Holidays with a Heart

I often make mistakes, but one of my biggest was describing short term overseas mission trips as "Holidays with a heart", completley forgetting, that just before I met my wife Katie she had just returned from a short term trip to India, and had previously been to Kenya. Big mistake, one I have not repeated.

My problem with overseas trips was probably due to ignorance, I had always been called to the UK and had never felt the need to go abroad. I was probably slightly bitter that young people would rush off on this trips during gap years, and get to see the world, while mission at home struggled to get enough willing volunteers. I was jealous that an overseas mission agency could be over subscribed, while the year out programme I ran was failing to get anywhere enough people.

So in my mind they were the great enemy. As per usual, I have felt the need to repent.

I spent Thursday at the home of BMS in Didcot, as part of my training, in one of the meetings, one of the people voiced the same concerns as me, and I saw in many ways how sad that attitude was. I saw him, angry and confused, and I realised that, like him, my attitude was wrong. Mission is vital, be it at home or overseas, people have to follow their call, and for some that means to people groups across the globe. Others will catch the vision for the UK, and they need to be supported and encouraged, but that does not mean that everyone will.

Awarness Walk

I was on an walk with college to enable me to think about life around me. I saw this old bench. It was slowly rotting, slowly being reclaimed back to the environment around it. It was once a tree like so many around it, but man had chopped it down, shaped it and formed it into something else, but now it was being taken back into the environment from where it came.

I was reminded of a prayer by Saint Teresa of Avila, it tells us that we should not allow these things to disturb us.

Let nothing disturb thee,
Nothing affright thee;
All things are passing;
God never changeth;
Patient endurance
Attaineth to all things;
Who God possesseth
In nothing is wanting;
Alone God sufficeth

God alone provides - which reminds me of Matthew 6:25-34. Why do we allow ourselves to get caught up in worry, we just need to accept that God is in control, we need to seek after his Kingdom and his righteousness and allow him to provide for all we need.

Remembrance

On Sunday I did my first Remembrance service, I felt it went well on the day. But as I have reflected upon it, particularly in the light of today's lecture from Geraldine Latty, I felt that maybe I missed out on an opportunity to do something better.

The problem for me was, how much do you make the service about Remembrance? In the Baptist Times this week(November 5th edition)  the Deputy Chaplain General - Revd John Woodhouse - said he would dedicate either the whole service or at least 20 mins. Think I did about 10, and then carried on with the service I had planned. Was that a mistake, could I have made more about it?

My main fear is that maybe the songs we sung were not right for the occasion, where maybe tool light in terms of tone and content. Maybe I could have binned my sermon series and addressed the concept of war, loss, rememberance and reconcilliation? Maybe the whole service, on reflection could have focused more on the need for people to remember. Having never had to lead one before, I did not quite know what the expectation might have been, particularly amongst the older members, many of whom lived through the second world war.

As per usual college is stretching me to think about the finer detail of a church service, and I am again left realising my inadequacies in this area, however, determined that next year I will approach the service very differently.

Good Teaching

In one of my earlier posts, I reflected upon a recent survey by the EA, which looked at what young people wanted from church, and left me with the impression that their primary requirement was passive reception. The key element they required was good teaching.

Now I have nothing against good teaching, but what I would like to challenge is what good teaching actually is. If it is pure intellectual stimulation, with no challenge and no action required, then I wonder if it is actually good teaching. One of the problems, as a Bible student, is that we do a lot of "up in the air thinking" reflecting upon what X thinks about a particular aspect of theology, and why Y thinks differently. This is all good, however, if I was to base my sermon on this intellectual discussion, would that then be considered good teaching?

When you consider that the majority of the population have not tertiary level education, you do have to ensure that your sermon is fully grounded, and scratching where the people are itching. For me then, the process of writing a sermon, will have to include an understanding of the theological argument, but that is not necessarily going to be the bones of my sermon.

Jesus was considered to be a "good teacher" (a description he immediately questioned (Mark 10:16-18) and in the process confirmed his own divinity) yet his style was so often about telling stories that would point to theological truth, from the context of the familiar surroundings of the time, it was accessible to all, multi-levelled and incredibly practical; for me that is the goal of good teaching. Our job should be to demystify the gospel, to allow its inherent simplicity to be heard by all.

Out of my depth

As usual I went along to help out at the homeless breakfast at the Salvation Army. I have been helping out there for while. It is amazing how many of them have some form of belief. You get some great moments, like today when one of the guys said he had brought someone along with him to show them what a "real Christian looked like".There is a real spiritual dimension to many of their lives, with conversations often being about faith, the Bible and why we are here.

Many of the guys (and they are mostly men) have issues, but only today did I really see the deep problems one or two of them have. Today I met a guy who I will call N, he asked me to pray about his anger. A few of the guys have anger issues, so this was not a problem. I took him aside and prayed for him. A few minutes later he told me some other things, that he had "lustful and murderous" thoughts, he said the only thing that could help him was Jesus. Whilst I agreed, I also realised I was woefully out of my depth. While talking with one of the other helpers, I was told further what some of those thoughts were (he had opened up to him a few weeks previously) and I do not wish to state what they were, but it made me realise more and more how much I have to learn, how out of my depth I was in that situation.

I like to feel I have most things sorted, that I will cope in most situations, that I have all the answers, but in this case I didn't, I do not feel I was any use to N. I feel he went away no closer to the answer he needed, maybe it is because one quick prayer was not enough, I don't know. But I will pray for him this week, and hope that what I could not provide God can.