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!