My opinion? Who cares! A lesson from Spurgeon's Sermon Class

Another lamb to the slaughter had made his way before the entire college community for the weekly sermon class. It was bad enough to just get there - the college chapel, lead the worship, and then preach. After all you had had no sleep for days, could easily have taken up Spurgeonic pipe smoking to calm yourself (well the great CH did it after all), and then you were wheeled out in front of friends and faculty in the hope they would be kind. In the really old days of  Spurgeon's, a student would have 2 sermon classes during their college existence, I'm guessing to see if you had improved or not! But we had it easy - just the one sacrifice. We died only once! The old students died twice! This was between the 88-92 years in the days of PBM. But it didn't stop there, for having survived the chapel bit, everyone retreated into a lecture theatre wherein the sacrificial lamb was positioned centre stage, and surrounded by all in the jolly college community. Then 2 critics from the student body and 2 from the faculty would sprout forth their deeply considered critiques (all pre-prepared in advance from seeing the students script) - "The preacher completely missed the point of the text and should consider his entire future in the ministry to be in jeopardy!" "The prayer led at the start sent me to sleep, and lacked theological substance!" "The preachers voice was thin and sounded like Kermit the Frog, he should pack it in now and return to the Muppet show!" "There are only 3 ways to preach this text, and this preacher chose neither! He should re-consider returning to be a road sweeper!" "The preacher entertained us this morning, but perhaps he should consider the stage as a stand up comedian!"
It would take you several months to regain any sense of divine call upon your life, if at all, but hey ho, thats what set Spurgeons apart from the others as being "The College of the Prince of Preachers!"

But I remember one severe but necessarily true criticism by a faculty member of a student's sermon: "We are not interested in hearing what the student thinks about this text, we are wanting to hear what God thinks! Please tell us!" Ouch!

Opinion - what's yours? As an observation, and a kind one at that, we do seem to love having opinions about viritually every topic. Some people are even outspoken to the point where either they very clearly have a view on everything, or they just will not stay quiet. You just know in any group setting that they are going to speak and express, once again, their rather tedious perspectives and wearisome views, which have in any case been heard one hundred times before. Yawn!

But what if we actually made it a discipline and a choice to remain quiet and to listen? To perhaps trash any pre-concieved "opinions" and actually spend time listening to a fresh one?! Oh joy, oh rapture when we might reach the place of realising that maybe, and probably, no one is actually interested in our opinions. But that may be a sad place to find yourself in if you are highly opinionated. So I give you a half way house: why not assume that no one is interested in your views unless they ask for them? In which case, you can indeed carefully respond, with tact and grace, with your "obviously only true" and correct world changing opinion!

But this is just my opinion!

83.5 Christian Ministry Truths

I've haven't blogged (again) for oodles, so feeling okay-ish today I thought I would throw some "stuff" into the arena.
I've noticed recently that there is this excessive desire by internet bloggers and the like to provide "easy lists" rather than to wax lyrical with long paragraphs. For example 10 easy ways to put the cat out, 5 hard ways to mow the lawn (gotta see that one) or 20 ways to oven cook chips. And so, I thought I'd have a go, and to do so covering a couple of topics I have been pondering on recently:

First: Pointers to the Baptist Family I belong to:

1. Did we go far enough with the recent Baptist Union changes? Should we not have amalgamated with other church streams - Pentecostal and United Reformed being possible obvious choices, and particularly where similar struggles and challenges are being experienced, and haven't we got much that we can learn from one another?
2. When is "the local" going to mean "the local church"?
3. Isn't it time to join with most other Christian denominations and allow churches to advertise ministry vacancies online, particularly if the practice is already given over to Youth Workers and Regional Staff?
4. What is the next national vision? And if there isn't to be one, can it be "the local"?
5. If there is a now a code of values and practice for all Accredited Ministers, when will there be a code of practice for how churches are to act and behave?

Second, I thought I'd re-visit my "Ministry Truths" list which I produced 5 years ago, and consider any new additions, as well as smile and cringe at those I scribed back then.

So this is how it went, in no particular order, but 5 years on I have added and edited:

1. You can never ever please everyone but you must defintely always please God.
2. You can only minister where there is invitation.
3. Never assume anything.
4. Never think you've seen the worst situation, be unshockable.
5. Beware of people in fluorescent jackets
6. Everyone sees "it" differently and has an "agenda." See "it" God's way.
7. Any and every situation is never "black and white".
8. At the end of the day you can only do what you can do. Then you have to hand it over to God.
9. Ministry is a thankless calling, where few appreciate you, rarely say thank you, never pay you enough, sometimes complain, sometimes get angry at you, think you don't have another life, sometimes don't say nice things and rarely appreciate "the real you". But that's ministry.
10. Some people think you live at the church all the time.
11. People often think that the only thing that you have to deal with is their problem and don't even consider everything else that you have to do.
12. Conversely, if you sort/manage/service regularly the above group with "strokes" then ministry life tends to have less crisis points.
13. The Kingdom of God is substantially bigger than you, your world, your life & your church.
14. Some people like to play games.
15. History always repeats itself & there's nothing new under the sun - God's seen it all before and left us with evidence. Unless God really does something extra ordinarily different, he does occasionally, be ready to see the difference and catch his wave.
16. Demon possession is always, always the very last conclusion to reach. What else is going on?
17. There's always a statement or question behind the statement or question. Ask yourself what it is and answer that one, not the smoke screen.
18. People often get angry at you, even though it hurts, don't take it personally.
19. Always put the family before the church.
20. Your past can shape the way you are today. Be aware of it. Re-visit it, deal with it, let go of it. Use it.
21. Don't panic.
22. Keep a balance in all things.
23. The Kingdom of God does not work to the principal of logic.
24. Be kind to yourself.
25. Spiritually and liturgicaly, be open to the new, do not forget the best of the past.
26. Protect yourself, guard yourself.
27. Keep going. Never give up. You're doing a good job.
28. Ministry is not the whole picture. There is another life!

Well thats it for the time being. You don't have to agree, and these are MY lists! But if they make you chuckle, then good!

What's under the bonnet?

I'm an engineer by first profession, having trained as an Apprentice Mechanical and Production Engineer in my early twenties, but in truth it goes more than being in my skill set, it's somewhere embedded as a core part of my existance. Some of that may well come from the way that God has shaped me, but alot may also go to my Dad, and watching him. Dad was a Royal Engineer amd had an extremely broad skill set of building houses, constructing bridges, repairing engines, wiring and plumbing, in fact the skills just rolled on and on. And he gave alot of those skills on to his sons. And we would watch him re-build the engine on one of our cars, or mend his own. But it seemed to go much deeper too with him - yes skills, yes experience, but the pondering of the small details and diagnostics and keeping going until it was finally solved. I still remember to this day him putting a long plank of wood on to an engine block and putting his ear to the end, and listening, and then saying, "hmmm, tappet number 6 is not getting any oil and it's too noisy" and then making a plug out of wood to increase the oil flow! Now this rubbed off on me, and I will often listen for the slightest strange noise on our cars, and a mere variation will make me wonder if something is amiss and, more often than not, think the worst. And of course, as a result, generally I love nothing better than to fiddle and mend under the bonnet to sort or repair something out. I'm currently crowing at the moment from resolving the car heating on my import - no Haynes manual you see, a mere online user group, and now after one or two attempts, we're now driving in a constant Sauna! Still a bit to do here!
So last night completely baffled me, and my offline computer brain is still cranking this around, our Citroen breaks down on one of those Dad and Mum Taxi runs, and I start to cringe inwardly at the thought of more garage bills. Well to cut along story short, a recovery man comes along, plugs his computer in the car's computer, and then re-sets the car's computer, and within 7 minutes we're sorted and back up and running. Now that's not meant to happen in my mind, though I'm grateful for it. You shouldn't repair cars by re-booting the computer, you have to fiddle around under the bonnet for a long time, and then solve it! Pooh-bah to these modern cars. But my brain is saying "I want one of those little computers now too!"

It made me ponder this morning that our lives are like cars. What is under our bonnet, and what is really going on? The Bible is stacked full of people who had issues under the bonnets of their lives. The problems couldn't be seen, and some people's engines were far from running smoothly.
The truth is that we all, without exception, have to confront the problems under our bonnets. From childhood, we don't grow up with everything ticking as it quite should. Character traits are picked up, behaviour patterns are learnt from adults around us. Adjustments are always needed. The sad thing is that I meet people who are afraid to confront what's under the bonnet. An external behaviour defect is, for some some, all that is at fault, yet they just cannot bring themselves to explore and delve beneath the bonnet to see and resolve what's really going on. And, sadly time and time again they trip up over the same areas because that inner exploration, a diagnostic check through, has not taken place.
When that happens, there is not much one can do, but discipleship rarely has any effect when someone is unwilling to face up to the deeper discipleship issues in the inner person.
And in some respects, once the core issues are dealt with, then, seemingly, discipleship becomes a lot more fruitful.
The truth is that in discipleship terms, there are no quick fixes, but on the other hand there can be the some significant and vital adjustments and repairs that are necessary, and which will often then make the engine of our spiritual lives begin to sing.
How do we help see their significant issues? I don't know. It seems to me that some people will never grasp the level of self awareness and spiritual awareness that is necessary to stop and do a full diagnostic. And some of these people sadly get into significant places of leadership and often feel that such issues are no longer required. What will it take I ask? Only a work of the Holy Spirit, and our own human spirit to be willing to change.

There are less days in 2014!

More than enough people said to me before Christmas, "Where did this year go? I cannot believe it is coming up to the end of the year, again!" or "This year has gone way too fast!" And I have actually sat down to check my diary as to whether was a month or two that was missed - but nup! That was 2013, all 365 days of it. I can even remember the mental note I made at the end of 2012, that that year had gone too quickly, so 2013 - well someone has adjusted a small dial somewhere to speed up the treadmill! Who is it? I want to know! Because quite simply, it's not on!
The truth is, as I reflected this morning, that for most parents, let alone adults, if we are to achieve what we need to today, then you shouldn't have gone to bed until 11.30pm last night, then you needed to have got up at 2am, strapped the smartphone on to your head for a direct feed of all emails, texts and social networking comments and replies, the landline gaffer taped to your ear whilst your elderly parents tell you they've had such a busy day driving to shop and back, with one hand on the hoover, the other hand putting a load through the washing machine, the other stirring a pot of food, the other hand cleaning shoes, the other hand dusting, the other hand writing cheques for children's school costs and after school costs, the other hand washing up, and all this whilst driving the children from A to B to C, whilst popping into the supermarket, then on to D, and then back to A. Oh and then you also need a direct feed of the freeview or sat box into the brain so that you can catch up on all the fascinating programmes that you MUST watch. And that's only half the story!
It's amazing as I zip round attempting to clear up what I find in my journeys: a piece of toast and some DS games down the bottom of the sofa. I've developed this technique that I thought quite clever, based on my engineering days, which is to move things from where they have been dumped back towards the approximate place wherein they belong. By the time I've gone up and down stairs 10 times I have the stuff vaguely on the right floor, maybe even in the right zone. Then it needs completely putting back - thats another story. But the wierd thing is that I'm sure things then get moved back - well it's beyond me!

So, are we living far too busy lives? Yes! Are we enjoying life less? Yes! What's driving us? Not sure! who says that life has to be like this? Don't know!

Jesus said something quite potent on this from the sermon on the mount: "Don't worry about tomorrow, today has enough problems of it's own!" Actually that's the warm up line! The truth of the context of what Jesus was saying is "Trust in God!" and not in yourself.

As for the key question - are there less days in 14? Yes, everyone knows that. It's obvious. It is in fact March 2014 already - wake up because Christmas is coming!