and most of the church leadership, are happy to welcome women preachers.  This is most definitely not a pragmatic decision but based on what we believe the Bible allows.  Being the kind of people we aspire to be (i.e. family), we'll need to sit down as a church and discuss it before we make a final decision.  There may well be future blogs on this. 

Back to Sunday.  She did  a terrific job and I am left thinking that there must be something that I can do better than her.  If she's this good the first time...  More seriously, I also wonder why some people would be happier to have a less able/gifted (male) teacher in the pulpit on a Sunday.  Pragmatism isn't the reason for our decision but you do have to consider that the church is missing out where it is not using gifted women in this area of ministry.   

Cotswold Way - Day 6 - Haresfield Beacon to Uley - sort of

Having sweated it out yesterday, today is fleece weather, albeit with shorts.  It's the kind of day where it isn't too bad if you keep moving but when you stop to admire the scenery in an exposed spot, you don't stop for long.  I prefer it to the heat of yesterday, but Dave, my brother-in-law and walking companion, isn't so sure.

Like yesterday, the first part is easy walking and downhill, first through woods and then across fields as we head towards Stroud, in particular Ebley.  Today we are faced with a choice.  At the bridge pictured below we can carry on across and take a shorter route, or we can turn left once we have crossed the bridge and walk along the Stroudwater Canal.  (If you are using this blog to pick up anything practical for your own walk (heaven forbid!) then it will be useful for you to know that the picture is taken once you have crossed the bridge, looking back to your right.)  Do note that neither of the two options are signed as the Cotswold Way and, unusually, there is no signage on the longer route until we reach the A419.   

Both routes are equally valid and recognised and official but I don't want to feel I have taken any shortcuts.  I am so obsessive about this that I even walked an extra fifty yards to the end of the car park yesterday in case I parked closer to the entrance to the woods this morning and missed twenty yards somewhere.  So it's the longer option for us. Along the canal and over Selsey Common.   

Now, of course I don't know what we missed on the other route but I strongly suspect we made the right decision.  For a start we had some flat walking alongside the Stroudwater Canal and the team who are devoting their efforts to it's restoration are clearly seeing some great results.   Unknown to us, just up (or down) stream at Stonehouse, the first of the boats for the Jubilee celebrations is being lowered down the slipway today.  I didn't realise the significance of this until I later read that the boats taking part in these celebrations were the first to take to the water in a hundred years.  This also explains the big voluntary work party, out in force, busy making final preparations. 

They have done a terrific job, the canal is beautiful and the new housing that has sprung up alongside is in keeping with it.  If they could just add a Cotswold Way sign or two, it will be perfect.  As it is our guidebook says to turn right down a footpath opposite the houses and I suspect there are a few more houses there now than when it was written.  There is an element of going back and forth before we work out where we turn off, cross the mill stream and walk across a fairly unpromising looking field before going through the tunnel to the A419.  It is only when we find the tunnel that we are sure we are on the right route and again, a sign or two wouldn't go amiss. 

The climb up to Selsey is across a field and as well as pausing to work out how the village plays on such a hilly cricket pitch, we call in at Selsey Church to admire the windows.  It's a Victorian building with windows by some of the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris designed some of the windows. 

The climb up to Selsey Common is a longish and steady one and, with a few breaks to take in the scenery, not too taxing.  Not bad considering we have climbed from around 30 metres at canal level to over 200 metres.   The views are great across Selsey and the church, and the Stroud Valley beyond it. 

Once over the common we seem to spend a lot of time in woods, going down and up.  I don't like the thought of the height I am giving away after the ascent of Selsey Common, knowing we'll only have to climb again.  Those hills, they make you pay!   Eventually we emerge at the Nympesfield Long Barrow and soon after that to Coaley Peak.  It's very windy up there today and the last of the fruit (or food of any kind) that we have is consumed in haste so as to move on. 

And now for my confession.  We made two mistakes today.  One was to use an old OS map that showed us a Car Park that isn't on the current map and I can't see exists anymore.  This was especially dumb as I had the newer version as well, tucked away in my glove compartment.  Why?  Instead of parking there as planned, Dave (and this will be no surprise to anyone who knows him) suggested that we parked opposite the pub in Uley, leaving us a walk of about a mile downhill to get there but with a great incentive.  

The second mistake was a shared one.  We were both so excited (in a, 'Well, we've come this far, let's take this hill as well' sort of way) that we see Cam Long Down and it's short sharp climb as a challenge.  It's hard work this late  in the walk but the views are good.  What we don't realise (and Dave doesn't know yet) is that we didn't need to climb it at all.  I needed to on Day 7, but he got to climb it in what I like to consider a bonus.  Time will tell if he agrees.  I may not tell him yet as he is considering walking another leg with me.  maybe later.

 

Coming down the other side we meet a runner who tells us, without breaking stride, that we need to leave the trail here and head back down the road.  Particularly impressive as earlier we saw him run up the hill we have just laboured up.  It's a longer walk than is necessary to get to Uley village (we are on the edge of Dursley when we turn back) and we have walked further than planned today.  But the Uley Ale, brewed in the same village, is fantastic and Dave's decision to park opposite the pub is more than vindicated.  Next time I am faced with the choice of parking in Dursley and walking back to where we left the trail before we turned back or starting in Uley, parking outside the pub again.  It's a tough choice.    

Made it - just

Long time no posts, probably my longest absence since I started to blog.  Ironically, the effect of this has been to see the hits on the blog go through the roof.  Seems the less I write, the more people like it. 

Truth is I've been pretty done in.  Getting to sabbatical (which started Easter Monday) was a struggle and was probably only made possible by time at New Word Alive the week before, which, once again, proved to be a refuelling post along the way.  The rest of the time was spent in frantic activity trying to get everything done before I started sabbatical.  I got most of it done, handed on the rest and have probably forgotten a bunch of things. 

Came back feeling much more positive from NWA, encouraged by good solid, encouraging and challenging talks.  And some difficult feedback to face on returning but Easter weekend was good, people responding to the cross and all that it achieved, I had the pleasure of praying with one person who wanted to recommit their life to Christ, which puts any setbacks into perspective. 

But the exhaustion I felt has been the reason for the silence my end.  Sabbatical is now well under way and I am slowly being recalibrated.  My first goal is to start adopting a normal sleep pattern, achieved just twice so far.  Unwinding is a slow and rather uncomfortable experience but I need to go through it. 

Listened to a Tim Keller sermon on Elijah yesterday that points out that when Elijah was feeling like he was done in and he just wanted to die, God feed him and gave him sleep, as well as offering him renewed relationship and spiritual food.  We are physical, relational, and spiritual beings and we need to be healthy on each level - and probably lots of others too.  His application is that sometimes we don't need prayer or to listen to a sermon but a good meal and a B&B by the seaside, to listen to great music and to read a good novel.  Sounds good to me.  Watch this space... 

Sustainable and Sustaining?

Very interesting WEBA Ministers' Conference last week.  David Coffey was excellent on Joseph and though I had heard the sessions last year at a conference, it bears listening to a second time - and more.  Communion at the end of the three day shin dig was an unexpectedly emotional affair for me and I've come back with plenty to think about. 

Perhaps the most challenging session was from Stuart Murray Williams who asked lots of great questions about how we do church and, rather frustratingly, refused to give us easy answers.  His central question, or at least the one that stood out to  me and many others, was, "Is what we are doing sustainable and is it sustaining us?"  Rather less snappily, can we keep things going the way that they are, or is it killing us?  Are we trying to do too much and are we burning people out in the process? 

Stuart challenges us to have the courage to review what we are doing and to undertake some judicious pruning.  What could we do without doing?   One thing we all agreed in our group was that if we were starting church from scratch we wouldn't start from where we currently are.  But that is where we find ourselves, so what next?  Answers on substantially more than a postcard please!