A Challenging Walk

As we come to the end of a very wet week I am contemplating my planned sponsored walk this Saturday.  I am combining it with a periodic walk with some of the men from the church at Yelvertoft.  Since they will not wish to do the entire 13+ miles the plan is to walk cross country for the first half, at which point we will meet up with our women folk who will join us for lunch.  In the afternoon I plan to complete the remainder of the walk alone.  The weather forecast is over-clouded but not raining.

You will know that the Bible uses the imagery of a walk for our spiritual and moral life.  At this stage I have no idea of what the ground will be like even if it does not rain.  The soaking the ground has had could make it heavy going or even slippery in places.  In the same way I have no idea of the hazards that might like along my spiritual journey.  Have you found it heavy going recently.  I hope you won't be discouraged but will keep right on to the end of the road.

My thanks to those who have signed up to sponsor me.  The event is in aid of a Christian Aid project supporting development schemes in Nicaragua.  My church is part of the Congregational Federation which is seeking to raise £30,000 over three years.  Every penny helps.  I find that it is good to look beyond our own needs as a mission organisation and do something for someone else occasionally.  If you would like to help me achieve a little more you will find a form you can complete on line at barryosborne.blogspot.com.  If you use this I will let you know how I got on and how you can get the money to me.  No offer is too small.

May is going to be busy and some of this past week has been taken up planning itineraries, booking travel and accommodation.  I hope you will be travelling with me through your prayers.  If you use Twitter you will be able to follow me at @ruralbarry or at #barryswalk if you just want to keep in touch during my travels starting this Saturday.

From the Diary
Saturday 28th -  Sponsored Walk Welford, Northants to Market Harborough, Leics.
Sunday 29th - 9.00  Gartree Prison Service;  10.00  Yelvertoft Congregational Church; 6.00 Theddingworth Congregational Church.
Tuesday 1st - Flying to Glasgow
Wednesday & Thursday representing the Congregational Federation at the CTBI Senior Church Representatives Forum.
Thursday 3rd - Flying back home.
Friday 4th - an Area Association committee meeting, Ashby de la Zouche, Leics.
Sunday 6th - Yelvertoft
Tuesday 9th - Gartree Prison
Wednesday 10th (?) Post Graduate Event in Winchester (Almost certainly I will have to miss and apologise)
Thursday 11th - Fly to Edinburgh and train to Stirling
Friday & Saturday - Congregational Federation's Special Annual Assembly
Saturday evening - Fly to Heathrow where I will be taken to the Salvation Army Conference venue at Sunbury on Thames.
Sunday 13th - Teaching on the pastoral care of sexual abuse victims for the Salvation Army
Sunday evening train to Winchester
Monday 14th - attending Winchester University
Tuesday 15th - Train back to home and back to my weekly activity in Gartree Prison.

Such an intensive programme is not ideal.  Please pray that spiritually, physically and mentally I will remain fit.  Please also pray for Doreen, especially for the two block periods I am away from home.

It is possible that I will not be able to write my blog/newsletter next weekend so please keep this one handy so you can follow me with your prayers.

Thank you.

Barry

Perichoresis means...

When I was planning the recent Church Leaders Conference where the theme was partnership, I discussed with others the term  perichoresis.


Perichoresis is a theological term used to describe an aspect of the relationship of the three persons of the Trinity.  The word contains two Greek words: peri (around) and choresis (contain).  Some wrongly think that the second Greek word is Chorus which means 'dance'.  The term is used to describe how each retains separate complete identity yet are inter-related with the others.  The exciting aspect (if you haven't already started to jump up and down) is that just as they share an inter-relational existence, we too are called by God into the same inter-relational existence.  Here's a great illustration.


One Saturday a man named C Baxter Kruger was sitting sorting through papers when his six tear old son and a friend the man had never met before entered the room.  They had been playing soldiers and were dressed up in camouflage with face paint and toy weapons.  Before he knew it the man's son had jumped on him in a pretend attack, and the two of them fell to the floor in a friendly wrestling match.  As they were playing around the other boy who was observing the fun decided to join in too.  As the farther fooled around pretending to fight off his two young assailants, he felt that God told him that he needed to reflect on what had just happened.


His son, who had a confident relationship with his father, had involved his dad in some play.  The son's friend who had never met the dad before felt drawn into this fun relationship and confidently acted as if he too were the man's son.  The man then reflected on what might have happened if the other boy had walked into the room alone.  This is what he later wrote.


"Within himself, that little boy had no freedom to have a relationship with me. We were strangers. He had no right to that kind of familiarity and fellowship. But my son knows me. My son knows that I love him and that I accept him and that he’s the apple of my eye. So in the knowledge of my love and affection, he did the most natural thing in the world. He dove into my lap. The miracle that happened was that my son’s knowledge of my acceptance and delight, and my son’s freedom for fellowship with me, rubbed off on that other little boy. He got to experience it. That other little boy got to taste and feel and know my son’s relationship with me. He participated in my son’s life and communion with me."


There is no relationship more wonderful than that enjoyed between the persons of the Trinity and by adoption we are drawn into this relationship.  Just as Jesus said "I am in the Father and the Father is in me" so he also said "On that day [the coming of the Holy Spirit] you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you."  John 14:20.  While I enjoy reflecting on this wonderful act of grace I also wonder whether the quality of this relationship I enjoy is so obviously and visibly wonderful that people who know me want to join in as well, much as the son's friend did.


Now for the News!
As indicated last week, this is a time when Doreen and I are usually on holiday so there is space in the diary and I am trying to use time for catching up on essential reading.  Please pray that I will get sufficient time to accomplish this task over the coming weeks.


I completed the annual accounts for Sunrise Ministries (the charity under which my rural ministry operates).  Not surprisingly it has operated at a loss for the second consecutive year and reserves are being depleted.  Rural Evangelism does not fire the imagination of those who have no understanding of rural life and witness.  Please pray that individual Christians and churches that catch the vision we have for helping rural churches develop and engage in rural mission and evangelism in ways that are appropriate to them will stand with us in prayer and financial support.


This Sunday, 22nd April, I am taking the services at Yelvertoft in the morning and Newton (near Rugby) in the evening.  On Tuesday I will have my regular meeting with the Prison Choir at Gartree.  We had an excellent time last week.  The following Sunday, 29th, I will be taking the service at Gartree Prison followed by the morning meeting at Yelvertoft, and sharing in the evening meeting at Theddingworth.


Finally, I agreed to do a sponsored walk (about 13 miles) for a Christian Aid project supporting activities in Nicaragua.  The walk took place last Saturday 14th, when I was hosting a visit from Dr Rick Hartley and so could not fully participate.  We joined the walkers for the last four miles or so.  I plan to undertake the full walk on Saturday 28th and plan to email you and others separately in the hope of raising sponsorship.  Every little helps!


Meanwhile enjoy this wonderful relationship with God into which we have been invited.


Yours sincerely in Christ,


Barry

Full but looking for the next meal

So here we are, late on Saturday evening, writing this week's blog.  What a wonderful week we have had.  It seems such a long time since last Saturday there has been so much wonderful blessing and activity.  I am truly full in many ways but eager to have more soon.

Last Sunday we celebrated the risen Christ at Yelvertoft.  Have you ever stopped to think about why Jesus revealed himself to various individuals.  For Peter, a personal meeting might have been about reassurance.  For Thomas it was a response to his doubts.  Why did James get a special personal meeting?  Could it have had something to do with the fact that he would be martyred fairly soon - the assurance of life beyond life?  And what about those two going to Emmaus?  It makes a marvellous sermon illustration but I suspect that Jesus had an immediate reason for wanting to meet with them in their sadness and disillusionment and not the provision of countless sermon illustrations.

Hopefully you too, like me, have a sense of having met with the risen Christ.  I know Jesus is alive because we were talking together recently! Yes?

On Easter Monday Doreen and I went and picked up Rick Hartley from Birmingham Airport.  The spare bedroom was almost entirely cleared and was clean and tidy once again (though our own bedroom has gained a few items temporarily)!  On Tuesday we set off for the Ministers/Church Leaders Conference for the Congregational Federation.  The event was held at Hothorpe Hall, near Market Harborough.  Much of the planning and running of this event became my responsibility, though I hasten to add I had some helpful colleagues.  The theme was partnership in mission and we used the illustration of dance.  We started by looking at getting all the members of our churches 'on the floor' joining in the dance.  We then looked at Dancing with our friends (neighbouring churches of other traditions), then the 'excuse me' dance where you might find yourself dancing with a stranger (other faiths and secular organisations), then not too young and not too old to dance.  Finally we drew it all together with a challenge to 'Keep dancing!'

Taking time out learning to line dance!

Rick led the Bible studies and found a hungry audience.  All our guest speakers were excellent and my four colleagues who planned and led the worship times excelled expectations.  My good friend Janet Wootton drew each evening to a close with inspiring thoughts.  We even enjoyed some recreation together doing line dancing (I must have lost two stones)!

We got home on Friday afternoon so in the evening I took Rick for a walk along the local canal.  On Saturday morning we set off for more walking in the village of Foxton, on to Foxton Locks and in the afternoon we walked towards Theddingworth along the canal tow-path and met the sponsored walkers coming the opposite way.  We then walked back to Foxton Locks and cross country to Market Harborough.  I guess we walked some six miles.  We finished the week travelling to Leicester for a fellowship meeting where Rick spoke again.  I am filled up with good fellowship, spiritual challenge and inspiration, Bible teaching, and now a Big Mac and Fries!  But I will be hungry again in the morning in more ways than one.

The coming week
Sunday morning we take Rick to Yelvertoft where he will speak in our morning meeting.  Afterwards we shall go out for lunch with some of the congregation.  Then we take Rick back to Birmingham.

This would normally be a holiday period time for Doreen and me so the diary is fairly clear for two weeks.  I will be ministering at Yelvertoft, doing essential pastoral work, but otherwise essential reading for my research degree.

Other information
If you are on Facebook you can see lots of photos from the Conference on my page.  If you are not on Facebook you might consider it so we can share news between us.  You can always control your privacy settings.  Let me know if you need help.  Go to www.facebook.co.uk.  Once on Facebook please link up with me as a 'Friend'.

I had given up on Twitter as I found the trivial tweets coming my way very annoying.  However, having found how tweeting can be useful I took part in #leadersconf.  If you are on Twitter do read what people said during the Conference.  I have also now created #ruralevangelism.  Do become a follower of 'ruralbarry' and tweet me.

With Christian love,

Barry

Easter puts an end to the doldrums

I find myself today (Saturday) wondering how the twelve and other close disciples felt as the fact of the crucifixion had sunk in but before the resurrection.  Despite Jesus having pointed to life beyond his death they would have felt a sense of finality - the end to their three year adventure; the end to all they had hoped.  There is no biblical evidence for anything other than despair and confusion.  I am sure none of them could possibly have imagined what was to take place the next day.

There have been unsettling times in my life, and probably also in yours.  An unexpected end to four phases of ministry have taken place during the long years of service for Jesus.  My inclination is to go for the long haul, so God has at times had to prise my fingers off that to which I held so firmly.  I have always found this a painful experience; letting go does not come easily.  Each time there has been a deep sense of loss.  But in each case what seemed like an end has led to something new and splendid: a kind of resurrection.

It is all too easy to drift into a mood of hopelessness and impossibility because of loss.  But the fact of the resurrection should inspire us always to believe that there is something better ahead, whatever life might be throwing at us now (not that there is a problem in my own life at the present).

When I was a young Christian in my teens someone older advised me to live as if Jesus died yesterday, rose today and is coming back tomorrow.  I have found that truly motivating.  I don't know who might have been the first to say this but I'm certainly glad it was passed on to me and I have done my best to pass it on to others.  I hope that this Easter we will all get excited by the incredible event when Jesus walked from his tomb.  The resurrection became a fundamental aspect of the gospel that was shared both with Jews and Gentiles.  Easter should fire us up to spread the good news.  I hope you'll find someone among your family and friends who needs to hear the good news and will hear it from you this week.

The past week
Much of the past week has had to be spent clearing out our spare bedroom ready for a guest from the USA.  I had accumulated paper from as far back as the mid 1980s.  Among the many boxes and piles there were some treasures found but I've tried to be radical and feel better for the clear-out.  I would have rather been doing many other urgent things but some times you just have to take out time to clear rubbish from our lives.

The much awaited Prison Concert took place on Wednesday.  After the practise on Tuesday I felt we were perhaps 55% ready but we experienced an "It'll be all right on the night" the following day.  We had a good attendance, a great atmosphere, and the lads made me proud.  They also embarrassed me with a standing ovation afterwards.  Thank you for your prayers.

The week ahead
We will start the week celebrating the risen Christ.

On Monday I collect the Rev'd Dr Rick Hartley (a colleague from the USA) from Birmingham Airport.  Rick will be leading the Bible Studies at the Leaders Conference I have helped to organised.

Tuesday to Friday Doreen and I will be at the Leaders Conference.  I will be responsible for various aspects and will be speaking at the opening session on the Tuesday.  The theme of the conference is partnership in mission and on each day we will be exploring the possibilities and challenges of engaging in partnerships of various kinds.  Please pray that the Lord will make this a time of blessing and refreshing as well as informative.

Saturday Rick will still be with us so we have organised an opportunity for Congregational churches in Leicestershire to meet up for an evening of informal fellowship, praise and worship, with Rick speaking.

Sunday 15th Rick is our guest at Yelvertoft.  I will lead the morning meeting and he will speak.  After lunch we take him back to Birmingham.

Back to today
I was intrigued to note John 20:10 recently.  It would be easy to read more into this simple statement about going back to their homes than perhaps John intended.  In much the same way people have speculated about John 21:2&3 where Peter announces he is going fishing.  Both passages could be understood as implying a sense of lost hope.  When we lose our hope and find ourselves stuck with the 'day after crucifixion' emotions it is easy to slip back into the old and comfortable ways.

I hope that, like me, you are eagerly looking forward to the focus on the resurrection and the assurance of redemption and the hope of life everlasting that it brings.  Hallelujah!  He IS risen!

Barry

Prayers Lead to Praise

"Where's this week's blog?" I was asked this morning after church, to which I confessed that I had forgotten it!  It had been a busy week and arriving back home on Saturday evening I had been happy just to sit and relax for a while.  What is encouraging is knowing that Rob, who asked the question, looks for it regularly.  The interest and prayers generated for our service for the Lord is so very much appreciated.

Last Sunday's theme was 'Servanthood' and we reflected on events in the Upper Room and the lessons the accounts in the gospels have for us.  We thought also about how preparation had already been made: a room and a meal, and how this brought to mind the preparation Jesus has made for our eternal future and of the fellowship we shall enjoy at supper feast of the Lamb.  Then we thought about passion: the earnest desire Jesus expressed and the events it foreshadowed.  Finally we thought about the pattern of humble service motivated by love.

On Monday I had the joy of taking a school assembly with the set theme of "speaking out".  Peter had the opportunity but chose denial.  Jesus, who had been silent before Caiaphas answered clearly to the question as to whether he was the promised Messiah.  It was that statement that provided the basis for his ultimate crucifixion.  Speaking out the truth can prove costly and takes courage.  Later in the day I went back to school to take pictures and notes of an Open the Book Club.  There were games, a story, and an activity.  I asked several children what they liked the most.  All said, "the stories".

On Tuesday we had another planning meeting for the Holiday at Home outreach in Market Harborough this summer, after which I went to prison to work with the choir.  The programme includes a set of three contemporary Christian songs which they sing with feeling.

On Thursday we held a re-enactment of a Passover Meal with Christian commentary.  It was the culmination of our series of Lenten studies on meals Jesus shared.  The feedback from both the Bible studies and the meal have been very positive for which we praise God.

Yesterday, Doreen and I travelled down to Bedford for the ordination and induction for a new associate minister at Elstow Bunyan Christian Fellowship.  Elaine who was being ordained and inducted has been a student on the Congregational Federation's Integrated Training Course and I have some responsibility for her as the Area Pastoral Care Board member.  It was a joy to share with the church and with other fellow students who are now in settled ministry.  One of them gave an amusing and very helpful 'charge to the minister'.  The photo will give you a little flavour of the joyfulness of this occasion.

Because this blog/newsletter is late it gives me the opportunity to include a picture of our local Palm Sunday procession.  We begin outside the little Catholic Church in the village and progress via our chapel and the reading room where Sunday School is held, ending at the Parish Church for the Palm Sunday service.  There was a great quote from the sermon:  "How is it that we have little time for God when he makes us his priority?  He always has time for me, and I never get put on hold when I want to talk with him."

Key activities from this week's diary


Preparation for the Leaders Conference that follows immediately after Easter, for which I have some responsibility and will be speaking at the first session.

Tuesday - Final preparations at Gartree Prison

Wednesday - The prison concert

Good Friday - Communion at Yelvertoft

Easter Sunday - Yelvertoft.  Celebrating the Risen Christ.

Finally, I have been clearing boxes of accumulated papers and other items in our spare bedroom as we have a guest from America coming to stay for a few days.  I have found some amazing treasures among what was otherwise mostly rubbish.  I wonder if there are any other treasures from your past journey with Jesus that might have been forgotten among accumulated trivia?

I pray that you will find time to ponder once again the passion of Christ as we prepare for the great celebration next Sunday.

Barry