revealing

Does God speak? And how does he make himself known?

The answer to the first is Yes. And to the second, Variously.

A lot of my days are spent on matters relating to this.

Seeking to hear the voice of the Lord myself. And helping others to hear what he's saying as well.

We were thinking a bit about that on Monday night when I met with the folk of the fellowship group I lead. The way the Lord asks (rhetorically) 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I a about to do?'

Which, of course, he doesn't. He likes to share his heart. Same as he likes it when we share our hearts with him.

And Abraham wasn't a one-off sort of oddity in that regard. A good deal later the down-to-earth farmer-turned-prophet Amos declares, 'The Lord does nothing without first revelaing his plan to his servants the prophets'I.

Nothing! Like he always spills the beans in advance and lets his people know.

So it comes as no surprise to find that Jesus says pretty much the same. 'You are my friends, so I tell you everything..'

Relationship lies at the heart of what the whole thing is all about. Our pouring out our hearts to the Lord. His pouring out his heart to us.

Most folk are reasonably comfortable with part one of that. Our pouring out our hearts to him. At least from time to time they're happy enough (or unhappy enough perhaps) to pray.

But, hey, this whole business of the Lord pouring out his heart to us ... that's a bit more 'edgy', is it not?

So a lot of the time I'm speaking with folk, it's this sort of thing which is coming into play. What does the Lord have to say? And how can we know?

Much of my day today has been spent with folk on issues along these lines.

People with whom the Lord has been certainly speaking. And who aren't quite sure what tp make of it. And not too sure how to handle the thing as well.

Being able to talk it all through is a help. And the fact that he seems to be speaking like this, to more and more folk in these days - that's a real encouragement to me.

He's on the move. He has his plans. And it seems that he's now revelaing these plans in advance of what he'll do. Which figures. It's the pattern he likes to adopt..

Exciting times.

living on the edge

Often a day throws up, quite unexpectedly, a common theme.

Case in point today.

The common theme? The nearness of death.

Two different individuals with whom I was speaking today, the one by chance, the other more purposefully. And both with a limited length of time to go before they die.

Like us all, I suppose. Except they both know how long (or how short) they've got. Roughly.

In the case of one, the person was told five years ago that the treatment being given to ease the pain would cut back her length of life and give her ten years at most. So she's half way through the countdown already.

The other person is in hospital.

Cancer. Right the way through his body.

He's only newly learned the full extent of it all. And the prognosis isn't great.

As little perhaps as three short weeks to live. At most probably nine months.

It fairly sharpens the mind, this immediacy of impending death.

What are the real priorities? What are the things I need to make sure that I do while I've still got the time and am able?

And because we're all on the countdown ourselves (we just don't know the time-scale quite), I guess we all should be asking those questions each day.

They're questions we're asking about our life as a people, as well, these days. What do we have to do?

There are loads of things we could do. There are loads of things it's tempting to do. There are loads of things people expect us to do.

But that's all missing the point. What are the things we have to do. As down-to-earth disciples of the risen Lord, here in this place, today?

We're trying to be more focussed. That's another way of putting it.

I think we do too much. All good things, no doubt.

But because we don't have a single, clear and wholly over-arching vision from the Lord, we end up with about a hundred and fifty visions. In pursuing which we end up more and more on a stretch.

Eventually something snaps.

One of the key things leadership does is figure out the vision which God has for us.

We have a vision-statement. But that's not quite the same.

What is it the Lord intends that we should be as his church? What is he calling us here in these days to be and to do?

What are his priorities? What is his vision?

What does he want us to focus on through the course of these next few years?

We need that sort of focus. And the primary task of our new leadership body is to give this people that focus.

The folk that I was speaking with today are living on the edge. Living on the borderline of time and of eternity.

Live there and there's always a certain urgency to life.

Step back from that border a bit and I guess you drift towards a state more like mediocrity.

We're trying to live on the edge.

Jonah

Jonah arrived today.

Not that I was expecting him or anything. HIs arrival was totally out of the blue.

A complete, and wonderful, surprise. Courtesy of a kind and generous friend. Signor Cento Tre.

This shining knight and his lovely damsel in distress (well, she sometimes is) had gone to all sorts of lengths to get me this belated birthday present.

Like Jonah himself when tossed overboard into the stormy sea, I was totally overwhelmed.

Except, unlike the Jonah we read about, I was well and truly chuffed. Thrilled to bits.

Jonah. I should explain.

Jonah's a fish.

The fish that Signor CT and his damsel kindly bought and gave me as a gift today to ease the distress that I've known since my other goldfish died.

And to afford some sort of solace to the one remaining fish I've had swimming round and round the tank each day in a wholly miserable solitude.

Jonah's the name I've given the fish.

Mainly because if the other fish opens its mouth too wide this poor wee 'new kid on the block' (or fish in the tank) is going to get swallowed alive. There's that sort of size differential between the two of them.

The new little feisty fish is coloured like a tiger. And looks as if he's got a personality to match!

I could have called him 'Tony', I suppose (as in the Frosties) adverts. But Jonah's the name I've given him. And Jonah he will be.

And it's really quite appropriate that he should arrive today.

First because, as the good book says, 'two are better than one'. 'Fish', like 'sheep', is a plural word, after all. They're not really meant to be on their own. And out in the oceans I don't suppose they often are.

Well, not the wee fish, anyway. They stick together. Shoals, and all that.

Leadership, too, is a plural word. And tonight our whole new leadership team will gather together for the very first time.

In some ways it's a smaller leadership body than we've had before. Reduced from 60 or so to 16.

But in truth, I see it as being a major enlargement. Too many churches end up with a one-man leadership team - at least so far as discerning the vision of God is concerned.

And for the first time here in all my years I have that sense that I'm no longer going to be swimming around on my own in the rather public 'goldfish bowl' which this sort of leadership often entails.

It feels like the leadership body that gets from the Lord the vision he has for us here - it feels like that crucial body has actually grown. From one (namely me) to sixteen.

The 'fish' in my tank is now a plural word. A kind of symbol of what will happen here tonight.

The vision-casting leadership body is now a plural word!

Jonah has arrived.

The future God had planned for him could only ever come to pass when he'd been 'through the mill' (aka the belly of the big fish) and seen and acknowledged the error of his ways and of his attitudes.

There have been issues like that that to be dealt with today. Not easy. And quite time-consuming.

The shores of God's future on which at last Jonah would be landed lay on the other side of repentance.

The belly of the fish was a merciful provision of God. Preferable to the bottom of the ocean. The possibility of a second chance.

These are real life issues that need addressing with folk.

Jonah.

And for Jonah himself that 'second chance' opened up for him a whole new sphere of ministry.

One he was far from comfortable with. One that was truly radical. One that for most of his 'churchy' friends was really, I guess, quite shocking.

The sort of direction in which the Lord continues to lead us here may well be rather like that!

So, yeah ... Jonah arrived today!

Schiehallion

In keeping with the holiday mode (for a day or two longer, at any rate), I decided to do The Sound of music thing.

Climb a mountain.

Ford the streams (there weren't many and any there were had bridges).

Follow the rainbows (there were none): until you find your dream.

I have my dreams. Holidays give me a chance to ponder them once again. And climbing a mountain, in an odd sort of way, is part of the process.

There weren't, as I say, any rainbows. No rain. Which makes it (in Scotland) a very good day for climbing a mountain.

Windy and cold and a bit overcast perhaps, most of the way, but dry.

I opted for Schiehallion. Three and a half thousand feet of Perthshire rock. Between Loch Rannoch and Loch Tummel to the north, and Loch Tay to the south.

On my way back down, I met a man pushing his bike up the mountain.

I haven't a clue just why.

Maybe he's aiming to be the first person to climb every 'Munro' with his bike. (I imagine it would be a first).

Maybe he thought since it's called a mountain bike he should simply take it with him when he climbs any mountain.

Maybe he thought it would be pretty good fun to cycle the whole way down. Which it would be.

And a whole lot easier on the legs (if not on the backside).

But there's no way at all he'd have ever been able to cycle the final part of the hike. No way.

The last long bit is simply rocks. And I mean some sizeable boulders.

The sort of thing even a stunt cyclist would not attempt.

Mountain bikes may be good on most mountainsides. But the top of Schiehallion? No way.

The equipment he had just wouldn't work on this particular site. Take it from me - I've been there.

It crossed my mind this well-intentioned man with his bike at his side as he slogged his way up the mountain was a very graphic picture of the way we too can often seem.

Presuming 'equipment', which works in other contexts, will work for ourselves as well.

Sometimes it doesn't!

Mount Carmel

There was a guy called Elijah who lived a long, long time ago.

He was a prophet. Passionate about God and God's way of doing things.

And a pain in the backside to the corrupt ruler of his day.

He called for a 'high noon' showdown on the top of a place called Mount Carmel. A kind of spiritual 'shoot-out' between him (and the cause of God he espoused) and the henchmen of the king (the prophets of Baal).

Something very similar is happening today on another Mount Carmel.

This one's in Zimbabwe. It's the name of the farm where Elijah-like relations of mine have been holding out against the henchmen of Mugabe.

(Click here to get a little insight into what's been going on)

We're praying for the fire to fall from heaven. Prayers are certainly being answered out there. Amazingly. Wonderfully.

But it's hard for all these relations and hard for all their folk. They're exposed to constant danger. The rule of law is often no more than a dim and distant memory.

If you're a praying person, then do please pray for them.

And pray that the fire of God may finally fall.

To bring about the end of a crazy, lawless, ruthless, pointless and hugely corrupt regime. And to bring in a whole new day.

Mount Carmel, the re-make. Make sure you're part of the picture.

new beginnings

I'm newly back from an evening out at Kirkliston.

Not quite eleven months on from when I first got involved, the process reached its conclusion. The people out there now have a new minister.

It was a great evening! And it augured well for the future.

Maggie Lane will be good for them there.

It's clear that she's there by the call and appointment of God. It's clear that he's long been at work out there. It's clear that a new thing's beginning.

Maggie may be in her fifties now. Maggie may be taking up a 'charge' for the first time.

But that only simply leaves her well placed to be what Jesus once said we needed to be - wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Maggie will be all of that. I've yet to meet a woman of her age who's not 'street-wise'. And it being her first charge ensures there's a healthy 'innocence'!

It's been great for me to have shared with the folk out there these past many months. I've made loads of friends and had lotsw of fun and folk have been really kind.

So there's a certain sort of sadness in the closing of this extra little chapter in my life. As well as a joy and excitement.

One of the ladies gave me a card as I left. She was thanking me for all that I had done and for all the ways I'd helped them all.

And she said she thought that things out there would never be the same again. She meant it as a compliment. I think!

And I believe she's right!

Not, I hasten to add, because of my being there. But because the Lord himself is there.

And very much at work. Exciting times!

memorable, portable, motivational

All that was involved in the Holiday Club last week meant loads of different other things got largely overlooked.

Or at least put on hold.

This week is the catch-up time and it's kept me on the go.

There's the website, for one thing. Tasks I've been meaning to do for a while in that regard to keep the thing as up to date as I can.

The website's effectively our 'shop-window', the means by which all sorts of people can look in from the outside and see what we're about without having to take that massive step and cross the thresh-hold of our life.

So it merits a fair bit of work. But we try to keep it a pretty low-maintenance thing as well.

And getting that balance right is sometimes hard. If it ends up being a full-time job just keeping it up to date, we've gone too far.

Today's been a day for doing some 'maintenance' stuff.

It's also been a day for getting some admin done.

Making arrangements for meetings with different people over these next few weeks. Arranging for some cover when I plan to be away. Getting in touch with one or two folk to keep them updated on people who're no longer here.

One of the series of 'meetings' I've been working on relates to the leadership body that will come into place in a month or so's time. We've taken the step of cutting that back from a body of 60 (or so) to a much more stream-lined 16.

That's a fairly radical cut, of course. But it's one that's been agreed because we see the need for a rather different sort of leadership team.

A body of God-given leaders who'll be able first to figure out, and then hammer out for everyone else, the vision that God gives us for his work here and now.

That's what we want this leadership group to do. Vision. Get the vision. Define the vision. Communicate the vision.

Make sure that vision is "memorable, portable and motivational" (to borrow the words of a guy whose name I've forgotten).

Vision. That's what this leadership body is all about. The rest can be done by others (we have loads of gifted leaders).

So I thought it would be a good idea to do what Jesus did and share a meal together. A kind of 'first supper'. So that the first time we met together as a body would be round the table and over a meal.

I'm excited (and a bit daunted) by the prospect. And the excitement generates the energy to get it up and running.

I'm off for some days at the start of next week, so there's loads of preparation, too, requiring done. I come back to three services my first Sunday back, and there won't be a lot of time for preparation once I'm back. So I've been trying to get that done as well. Up front, as it were.

And then there's been prayer. A fair bit of that as well.

Specific needs arose. A young man who'd been hospitalised with a head injury. And a family who could do without this further sorry blow: they've enough in the way of crosses to carry as it is.

The young man's sister was in to see me anyway. We'd agreed to meet as there were things she wanted to air and talk about with me.

But this with her brother put all of that onto the back burner. The other 'stuff' could wait.

She was here for an hour and most of the hour was spent on the computer, trying to get some flights fixed up so she and her Mum could get themselves down to be by the side of the man.

So prayer has figured quite large today.

(There wasn't much else for me to do while she was here and bashing away at the laptop. It was kind of like the Lord just gave me no option: just pray, that's all I want you to do just now).

There was answered prayer as well - in another regard. Remarkable answered prayer, when really quite the opposite of what the person feared might be the case had actually transpired.

And there was a time of prayer at night as well. There aren't many out at that these days, and we're still trying to suss out just how best to work such prayer right into the very fabric of our congregational life.

But it doesn't need many, of course. And the three who were there were able to pray across a range of different needs.

And in such small ways a world gets slowly changed.

street wisdom

For most of the children here in the local community it's still holiday time.

Some go back to school tomorrow, but most are off for the whole of this week as well.

I met some tonight just outside the house of some folk I was calling round to see. I had my Bible in my hand since the folk who were gathered there were there to learn from the Bible.

The children came running along the street when they saw that it was me. The nearest I ever get to celebrity status, I guess! But they always like to stop and talk and there are a hundred and one different questions they have to ask.

Here's a random sample. In no particular order - since there's no particular logic to the order in which they were asked.

Why have you got a Bible?

Which country do you come from? You come from heaven, don't you, since you don't have a tan? (I'm afraid I still don't get the rationale behind that one!)

Can you speak Italian? (The girl had just come back from a holiday there, I think)

If the Bible teaches you all you need to know, does it teach you maths?

Are you God?

Do you want to play tig with us?

What's your favourite colour?

How long is God's beard?

And in amongst it all, this one - Did you know my Dad's in the hospice 'cos he's going to die?

They'd been playing 'tig' and the speed with which the questions came out was a bit like the running around they'd all been doing in playing the game. A barrage of questions.

Children are great that way. They're so completely natural. They speak what they think and say what they see.

And that little evening episode afforded me another telling insight into where, I'd guess, most folk I meet are coming from and what our following Jesus has to look like in these days.

So here, then, are some lessons that we all do well to note. Not in any order!

It's out 'on the street' these conversations happen. It was a cul-de-sac, I should have said, so relatively safe. But it's there on the street, in the midst of their running around, that encounters like this take place.

Not in the formal setting of some 'sacred', special building, at a time and place arranged in advance by myself.

Being able to ask the questions is always more important than getting definitive answers. Which sounds strange, I suspect, to many, but is how this growing generation tends to see things in the complex and uncertain world in which they live.

Listening becomes as important as any sort of lecturing skills I might have sought to cultivate. Befriending folk and giving them the confidence simply to 'pour out their hearts' is as good a way as any of conveying the truth to which all of the Bible points - Trust in the Lord at all times, pour out your hearts to him.

The barrage of questions is simply the outflow of all of the 'stuff' in their hearts. Being free to raise the questions means they're able to be themselves. Just as they are. Warts and all. Questions and doubts and all.

It's an experience of grace.

There's no distinction in people's minds between the 'secular' and 'sacred'. Life is basically one. The good and the bad, the stuff about God and the stuff of our day by day lives.

It's all bound up together. And I guess they're looking for something which is at heart coherent. Seeing it all together and holding it all together.

They haven't the time for some abstruse, intellectual message which is all just so much 'theory' and doesn't really take to do with all the many down-to-earth and hard-to-bear misfortunes which they face.

Does your coming from heaven do me any real good when my Dad's in the hospice and dying?

Truth is found in relationship. They see that very clearly. And they're right on the button, since Jesus himself underlined exactly that. I am the truth.

Truth is a person. Discovered and known in relationship.

They're not going to meet this Jesus in a book. They're going to meet him on their street. In the likes of myself. If Jesus is really in me.

To know him, they'll need to experience him. Relational experience will be as important as any intellectual understanding.

I was late for the time of study.

But I don't really live by the clock at all. The time out there on the street was study time.

And one way and another, every day, it's there 'on the street' each day, in those random, 'providential' close encounters with so many different people that I have - it's there that I do my learning and it's there that I do my teaching.

And it's there that the Lord is found.

a better place

For the first time in over a week I get the chance to draw breath.

It's Easter Monday. The world looks different in the light of the resurrection of Jesus.

Today is not such a constant rush.

There's time to catch up on a hundred and one different things which tend to get neglected through the non-stop hustle and bustle which the week we run the Holiday Club always brings.

There's a lot of catching up to do.

Some of it basic admin. Letters and e-mails and all sorts of things like that.

Some of it more relational. People to visit and see. In their homes and some in hospital as well.

But there's been time for some reading as well. The rest of the world is on holiday. There aren't as many phone calls and there isn't the usual buzz about the place.

And part of the catching up I have to do involves my reading some books that folk have passed in my direction. Three in recent weeks.

All on the same single theme. The environment.

I read one right through from start to finish in the course of the first part of this morning (it was only 100 hundred pages and it wasn't a difficult read). I got well on into another book as well.

And was so impressed I flicked to the final page to see if the note I figured was going to be struck was the note on which the book would actually end.

(I don 't usually do that sort of thing - flick to the end before I've reached the end - but it was the sort of book where that sort of thing's OK. I mean it doesn't spoil the story or anything like that. It's a sort of reference book, sub-titled Acting now to end world poverty).

The writer quotes a man of whom I'd heard. Henry Spira. This is what he said -

"I guess basically one wants to feel that one's life has amounted to more than just consuming products and generating garbage. I think that one likes to look back and say that one's done the best one can to make this a better place for others."

I was really quite struck by that.

Doing my best to make this world a better place for others.

Last Friday night we held a service of worship here. To mark 'Good Friday'.

We pondered the story of the woman breaking open her costly jar of perfume and pouring it over the head of Jesus.

His verdict? She has done a beautiful thing to me.

I guess you could die happy if you knew that's what you'd done.

I guess that's why even Jesus there on the cross, despite its tortuous agony, could still die sort of happy. He'd done a beautiful thing. He'd made this world a better place for others.

That's what all of us here are really all about!

making things happen

Well, we got the DVDs all ready in time!

A fifteen minute window into something of what makes the daily Holiday Club such fun and so rewarding for us all. And the chance to convey to perhaps a wider audience just what it is that lies behind it all.

We got them produced this year with the logo of the Holiday Club incorporated into the actual disk. They looked pretty good and we pray they'll all be fully used in many different homes.

By this time in the week, four days in, the children are all quite confident. They know the daily routine and they've got to know the team, so they're starting to get both tired and high. Which can be a lethal combination!

But it makes for some lively worship times, when they give it their all. The Lord, I'm sure, must be well and truly thrilled to hear such praise!

There's more than just the Holiday Club, of course, to which I have to attend! So I'm juggling my time around a bit to try and fit everything in.

The services here on Friday night (which I realise is tomorrow now!) and on Sunday coming as well. They're all looming large on the radar of things requiring attention. So I've been doing some work on that as well and making some progress there.

There have been people to see as well. People to see and to pray with.

Taking the lessons we teach the children each day and turning them into reality in all the complex circumstances of our own more adult lives.

The miracles Jesus performed, as recorded by one of his closest pals, a guy named John - they have been the focus of the Holiday Club. Jesus made things happen, turned things right around.

And still does.

life-line

You may well wonder what on earth I'm doing still at it when the time is just after 1 o'clock in the morning!

The answer is simple. Holiday Club.

We run an Easter Holiday Club every year and on the Thursday evening we hold a 'DVD night'.

A DVD of the Holiday Club. Not last year's. But this year's. An as-it-happens sort of thing.

Which works a treat. It's great to be able to give a DVD to every child as a lasting memory of the fun that they've had and the things that they've learned through the week.

And so they always come out on the Thursday night for the 'world premiere' of the DVD. And it gets played thereafter through the course of the following year who knows how many times!

It's a terrific way of getting the message across. Even the songs which for the constant backdrop to the DVD kind of soak right into the consciousness and leave their mark.

But it does involve the small little business of actually making the DVD!

My job. Which I love, I'm bound to say.

It just means a good few nights when there's barely any sleep as the huge amount of footage gets edited out and made into something that'll be a lasting and wonderful reminder to all of the children - and all of their parents too - of the week they've had.

So just at the moment I've got 'time to kill' as the final, edited version now gets 'exported' into an appropriate format, ready to be made into a DVD.

The computer just works away on its own for maybe half an hour and does this next little bit itself.

I get to hang around. Waiting patiently. And I have to say rather prayerfully too, since these next two parts of the process are always the ones which take up loads of time, and where loads of things can go wrong.

The week has been full with the Holiday Club. It's been wonderful.

Over 140 children. Who absolutely revel in the whole thing.

And a brilliant team of people. Old and young alike. And everything in between.

Who all get on like a house on fire.

It's great to see the young folk grow in their faith by their being involved in a thing like this and seeing the Lord at work in the lives of so many people.

That's why we always invest the time and energy in running the Club. And why we produce the DVD as well.

God underlines that nothing we do is ever in vain. Which means that somewhere down the line there's a kind of 'pay-off'. What we give and do bears its fruit.

That's our prayer for a week like this.

And that's why I've got what some would call a 'deadline' for first thing in the morning (I'm watching the clock even now!).

I prefer to call it a 'life-line', though.

Since that's what we trust that everything we do will prove to be for folk.

all go

Another of those days which just fly by!

First there was the school. The primary school. Except this time they came here. All of them. (And there's a whole load more of them than are there in the picture, of course!)

So there was loads to do in getting the place all ready. Setting up the microphones, checking out the systems, getting the powerpoints running. That sort of thing.

Then the Head arrived. With a memory stick with stacks of different photos to be shown as a loop on the wall.

No problem. Except they use Apple Macs at the school. And we don't. So I had to download some programmes to convert the stuff, and that took a bit of time. But eventually (just in time) it was 'good to go'.

The children were great as always.

As I say, the whole school were there today and every single year had something to do or say or sing. All with different backing tracks and all with different visuals, and all with different microphones to use.

So I spent my time running back and forth from the front where I did my 'compering' to the back where I handled the technical stuff.

Thankfully Gill, the new girl who works with SU - she'd asked if she could come along as well. Which was great as she helped out with the technical stuff as well and pressed the right buttons at all the right times and kept the whole thing going.

Probably not what she'd expected when she asked to come along! But hey, following Jesus is always the stuff of adventure!

The Head and the deputy head were both in for a cup of coffee afterwards. And Gill came too.

They were no sooner gone than another two folk in succession were in to see me as well. By arrangement, I should add.

But any sort of breathing space was pretty much at a premium today.

Because after I'd seen the second of these two folk, it was off in a rush to Kirkliston. I was already running late.

Lunch out there with the lady who's soon to start as minister there. A lot of things to work through with her in terms of the arrangements.

I know the lady who runs the place (where we had lunch, I mean). It was her young son (young in the sense that he was 20) who'd died so very tragically back in August of last year.

So I'm always glad of the chance to touch base with her and her family. Her daughter popped in as well, which was really nice. I'd thought it would be good for them to have the chance to meet and get to know a bit the minister that they'll shortly have.

She came over and chatted for quite a bit. Sometimes there's just a very real sense of the Lord being very present. That was one of those times.

I then had a meeting arranged with other folk from Kirkliston in relation to the different practicalities there are in relation to the service when the new minister finally starts.

So it worked out really as the bulk of the afternoon (and a lovely one it was) out in Kirkliston.

I've fixed up for some of the folk to come and share at one one of our evening services a bit of all that the Lord has been doing. That should be good. For them and for us.

By the time I got back here it was a case of doing some catch-up. E-mails to be written (or started at least) and a whole load of admin stuff to be done, since I knew I was to be out and fairly tied up through the evening.

And another day goes by!

Although I sometimes end up sort of thinking - what did I actually do? - a day like today is hardly unproductive.

One of the teachers at school who'd been at the service this morning e-mailed later on -

Thank you to you and all at the Church for your terrific help this morning with the technology and in general.

It's often the little mundane and routine things that people really notice.

Getting things right and making things work - I suppose that conveys the practical thrust of what the good news is about!

vision

OK, so it's Wednesday evening already, and this is the first post here this week.

Here are some possible explanations for the absence of any such posting at the start of the week -

(a) the guy is dead

(b) the guy is on holiday

(c) the guy is doing nothing

(d) the guy is up-to-his-eyes busy

Not exactly the hardest multiple choice question you're ever going to face!

The week or two leading up to Easter always see quite a lot on. This year's not any different.

One of the things I had to do was complete a report we're meant to hand in about our life as followers of Jesus in this place.

Derek did most of the work. At least, the facts and figures sort of stuff.

How many people between 11 and 17, with blue eyes and socks that didn't match, did you have at worship each Sunday through the month of March?

Well, not exactly that question! But that sort of thing. I mean, how is the man meant to know the ages of all the folk?

However, someone somewhere wants to know these sorts of things. So he dutifully obliged.

Then he sent the whole thing on to me to complete.

Questions like -

18. What do you feel is God’s vision for your congregation and parish?

So here's what I wrote -

We recognise the responsibilities placed upon us on account of our considerable resources (personnel, plant and grounds) and we aspire to learn how to live out our communal life in such a way, that right in the midst of this local village community we provide a ‘down-to-earth’ and on-the-spot example of the way life can be lived.

In a word, we are committed to building and basing our life around the concern to fulfil Jesus’ mandate to go and make disciples.

We have a vision of our being able to translate, as it were, the principles of the early Celtic church in their following of Jesus into our own particular context here in the 21st century – living out the life of the kingdom of God before the eyes of the watching world, and inviting folk simply to share in it all, to taste it first hand and to see for themselves that it actually ‘works’.

We believe we are well placed, and clearly called by the Lord,

to be giving a demonstration of how relationships can be made to work (in the home and family life, at work, and in the realm of human friendships), how life lived in community can be fulfilling and fruitful and fun;

to be providing a practical lead (with the spacious grounds that we have) in honouring God as Creator in the way in which we work and care for the land; encouraging the arts, in all their various forms;

to build on the links that already exist within the local schools and to contribute positively to this important facet of community life:

to be a place and a people among whom all those ‘distressed and in debt and discontented’ will naturally feel at home, and find support, and learn how to ‘start again’;

to be learning together what a rounded and ‘holistic’ sort of life in Christ really looks like in the complex, high-pressure world of the 21st century

Question 19 then goes on to ask - how realistic and achievable are your expectations for achieving this vision?

Which, apart from being rather tautologous, is a bit like them saying - yeah, dream on!

So I replied to that by adding (and this is the note on which the whole thing ends) -

We believe that in God’s strength and through his leading our expectations are both realistic and achievable!

Which is a bit like my saying, Yes, we will indeed go on pursuing the dreams God's given us here: and will do so with total confidence!