Journal: Still working on Monday's listrd

Halfway through the week and still wondering about Monday's stuff!

Been an amazing pastoral week thus far and today was something of a challenge for a number of reasons - but it highlights the diversity of the 'being in ministry' pastoral role; and what it means to care for the sheep.

I'm often surprised as the ability of people to be wIcked, and saddened by the things others will do to in their pursuit of serving themselves. The potential for people to be good is made real in the majority of the people I meet. The realisation that people are generally nice is something that always cheers and yet that small percentage that are not, still wounds.

I was reflecting today on how I wished I had the modern day equivalent of a sling and five stone to take on the giant before me. I recalled a lecture by police officer on security many years back: motive, opportunity and means was the mantra they repeated as they brought a PowerPoint screen full of caution and challenge. Today as I considered those words and reflected on some of the imprecatory elements of the OT; the calling upon God to 'get the wIcked whilst they still lived' as once they'd died they were home safe. Virtue, and vice, bring their own reward - I believe that - but there's something satisfying in seeing the wicked get theirs in your presence.

My Father used to say that of his many goals in life, after 'be happy', were outliving his enemies and dying owing money. I don't know about the second but the 'outliving' bit certainly shaped and coloured who he was - and yet there was never any need to have harboured this debilitating attitude. Worse still, those he had separated himself from continued to live a happy life without him, undoubtedly a bit sad at the empty chair at gatherings early on but oblivious to it as the years past. Meanwhile, the separation from them being family wounded Him at every step. I see a man I know who lives like my Father did. He's a sad, almost shambling, shell of a man, almost Gollum like; a man whose hope is not in the God who died for him but in a forlorn hope that 'luck' might bring him something that supplies his needs and make him ... I was going to use the word 'happy' but think for him that won't be the same 'happy' I know :-(

So much to reflect upon as the motive of 'self' is made obvious, the means by which we can serve ourselves is shown in our ability to be wicked, cruel, spiteful, scheming and worse - the 'why' and 'how' of the turnstile to a life of being everything God has created us not to be - raise their ugly heads.  Which leaves the 'who': the sheep which stray from the shelter of the plain and the enfenced place under the,direct gaze of the shepherd into the presence of wolves.

The human shepherd cannot be everywhere and as the sheep roam there are predators, natural threats and the realities of life and death as found in illness and disease. 

How do I keep my vulnerable sheep under my gaze without restricting them and denying them their liberty?

Without trusting our kids to go out and live well we deny our faith in who they are, managing and cotrolljng their lives and refusing to let them live lives of their own. We give them life, care for them and then let them make their own way, being there if they need us, standing back to see whether the wings will open and cause them to soar or the unthinkable might happen. It is one of the may rites of passage!

Cherries on the cake today were found in the shape of home visits - with the niggle of those still to be visited for the first time this year as a stone in the shoe - and they were a blessing (for me and those Imvisied I pray) in a tough day. But isn't this what we should be doing with every act, every step?

Shouldn't we be proclaiming 'family' and of belonging together as one in all our actions and in our payers?

Lord, I pray for the vulnerable sheep - those whose desires take them into the company of wolves. Help me to be a shepherd who cares well for his flock, being watchful and aware of their weaknesses, follies, challenges and needs; never leaving them to the perils unspoorted and yet not controlling them such that they become exhubitts in a zoo!

Lord, I pray for the damaged sheep; those whose feeble legs, shaking hands, broken hearts and unsteady minds gift them the potential to be a tasty morsel in the journey of life. Help me to stand for them, to stand with them, to kneel over them.

A tough day in which I give thanks for your love.

1. Use me well tomorrow - bless my rest now I pray,

 

Everything was going so well, and then . . .

Being Mr efficient, I purchased the Advent Candles months back and had them all ready and waiting in the church, all that was needed was to to walk in and plonk them in the candle holder. So, an hour and a half before the service I pop into run through the music and do the candles - where's the Advent  wreath thing?

Bottom line is that at 10:25 everything is ready and I've used an alternative candle holder as ours is nowhere to be found! I didn't get to practice the songs and I hate this as it is always good to have a play and get into a bit of personal prayer and reflection before the service and without my getting lost in playing and removing myself from people I feel dragged into the places rather than entering ready to meet with God - and today is Advent Sunday! Aaargh!

So we start and it's a day of missed cues and muddled messages - I'm not down to preach (thank goodness for the 'Can't make it to church'  bit on the blog which allows me write a sermon in my head and post it regardless). Meanwhile the wife is doing a service elsewhere and I pray that she is being a blessing and is blessed (and it seems that she and it were - Thank You Lord).

The joy of having so many people take part in a service (there were eleven people involved in some aspect of the service yesterday (13 if you count the Sunday school) is immense - I go to places where everything is done by the person taking the service and that makes for a contiguous, polished (at times), performance from a one man band - but where are are many, the potential for interesting things is infinitely before us! Still, no one other than me did the absolution, there were missed bits (which we studiously also ignore on the PowerPoint) a final song with at least three different version (but we ended in the right chord and laughed as a family at the mayhem), somehow I ended up doing the intercessions (which was an amazing privilege as always) and by the time the day was done.

I struggle at the art of performance that I encounter in some places. The 'Worship' band (I think they mean 'Music Team' because surely the whole service is 'Worship') which is so polished and needs to be marched through the service as if it were a drill display and woe upon them should a note be wrong or a beat missed (which is odd because both are usually present despite somewhere despite their practising!). I rejoice in the bumps we encounter on the road that is our service; sometimes it's the things that fall off the wagon that remind us of the reason we are in the place as Church.

I'm wondering about the places where the service is a one man band - is this making church a spectator sport: worse still, is this something that supports the increasing sadness that is consumerism in the church? Some things for prayer and reflection (with loads of potential conversations too, which has to be good)?

But back to St Francis' and the encounters, the opportunities for fellowship. And the like. I love us still hanging around for so long after the service - its always, "No!" when people ask, "Don't you,wish they'd go home?" 

Last week a couple of visitors remarked that 'weren't church'. They unpacked it by saying that it was relaxed, there were no masks and there was so much else in the place. That's my persistent prayer; that he church might contain true Church - people who can open themselves to one another in safety and in the knowledge that there would be love - if we have that then it can't be bad, can it?

As much as I like to be collegial and share the ministry, there are times when I wish I was more so. Yesterday was one as I cut and folded 1,000 cards to stick through the letterboxes of a neighbouring church. Problem is that The printing wasn't 'edge to edge' and so needed multiple cuts and a crisp fold. Talk about practical evangelism of a different sort, but as I cut and folded I prayed that each seed would bring forth fruit - so, as ever, there was a silver lining. Next year, if they do it again, there will be a more accurate print run with the prayer  and but one fold and one cut still needed!

So here we are - bed beckons and Advent has arrived - even so Lord Jesus, come soon :-)

All Member Ministry - Spinning Plates

Back from holiday, picking up the pieces and looking towards the second half of 2013 I find myself, once again, faced with so many opportunities that it makes my head spin! There's Tamworth Street Angels, the Mission Shaped Ministry Course, Schools ministry and more besides.

There are so many opportunities in the community we serve and for a small church we are blessed to have some wonderfully committed and engaged members, not that this means all the bases are covered but we do have a high proportion of people doing stuff (and that's a real blessing). and have a few slowly progressing along the path to lay and ordained ministry too (which is a blessing and gift to the church and the wider Church too).

There's enough emails to keep me busy until Christmas and so many more requests and opportunities for us as a church to engage with that I can see there being even more plates to be added before long - guess we need to pray in more workers :-)

I've been amazed at the number of people I have engaged with over the past few weeks who have told me that they couldn't find a role in their local place of worship and have found the common element was that they were looking to be people with influence rather than people who influenced by doing. Not only that but they knew what they didn't like and what they didn't want but were less sure about what they did and all, almost to a person, was upset because they 'weren't listened to' or were basically unable to have their own way.

Interestingly it was the pastor or dogcollar that came in for the real stick because they, 'Just weren't listening to them!'

I rarely find a leader who is unwilling to listen, they just tire of listening to the same old stuff and the demands that are more often than not unaccompanied by offers of real help and engagement.

As we get nearer to the September rush into Christmas can I encourage all of us to stop, pray, read (the Bible), think and discern where and what God is calling us to do - what parts we are called to play (which might not be the same as desire to be) and having done so, let us get off our bottoms and get stuck in to the work of blessing one another, building each other up and getting the work before us done?

A sad, yet equally funny, quote regarding someone who was a 'good giver' (which some consider to be enough these days I'm afraid) who left a church went thus: 'If you lend someone a tenner and never see them again it was probably worth it!'

This is true also of those who think that their presence is justified on the basis of what they give and that should be a factor in how they are regarded by the rest of the church (and especially the leader), but this isn't the case - it's not what you give, but how you give it.

It's not what you give that counts - it's how you serve!

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How's your serve today?

Say one for yourself!

One of the brilliant things that technology brings is the potential  to make things accessible and by virtue of this accessibility make them commonplace and one of the best areas this can be seen is in that of prayer.

Prayer is perhaps one of the most over-claimed and under-done areas in the lives of so many of those I encounter. I'm assuming that's a statement that will confuse and perhaps inflame some reading this, but it is the truth. Let me explain (yeah, you'd better I hear you mutter) ...

Whenever I talk about prayer, those in the conversation will nod sagely and agree that it's the oxygen of Christian living and that it is not only essential, but is a given that they do it. 'Of course we're praying,' they say. So I ask what they're praying at the moment and whether they pray alone or with partners or in triplets, prayer groups or something else. It's about now they shuffle a little more and mumble a bit and then tell me that they 'did it' , errrr, 'Last week (I think) ... ' Then it all goes quiet.

Now I don't ask to put people on the spot or to make them feel got at. I don't do it to tell them to pray, because I don't have to, they already know that conversation with the other party in a relationship is one of the ways of keeping thy relationship real and engaged. We all now we 'should' pray but we also have lives, families, things to do, televisions and so many other distractions that crowd in to stop us praying - and this is not an accident. I happen to believe that stuff getting in the way is part of a planned strategy that seeks to get in the way.

So how do we overcome this? Well part of the answer is immediacy and accessibility and this, coupled with desire, is ninety percent of the battle. The good news is that the immediacy and accessibility come in the shape of texts and Web presence, such as blogs).

One of the reasons this blog carries a shortened form of the daily office morning prayer is to make it available for those who find time during the day when they can read their Bibles and engage in prayer. Another thing that we have tried in our church is sending out by text the daily readings and the name (or names) of those who we are praying for that day. This helps those who want to pray have the passages directly or in a form they can use with their own Bibles as part of their daily devotional life.

There are so many ways we can use technology to help those who want to pray and study the word do so, and I've just come across another great system which uses QR codes (more on that over en next couple of days) and yet another which sends emails out every morning to subscribers.

I'd welcome any ways you have come across that work because at the end of the day, the more methods open to us, the more effective we can be in finding the way that works for someone and the reality is that I really do believe the desire is there in so many of us, it's just the opportunity and availability.

And prayer, although one of the main keys to revival and effective discipleship, is even more important as the primary means of communication in the relation that we have between us and God, for without it we are left with religion - and who wants rules you can't keep and confirmation that you need saving every day?

Cameron and a 'Christian' Country

Despite those who will undoubtedly continue to tell me that being a 'Christian Country' is something that is no longer I have to say, faith position not withstanding, that indeed it still is. But only by its fingertips.

If our nation were to eschew the values and standards of Christianity like many of those in mainland Europe we would see intolerance, lack of social action an increase in extremely stupid court rulings and worst of all, the demise of religious freedom. Of course this is the road we are on and many of those who proclaim secular or humanist values do in fact seek the demise of 'religion' for the ascent of their own non-religious religion, a place that will benefit none, not even themselves if it were to become the dominance they so desire.

It's ironic that Rowan speaks out on so few issues and yet manages, as a rule, to say even less about faith issues. Advice to investors, bankers and an inaudible lead to those camped outside St Pauls and a strong lead to those who reside within. More ironic is that Cameron has indeed given the whole Christian community, Anglicans in particular, a challenge to maintain and even recapture the position of faith communities when not that long ago Rowan was accusing him (and his coalition) of acting without a mandate and yet here we are with the tables turned and Rowan being accused of having a mandate and failing to act!

A Christian country supports the right fr people to believe other than Christians.
It supports the right to live as one choses, within the law, but also reserves the right to not be forced to bless it and to show 'better' ways.
It protects the weak, enriches the poor and comforts the broken.
It is the 'Big Society' and always has been.

So here's a gift for Rowan from the Prime Minister of our nation - let's hope (and pray, you do pray don't you?) that he and the Christians of this land take it.

Pax