All the usual suspects are here - some known to me, others by reputation. I still feel something of a shrimp at times, in what seems like the start of the my second year of Baptist Council. I feel I have travelled a worthy induction: nodded here and there, said one or two things with knees a knocking. But I'm through that now. And this council feels different to me. We are essentially in something of crisis: a wopping deficit, but apparently we can handle that. But in these days you would expect that. No, there is more here in the under current, it would seem. Change is being cried for from a number of directions. Structural change. A smaller council? A smaller union? A reduction in the size of Didcot? A reminder that the heart of baptist life in the UK is the association life - that came first.
There are of course the typical line up of positions: 1) the stay as we are camp and it will go away. Don't panic. 2) the "this must change or else" camp. It is not possible to continue this way. 3) probably something of change required, but the norm is good.
As for me, I find myself with a different primary focus this year. On my mind all the time is my own church and its 2012 budget. Our drastic cuts to balance the books for next year is in my thinking all the time. A massive £20K reduction or thereabouts. That is what is driving me perspective of council. And my line to the BU - and any of its fine departments that want more of my churches money is: "there is no more, we are drained, we have no reserves!"
Yesterday saw the start of those realities - the end of the Baptist Times next month. Change is now, and it is challenging.
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