Christianity, church and Jesus

Someone remarked on Sunday night that P5 is the best year of all to be teaching, so far as a teacher's concerned.

The person should know, having been for long years a teacher herself.

The time that I had with P5 last year was certainly great. I really enjoyed the five-part course I did with them last year on 'Christianity'. Obviously they did too, since I got invited back.

'Do it again,' the teacher said. So I am. Doing it again - and I started today.

Well, it's mainly 'doing it again'. Having done it once, though, I now have the benefit of hindsight. There were bits of the way I'd done it last time which I thought could well have been done in a slightly different way.

So I'd adapted the course and this time the thing was 'mark 2'. Still P5 - and again the classes were just terrific.

To start with I think they're always a little bit wary, not knowing just what to expect. But they soon warmed up and, wow, what a good time we had.

Towards the end a voice came through the tannoy to every class to close down all the Macs or everything on them would be lost! So we had to quit the powerpoint thing pretty quick, but by then it didn't matter at all.

I'd been across at the school earlier on to check that the powerpoint file would work OK on the Mac in the classroom I'd be in. A quick and fleeting visit back and forth in between the making of the soups for today.

And then we'd had the time of prayer - the 9.40 thing. We prayed that the Lord would bring folk in. And at that there were folk at the door! Like an immediate answer to prayer. As if the Lord was saying loud and clear, Yes, I'm hearing your prayers and working in people's lives!

It's great when things like that happen.

Douglas was in at lunchtime too, this being a Tuesday. In full flow, by the time he was done. Mainly about what marks out the sort of church he really thinks has cracked it.

A church with a strong sacramental worship (I had to ask him what he meant by that!) and a clear and powerful message being proclaimed (I got that bit).

He said he thought too often churches had just one of these not both (and sometimes simply neither).

I wondered whether added to the mix there needed to be a strong sense of community and a clear demonstration of the love of Jesus expressed in practical action. And I think he broadly agreed.

How does it happen, I asked. I suppose I knew the answer before he spoke, but he gave it nonetheless. All you can do is pray to God. he's the only one who can make it happen like that.

He chatted about the time he'd had a long, long time ago at a church in America - the Church of the Redeemer in Houston. Which I remember reading a book about years and years ago.

The memory of those days, he said, still lingers on, fresh and very moving to this day. And he said that here was the nearest he'd come to experiencing that in the intervening years. Which was a pretty humbling and powerful thing to hear.

He was here for a while and then we prayed and I guess it's that sort of picture we're looking together for God to paint in the life of his people here. The worship, the preaching, the day-by-day community of faith, and the love of Christ expressed in practical ways.

And the Lord had already made it clear today he answers prayer!

At night I skipped a 'meeting'. Yes, that sort, where there's not always that much genuine meeting between the people there.

Not that I readily miss these times. I try to be there when I can - which is most times.

But tonight I'd arranged to meet with the family of the man who's recently died. The one where there's a sort of family connection. It proved a wise choice - seeing them rather than attending the meeting.

The man and his wife have lived here for, I guess, close on 50 years. They brought their children up within the church, but then, I think, they drifted away. Her brother-in-law died aged 39 and I guess that maybe sort of scunnered her when it came to trusting God.

I was there quite a while tonight. One of her sons is a fine Christian man, with a former life as a (wild and pretty wayward) rock musician before he turned to the Lord. He was there as well.

But the lady herself in regard to the Lord finds it hard, it seems, to believe. In fact I suspect she'd rarely give much truck to any who presumed to share the good news of Jesus with her. An interesting woman, for sure, with a keen and questioning mind.

I think she was glad I'd been round tonight and that I'd stayed there quite a while. We covered all sorts of things as we talked, including the Christian hope. But I was conscious throughout of needing (as always) to listen to all that the Spirit of God was prompting me to say.

'A time to speak and a time to be silent.' That sort of thing. I mean, a time to speak about the Lord, a time to get back onto ground the lady's more comfortable with.

Visits like that are an adventure! And all the while I'm so aware how grieved and how upset this lady is. Bereft of her man, bereft of so much that has given her joy through life. And not knowing where to turn.

But something's going on. "I'm hearing your prayers and working in people's lives!"