end-time midwifery

Mother Theresa used to observe (I think) that the ministry she engaged in was akin to that of a midwife.

Except that whereas a midwife is bringing a person into the world, she was helping a person leave this world. She saw it as a privilege.

So do I. And at least some part of my time is spent thus.

Not just in the more formal aspects of 'departing this world' in the sense of conducting the funeral services in respect of those who have died - though there is quite a lot of that, and today has been no exception: but more particularly in 'accompanying' folk through the final days of their earthly life.

There's been that today as well. People who don't now have long to live at all. The chance to spend time with them.

I'm sure I once heard that in days gone by it used to be that when looking for a new minister a congregation would set them with a dying person for a while, and see how they ministered there.

How do you speak with a person who's soon to die? What will you say? How will you be?

Richard Baxter was a pastor in Kidderminster a few centuries back: his famous couplet remains powerfully challenging -

"I preached as never sure to preach again,
And as a dying man to dying men."

Mother Theresa was right. It's midwifery at the other end of our earthly lives - and infinitely more important.

cathedral building

This morning I was spending some time with one of our young men.

He's recently been called to be minister up in MacDuff and he has some time between now and his starting date (mid-April) to prepare himself and his thinking for this new challenge in his life. There were a number of things he wanted to talk through with me and it was valuable to have some time with him - though I think we'll need some more!

The man whom he's succeeding there in MacDuff was there for nearly 40 years. I've known him well for the bulk of that time, since early in his ministry I was part of a mission team from my congregation which for three successive summers spent a couple of weeks up there.

Indeed, MacDuff was the place where I preached my very first sermon! So it holds a rather special place in my affections. And I'm thrilled to bits that this young man has now been called to minister there and carry forward the faithful, godly, and eminently fruitful ministry of his predecessor.

It's that sort of thing which the Lord delights to see. Not just sporadic, dramatic eruptions of life, but the steady flow, down through generations, of faithful Bible teaching, conversions to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the solid building of well-taught disciples who'll be able themselves to pass on that faith to the next fenerations as well.

A kind of dynasty of biblical faith. The sort of thing our land once knew.

That's the perspective I have. I'm in the thing for the long haul. I'm involved in something whose fruit, I trust, will stretch way beyond my lifetime, and down through many generations.

So the time with this young man today was truly well spent. We're preparing the next generation of preachers and pastors and leaders. We're seeking to build them up strong, to equip them for fruitful ministry.

There was encouragement, too, this evening, along those lines.

Another young family man (well, younger than myself, so he qualifies as young in my book!) crossing the line and coming to faith and entering the kingdom of Christ. What a sense there was of the rejoicing of the angels in heaven!

A dynasty of godly, Christian faith is only slowly built. Weeks and months and years of God's own work within the hearts of men like this in bringing him to faith. And weeks and months and years beyond as well in building and establishing him in Christ, in such a way that he in turn will be the means whereby long generations of believers will be raised.

You know the old story of the three stonemasons who were asked what they were doing (you can find it in the Rule of St Benedict)?

The first one said simply, I'm cutting stones and laying them side by side.

The second one saw more purpose in his daily tasks, and declared I'm building a wall.

The third man saw the thing in a much more long term way. I'm building a great cathedral, he said. It wouldn't be built in his lifetime. But he knew that he was part of something big and wonderful.

What am I doing day by day? I'm building that 'cathedral'. I'm involved in establishing in our land once again a dynasty of biblical faith.

leadership

There are interesting things going on in our local church life these days. 2011 will be a big and significant year.

In the latest issue of our magazine (which isn't quite out yet, so I shouldn't really quote from it now!) I've likened the thing to what's called these days the 'perfect storm'. Three meteorological phenomena which combine to create ... well, a storm of massive proportions.

In the 'weather' of our local church life, three significant movements of the wind of the Spirit of God are coming together. In the realm of spiritual meteorology, as in the natural realm, you ignore such things at your peril! More of that anon.

It's a time, though, without a doubt, for strong and godly leadership.

Which is part of the reason we're taking such time at our Sunday evening services to explore what Paul had to say at the conference for church leaders he held with the folk from Ephesus. That one talk which he delivered there (see Acts 20.17ff) is a powerful, challenging thing.

He pretty much says it all.

But I've been interested, too, to have been reading my way through Tony Blair's A Journey. I wouldn't have gone out and bought the book myself - political biography has never really been my sort of thing. I was given the book at Christmas, and the giver suggested I'd get no little benefit from taking a read.

In many ways, the book is all about leadership. Tony Blair's leadership in particular, obviously. But issues of leadership nonetheless.

Now I'm only maybe half way through the book, but already there have been some very striking comments which he makes. One in particular rang huge big bells in my mind.

He has a whole long chapter (and I mean long - almost 50 pages) on Northern Ireland, and the process by which the 'Good Friday Agreement' was reached. Early in the chapter he has this paragraph: he's talking about the different factions in the province, whose history is littered wth complexity and grief - the deeply held, entrenched, ingrained positions that there are, and the long-running sores of dispute: then he writes this -

"What happened in those circumstances is in essence what happens in countless such disputes: the unreasonable drives out reason, by the use of unreason.The way this happens is very simple: those who do not hate, who want peace, who are prepared to countenance 'forgive and forget' (or at least 'forget') become slowly whittled down in number, seeming unrealistic, even unpatriotic to other members of the group. What starts as an unreasonable minority ends up consuming the reasonable in its snares and delusions." [p.153]

I found the whole paragraph, and the last sentence in particular, an extraordinarily apt commentary on much of what's been going on in recent times within the church here in our land.

The unreasonable drives out reason, by the use of unreason. ... What starts as an unreasonable minority ends up consuming the reasonable in its snares and delusions.

One part of strong and clear leadership surely involves being able to see what's going on. And another part surely involves being bold enough to stand against that overwhelming tide and figure out how best the process is reversed.

It's an interesting read, that chapter he has on Ireland - not just for the inside account that it gives of how such a thing was resolved, but also as a mirror on so much that's going on within society at large these days.

And in the church as well. Those with ears to hear, let them hear!

just another day

The morning was here with Scripture Union.

Our work with young people is vital. This was a chance for those who work in the schools with SU groups to gather together and share with one another (there was another such meeting at night).

It was good to hear of the many different schools where children keep on coming to the SU group. At some of the schools there are something like 60 young children who come along. There are about 20-30 at Davidson's Mains (though they don't all come at once).

We may not ever get long when we meet each week, but seeds may be sown and the Lord can do wonders with seeds!

* * *

Lunchtime saw the resumption of our midweek lunchtime service.

It was great to be back! And the crowd of people there suggested that those who keep coming felt pretty much the same.

We were thinking today about how we react - and why we can sometimes be over-reacting in how we respond to the things which come our way.

* * *

A brief meeting after lunch, then the rest of the afternoon immersed in preparation for two funeral services coming up tomorrow.

Two very different services; and each of them so special for the families concerned.

My call is to serve the Lord. I am a servant of his Word. I have to be always asking Lord, what are you wanting to say?

It all takes time. And services such as these two coming up tomorrow can never be rushed. I need to sort of 'lock myself away', barricade myself against the flow of interruptions, and be able to discern the Word of God.

* * *

The evening saw us gathering again for a time of congregational prayer.

Not very many come out to these times. There's work to be done in that regard. Folk are busy, of course, with a host of other commitments. But we need to be clear that our coming together to pray is an integral part of our life as the people of God.

With a speaker from the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, our focus was on East Asia. Thailand, Japan, and the massive long country of Indonesia, in particular.

Some heart-rending statistics which would surely drive even the hardest of hearts to be crying to God for his grace. And some encouraging statistics as well. Of the roughly 100,000 Chinese people coming to the west each year to study, something like 10,000 are converted and return there as new Christians.

Our God does remarkable things. Often unseen from the eyes of the many.

Who knows what the Lord may be doing 'behind the scenes'?

In the lives of the children at school. In the lives of the folk who come out to the Wednesday worship. In the lives of the people who'll gather tomorrow to mourn.

Who knows?

He's greater by far than we think. And he does some quite wonderful things.

hearing God

Yesterday I was on about Listening.

I suppose in a way that's what today's been about as well. Listening for the Lord and hearing him speak.

Bill Hybels has a book, relatively recently published, called 'The Power of a Whisper' with the sub-title - Hearing God. Having the guts to respond. It's typical Hybels. Good, clear and both challenging and encouraging at one and the same time.

It's about listening for the 'whispers' of the Lord.

Relationship with the Lord is the heart of the gospel. And relationship involves this two-way communication. Our speaking with him, his speaking with us.

It's wonderfully real.

I met with someone today who'd been hearing God speak. A powerful, challenging, potentially life-changing word - which had repercussions for myself as well.

He asked me how what the Lord had been saying to him impacted on myself. Did it ring any bells?

Well, it certainly did! The Lord has been pointedly drawing some things to my attention along precisely these same lines. It seemed a striking confirmation for us both.

I met someone else later on who'd been hearing those 'whispers' of God. Last week. Tuesday and Wednesday in particular. A strange and strong compulsion to be praying for two people. Why she didn't know - she only knew they needed to be prayed for at that time.

One died on the Wednesday morning. The other was bereaved.

Later still I was aware of the Lord again speaking very clearly with another of the people I was with. Through all of our talking, the Lord seemed to lay on my heart the text of John chapter 9. The man born blind.

And in particular the words that Jesus spoke to the man - Go and wash in the pool of Siloam.

This is a person who's close to the point of commitment. What next?

Go and wash in the pool of Siloam.

It seemed like the Lord was speaking that word and pointing the way to proceed. We chatted about exactly what those words would mean. But it was really clear enough!

So I'm praying the person will come back in these coming days like the blind man in the narrative, a whole new person, rejoicing in the change that Jesus brings!

As Charles Wesley wrote in one of his hymns -

He speaks and listening to his voice

New life the dead receive.

listening

"What's this?" she asked. "A photographic memory?"

I couldn't quite see what she was on about, so I asked her to explain.

"You remember all the details," she responded. I was seeing this person in regard to a service of thanksgiving that's coming up. She'd been chatting about the family - the names of the children, the fact that her mother and father had both changed their names, the choice of the praise that they wanted: all those sorts of things.

"You must have a photographic memory to remember all that," she declared, when I referred back a little bit later to what she'd been saying.

"No," I replied. "I'm just careful to listen."

Listening is an important part of all our lives. Being aware of the detail which matters to people we're with. It's often the detail which counts so much.

You remember that great Buddy Holly song? Well, maybe you don't! But I was a great Buddy Holly fan and loved the way he used to sing: and especially the song 'Rave on'. It starts with the rather telling words -

Little things you say and do make me want to be with you ...

Do you see that? It's the little things which matter. The detail.

We sometimes say the devil's in the detail. But in truth, the Lord is right into the detail as well.

Why do you think there are all of those lists of people with odd sounding names? Huge long lists of names, which, when you're reading the Scriptures, you really just want to skip over. Why are they there? Why such attention to detail?

Because what may seem a little and insignificant thing to you and me, matters a lot to the Lord. He doesn't miss a thing. None of us is too small, too weak, too odd, for him to care about.

He knows, and cares about, every smallest detail of our lives.

Isn't that what Jesus meant when he said that even the very hairs of your head are all numbered? The Lord knows us, down to the smallest detail. He doesn't miss a thing.

And one simple way of letting folk know that's the case is by listening with great care to what's being said.

Half of the time in our varied conversations, we're either speaking ourselves or thinking of what we'll say next. Listening sometimes doesn't rate that highly in our conversation skills.

But the Lord is great at listening. He hangs on our every word. He hears the smallest little pin drop in our lives. Because he cares, because he loves us more than we could ever guess.

How do I get that across to folk if not at least by listening that attentively myself?

The little things are always what mean just so much to people that we meet.

Most folk think that preachers spend their time in always speaking. Not so.

Most of the time it's listening that we do.

under the radar

I fear that I'm in danger of dropping off the cyber radar!

If that happens it will not be so much because there's nothing to write - it'll be because I'm struggling to find the time to write it!

These are busy days, with a lot going on, and much that's more than suggestive of the Lord himself being at work among us here.

Today there's been the school again - a couple of times this morning, now that the schools have returned. The theme for the month is Purpose. It seems unusually appropriate!

There's been a session this evening, as well, to train up folk involved in the tasks of projecting in our worship here each week. A fair bit of time has been spent today preparing for that. Most folk think it's a simple case of pressing a few buttons now and then. Not so!

It's a definite ministry, properly understood. I want folk to see it as such. An eight-page manual now helps to explain how it works: and highlights, too, just what's involved in ministering in this way. I think that came across tonight: I hope the evening helped.

There have been a number of deaths as well. Perhaps it's the time of year.

Meeting and speaking with people in connection with these also takes large amounts of time.

I'm conscious again of just what a privileged life I lead, being able to share with these people through times of great sorrow and loss, and bring (please God) a sense of the Lord's own presence and comfort and care.

So if and when I maybe seem to fly beneath the radar of these cyber 'posts', you'll understand it's not that there is nothing going on, so much as there being almost way too much!

layers of leaders

Most of the morning today was spent in meeting again with others in relation to pastoral work.

In one of his books Philip Yancey speaks about a Chinese Christian he met, a man called Brother Shi, who'd been brought up in a thoroughly atheistic home and groomed for a life as a Communist Party activist. He tells of how the man had come to faith in Christ and had turned his back on the Party: and of how he now had a far-reaching 'pastoral ministry' across the land.

You work with layers of leaders,' Philip Yancey had observed to the man. 'If you added up all the church members under them, how many people in total are you responsible for as a bishop in the unregistered church?

The guy had paused to think for a moment, doing some mental calculations. 'Hard to say for sure. My best guess is two hundred and sixty thousand.'

That's pastoral ministry through what Yancey calls 'layers of leaders'. It's something like that which we're trying to develop as the pattern for pastoral ministry among God's people here.

Not that we have 260,000 people. Nothing like.

But it's that sort of pattern, that sort of framework we're trying to lay down as the 'grid' in the life of this local church, with recognised pastors each responsible for a kind of 'mini-church' of up to 50 people, and using the gifts of others among their 'fifty' to share in the pastoring work.

Layers of leaders.

It's taken a while to develop this pastoral 'grid', but we're starting now to get there: it's beginning to take some shape: it's a framework for the future, when we sense that this sort of disciple-making pastoral ministry is going to be more and more important.

praying for your pastors

Pastoral ministry is a key aspect of any congregation's life.

We've been working hard at this for months now, seeking to establish an appropriate framework for such pastoral ministry, which will secure the ends for which it's there.

But we readily recognise that it's not just the framework that needs to be right - it's us as well, the pastors through whom that pastoral ministry is exercised.

Last night at our regular Sunday evening worship we started to take a close look at what Paul has to say about the sort of pastoral ministry he exercised (and wanted to see being exercised by others): and as the lead in to that we sang together James Montgomery's hymn which is a prayer for pastors.

Get beyond the slightly antiquated language, and it's actually an extraordinarily pertinent prayer which God's people would do well to be praying for all their pastors, all, that is, who have responsibility for the 'care of their souls'.

Here are the words of the hymn. Let me encourage you to take these words and make them your specific, regular, earnest prayer for those who are your pastors.

Pour out thy Spirit from on high; Lord, thine ordained servants bless; graces and gifts to each supply, and clothe thy priests with righteousness.

2. Within thy temple when they stand to teach the truth, as taught by thee, Saviour, like stars in thy right hand the angels of the churches be !

3. Wisdom and zeal and faith impart, firmness with meekness, from above, to bear thy people on their heart, and love the souls whom thou dost love.

4. To watch and pray, and never faint; by day and night strict guard to keep; to warn the sinner, cheer the saint, nourish thy lambs, and feed thy sheep;

5. Then, when their work is finished here, in humble hope their charge resign. When the Chief Shepherd shall appear, O God, may they and we be thine.

They will appreciate hugely your praying for them thus!

And you yourself will benefit greatly from the increasing richness of the pastoral ministry they'll begin to exercise.

blinkered?

It's quite easy to think in a rather blinkered fashion. Indeed, there are sometimes good reasons for ensuring we do think like that.

Blinkers keep us focussed. They prevent us from being distracted. We all need that.

But they also keep us from seeing the wider picture. And that's never so helpful.

Our blinkers make the likes of myself look only at the church. A church which is only a few steps away from real crises.

Financial crisis, as reserves run out and we near a terrible 'melt-down'. Spiritual crisis, as the anchor of sola Scriptura (Scripture as our sole authority) is thrown out. Relational crisis, as ministers, members and even perhaps some congregations move out.

But 'church' is not all that's going on in God's world. And we need to be careful to ensure that we see all these possible crises emerging along the horizon of coming months in the context of all else that's happening here in our land.

What's going on in the church - and whatever God's doing in and through all that is thus going on - is not taking place in glorious isolation.

We live in a land where a number of powerful factors are presently coming together to create what could well be a maelstrom of chaos we'll all have to face.

Our economic and political situation is releasing pent-up energies of anger and hostility today whose issue could be frightening and extreme.

We face a massive debt, the like of which this generation simply hasn't known or had to face like this before. We're treading on ground that is new, and it's far from a comfortable walk.

Similarly, we're having to live with a coalition government: and it seems, because it's largely new, the concept's one which many simply do not understand, and don't know how to work.

The end result is a feeling of hurt and betrayal, and the pain that's being increasingly experienced is growing in a culture of incessant blame.

Moreover, we live now in a desperate moral vacuum.

Those energies of anger and hostility, in other words, are coming to the surface in a nation which has long since lost the notion of there being the moral absolutes we once could take for granted in our national life.

Those clear moral parameters which once held in check the anger and the aggro that a people felt are now no longer there. The law of the jungle, where animal instincts are given full sway, where you do what you like, and where might is right - the law of the jungle is what our permissive society has effectively brought.

Factor into all of that environmental factors - snow and ice and floods and drought and earthquakes and volcanoes and tsunamis and the quickly melting ice-caps and the slowly rising level of the seas - and all the consequential chaos which these bring: and you start to get the picture.

And when, on top of all of that, you take account of the rampant, bold aggressiveness of Islam and of secularism, you start to see how close we are to what could well be chaos in our land. We hover more and more upon the edge of real implosion.

Who knows if the whole of our landscape is going to be re-drawn? What's going on in the church can't be seen in isolation. It's part of a much bigger picture.

I smiled over Christmas when I saw the effect of the weather.

The harsh extremes of snow and cold meant many were not able to attend their usual place of worship. We had many who live in the locality here, who normally travel to all sorts of other parts of the town to share in the worship of others elsewhere - Baptist, Methodist, etc - who were forced to 'go local' and share in our worship here.

It was great! Folk who love the Lord and love his Word, all gathering together in this way, pretty much on their doorsteps.

And it felt like the Lord was telling us all, You'd better get used to this! This is the shape of the future.

God's people uniting together. Where they live. Regardless of the 'tag' they've previously worn.

It may just be that that's what's going on.

In the crises and chaos which the future may hold, it's our bonds in Christ which will bring us and hold us together.

the ancient paths

Pastoral ministry is a hugely important dimension of what we're seeking to do.

Disciple-making can't be done without it. So we've been giving a good deal of thought to this in recent months, since our raison d'etre as followers of Jesus Christ is that of going and making disciples.

It's a kind providence of God, therefore, which sees us here at the start of a brand new year, picking up on the book of Acts (on Sunday nights) at the point where Paul explains at some length the nature of the pastoral ministry he's sought to exercise.

There's a lot for us all to learn. Because this is challenging stuff, which highlights how far we have drifted from what the Scriptures exhort us to be. It's time for us to be getting right back to where we're meant to be.

I spent quite some time on this again through the course of yesterday. We'll take some time, these coming Sunday evenings, working through the different issues which Paul's ministry throws up.

It's not a new sort of pastoral ministry we're seeking to exercise here - except in the sense that it's different by far from what we've been accustomed to. But it's not new, so much as the old being embraced and applied once again.

Ask for the ancient paths, as the prophet once declared [Jer.6.16]

Those are the paths we're now seeking to walk.