It is now six weeks since we left Sheffield after 14 years living and working in the inner city. But I need to re wind to Palm Sunday and Easter Day before I start on living in Banbury. On Palm Sunday I shared in my final service at St Peters LEP Ellesmere. It was a wonderful time with a delicious buffet that followed. The warmth of a community that I have increasingly grown to love and care about was very tangible. I will miss people and leading worship in their great worship space. The pleasure was added to a couple of weeks later when Jill and I joined Bill at his 100 birthday party and to be invited to say a few words was a genuine privilege. There will always be a special place in my memory of St Peters, a community that welcomed and accepted everyone without placing demands upon them. They really are Christ like. Rosie , Jean and team went to a lot of trouble to make it a wonderful time. Then Easter Day saw my final service in Sheffield and it was everything I co...
In my first appointment at one of my five churches when it came to the sermon Brian would close his eyes and to all intents and purposes he looked asleep. Not very encouraging for a young minister but it turned out he closed his eyes so he could concentrate on the sermon. I think if I tried that in my current worshipping context I would soon be asleep!!! Over these past three years I have observed the body language of those around me, and you soon pick up how people can appear to be listening but the mood tells you they have switched off, though alert enough to know when to smile or laugh at some inane joke. Some preachers barely look at the congregation so it's not surprising they fail to see they are not connecting. For some it's clear the homily is just something to be done or got through so they can get onto the communion. Of course it's different now being on the other side of the lectern/pulpit after so many years as the preacher, but I don't have a burning desi...
Chapter 13– My own story My own background has seen a movement from a born and bred Methodist to one who now finds it hard to sit within that denomination, but who is now more than at the outset, someone trying to work out what it means to be a disciple of God through the person of Jesus. In other words I am journeying toward God. The more I have come to know has meant recognition of the little that I do. It’s the circle thing. Everything inside the circle is what I know and everything outside the circumference is what I don’t know. My circle has got larger as I learn more, but the circumference only gets bigger, pointing to how much I don’t know. This is fun and this keeps you in your place. I can’t stand those Christians who have God neatly explained and in a box. Their God is too small. So to a potted personal history that underpins what has made me. My parents created for me a pattern of life that has sustained me over the years. The hard wiring of regular worship, rea...
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