Ordination Vows

So it has been quite a while since my last post. Lots has happened since then. I have moved house and started ministry in another church, which is a brilliant place to be!
I have the blog bug again ... I don't know how long it will last!

I've spent some time reflecting on the vows I took for Ordination. I was reading the journal I had written at the time. I remember the "they are worthy" response and thinking ... wow ..... do they know me? They believed and trusted that I was worthy, I hope that is still the case!
I am thankful for the trust placed in me
I am thankful that I can preach by word and deed the Gospel of God's grace and desire to do it better!
I am thankful for all the other things I am called to.
I am challenged to give counsel and encouragement to those entrusted to my care.
As I read the vows again I am deeply challenged to pray without ceasing...

I have a week off coming up. Well, a week when I need to get some words on paper for my dissertation, a week when I need to relax, a week when I need to reflect on all that's going on, a week when I need to be still, to listen, to discern ....might be a "full" week off,,,, and I will spend some more time reflecting on those ordination vows ....
Shalom

The last blog .....

I said I would blog about the event that took place on Saturday morning and so here it is ....
For me this was a culmination of all the work I had been doing since September. By and large it was the same parents and children who came on Saturday with a few more from the church. There was about 22 children and 20 adults (including the organisers)

What a morning we had! Easter egg decorating, card making, crafts including making Easter chicks and eggs, colouring in, Easter egg hunt, refreshments etc and everyone took part - the adults enjoyed it as much as the children. It was a bit like Messy church and it worked!

During Holy Week a 24/7 prayer room had been set up and it was open on Saturday morning adults and children alike were moved having been in it! While standing outside I overheard a child say - come and see how Jesus died - I was moved as she dragged a grown up into the prayer room!

I'm glad this "experiment" "project" call it what you will has finished on such a high note! I should also add that at our Good Friday service which was a Tenebrae service I was amazed that some of the folk from Saturday morning (who don't come to Sunday worship) came to it! So there have been positives all round. On the down side I won't be around to follow this work up and build on it. I've enjoyed the experience, learnt from it and can use all of this in my new place of work ....... maybe the blog will continue after all??.....

The end ..... or is it?

During the past few weeks I have reflected on what the hopes were of the women who began to come on Saturday mornings way back in September.
They hoped to learn new things!

Well, we've learnt few new things .... how to bake scones, how to make muffins, how to make chocolates .... and eat them all!! That's what we've done over the past few weeks. I've been able to use the gifts and talents of other members of the congregation to do this which has been really good.

Last Saturday was the last! The children's club finished then so that's when we finished too. We met and chatted over coffee and hot cross buns, discussing aspects of Easter among other things.

Does it end here? Frankly I've no idea. All I know is my part in this experiment ends. I move on in a few months. So what remains? Thursday mornings continue with nearly the same people but with a couple more from the church who like cross stitching - this has been good to encourage fellowship, share life's joys and struggles as we talk and stitch around the table.

What's new? This Saturday, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, something akin to Messy Church will happen (I'll Blog later about that). I've had nothing to do with this other than plant seeds, encouraged people to use their imaginations and given them the freedom to experiment.

Saturday is a family day with Easter egg hunts, decorating Easter Eggs, crafts, food & drink, all based around the Easter message. A prayer room has been set up for Holy Week and it is hoped to use that during Saturday morning as people move about! This has been good because I have had a back seat in the planning! I'm just encouraged that people have seen what I have been trying to do on Saturday mornings and hopefully are prepared to experiment even more!

The end. (for now) ...

Attractional v Incarnational ...

"A truly missional church will be both incarnational and attractional," so says Stuart Murray in his book Planting Churches page 13 ..... and I say Amen!

I understand that few if any will be attracted to church events unless they are regular church goers but a missional church will "want to attract people to Jesus" (Murray) so its priority is "to equip its members to incarnate the gospel in all areas of society." (still Murray)

On the one hand I'm encouraging those that I work among (ie my congregation) to be Jesus in all aspects of their lives wherever they go.... incarnational. Their eyes have been opened to a fresh understanding of an aspect of evangelism through Bill Hybel's "Just walk across the room".
On the other hand I hope I'm attracting people to Jesus through the attempts of what Saturday and now Thursday mornings offer!

The Saturday mornings will cease before Easter but the Thursday mornings will continue for as long as those coming want!!

Requests for prayer have been made to me from those who come on Saturday mornings so the door is opening for those spiritual conversations or else they wouldn't ask for prayer! Going back to the Bill Hybels dvd that I've been doing at the Bible study .... he said to a colleague ... I'm not going to heaven without you ...... that is my heart for those I've got to know over the past few months!

I can only imagine .......

Reproduction ..

The group I meet with has reproduced itself!

Let me explain....

Last week we began to do some cross stitch on Saturday mornings, replacing the card making we had been doing. Now, I can just about sew a button on and as for hems .... the sticky stuff does a good job, so to find myself having fun while doing cross stitch just didn't seem possible but I did! I really took to it and have so got a new hobby for the spare time I don't have.

Yesterday we began by having a conversation about the funeral practices of different communities which was weird but was a way into faith conversation which was interesting.

Anyhow, the good news, in fact the amazing news is ....... the group is going to meet twice a week!
The cross stitching has proved so popular that the person who came to show us how to do it suggested yesterday that we should form a small group doing cross stitching and ask a few others to come. For me this was great news and an answer to prayer! This lady has opened up her home on Thursday mornings to host a cross stitching group and I hear already that two more people want to join in ...... so the group has reproduced! I think this is just amazing and not something I saw coming ..... but it came about because the person felt a prompting from God to offer to host this as she wanted a way in which to serve God.

It's exciting ..... and I can only imagine the possibilities .....

Holistic Perspective

"It is no use going simply to teach or to speak. It is necessary to sit and listen and serve .... there is opportunity, often to witness to the gospel and to see people come to faith. "(Croft)
It's easy to sit and listen and serve. But I've been wondering does it make church, can it become church? If I have the opportunity to pray with people that come does that make it church?

A lot has happened since I last blogged (some of which I cannot publish here). As a group we continued to meet on Saturday mornings, share breakfast, make Christmas cards and have good conversations around the table. What I also discovered was some of the parents seeking me out to talk on a one to one basis. During these times I was quite taken aback by what they were prepared to share with me ... yet I was also humbled by the fact that the relationships had deepened to the extent that they could openly and honestly trust me with real, personal issues and to some extent heart breaking things that were going on in their lives. So I had to really listen. This happened many times over the past few weeks and not just in the context of Saturday mornings ... it happened in the local shop in the estate, outside the school gates, in the school at a nativity play, at the community centre. I have prayed with and for some of these mums .... I have seen a change in attitudes towards God .... but they have a poor perspective of the church I minister in. To be honest there is a sense in which this very small group have a greater sense of what church should be - they have an openness that I don't always find elsewhere - yet - Saturday mornings may not meet certain criteria that say it is church but it has become something more than just somewhere to kill time while the children are at the kids club. I think there will be opportunities for faith to be explored.

Some of them came to the carol service and also to a family movie night (Muppets Christmas Carol) where more conversations emerged after the movie over coffeee and mince pies while the children enjoyed crafts!

This weekend we will begin to learn how to do cross stitch which should bring some hilarity to the proceedings ... and I will continue to sit and listen and serve those who come.

I seek to have that holistic perspective on what has happened over the past few months and on what will happen in the months that lie ahead. I'm continuing to hold on to that hopeful imagination...