This is the view outside my bedroom window. Honestly, the ferris wheel is that close and it certainly makes a walk in the hotel grounds a unique experience.

  If you look closely in the picture you can see York Minster in the background, and earlier today as I looked out the window I thought what a contrast between the modern and the old; the secular and the sacred, but which is which ?

   It’s very easy to talk about the wheel representing hedonism, greed, self-centredness and all that’s wrong with the world and to talk about the Minster representing Gods presence, the need to worship God, the call to glorify Him.

   But who`se to say that God isn`t riding the pods on the wheel alongside people in their moment of pleasure, whether they recognise it or not ? And if He is with them does that make the wheel a Holy place, sacred ?

York City Centre (including York Minster), in North Yorkshire, England. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

   And if a Minster or a Cathedral or a Church conjures up for some people difficult memories of abuse, or boredom or irrelevance does that mean God isn`t in a place of worship ? Jesus said in Matthew chapter 28 “………I will be with you always till the end of time.” For me that is not only a comforting thought but a salutary reminder that God is everywhere. He is in the places of difficulty but also the places of pleasure; He is in the places where Christians meet but he equally can be found in places not ostensibly Christian. We cannot limit Him to a small box. After all we recognise that He is omnipresent, everywhere. So if I find time tomorrow for a ride on the wheel I will use it as an opportunity to praise God for His wonderful world and for the engineering marvel right outside my bedroom window. 

 

1-0 to Skoda I think

More importantly of course is the fact that neither I nor the lady involved were hurt, a fact that I had to reassure her about as she kept apologising profusely; she was quite upset. I felt I was glad that it was me she`d hit and not someone who would have shouted at her; it gave me a chance to give her my calling card (with job title on it) and allowed me to have a Christian attitude towards her. I simply pray that God can use this in some way to warm her heart towards him (if she hasn’t already given her heart to Jesus).

What am I to take from this ?  Firstly, that in all circumstances I need to represent Jesus; secondly, histrionics isn`t going to help the situation; thirdly, other people’s feelings are also involved in any given situation and its no good `going off` on one as if only mine mattered.

The older I get the more I come to realise that we live in community and more effort is required to `get on` with each other, whatever happens.

Skoda Roomster (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Having said all that (and I believe it too) I still can’t help going to bed tonight  feeling smug !!

  Thought you`d be interested to see the sign that has appeared on our downstairs toilet door in recent   weeks. Alison has cleaned the carpet (all the carpets in this house, laid by the previous occupant, are  cream !) and so wants to keep it that way as long as possible, understandably.

  Maybe its set my strange, warped thinking off but I`ve begun to ponder on the idea of Holy Ground,    and in particular Moses before the burning bush, Exodus 3:5 `God said, “Don`t come any closer. Remove     your sandals from your feet. You`re standing on Holy Ground”`

  The removal of sandals has always been taken to be a sign of humility and respect in the ancient Near East,  but it is still a practice followed by Muslims before entering a Mosque. It’s not to say that the building or the  ground is holy by nature, but it is to recognise that it is made so by the divine presence of God. So it can be recognised that holiness involves being consecrated to the service of our Lord and being separated from the day-to-day world. My Ordination into Ministry didn`t make me special but marked me out for a Holy task; my Church buildings are simply bricks and mortar, but are set aside for a special purpose and so become Holy.

I`ve reached that time of life when, coming home at night from a meeting, I frequently rush into the house and make a dash for the downstairs loo. Now I have to pause and remove my shoes before I enter. In life we are rushing all over the place and rarely stop and pause. We rush from activity to activity, meeting to meeting, and always keeping an eye on the time. In many ways the computerisation of the world has added to the hurly-burly of modern life.

A pair of size 10 sandals for men (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Certainly in my case my life is dictated by the demands of my diary and each day I have to look to see whats booked in for that day. Because of the business of life we compensate by finding ways to cope. We have drive-thru and fast-food restaurants, ready prepared meals which we can then eat in front of the telly, our attention span has decreased so that we can cram more bite-sized chunks into our brains and our lives dwell around Facebook or Twitter as that saves us the time of making real relationships.

In reality we should be dealing with the business by stopping and considering things. In scripture we find many instances of times when people did just that, including Jesus himself.  He went into the desert to spend time with God, he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane but my favourite is the lesser known account in Mark 1:35-37. It doesn`t stand out as a major turning point in His ministry, or miraculous event but it is recorded as a perfectly normal and natural thing to do.

Later this week I will be taking my quarter days leave. Every three months Methodist Ministers are entitled (and expected) to take three consecutive days leave to recharge our batteries. Few Ministers manage it with regularity, but I`m managing it this week and very much looking forward to it. I don’t know what I`m going to do but I will be having time away from the Church and Circuit, not because I don’t love them or anything, but because I need to spend time relaxing and especially finding time with God. It should be the same with all of us; we need to stop from our business, spend time with God (a holy activity) and allow him to recharge us.

So, will you find time this week to engage with God ?

Stop, take off your shoes and let him change your life just as he did with Moses all those years ago.

weighing-scales (Photo credit: i_gallagher)

I weighed myself on Tuesday past and I have lost 1 pound in weight. Not much you might say, but I reckon that a gradual weight loss of 1 pound per week is better for my health and by the end of April 2013 I will have lost almost 4 stone !

My target of 3 stone is therefore very achievable.

I`m not going to shout this in each of my Churches but I thought that if I kept an online record then those of you who follow may be able to encourage me as I hopefully progress.

I intend to weigh myself each Tuesday and hope to lose a steady two pounds per week, so here we go…………

WEIGH-IN     week 1              18 stone 13 pounds

Barbie vintage booklet about how to lose wieght (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Came across this picture on Facebook several weeks ago and I remembered it last night at our monthly Mission Shaped Ministry course.

At the moment, like many Methodist Circuits across the land, we are looking at our future; does it involve further reshaping within the circuit of Ministerial reorganisation, does it involve amalgamating with a larger circuit (again), does it involve splitting up and disappearing into other areas or does it involve sticking it out and going alone ? Difficult questions, and as Superintendent I have been wrestling with these for several weeks now. Much of my thinking is taken up with trying to find the best way forward. The Methodists amongst my readers might be interested to see the map at the bottom of this article to see how things have changed since 1746. This shows the layout of the Wesleyaan Methodist Circuits at that time; look at the geography they covered.

The above picture is a challenge to me, but hopefully to others as well. The top line reflects my life so far, schools of nice neat desks with every child in the same seat every day, ordered and tidy. We all knew what was expected of us; we learnt facts and figures and any experiments in science were carried out by the teacher with observation by ourselves. In short we sat and they taught.

The next picture reflects the sort of factory my Mother worked in. I never worked in a factory but sometimes visited my Mum`s and the sense of assembly line was so strong. Again everyone sitting in the same place day after day and carrying out the same work each day with no room for creativity.

The picture of Church reflects what many Churches are still like today and its little wonder. I need to say that this isn`t meant to be derogatory because whenever I go back to my home church I always sit in the seat that my Mum used to sit in and it brings me comfort. However many of our young people have been raised in a different sort of school environment with open classrooms, encouragement to discover and research for themselves rather than just absorbing information parrot fashion. With the decline of the manufacturing industry today factory based work has become less, and the rise in white-collar occupations has led to a different way of thinking.

It is a very different culture today and yet many Churches try to continue in the way that they have always done, despite declining numbers, increasing costs over-tired worn-out buildings, and elderly congregations. IT REALLY IS TIME TO THINK DIFFERENTLY.

 What I love about the Fresh Expressions movement is that it treats coming to faith as a journey, whereas old style Church thought more in terms of arrival. in other words attendance on Sunday was what counted, “bums on seats” mentality, and often without regard for how that person was going to be discipled into their future. When I became a member of my home church there was an attitude that I had served my learning period and had now arrived at my destination which was to sit in Church on a Sunday for the rest of my life.

HOW DREADFULLY BORING THAT SOUNDS TO ME !!

and I say that as someone who is proud of my home Church, love the people who have faithfully served in that place and who have given me so much love and affection over the years. These are the people who I pray for regularly each week, because of the love I have for them.

But the thoughts of sitting in any Church week by week doing the same things, singing the same songs, listening to the same sermons just sounds like a great advert for hell.No, Jesus took the disciples on a journey of exploration, teaching, adoration and worship. He didn`t say “Come and meet on a Sunday for a five hymn sandwich” but he did say “Follow me”.

“Follow me” speaks of a journey with him where regularly new things are to be discovered, new insights, new ways of doing things. it speaks of a freshness and life. And in order for the Church to get to this point we have to begin to think differently and in order to think differently we must become self-sacrificial people, in the way Jesus was self-sacrificial upon thee cross.

Are we prepared to change and think differently and find Gods shape for his Church today ?

Diagrammatic illustration of the Wesleyan Methodist Circuits listed in 1746, to show area covered. Information for East Anglia, and exact borders, is not to hand at time of drawing. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Resurrection of Christ (Kinnaird Resurrection) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I write this at the end of a long, tiring but wonderful day. Four services are very draining but the opportunity to spend the day, in effect, praising our Lord Jesus for His resurrection is tremendous.
I have celebrated Communion with four different Church fellowships and felt very much at home in each one; it reminds me of how through the death and resurrection of Jesus we are indeed one family, united in our love of Him.

May you all be richly blessed this Easter time

I have arrived at Good Friday tired and feeling quite worn out. This last month has contained a tremendous

Good Friday (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

amount of Church politics surrounding the circuit, around particular Churches and personnel and whilst one knows that dealing with people will always bring a certain amount of wheeling and dealing, grumbling and griping, tears and laughter it still leaves me drained. Having to be the supposed `fount of all knowledge`, the one to whom everyone turns for a decision (sometimes so that they can blame me if it goes wrong), the be at all events person really takes it out of you. Consequently, I have arrived at Good friday not feeling as though I have journeyed in Holy Week itself.So much time is spent on administration and overseeing that the spiritual element of Ministry disappears, and more importantly my own spirituality begins to decline. I am all too aware of the dangers of this.

However, although I spent Maundy Thursday wanting to do no more than hide and sleep I woke this morning feeling surprisingly refreshed and energised. For the first time in 21 years of Ministry I havent had a Good Friday service to lead ! The way circumstances have come about the two services I should have been involved with ended up being led by others; consequently, I was left to worship (a rare treat). Yes, I know there will be some who will say that I am paid to lead worship and therefore should have ”been doing something” but today has been rather lovely by the opposite being true.

 If Presbyters are always leading worship, Sunday by Sunday, day by day, then where does their spiritual nourishment come from ? Yes, we can point to Scripture and prayer and both are invaluable and vital, but we mustn`t forget how important worship is. Worship brings an opportunity for God to really touch our hearts with His transforming power because it is in worship that we focus on him more than at any other time (or we should). It is through the singing, prayers, preaching, silence, exuberant praise, sharing that God speaks to us directly or through our brothers and sisters.

If Presbyters are always taken up with the mechanics of worship we miss out on so much which is vital to our own spiritual journey.

Today I sat in the congregation whilst a Methodist worship leader led and an Anglican Vicar preached and then afterwards walked in a procession of witness around the town, mixing largely with three Salvation Army stalwarts. It was very special.

Tonight I have attended a Good Friday reflection in another circuit Church which was incredibly moving, bringing many (including myself) close to tears using a mixture of music, words, lighting and hymn singing we were transported back to that first Good Friday, concluding with the body of Jesus being carried out.

I have worshipped truly today and I am now in a better place ready for the coming joy; perhaps my Holy Week walk has taken place over the last few months rather than just this week, but I now stand on the verge of the Easter joy and with the family of Christ around the world I can truly say

“Its`s Friday, but Sunday`s a-coming !!”

Anyway this particular DVD is about how we use our time and how we often see busyness as the end goal; the busier we are the more succesful we must be, it seems.

Rob puts over the view that often we are busy picking up shells on the beach and then when we find something we really want (in the DVD it’s a starfish) we can`t have it because our hands are full of shells and there’s no room for anything else; and so we miss out !

He projects the theory that you can`t say `NO` until you`ve already said `YES` to something. In other words once you know what you want and where you`re going and said `YES` to that journey then you`ll simply pick up a lot of rubbish because its hard to say no. You end up with a handful of broken and useless shells rather than that which really mattered to you.