Floods! Some unwanted but some wanted.

The news over the past day or so is of the flooding in the north west of England and my mind went to friends in that area, wondering whether they have suffered as so many have.  Disastrous as this event is for those whose homes and businesses have been ruined, there are other parts of the world that have experienced worse floods than this.


Often the Bible uses the image of water as a source of life and refreshing but is also symbolic of terror and destruction.  That was how Isaiah saw it when he wrote "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you." (Isa.43:2). I love the account in scripture where the disciples are caught in a storm several miles from the shore and at night.  Jesus comes to them walking on the water.  It's good to remember that he is always master over that which terrifies us.  Maybe if life holds some fear from you today you can picture the scene and invite Jesus to join you.  When he entered the boat it became calm.


Last weekend Doreen and I were in Wales and it was good to meet and worship with friends in Neath and in Llanhilleth.  We made our way home on Monday and were back to work on Tuesday.  After my regular work in the prison that day I travelled to Leicester for a meeting of the Leicester Diocesan Rural group. Our focus on this occasion was how to use church buildings for mission.


On Wednesday I travelled to London, having been invited to become a trustee of Action for Christ (formerly Mission for Christ).  It is now very different from what it was when I worked in this organisation from 1963 to 1988.  It also faces some significant challenges as well as potentially exciting possibilities.  I had not envisaged being involved in this work again but I will do my best to help them.  Your prayers for the organisation and for wisdom for the trustees will be appreciated.


On Thursday I was back in London.  This time it was for a meeting of the Churches Group for Evangelization (a coordinating group of Churches Together in England).  There was a lot of good news shared but also some concern as several denominations are experiencing cut-backs in their mission departments.  I am thankful that the mission and evangelism aspects of the Congregational Federation are expanding.  It was good to share too news of how my rural mission activities are connecting with Churches in Wales and Ireland.


Much of the time after Wednesday has had to be spent engaging with the issues of Action for Christ as I try to get up to speed with the task as quickly as possible.  But there was time for a school assembly in Lubenham, Leicestershire on Friday (where we considered the calling of the first disciples) and for pastoral visits in connection with my ministry at Yelvertoft.  However, pressure of other commitments meant I was unable to join friends in Rural Ministries who had a special celebration today.


This Sunday I am taking the morning meeting at Yelvertoft, Northants and then helping at Market Harborough Congregational Church in the evening.


On Tuesday I will be taking a school assembly at Yelvertoft before going to Gartree Prison.  Incidentally, you can see a TV programme made at the prison this Monday, 25th at 9.00pm on Channel 4.  It might include a little of a choir practice as they filmed this.


On Wednesday I will be at the Salvation Army Training College in Denmark Hill, London as part of the regular teaching programme to make churches safer places both to prevent abuse and also to care for those who have been abused.


On Friday to Sunday I will be at the Congregation Federation premises in Nottingham providing input for a training weekend.  This will include sessions on rural mission alongside a colleague looking at the urban context.


As always your prayers are appreciated but please also take time just to reflect on the goodness of God, and to give thanks for the superfluity of blessing.  May the springs of living water keep flowing and overflowing.  That is a flood we would welcome.


Barry

Some brief news for praise and prayer

Hi,

Thanks for coming to this blog.  I regret I am writing only a little this week as I am currently in south Wales where Doreen and I are spending a few days.  Our main reason for being here is to attend a special 70th Wedding Anniversary (yes, you got that right) for my uncle and aunt.  It has been a great day.  Even the town mayor turned up.  The TV had interviewed them and we arrived at our B&B to be informed, "We have just seen your uncle and aunt on the telly!"


While in Wales we have also met with the Rev Meirion Morris whom I got to know in the past as a guest speaker at one of the REN Conferences I helped to organise.  More about this another time.  We will also attend two churches on Sunday and I will probably sing at one of these.

The early part of the week was busy on various administration and pastoral activities.  On Monday we had a Church Meeting at Yelvertoft where the main business was to approve steps taken to make alterations to the building.  On Wednesday I travelled to Heaton Park, Manchester where I worked with a colleague on creating a video to promote the International Congregational fellowship Conference in the summer of 2013 at Brunel University.  Then the task was to get it out on the internet in various ways so people around the world could download it.

Since I was a short distance from Blackpool where a nephew has just acquired a small hotel in a very poor condition I stayed overnight with him and his partner (expecting their first child) and spent Thursday decorating their stair cases and landings.  The travelled back home.

On Friday we began our journey to Wales.

The coming week
Dr Mike Townsend is speaking at Yelvertoft, Northants.  Doreen and I will be at Neath in the morning and Llanilleth in the evening.

Monday - travelling home.

Tuesday - Prison as usual followed by taking part in the Leicester Diocesan Rural Group.

Wednesday - attending a special event in London (more of this another time).

Thursday - taking part in the Churches Group for Evangelization meeting in London.

Friday - School Assembly, Lubbenham, Leics.

I apologise for the roughness of this information but thought that some news was better than none.

Barry

That Was the Week That Was

It has been another busy week which I will try to summarise.


Sunday:  Following a united Songs of Praise Service at Yelvertoft, Northants in the morning (at which my Anglican colleague spoke of the Queens personal faith, Doreen and I watched the Diamond Jubilee Pageant and found the response of the Queen and other members of the Royal family quite moving.  Though I have republican tendencies I admire her Majesty, her devotion to her role and how she has coped with change as it has affected her.  The scene of the choir drenched yet singing as if the sun was shining while the royal party jigged to the music seems to have left a precious and abiding memory.


Holiday Monday:  What holiday?  Worked all three parts of the day preparing for a presentation I had to give at University on Saturday,  and drafting a contract of employment for our CF (Congregational Federation) East Midlands Area Mission Development Worker, and an advertisement and job description for a new post of Children and Families Worker also for the CF.  Sent drafts off to CF colleagues.


Holiday Tuesday:  Much the same as Monday.  Tied to the desk all day and wondering who it is that has the gift of administration and is looking for an overworked minister they could help!  Lots of re-drafting to do on those employment issues.  The CF Area has around 30 churches, many small and rural.  The Mission Development Worker is a renewed but modified role, but the other appointment is new.  Even though I groaned about the admin, putting two workers in the field is time well spent.


Wednesday: Unexpected complication within the International Congregational Fellowship with an email from Australia.  Had to spend time communicating with our worthy Co-Moderator who now lives in France and has poor internet connections and responding to the alarming email from Australia. Made a pastoral visit to the University Hospital in Coventry to visit a member from Yelvertoft.  This involves a 55 mile round trip, taking up the whole evening.


Thursday:  Finally received a video recording I have been waiting for so that I can complete a simple DVD promoting a major conference next summer.  Started trying to book studio time.  Have now got final confirmation that all three prospective new trustees for Sunrise Ministries have agreed to serve.  This is good news.  Started the admin procedures for their appointment.  Received a request to teach on rural evangelism in Ireland and confirmed my acceptance.  Received details of a CF training weekend at the end of this month in which I will participate.  One of the sessions in which I will be involved is on rural mission.  Took a long call from a friend in another organisation needing help and advice.  Received an email from a journalist wanting information on rural evangelism for a Christian magazine article.


Friday:  Discovered more about the Australia problem and started to work on that.  More communications with France as a result.  Tweaking the employment documents and trying to find time to finish preparing for my presentation at University and getting ready for a CF Area meeting in the evening in Leicester.  Left for the meeting at 6.15pm with Uni prep half finished.  Left the CF meeting at 8.15pm by which time the work done on the two appointments was approved and a new Area representative made to a CF national mission committee.  Good stuff!  Drove to Ducklington (near Oxford) arriving at farmhouse B&B just after 10.00pm.  On looking at the state of Uni presentation discovered it was 50% too long so set about editing at and fell into bed at 1.30am!


Saturday:  Following a pleasant early breakfast set off for Winchester where I gave my assessed presentation on the research project on rural evangelism.  Fellow students and tutors made kind comments (here's hoping!).  I am researching attitudes within rural churches towards local evangelism and the activities or inactivities that result from these.  We need rural churches that can confidently engage in mission and evangelism in ways that are appropriate and effective if we are ever to see rural Britain re-evangelised. Some aspects of this research programme are onerous but the intended outcome could be immensely helpful for advancing God's kingdom in rural Britain.


Travelled home to Market Harborough (4 hrs). Booked a visit to Wales for next weekend.  Rang the hospital to check on my church member.  Cleaned and polished the car and then shared thsi news with you.


It has been a very full and in some ways an untidy week.  There are some additional activities that I am not at liberty to share with you.  Reflecting on how I have sought to cope with several tasks at once and responding to incoming communications, I am reminded that much of the ministry of Jesus was reacting and responding to the agendas of others.  I hope and pray that out of the busy-ness of the past several days God's kingdom will have been advanced and the road prepared well for further advancement of the kingdom through the labours of others whose paths have crossed with mine.


You can probably work out for yourself items for praise and prayer from all the above information.  If I were to ask your prayers for one specific item it would be the work that I am doing with Winchester University.  Please pray that I will be able to find space and time to complete some essential reading and writing.  Please pray that Sunrise Ministries income will cover the costs involved (fees, books, travel etc).  Please pray that as the actual practical aspects of the research start soon the process will prove helpful to those whose attitudes and practise of rural evangelism I will be studying.  This is one of the most challenging aspects of my ministry over the years but one that offers exciting potential.


Thanks for journeying with me by prayer.  I really value this.  If you would like to keep up with the daily activities this coming week you can find me on Facebook and Twitter - both as 'ruralbarry'.  Meanwhile, why not pray for three opportunities this week to tell someone what Jesus means to you?


Barry

God is good all the time

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures for ever.  Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story..."  So begins Psalm 107 which goes on to describe situations out of which God has delivered people, through all of which the psalmist repeatedly states, "Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind".  I have visited one of my church members who is in hospital (the round trip is almost 60 miles such is rural ministry) and found her expressing thanks to God for all his goodness to her.


God does not demand praise and worship as if he were a human with an ego problem, and his blessings on our lives are not - as I read this week on a scripture calendar - only granted to those who praise him.  God delights when women and men discover just how great he is, for then they cannot help but praise him.  His delight is not in revelling in adoration but in the knowledge that people have discovered what a wonderful and generous God he is, blessing us as none of us deserve.


Last Monday Doreen and I made our way down to Sussex for the Church and Countryside Conference run by the Diocese of Chichester.  An accident on the A14 led to road closure and diversions and 90 minutes of sitting in almost stationery traffic until we found the country road alternative which set us free.  The visit back to East Sussex gave us the opportunity to meet up with friends and some of our family.  Especially precious was the contact with folk at Herstmonceux Free Church where I had 15 years of happy and fruitful ministry.

Bishop Mark Rylands' Talk

The Conference had as its theme advancing the Kingdom of God.  The keynote speaker was the Rt Revd Mark Rylands, Bishop of Shrewsbury.  The bishop and I have had contact over many years during which he was a rural priest and was later responsible for evangelistic aspects in the Diocese of Exeter.  I functioned as a facilitator for the day.  


After Bishop Mark's talk in the morning the afternoon focused on encouraging those present to explore how they use - or could use - the seasons of the year to provide opportunity for engaging in mission.  This part of the programme was led by another good friend, Captain Gordon Banks CA who is the Evangelism Officer for Chichester Diocese, and a fellow committee member with me in the Rural Evangelism Network.

L to R Bishop Mark Rylands, Gordon Banks
Mark Betson, me, Bishop of Horsham

The afternoon session buzzed as each table wrote up their information.  Afterwards these were displayed so as to allow a further exchange of ideas.  The Revd Dr Mark Betson, Diocesan Rural Officer will circulate a summary of these.  It proved a useful format for similar events in other locations.  After the Olympics and Paralympics have concluded I hope that we will be able to arrange a number of regional activities around the country.


Much of the latter part of the week has been spent catching up on administration, preparing for a presentation I have to give at University next Saturday, and pastoral visits to hospital.


The coming week
Sunday 3rd Joint Jubillee Songs of Praise, Yelvertoft
Friday 8th - Area Executive for the Congregational Federation (during this week I hope to put the finishing touches to arrangements in readiness to appoint an Area Children and Family Worker.
Saturday 9th - Winchester University, making an assessed presentation of my research programme.


Let me end by rejoicing in the Lord, not because of all he has done, is doing and doubtless will do for us, but just because we have a wonderful God.  Whatever your circumstances I hope that you will be able to rejoice in him too.


Barry