Woolly headed and feet of clay

What a mixed day. A cold start to the morning with ice to be scraped off car windows and resultant numb fingers to match the head which has become infected by the dreaded lurgy!

Can't understand how we can eschew the Patriarch, Prophets, John the Baptist, Mary journey that is Advent for the wishywashy Love, Hope, Joy, Peace stuff. Surely we need to reflect on things biblical rather than Hallmark card moments? Jesus isn't looking to merely make us 'happy', He's looking to make us disciples, and that don't look,like the world or find favour with them church members. We need to keep them happy in case they walk? Nah, we need to get them saved lest they burn!

Today's readings were sublime as Jesus is linked to Jesse (and therefore David) and made obvious that he is the hope and salvation that was to come (in Isaiah's time). Paul popped up in Romans and looked at the Prophets too and pointed out that the Messiah was for all: Jew and Gentile! How I long for Church that embraces and proclaims this without that little supremacist edge so often found!

John the Baptist popped in and asked just who we were: Could it be that we are the people with hearts of stone and have become a brood of vipers such that we replace the Sadducees and Pharisees of old?

Complaints abound, people niggled about stuff (justly and unjustly). Usual moans about getting older, getting smaller, getting this, that and the other. Have we trials and ???? - take them to the Lord in prayer, or better still, pray, get your finger out and do something about it.

Feeling slightly ???? as people complain about the stuff I didn't do as it I was the one who had to do it in the first place and they had no responsibility or part to play themselves. Wonder if Jesus ever looked up to heaven and asked, "Why do they keep looking at me? Can't they do it themselves?"  If they can see the need then they can surely also see the solution?

There are days when rather than walk in the hope that the sheep will follow, the attraction of getting behind them and kicking is so great. Give me the grace I lack and the stick I need! Is that a valid prayer?

It feels like the failure of others ends up at my door, sometimes very literally, and the ability to smile and be compliant is wonderful but just occasionally I'd like a table to turn over! We play our little Christian games and abuse people in the knowledge that we have to be forgiven - but that's not forgiveness, it merely the speaking of the word 'peace' when quite obviously there isn't any peace and very little integrity either :-(

The danger of putting on a show for the faithful, of tickling their ears with the spoken and playing to their demands with the new songs and the clamouring for 'bleeding edge' stuff when what is needed is for them to 'bleeding grow up' is immense.

What would Jesus do?

What should Vic do to make Jesus look like Jesus in himself and those he seeks to pastor, work with and work for is the question!

I'd love for a world where we 'tell it in love' rather than hide it in hypocrisy and faux love. My bloke took it to the cross to make his love real to reconcile me to God - sacrifice or superficiality - that is the question and the choice it seems.

Lord, give me clarity of vision, integrity in living, honesty in conversation and love in all I am and do. Amen.

Hope - Pray - Read - Do

Challenged myself with the image above.

Been thinking about those who sit in church and 'hope' things will happen;

And about those who 'pray' things will happen;

Or sit and 'read' about what happened in the Bible;

And those who 'make' things happen.

and wonder which combination of these made up my character.

And then prayed that it would be 'all' of them.

How do you do with it?

How to make your church grow - part one

Having this very morning opened an email asking me what I thought was needed to help their church grow I have found myself thinking seriously about how I can respond and, as I do so, I find it to be a thing of many parts. But the most important of these (for me anyway) is:

BE A DISCIPLE - NOT A MEMBER

Being a disciple means that I want to learn how to look like, act like, think like, live like, love like Jesus.

When I was an apprentice I followed people around, made tea, handed tools to whoever I was working with, washed the cups, made tea, got shouted at (a lot) and learnt my craft. As I passed through each of the training areas I followed the fitter, technician, P Way man and learnt what they did and copied them. Where they went - I went!

I found myself talking like them and becoming a composite of them all in terms of expression and thinking (technically anyway - never managed to quite master the attitudes many had over race, gender, politics and the like).

I became a product of the whole and learnt that for us to succeed (which meant do the job well and not be caught when we weren't) I had to be a part if the whole: There was just 'us' and that's who we worked for -Each Other! When a problem appeared we got stuck in and supported one another - we were a team.

Nothing has changed now I'm in the Church. I find myself sounding, acting and (I hope) thinking like the man I'm apprenticed to (in case you haven't guessed, this is Jesus) and I assume that this is the same for others too.

This is where I get disappointed because my assumptions are all too often wrong and rather than follow and look and learn and do and be, I find people who (like some of those I once worked with) are under the impression that 'being there' is enough. These are the people who clock in and out of church and work environments with the belief that attending is enough and, just like in the world of work, they are saddened as they see others pass them by.

We can change the world if we are disciples.

And as we change to look, sound and feel like the person from whom we learn we will change others too.

Where I am we have recently offered the SHAPE Course and are in the process of other training and exploration opportunities and whilst I know some will be content to merely turn up (and that's fine if that's who, where and what they are and that's the stage they're at - God is patient and kind) I know others will be keen to become disciples and, in turn disciple others, to look, act, speak, think, do and live like the Master craftsman we follow building nit in wood but in stone - living stones that are and is the Church.

So: Point the First - BE (and make) disciples

This Week - A retrospective

Well, here we are with another week gone and Sunday beckoning. I have been asked to give a brief review of the week that was for someone who wanted to consider various sorts of ministry (apparently we are an estate church!). So here goes:

Sunday: Couple of Common Worship communion services, Annual Church meeting
PM BCP Evensong.

Monday: Daily Office, Staff meeting, Drop-in session (free tea/coffee/cake and biscuits),
PM  funeral visit, administration, Kid's Club, paperwork, Men's meeting (yum!)

Tuesday: Daily Office, Church's Together meeting,
PM administration, home visits, Chaplaincy

Wednesday:  Daily Office, Missioner work
PM Missioner related (office), Funeral and interment, school visit, visits, Housegroup (new)

Thursday: Daily Office, Communion service, drop-in session (free tea/coffee/cake and biscuits),
PM Pastoral visit, School Assembly, paperwork, Missioner teaching session (an expert being anyone away from home!)
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Friday: Daily Office, broken computer!!, funeral (Crem')
PM 3 hours off (Sarehole Mill), Kid's Club, office stuff,

Saturday: Daily Office, service planning, chaplaincy

And that's the week done and dusted and ready to go again.

Hope this helps!

A, very, brief look at my week (now you can see why I love this ministry lark!).

Maundy (Mandatum Novum) Thursday

Maundy Thursday is more than, 'Just the day before Good Friday,' it is THE day when the Christian Church remembers Jesus washing His disciples feet; humbling himself and taking on the lowest of jobs to out into actions the words He'd been telling them for so long. Time was short and it was time to give them one last practical demonstration before the disciples graduated out into the world without Him by their side (physically).

The messy and lowest of the jobs are there for us to take and make our own and as we do, the more like Jesus we become: servant of all - living to make God and mankind one through LOVE. Now that's inclusive Church for sure ;-)

Today is a time for us to also remember the 'New Commandment' that Jesus left us with, the one that mirrors His prayer in John 17 regarding unity - for unity comes through 'loving one another' (easier when the three are one and the same ;-) ). And so the words of John 13. 34:

'A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another as I have loved you,'

And the 'Maundy' bit?

Well like Rotten Row in London ('Route de Roi') it is a corruption of the 'mandatum' written below (the John 13 verse in Latin) :

Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos

So as we think of Jesus, not just talking about servanthood but displaying it, here's a picture (one of my favourites) and some music:

I pray that you and yours have a wonderful and challenging climax to Passiontide and a blesséd Easter.

What really makes it Church!

I asked some of my colleagues what it was in church that made them laugh or cry. Here's what I think might be the top ten responses (but feel free to comment and add your own):

1. People who tell you that they, "Won't keep you a moment,' with the result that you're still trying to get away fifteen minutes later!

2. Those wonderful folk who stop you in the street and engage you - usually leaving you with the words, 'Oh I wish I could have your faith!'

3. People who don't like to talk about other folk, but  . . . really do enjoy talking about other folk.

4. People who clamour to be in charge of things and offer to help and yet are never to be found when you really need them.

5. People who want you to put their minds at rest when what they need is for them to stop being rested and start being active!

6. People who will tell you that they've 'tried it before and it doesn't work,' and in so doing condemn it to not working again!

7. The person who almost always comes to the service with a tenner and puts it on the plate and then moves the coins around to get some change from it!

8. Those who almost get the words right when they stand up and make a speech to the church council or the assembled church - the best example was the warden who explained to a bishop how the church had struggled during the interrectum!

9. The cost-conscious person in the congregation who always goes and turns off the central heating at just the right time to make your toes cold five minutes before the service end.

And for me the star has to be

10. The person who rings up on your day off because, and they tell you this, 'They know it's a day when they will catch you at home!!!'

So there they are in no particular order - perhaps you know these people (or are one of them) or have another that you'd like to add. If so, feel free.

Happy February - He is risen and the pancakes are on their way ;-)