A council with it's own mind? Reflections of day 2 of Baptist Union Council

I am enjoying this Baptist Council much more than on previous occasions, perhaps mainly because of the conversations i am having one to one with other Council delegates. Maybe it's like this, that you take a year or so to get into the mindset of council, before you are accepted by others? Who knows. Or maybe because I have openly and honestly spoken now on two occasions -:

Firstly on the death of the Baptist Times (a sad moment) and a seemingly default direction to make everything electronic. In my "book"(note) we are not yet in an all electronic world, and the question I have is who in the future will report on Council. Who will reflect the debate and dissent? If it is to be from within the Union's resources, I beg to question whether the fairness of differing views will be reflected.

Secondly, in the session today on Union finance. It is a fact that the deficit in 2011 in the BU finances will be one million pounds. That within the first quarter of the year HM giving began to decline. By October it was down to a £47K drop. It is expected that in 2012 a similar deficit will be likely. So two years with a 1 million deficit. The record books show that a 1 million deficit is the largest the Union has ever faced, so in two years?! But, apparently, we have reserves to cope. But sharing today I stood up to represent our church's position and to say "there is no more money". With the local church now paying £4K each to pay off the pension deficit the space for flexibility no longer exists. It seemed momentarily that we were reflected as the odd exception, not the rule, yet the conversations I have had with others here away form the meetings is that this is far from the case. Many more churches are either where we are or rapidly heading our way.

So how are people responding to this? With shock - yes! With wisdom - maybe? Uncertainty - for sure? The way forward is to some extent obvious (at least for all accountants) - reductions in the size of the Union, better more effective ways of working. Will that be based at Didcot? Who knows. These are not decisions that can be delayed, and the need to make important decisions is now. Can the enormous tanker ship which is Council slow down quick enough to turn the corner fast enough and head in a new direction? Certainly, in some people's books, certain cuts are already obvious and should be acted on as soon as possible.

Yet Council is reflective and a little (shall we say) moody? Wisdom and guidance were prayed for by our Chaplain, and the invitation for the Holy Spirit to sweep through our gathering and to have his way were made. So, gatherings like this are less predicatable maybe. Certainly not all decisions have defaulted to the recommended place of the moderators and their forums. This visually is leaving a few to scratch their heads and be quizzical.

What strikes me most about where we are is that what is needed is clear leadership. Yet I am uncertain as to whether we have that. There is a feeling among some baptist Christians that council or the church meeting is not the place to give directional leadership, that somehow "stuff" should be left to flap in the wind and that then we will find God's mind and will. Yet I feel that if we had a bigger picture about where we headed and had more directional leadership we would be more able to have confidence and more willing to follow.

Time is a ticking. The bulk of the council's deliberations are over and soon, tomorrow, we will be heading home.