After a busy and tiring half term (try not to loose your sanity with 2 boys watching Tin Tin), and I am kind of "daunted but delighted" to return to normality - whatever that means!
So I thought I'd share a dilemma and a few other things of a misc nature this morning.
The dilemma is one that I thought I could bury my head in the sand on, and hopefully it would vanish eventually. Alas, not. The challenge is this - my oldest son, who is deperate to go and play rugby at the local rugby club on a sunday morning. It's where some of his school friends are after all. And more to the point, he's actually quite good at my favourite game and has alot of potential.
But the dilemma is obvious: I am a Christian and a Minister, and perhaps of all people should hope and expect my son to be in church on a sunday. Perhaps the fact that I am a Minister, is in this instance an irrelevance for most. After all, other families struggle with this issue too, but well I feel that in the gold fish bowl of being a Ministry family, that we are often, rightly or wrongly, "looked at" in some kind of special way. But what will people say or think, and in the end .. "am I bothered" what people's opinions are?
But our dilemma is this, if we say "no" then we risk causing resentment in my son and putting him off church and God and all of that for the future. And the recent mail out from Care for the Family on "how to get your kids through church without them hating God" kind of cuts to the very core of the issue. Whatever else, we must not constrain our kids into church if in the end the become resentful. They must want to be there, and I think he will do so if we respond in the right way.
Now I have some baggage here: when I was young I wasn't given such opportunities becuase of "the alcoholic nature of these rugby occasions, you know". In the end I did play for a club, but not until my mid teens, but in those days life was completely different in many ways.
And ofcourse, the lure of Sunday morning sport is very high; in many respects they appeal to a similar middle class client base as the churches do, and are arguably much more successful! Also these days, let it be clearly said, state schools are no longer properly running sport in the way that we used to enjoy when I was young. You could pretty much guarantee an hour of sport per school day when I was growing up, and the school rugby team was "the" team to belong to, and I spent probably most of of my school years captaining the 1st teams, at Sherborne and at Hardyes, before finally playing for Puddletown Rugby Club. Now at schools, there is at best a tiny nod towards something after school, and then only with no physical contact "in case someone gets hurt you know!"
And I think my son has potential and gifting, and all it would take is some coaching and discipline and his sporting life and poential would suddenly open up.
So, what have we decided? What did we do?
Ah well, we compromised ....for 2 Sundays a month he can go to rugby, but he must choose which they are, and we will not budge on any more sundays!
Were we right? Have we made the right call? I hope so, but we tread in the footprints of many a parent who has gone before!
Moving on to other stuff .... I cannot but cringe at what I see going on outside of St Paul's Cathedral in the anti-capitalism camp. When I was at Spurgeon's I spent some time in study on Liberation Theology, driven by what I had heard from preachers of the 80's like Tony Campolo. This I know, God is on the side of the poor and the oppressed, and no less so in this instance. If ever there was a golden opportunity for the state church to stand with the new poor, jobless, and deprived, this was it. They didn't have to sell out their values or somehow agree with everything that was being said, but they just had to stand with them. If they had - and they still might, I believe the church of England would have found a new credibility with a generation that has predominantly dismissed the church as being not for them!
So Christmas rushes on! Ugh! Sorry to mention the big C! I kind of had moments in the half term holiday of thinking "oh goodness, this is the calm before the storm", not because of Christmas, but because of all that is in the build up to it: numerous saturdays spent doing this or that church conference or event. So, its "grit the teeth time" and maximum effort is required to stay ahead on the planning and preparation.
Sam Griffiths Pastor of Wellington Baptist Church, Somerset.
Monday 31 October 2011
Wednesday 19 October 2011
Looking for Leadership and stuff
Well since last week - I think, and my talk of escapism, I've gone and watched with 20 other men "Johnny English" and just laughed my way through it. What was best was that the opportunity to switch off and enter a different world - albeit for an hour or so, was so refreshing. I did the same last night watching "Spooks", though to be honest I'm beginning to struggle with an unrealistic storyline!
Last week I touched upon the fact that ministry is changing. The economic climate is producing some quite challenging new ways of surviving. This is in no way something that is unique to me, but is being experienced right across the country. Churches are having to change too. And if churches and ministers are changing, so too must the superstructures that support both these players. That will mean - in my view, Baptist Associations, and most of all "The Baptist Union" - aka Didcot, aka HQ! The question - which we were debating in car journeys last year and early this year, of "Whether the BU can stay as it is" - is probably now yesterdays question. Time has moved on, finances have changed, because it has done for churches and ministers already! No, the new question is not whether change at the BU are required, but surely now it's an urgent question of "what must it change into?" And, it's at times like this, that real visionary national baptist leadership is required. These are no longer days for shaking hands and appearing in pictures and saying things that everyone expects you to say, but time to roll up the sleeves and set out the vision and direction for the future of the Baptist Union of GB. Not to do so in my view will produce death (we are already stagnating!, and are already well into decline).
And I would take a bigger view than just a baptist one. The tribal church structures in the UK are already quaking. There are now numerous crossover lines between Anglicans and Methodists, Baptists and URC's and Pentecostalists. Of course some want to hold on to tribe distinctiveness, and I understand that, but I sense that there are ways through these issues. The way I see it is that the long standing agreement of Methodists with the URC's is well and truly dead, and the new agreement with the Anglicans is one that should be grasped. The emptying out of many Church of England Priests to go to Rome, now leaves the CofE struggling. Combining with the Methodists is the only way. As to us, well the URC's argue that their plan was always to unite with someone else. I think that there are now numerous crossover lines with Baptists. But don't stop there, the breadth of the Baptist flavours within charismatic wings, surely allows for a formalisation of uniting of some Pentecostalists with Baptist Union Churches.
Of course, I leave many out of my quick sketch - The Roman Catholics for example. Well surely it will not be long before the revolution against single Priests will occur, and the married priesthood become a reality. if it doesn't, expext further transition there. And as to the so called independents or house churches, as we used to call them - well, I have no easy answer there.
But to get back to the thrust of what I'm arguing for in Baptist Union circles - now is a time when we must see visionary leadership at the top within our Union of Churches. At the moment, I'm not seeing it!
Last week I touched upon the fact that ministry is changing. The economic climate is producing some quite challenging new ways of surviving. This is in no way something that is unique to me, but is being experienced right across the country. Churches are having to change too. And if churches and ministers are changing, so too must the superstructures that support both these players. That will mean - in my view, Baptist Associations, and most of all "The Baptist Union" - aka Didcot, aka HQ! The question - which we were debating in car journeys last year and early this year, of "Whether the BU can stay as it is" - is probably now yesterdays question. Time has moved on, finances have changed, because it has done for churches and ministers already! No, the new question is not whether change at the BU are required, but surely now it's an urgent question of "what must it change into?" And, it's at times like this, that real visionary national baptist leadership is required. These are no longer days for shaking hands and appearing in pictures and saying things that everyone expects you to say, but time to roll up the sleeves and set out the vision and direction for the future of the Baptist Union of GB. Not to do so in my view will produce death (we are already stagnating!, and are already well into decline).
And I would take a bigger view than just a baptist one. The tribal church structures in the UK are already quaking. There are now numerous crossover lines between Anglicans and Methodists, Baptists and URC's and Pentecostalists. Of course some want to hold on to tribe distinctiveness, and I understand that, but I sense that there are ways through these issues. The way I see it is that the long standing agreement of Methodists with the URC's is well and truly dead, and the new agreement with the Anglicans is one that should be grasped. The emptying out of many Church of England Priests to go to Rome, now leaves the CofE struggling. Combining with the Methodists is the only way. As to us, well the URC's argue that their plan was always to unite with someone else. I think that there are now numerous crossover lines with Baptists. But don't stop there, the breadth of the Baptist flavours within charismatic wings, surely allows for a formalisation of uniting of some Pentecostalists with Baptist Union Churches.
Of course, I leave many out of my quick sketch - The Roman Catholics for example. Well surely it will not be long before the revolution against single Priests will occur, and the married priesthood become a reality. if it doesn't, expext further transition there. And as to the so called independents or house churches, as we used to call them - well, I have no easy answer there.
But to get back to the thrust of what I'm arguing for in Baptist Union circles - now is a time when we must see visionary leadership at the top within our Union of Churches. At the moment, I'm not seeing it!
Friday 7 October 2011
The times they are a changing
The economic blip is, as you well know, more like a non-returnable total wipe-out. There is, so it seems, no one who is unaffected. Politicians have been talking about recovery in "X" number of years time as if it will be say two parliaments worth, but I can't see it. History will put this and the last decade down as a major turning point in the global lives of billions of people and essentially all countries.
What I do see though is a realisation of this beginning to happen across the country. People are changing the way they are living their lives, working in jobs, and surviving. It's about being multi-taskers: working harder in several jobs - for less, making major and significant decisions about career and lifestyle - do we need a car? do we need to live in this house? Decisions that were thought unthinkable 5 years ago, are now real and on the agenda. It's no longer about complaining about your lot, but about adapting and getting on with it. Complaining about being tired is probably a common response, but it's about putting your head down and getting on with it. There is too the beginnings of a sense of community coming back - of being all in this together. This is going to take time to develop I think. Even the shops and firms you do business with are now desperate to do any deal. We are in the world of "no offer is too silly!" This, I observe, is the brave new world we are entering in to!
On another tack, probably a different one, maybe not, kindness and gentleness are it seems for a tiny minority, not a part of their kit bags. It is plain wrong to communicate with another on any matter in an offensive and upsetting way. Such an action shows up the real person for who they are. I think James in his New Testament letter had something to say about this - James chapter 3: 10 and 11. I just don't want to be a part of that kind of lifestyle and wouldn't wish anyone to be on the end of it.
And pondering something else - life for me is as busy as it has ever been. I have been hoping to establish my term time rotuine - this day that, another day that - and the same each week. But I've never had so many different things going on, and many of them challenging. I've not had for 3 years so many funerals to do or visiting to do, or preparation of talks and sermons, and my administration is increasing. What I find most challenging is the need to be on top of, and stay on top of my diary. One day I think it's sorted for the week, then something else completely changes it. Factoring in time off, not too many nights out is a constant challenge.
Finally - escapism! I don't think I've ever heard anyone teach or preach on escapism, though maybe rest. I've reflected a lot about the need for us all to be regularly taken out of our hum drum life into a world of fantasy and to escape. For me, what often does that is either watching a film or reading a book. Films are great because all that "normal" stuff in my head is switched off, and I can somehow escape into this surreal world, and laugh and cry and for maybe 2 hours enjoy and be someone else. I suspect God made us all that way.
What I do see though is a realisation of this beginning to happen across the country. People are changing the way they are living their lives, working in jobs, and surviving. It's about being multi-taskers: working harder in several jobs - for less, making major and significant decisions about career and lifestyle - do we need a car? do we need to live in this house? Decisions that were thought unthinkable 5 years ago, are now real and on the agenda. It's no longer about complaining about your lot, but about adapting and getting on with it. Complaining about being tired is probably a common response, but it's about putting your head down and getting on with it. There is too the beginnings of a sense of community coming back - of being all in this together. This is going to take time to develop I think. Even the shops and firms you do business with are now desperate to do any deal. We are in the world of "no offer is too silly!" This, I observe, is the brave new world we are entering in to!
On another tack, probably a different one, maybe not, kindness and gentleness are it seems for a tiny minority, not a part of their kit bags. It is plain wrong to communicate with another on any matter in an offensive and upsetting way. Such an action shows up the real person for who they are. I think James in his New Testament letter had something to say about this - James chapter 3: 10 and 11. I just don't want to be a part of that kind of lifestyle and wouldn't wish anyone to be on the end of it.
And pondering something else - life for me is as busy as it has ever been. I have been hoping to establish my term time rotuine - this day that, another day that - and the same each week. But I've never had so many different things going on, and many of them challenging. I've not had for 3 years so many funerals to do or visiting to do, or preparation of talks and sermons, and my administration is increasing. What I find most challenging is the need to be on top of, and stay on top of my diary. One day I think it's sorted for the week, then something else completely changes it. Factoring in time off, not too many nights out is a constant challenge.
Finally - escapism! I don't think I've ever heard anyone teach or preach on escapism, though maybe rest. I've reflected a lot about the need for us all to be regularly taken out of our hum drum life into a world of fantasy and to escape. For me, what often does that is either watching a film or reading a book. Films are great because all that "normal" stuff in my head is switched off, and I can somehow escape into this surreal world, and laugh and cry and for maybe 2 hours enjoy and be someone else. I suspect God made us all that way.
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