Sunday and its choices beckon

And, as usual, there's loads to be done and yet, regardless, it never gets to be anything but exciting.

I wonder how many of us will be getting stuck in to all the work today with just a little of the feelings of Lazarus' sister, Martha, who asked Jesus to tell Mary, the other sister, to get stuck in a bit.

Now Jesus answers Martha by telling her that there are choices to be made and whilst she has chosen to do the stuff, Mary has chosen to sit in Jesus' presence and learn. 'She has chosen what is better and it won't be taken away,' He says and this is a thought for some of those who choose to be just that little too busy working for Jesus rather that living (and working) with Him.

In my daily dealings with people I get to meet many who are so taken up with the business (and busyness) of Church that they don't get to hear sermons, or worship God through Jesus, the Christ. I meet so many who choose to be the person who makes everything happen and they, like Martha, are at times found moaning about the others doing nothing.

We make our choices and whilst we sometimes carry our loads without complaining, the reality is that we should be carrying just enough - that which is our calling, rather than trying to do it all on our own or in our own strength.

Those who seek to sit at Jesus' feet should do so remembering that what we learn there is empty unless it's put into practice and part of that is seen by us sharing the loads of others.

So today, sit in Jesus' presence as much as you can - learn from Him, emulate Him - for tomorrow, when the Resurrection has been celebrated, we are called to take up our cross, denying ourselves, and share the load with others.

Church is a team sport - isn't it?

Leader or Manager?

More and more I find myself taken up with people who want to be safe in their own little pool. They don't want to see the congregations grow because that would change things and make the place uncomfortable for them!

They don't want to see new buildings; and to be honest, neither do I unless the need is real and the members have the vision and drive to make it happen, after all the biggest curse I know of us that of a dogcollar building because they wanted it.

The issues, for me at least, are bound up in people who are wanting to be leaders. What this means is that they want to be in charge! I meet few leaders but many (poor) managers and though this sounds like a put down, it isn't meant to be, it is merely a statement of what is. This is due to the fact that we are so very often caught up in the business of running a business where 'doing' and 'being efficient' are the twin gods of success. I meet so many 'cost effective' clergy who present a bank balance approach to Church and it is here that the problem lies.

We are called to be 'effective', that is to be out there making a difference because of the difference that being Christian confers upon us. We are not called to be sustainable but to be fruitful and it is here that the problems of Church are grounded.

I have had some who want to be 'up the front' because that would fulfil their needs and yet, regardless of how fulfilled they never were, the people remained unconvinced by them and the fruit they produced. Oddly though, others who had neither education or wit or experience (life, Christianity and Bible related) have proved themselves to be willing and effective conduits for the Gospel (despite the often sneering opposition).

As June arrives our tiny church is blessed as we celebrate one of ours ordained this month - our gift to the wider Church. We celebrate as others move along the line to discern their calling and vocation, seeking to bless and serve those around them and to look like Jesus, the Christ.

We are looking to touch those members of the community we serve with the Gospel made flesh - the Church that is made of living stones, not self-seeking and process-heavy but seeking to honour and worship God in all that He is and does to, for and through us.

Recently I was asked for goals, objectives and timescales for a place I had seen for minutes and whose people I did not know (but warmed to immediately I met them) and this holds up  a mirror to the problems we have time and time again in the wonderful world of Church. We are a visionary place regulated by God's call and the vision that burns in us - not managers bound by good management techniques and effective processes (and I'm not saying we don't need them - it's all a matter of perspective and balance).

Those who fail to plan might well plan to fail but those who are bound by goals, objectives and timescales are condemned to manage decline and call it sustainability. I don't want to merely exist, I want the Church to triumph and expand. Anyone else ready to storm the gates with me?

It ain't what you say . . .

It's the way that they hear it!

Last week, I had an opportunity to feel quite pleased with myself as one of the people who'd heard me preach on active remembrance in the Eucharist told me how much they'd learn and the difference that  'amniocentesis' had made to their communion experience!

I can honestly say that I have never, not once, mentioned the testing of amniotic fluids in conjunction with the Eucharist but realised that what they meant was 'anamnesis'.

One of the roles of the minister, especially those who wish to engage theologically at personal and congregational levels, is to take the difficult things and make them simple; take the simple things and make them commonplace and everyday realities. The problem is that we all too often simplify concepts and issues, scattering analogies and naff metaphors as we go, and leave our people with a weak and often impotent God and a flawed and failing Christianity,

God has three leaves and is green, or Mother, Wife and Daughter; the route to modalism or tritheistic stuff is now put on the spiritual GPS and and coherent understanding of the Trinity is lost (of course they could read 'The Shack I guess!). We struggle with the Vigin Birth and so we have adoptionism, Arianism or a 'normal' bloke who, 'Being filled with the Holy Spirit, is enable to be God because God resides in Him and make Him part of God!' (and I have heard that sermon on more than one occasion during my Christian life!

When I used to work with engineering apprentices,we had a large poster on the wall of one of the workshops which proclaimed:

“What I hear, I forget; 

What I see, I remember; 

What I do, I understand.”

And this was true for the apprentices (I was one, I know!) and was confirmed by the fact that out first attempts at thing often went awry but got better the more we did, and understood, the what, why and how; and is true for congregations too. The problem is this:

Many of us are not exposed to the Bible outside of the Sunday readings and sermon slot.


Many of us never get to discuss what the Bible says in an active way.

Many of us want to 'do' what the Bible says but have 'stuff' (work, hobbies, family, etc.) that get in the way and either prevent us from doing or water it down.

Many of us have a go but don't have the watchful, and corrective, eye and hand with us and so, if ut goes even a little wrong, we find ourselves withdrawing to a place of safety (ie. not doing anything or keeping to what we know we can do)!

Seems that even when we think we've said it well we find that later the people haven't perhaps heard it as well as we thought. There's more to preaching than:

Tell them what you're going to tell them

Tell them

Tell them what you've told them

We also need to show them (where possible) and then get them to explain, make, or do too!

Amniocentisis

Mind you, Parthenongenesis is the first book of the Bible that was found in the Parthenon, isn't it?