Sunday 28 August 2011

It is time to seek the Lord

We have become aware of a very strange phenomenon recently.  The trees in our part of England suddenly seem to think it is autumn two months early!  Many of the trees are rapidly turning from green to yellow and brown in the middle of August.  A closer look also reveals that on some trees it is specific branches that are acting this way, and indeed some branches seem to have died off altogether.  In other trees the evidence of an early autumn pervades the whole.  What a contrast to last year when the autumn changes happened slowly and we were given one of the best displays I have ever seen.

The experts seem to be undecided as to what has caused this phenomenon.  Some point to the dry early summer, while others are talking about the recent lower night time temperatures.  Whatever the cause we could say that the evidence from the trees would suggest that it is later than it is!  Certainly, any hope of a prolonged and colourful autumn seems to have been suddenly snatched from us.  I wonder whether, like me, you have ever been hoping to get something done or finished only to find time has run out.  It was later than I thought.

Many years ago a Baptist Minister was walking with his wife along the seafront when a man looked up from the paper he was reading to ask the time.  The Minister consulted his watch and passed on the information.  A few moments the Minister felt compelled to retrace his steps.  The man was surprised to see him.  "A few moments ago," said the Minister, "You asked me what the time was.  I feel compelled to tell you that it is time to seek the Lord".  To his amazement the man burst into tears and the Minister led him to the Lord there and then.

Some stories like that stick in the mind.  But seeking the Lord is not just about getting saved.  What about praying for revival or the salvation of friends and family?  Are there blessings that should have come into our lives if only we had sought them earlier?

During the past week I called on a family to discuss the baptism of their daughter - now in her late twenties.  Her older brothers had been christened when young but then the family moved and time went by and they just didn't get round to it.  Her brother and his wife have had a baby and want the young woman to be a god parent, but the denomination concerned will not allow an un-baptised person to be a godparent!  Now they are asking why they didn't get round to it much sooner!  Well, you will realise that this is an interesting situation.  My views on baptism have moderated over the years such that the volume of water is now less significant to me.  But genuine faith is vital - whether on the part of parents wanted their child baptised as a sign of their faith, or an older person wanting to be baptised as an expression of that person's faith.

I value your prayers as I talk these things through with them.  I realise how important an issue this is in their family but I would like it to be a really important factor in the life of someone who perhaps will realise it is not just baptism that they did not get round to!  I have had one good pastoral visit and my second visit is scheduled for this Monday 29th in the evening.  Please pray for wisdom that I will do what Jesus would do in such a situation.  I need both the right words and the right attitude.

This week:
Today (Sunday)  I took the service at Yelvertoft on the theme of baptism
Monday - pray for the pastoral visit.
Tuesday - Prison.  Please pray for a young man in the choir who behaved very badly last week and created a bad atmosphere.  Please pray also for a Christian friend, Margaret, who has just discovered a tumour and has a mastectomy this day.
Wednesday - Please pray for Alison, the wife of a friend and colleague, who has an operation for a brain tumour today.  Also for Priscilla, one of our older church members, who goes to hospital.  Some time after a hip replacement her hip has become very painful.
Thursday - Please pray for my study that I will find time to do essential reading and complete two important pieces of writing.
Friday - I have an evening meeting for the Congregational Federation Area.  We have a piece of unfinished work in trying to set up a children and family worker for the Area churches.  This keeps slipping down my list of things to do but finding someone else to carry it through is difficult.  Such an appointment would help several churches - including mine - in their mission.
Sunday - I'm back at Yelvertoft.

This past week I am thankful that I managed to complete a number of important administrative jobs in addition to regular ministry.  If you prayed about that as asked then I am very grateful.  Your prayers are so important to Doreen and me.  Do remember my colleague, Monica, busy in Kenya at this time.

Barry

Saturday 20 August 2011

The "Church" experience

Last Sunday morning I took the service at Gartree Prison before heading back into Market Harborough to pick up Doreen and make our way across country to Yelvertoft for our regular morning meeting.  There was quite a good attendance at the prison and I had deliberately encouraged contributions from the lads.  I had several good testimonies and hymns provided.  In order to accommodate the various elements I had not followed any discernable order of service.  I drove away feeling it had been a good experience of church.  At Yelvertoft I was delighted to find the chapel fairly full.  Again, I had asked people to choose hymns in advance and be prepared to say something about this.  At both services I had continued the thoughts around how God knows each of us personally, calls us individually, and has a unique role for each of us within his purposes. "You might be a number a computer can trace, but God knows your name, your need and your face!"

Afterwards (and after we had had coffee) we had all been invited to the home of one couple in the fellowship for a bring and share lunch.  The table was loaded with good things, the company was excellent, and we sat relaxed in the garden enjoying both.  It was then that I asked the question, "Is this an "after-church" activity or is it actually still church?"  All those around me agreed it was still church.

lunch time at Holiday at Home
Much of the rest of the week was spent at Holiday at Home in Market Harborough.  This initiative, started by my friend and colleague the Rev Brian Kennard, provides a five day event including an outing on one day.  Other days involved sessions such as short mat bowls, discovering the internet, making shopping bags from recycled curtains, calligraphy, relaxation, drama, a talk from a Christian psychiatrist, chair-based exercises, cooking and much more.  Just under 40 "older" people from the community came each day and we finished each day with a nice lunch.  It is not evangelism as some might define it but it is an excellent opportunity to genuinely show God's love and demonstrate the gospel.  My role included supporting Brian any way I could, running a community singing session, and sharing some of the gospel story within short programmes of jokes, stories and songs on two other occasions.

making shopping bags from old curtains
On each of the four church-based days of H@H something was said about the need and opportunity to enter into a relationship with God.  But the gospel often permeated the fun activities too.  One joy for me was seeing a lady bring her 92 year old husband for the first time.  It was her first time a few years ago and I had shared several conversations with her.  She has since started attending church.  Reflecting on the week I find myself wondering whether what we have been doing is really what church is about.  It might not have had a formalised religious character but can you only have fun once "church" is over?  Fun, fellowship, gospel talks and songs, sharing food and taking time to draw alongside people and listen to them... sounds like church to me.  What do you think?

This week
Study, writing, administration and some pastoral visits.  This week I am also trying to set up a number of rural mission consultations for later this year.  A quiet week as far as activities are concerned but one needing your prayers none the less.  Please pray for my mission colleague, Monica, as she prepares for another four weeks of ministry in Kenya starting on 22nd August.

Thank you.

Barry

Saturday 13 August 2011

"In the Church God has appointed...those with gifts of administration..."

I found myself muttering to God this week about the activities that have preoccupied me over the past several days.  Most times I am happy to get on with whatever God puts in my way or calls me to do.  The only exception to this usual sense of contentment relates to administrative matters. And it isn't that I find them hard to do.  I think it may have something to do with how I perceive their relative value.  But often these are very important and I suspect that those who have a gift of administration are among the most undervalued servants of God.  I'm just not sure that it's my gift, but maybe...

I had spent time the previous week organising an important telephone conference for the Sunrise Ministries trustees that would ensure that our child and vulnerable adult protection policies were brought up to date.  Our chair of trustees had done useful work and since the trustees were not due to meet again until November I had sent all the documents to them electronically.  The conference I facilitated was held first thing last Monday and all went well.  I wrote up the  minutes and sent them off to the Chairman for his approval.  Meanwhile there was a certain amount of work needed to get a few odd wrinkles in the policy documents ironed out.  In particular the Protection of Vulnerable Adult Policy needed more editing and I completed this task on Tuesday (in addition to the weekly prison visit) and sent the new draft to the Churches Agency for Safeguarding for approval.

The next task was to draft a new constitution for the International Congregational Theological Commission.  This had been sitting on my desk for several weeks and I was finally bumped into finishing the task as I was due to meet with one of the ICTC Co-Chairs on Thursday.  Writing a constitution for an incorporated charity is a challenge and it took me sixteen hours - though some of this was getting "Word" to format it in a way that the Charity Commission might be happy to accept.  It was as I staggered off to bed in the early hours of Thursday morning that I started muttering to God.

There was a sense of fulfilment in getting both the policy documents and the constitution efficiently drafted (as far as I can tell) and I also reflected that the previous week had also included a session with leaders of a local church looking at a new trust deed for them.  In many ways I didn't mind giving time to these tasks, though I could think of other aspects of ministry I would rather have been doing.  And that is it - it is a ministry (1 Corinthians 12:28).  What I could not think of was anyone to whom I could have delegated these important tasks.  It is important that the local church will be able to operate effectively.  It is important that our organisation operates both legally and safely.  It is important that the Theological Commission can develop its valuable work with an enabling new charitable status.  It is a ministry.  Perhaps I shouldn't have muttered!

Thursday I went to Congregational Federation offices in Nottingham (a) to meet with others as we plan a Church Leaders Conference for next Easter, (b) to meet with the Co-Chair of the Theological Commission, (c) to meet with the Mission Development Officer, and (d)  to meet with the Finance Officer.  All four sessions concluded in under five hours and I was on my way back home.  But such meetings also generate administration!

Friday I had a change.  I produced several copies of the second "Treasured Gospel Songs" CD, designed and printed off CD labels and case inserts and put some in the outgoing post for the day.  Now, at last, I can give more thought preparing for the services at Gartree Prison and Yelvertoft tomorrow.

Praying through the coming week
Sunday - 9.00 Gartree Prison;  10.45 Yelvertoft Congregational Church.

Monday to Friday (except Thursday) we are running Holiday at Home for the fourth year.  This is a friendly outreach aimed at older people and is really pre-evangelism.  I will be interacting with those attending, backing up the organising minister, running a couple of sessions, singing and giving a short talk.  Mostly it is about showing God's love to folk as they move towards the last years of their lives so please pray that they will see Jesus in me and the others running this programme.

Tuesday afternoon - Gartree Prison Choir

Thursday - lunchtime networking meeting for the rural churches around Rugby, Warwickshire.

Final thoughts
Pray for those to whom God has given the gift of administration that they will step up to the mark, and that they will recognise the value of their ministry and be recognised within their churches for the valuable role they undertake.  What makes the work of value is the fact that it comes as a trust from God.

Barry

Saturday 6 August 2011

"Where two or three gather..."


Why is it, I wonder, that numbers matter so much to us?

Take last Sunday, for example.  The first service of the day was at Gartree Prison when just under 50 prisoners attended.  We had a good time of fellowship both in the meeting and afterwards over coffee.  Several prisoners asked for prayer after I had given an opportunity for people to pray a prayer of invitation in the service.  Praise the Lord!

I was away from the prison just in time to make the journey across to Yelvertoft, arriving at 11.45 in time for the informal fellowship at our church.  John Langford had taken the service for me.  I was encouraged to find a good number despite several being away for various reasons.  I am longing for the time when our average attendance exceeds 20 each week, which would be good for a village the size of Yelvertoft.

In the evening I took the service at Market Harborough Congregational Church where there were eight of us including Doreen and me!  Those that were there were clearly embarrassed that so few had attended.  Well it's summer time, the minister's on holiday, and evening services these days tend not to draw many.  It inevitably made me reflect on how I spend my time.  Preparing for that service and conducting it took just as much time as it would if there had been 100 present.  I also seek to offer helpful ministry in the best way I can.  Could there have been a more economical use of time?  Did it really matter?

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament are full of stories of individuals meeting with God.  Stories that involve crowds seem few and far between.  Yes, there is the sermon on the mount, the feeding of 5,000 and 4,000, and the Day of Pentecost in the NT, but if you list the big gatherings against the individual stories recorded what appears important is the accounts of individuals.  On the way to Jericho there was a great crowd but it is the story of an individual (Bartimaeus) that is significant.  Once inside the city there is a crowd but here it is Zacchaeus that is significant.  On the way to the home of Jairus it is a woman with a haemorrhage that is significant.  If anything stands out within the pattern of the ministry of Jesus it is engagement with individuals that seek his help rather than crowds (from who he often sought escape).

But that raises an important issue for those of us who give ourselves in ministry often to the twos and threes.  If it is not that numbers are significant from God's perspective then we do need to be sure that at least one person in each meeting feels God's touch, hears him speak, and draws closer to God.  Obviously that is where our focus should be.  If the promise of his presence is true then we need to be careful that he can be found each time we meet.  We need to take care to introduce those who have need (even if unspoken) to the one who longs to meet it.

Prayers this week
Sunday 7th - Yelvertoft
Monday 8th - servicing (non-participation) a telephone conference for Sunrise Ministries trustees.
Tuesday 9th - Gartree Prison
Sunday 14th - 9.00 Gartree Prison and 10.45 Yelvertoft

Final preparations for "Holiday at Home" - an outreach programme to older people in Market Harborough 15th to 19th August.

Work on my research project, administration and pastoral visits will occupy the rest of the time.  I will also try to take a little more time out during this relatively quiet period.

Please pray that I will be sensitive to what God sees when I am taking meetings and develop the ability to help the 'two or threes' or even the ones and twos to truly engage with God.

Barry