tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70232608130722541352024-03-19T12:12:35.645-07:00Sam GriffithsSam Griffiths
Pastor of Wellington Baptist Church, Somerset.Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-24865960969356197182021-06-09T10:51:00.003-07:002021-06-10T12:26:59.198-07:00What will happen if we can't sing?<p>I sat and listened recently to a group of Pastors "check-in" as we always do on a monthly basis and the conversation turned to our frustration at Government restrictions that are holding us back from being the people God ordained us to be - worshipping people. </p><p>The discussion was broad and had different perspectives, but what was clear was that we were predominantly not happy with what the guidelines were restricting us from doing when seemingly others in our community in the hospitality industry are permitted to go beyond what churches are allowed to do. We need to sing! There is a desperate thirst in our church families to do what our Heavenly Father has created us to do. </p><p>And today in the media, Andrew Lloyd Webber has thrown down his gauntlet in regards to the June deadline, saying he is prepared to open his theatres on "Freedom Day" come what may and is prepared to face arrest if regulations block him. Of course, performance is quite different to worship, isn't it .......well yes and no! You see agree or disagree, this is one of the major stings of Covid to churches: performance has become our current thing rather than true biblical corporate worship, because of the regulations! Six can be involved in worship from the front only - no one else can sing. At the moment we consume, we watch and we view. We are making the best of it, but we thirst for corporate worship with all singing their hearts out!</p><p>Now don't shoot me before I've finished laying my cards out. I would be one of the first to absolutely say that our Baptist Theology, Principles, and Heritage does not limit worship merely to singing. We worship when we come around the Communion Table, we worship in prayer, we worship through liturgy, we worship through silence, we worship when as we hear the Word of God preached, and we can raise our hands or clap in response to inspired songs - but at the moment, only those that are leading from the front can sing! And so you see I still want to say "I miss the singing!" In fact, at times I ache for the singing to return.</p><p>So - all good so far! You know what I mean. And in the church I Pastor we have obeyed the guidelines and regulations and we have prayed that the day will come soon when we will soon sing again! We have for good scientific and medical reasons obeyed the advice and we have put government guidelines and science before our faith - for the good not just of the church family, but for the good of the community and indeed for all! We have trusted what we have been told and done what is necessary. And now it's almost all over, and infection rates have vastly reduced and the risks are significantly lower. All good! Yes, there is still minor unfinished business, but the consensus is that we are way past the very worse, and we are into better days. So maybe we should continue the way we have been going and continue to do as before, without question!?</p><p>Except I have a gnawing sense of unease that's started to grind away within me, and the question is I think: "What will happen if we can't sing?" What if the government continues to say that we cannot sing - then what?! So far we have been good as a Union of Baptist Churches and the advice from the government has been translated and interpreted and passed down into our churches and we have obeyed. We have made our buildings Covid Safe by risk assessments and practical steps and we have worked hard to make socially distanced worship workable. In the meantime, numerous aspects of the life of our churches have been savaged and destroyed, and some churches may indeed struggle to ever reopen again. And we have done so at the expense of our religious freedom and with the trust that this was the right thing to do because we trusted the advice was right.</p><p>And now we have a set freedom day and the days are counting down towards it. I hope and I pray that this will indeed be held to. But what if another two weeks are added on? And then another two weeks? What if it turns into a month? And another month? And still, we cannot sing. Should we obey the government or should we put our faith first and our desire to sing and worship the Lord?</p><p>There are some key Baptist Principles here for us to consider when pondering this question:</p><p>The principle of RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, namely that no individual should be coerced
either by the State or by any secular, ecclesiastical or religious group in matters of faith.
The right of private conscience is to be respected. For each believer, this means the right
to interpret the Scriptures responsibly and to act in the light of his conscience. </p><p>The principle of SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE is that, in the providence of
God, the two differ in their respective natures and functions. The Church is not to be
identified with the State nor is it, in its faith or practice, to be directed or controlled by the
State. The State is responsible for administering justice, ensuring an orderly
community, and promoting the welfare of its citizens. The Church is responsible for
preaching the Gospel and for demonstrating and making known God’s will and care for
all mankind.</p><p>These two principles are worth carefully reflecting upon. On the face of it, they seem straightforward. But what if the state ceases to govern well, fairly, or appropriately? Then it is right and proper for the church to dissent. Now Baptist Christians are not idiots or weirdos, nor are we anarchists, nor are we extremists! Generally, we are amongst those who would be described as careful, level-headed thinkers who pray for those in authority, not least those in government. But we are also people of the Word and Spirit who have had our hearts won by the Lord Jesus Christ, and desire to follow his call to live differently and often radically.</p><p>Dissent begins with the weighing up of what is being required of the citizens of a nation, with what is set out by the principles of God's Word. Are we being cajoled into something which is against God's good principles? Dissent continues with honest reflection and questioning - often in a prayerful way - consider Daniel's precise approach in a similar scenario that led him into the end to the decision to face several sets of lion teeth than compromise! And dissent then in reality ends up with some kind of blunt choice - to obey the state or to obey God. Church leadership teams need to beware at this point and carefully consider the arguments placed before them. The choice is surely not simply reduced to obey the government and do what it says, or choose to seemingly disobey and go our own way! Is that really the sum total of the argument?! Of course, leaders are trustees these days and such positions carry heavy responsibilities. Does that mean that a church leadership team might feel compromised to choose to stay within the law rather than obey God? Good question!</p><p>All that's pretty heavy - and what has that to do with singing? After all, some would point out that we are not restricted from worshipping how we want to in the open air! Good point, but why should we feel pressurised into accepting second best - particularly if it's pouring down with rain and we want to worship? But we don't believe in the church as buildings, but as the family of God's people - we can worship anywhere! Yes, Yes, and Yes! Even in the days of Old Testament exile, God's people found themselves worshipping him in a strange land. And therein maybe lies the truth - we must worship as we want to and indeed need to, and as God has told us to. Our primary goal is to worship God and to please him. Everything else is secondary.</p><p>What will happen if we can't sing? Well, I hope that we will be allowed to and that freedom day will indeed come, and also that we will indeed be virus-free as a nation. But let's not just follow the standard dribble that is being poured out without asking important questions. Let us sing the song of the Lord once again and may it be really soon!</p>Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861800739183279845noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-20618610555560313722021-05-12T11:13:00.014-07:002021-05-20T23:50:31.905-07:00Ministers of the Gospel and Mental Health: it's not just what we do, it's what we carry!<p>Music is doing "it" for me right now! I'm wearing my fantastic Bluetooth headphones my son gave me for Christmas, and I'm tuned into Radio 3. And it's beautiful. I'm wearing them to walk the dog, around the office, and in the kitchen whilst I cook. And it's helping. I've long gone off Classic FM because of the commercial breaks and frankly, I'm done with listening to adverts for Stannah Stairlifts, Funeral Plans, and Incontinence pads. Or wait, am I mixing this all up with ITV3 - aka "The Murder Channel"?</p><p>What is the "it"? It's the mental health. It's stress. It's partly the aftermath of lockdown, and how hard it's been on everyone. And speaking personally as a Pastor, its felt very hard. We've had to keep going whilst watching our church be destroyed by the enemy. . And it's partly other stuff. But clergy stress and mental health is well documented. Ours is "the highest calling" with few outside that we are able to share with and unload to, and few that understand. Why is that? I think it's because it's not just about what we do, it's also about what we carry! The call is a high and costly one and carrying it is often an impossible challenge.</p><p>So to mark Mental Health Week 2021, I thought I'd blog about Clergy Mental Health. And I wanted to write with this in mind: "It's not just what I do as a Minister" - after all, according to my brother - "I do only work one day of the week!" Actually, the truth is even when we are on a day off - a sabbath, we are still there "on call." In fact, the smartphone has partly eclipsed the easier boundaries of the last few decades because it's there and the coms are still on. The dumb phone is less than smart. And now coms take place rarely by phone (remember the days?), often by email, definitely by text, quite often by social media, and even that multiplies out into numerous strands of additional communication methods. And our homes are classed as our place of work too. All of that, is not just about doing stuff that is stressful. It's about the "call from God to be available" - this is what we carry. Yes, there are important points about taking sabbath, boundaries and limits, but even when all of that is dealt with and properly attended to, it's still the call, and it is what we carry, even when we are off. For most ministers, even when the phone is switched off (and mine goes off usually at 9pm), then the church landline is next to my left ear, all through the night. My mother tells me of my Grandfather who was a traditional local Doctor in Bournemouth, and who after service in WW1 began to practice medicine in Scotland, and then Yorkshire, before the days of the NHS. He was the typical well-respected family GP with a practice running from his own home and where he knew each patient by name, and was on call 24-7. According to my mother, he had a tube running from a pipe by his bed, which made its way down to the front door and which patients would speak to him in the middle of the night. I doubt that many GP's of today would provide such 24-7 service. Well, the phone is still next to my ear at night, and over the years some have made use of it, and I've grabbed on my clothes and headed out to either house or hospital to pray with the terminally ill and dying. It's what we carry, and being available is mentally, physically and spiritually exhausting. Today, in this mental health week, I stand with all Ministers of the Gospel and their mental exhaustion, and I pray, "Lord have mercy." Truth is that post-pandemic, there is a very high chance that many ministers will resign, or stand aside, or leave ministry completely because they are exhausted and they can't take any more of the stress and worry. It's because what we carry has become too much, and we can't cope. It's stress, its expectation, its exhaustion and it's also (to use a soldier term) "Friendly-fire" - though I can assure you that there is nothing friendly about it. Those who criticise, who undermine, and attack your character and complain about you. And that by the way is not always to your face, but believe you me, you always get to hear about it, and when you do it's like another arrow into your soul. And we are meant, apparently, to take it! To smile and always be in a great spiritual place. We Ministers are not perfect, and we make mistakes and our characters are also "work in progress", but there is nothing worse than another arrow fired at you and finding its target.</p><p>One of the most stressful parts of a Minister's job is in my view - living with the expectations of people. Show me a room of 50 people and I will show you a room of 50 different expectations. Double that to the average UK church size, and that's with one Minister because that's all they can afford, and you have 100 different expectations to live up to. Except that you can't. It's impossible. But these expectations are always in every local church. Sometimes we Ministers can satisfy some of those expectations, but a lot of the time we can't. Perhaps, and in truth, the only expectation we should try to satisfy is that of our loving Heavenly Father?! But living with these expectations is part of what I've so far called "the carrying." We certainly can't make them dissolve and disappear. Expectations can be even down to whether someone gets welcomed on a Sunday, or not as the case may be. But if it doesn't come from the Minister, then there's trouble! From the earliest age, as my Dad showed me around the Restaurant kitchen (two family-owned and run restaurants) on the Weymouth seafront, he always used to say "make sure you say hello to the staff!" And he was right. And we all as a family had the same training from Dad. My mum used to say when she was out the front of the restaurant amongst the tables and the customers - "make sure you give them a bright and positive welcome in!" And she was right, and it worked, and I've always tried to model the same in the church on the door, even though at times, I have been struggling within and feeling broken.</p><p>Have you ever wondered how much emotional and mental energy it takes to stand up the front each Sunday? Have you ever wondered how much emotional and mental energy it takes to preach or to lead worship? And to literally give of yourself passionately in preaching the Gospel? And then to feel drained at the end, and then to receive a word of criticism or email of disagreement - it breaks you and empties you. Again, it's not that we will hit the heights of quality preaching every Sunday - far from it! Poor congregation - it's going to be another lengthy depressing sermon. But it's what we have to carry quietly. Except that it's not quite as easy as that. We take it home and it affects our spouses and our family because "we're in a bad mood again because someone has said something or done something at church!</p><p>Another for me personally is facing up to discouragement. The church of God is not always an encouraging place, regretfully so. Yes, there are encouragements, and there are some wonderfully encouraging saints in most churches, but more often than not we end up measuring these with the not insignificant criticisms of the people of God. And sadly, when people say "this isn't personal" - it's more often than not totally personal. It is of course the brokenness of the world we all live in. We are all broken, and some are more wounded than others. Ministers do not minister in an unbroken world, otherwise, we'd be out of a job. Though apparently, Heaven looks a lot like that perfect world, and then hopefully we will indeed be out of a job! But I continually live with discouragement. It's like a "black dog" as Churchill used to say. Discouragement is what many Ministers carry!</p><p>Of course, the spiritual realities of ministry are that we "wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers" as Paul reminds us in Ephesians. This means that the climate in which ministry takes place is one of a constant battle. Dark powers and even Satan himself and his demonic powers seek to destabilise and damage and wear down the Ministers of the Gospel. It's what we carry!</p><p>So let me go right back to the start. To my beautiful music. In 1 Samuel 16: 14-23, the shepherd boy David is summoned to soothe the despairing soul of King Saul. So the shepherd musician David takes up his harp and plays for King Saul, and his soul becomes rested, peaceful and I guess his mental state becomes restored. It's a lovely picture. I love my music. I've always loved singing, from a young age as a Chorister, through to Opera as a slave boy in Verdi's Aidi, to the choral society I sang in, and through my years of experience in charismatic renewal of the 80's and 90's and church now! I love the music my daughter produces on the flute and guitar as she sings. I love the music my son produces on the Trumpet and French Horn, and I love the music my son plays on the drums. And as I listen to Radio 3, and sometimes to the Evensong on the station on Wednesdays, I let the music and liturgy lead me in worship. It soothes my mental state, it heals my soul. Right now, I need it more than at any other time, because the days we are living in are far from easy. You see, it's what we carry, not just what we do!</p><p>Pray for all Ministers everywhere please!</p>Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861800739183279845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-5785171681317457172021-04-19T08:48:00.003-07:002021-04-19T08:48:37.295-07:00The death of the internal combustion hymn book<p>I'm sure you have experienced it too? The quiet sound of an electric car coming down the road behind you. It's not quite like Ernie's milk float at 5am in the morning. His was louder. It's an extraordinary experience in South Street outside our church offices. You don't hear the sound coming at all. There's no kind of build-up. It just arrives, and it's quiet. It happened to me again this lunchtime in the beautiful blazing sun and got me thinking. I wondered what it's going to look and sound like; this brave new world just around the corner of no engine noise. </p><p>It's nothing more than a dream of course - some engines will inevitably still be around us. I say that as a matter of faith - as a "classic car man!" I naturally (because of my age and era) started to remember my old MGB and its throaty exhaust sound, and then I started remembering leaning over the front wing side tuning its dual SU carburetors (a right pain to balance) and I remembered what my Dad had modeled to all of his sons: that ear to listen to the engine and its tick-over and the slightest peculiar noises or misfires, or lack of balance in the engine's constant tick, or of course any squeaks or knocks! I still do it today. People may be talking to me, but I'm actually listening to an engine! So it's some massive revolution that's taking place - the death of the internal combustion engine! Have I bought my last car with one? </p><p>Revolution is what we've been through in the last 13 months during lockdown. Don't ask me how, but the paradigm shifts have happened in places I wasn't expecting. But let me defend my passionate cause with a dart up a quick cul-de-sac: I absolutely, completely and wholeheartedly believe in the local church and not cyber church! There, that's done!</p><p>But if the pace of re-opening continues - and I hope it does, then we in the local church are beginning to dust off some of the old ways that have been gathering dust. And it's not easy. "Lockdown Church" has become a feature. Routines have been established. Of course, a few are still saying "it will be nice to get back to normal!" Truth is, quite a few have now stopped. Normal as was, ain't coming back. I'm not even sure that "the new normal" is coming back. The new is still emerging. The pieces are in the air and they are still landing. I've stopped listening to the "Prophets of the future streaming church only" brigade by the way. Please go away quietly and annoy someone else!</p><p>But dusting off the old ways is not easy. There's a rota for this and that, and that too. That's what we were doing 13 months ago, Let's resurrect the rota! Hmm - not sure. It sounds like we ought to, but there's a tad of reluctance. In "Leader-me" - that asks "will people do so?" In "Ordinary-me" that asks "do I want to?" Trouble is, if we don't, then the survival teams of the last 13 months - who have put their heart and soul into holding the bare minimums in place, they will fade and die. These have been the emergency heroes and heroines who have stepped up to the plate and given their all in order to hold it all together. Now we are moving into a new phase, it's almost like starting all over again. The survival teams are tired and we can't continue on these emergency batteries. Now it's time to start rebuilding, but it's all a little different. The combustion engine is on its way out, the electric engine is arriving. Simply going back to the classic car as was, isn't the obvious choice. Do we really need all that we had? Yes, no, maybe! Has the paradigm shift knocked us into simplicity? A simpler, stripped-down, church? Even in simplicity, someone has to "do the stuff." Yes, we do need some of that stuff, but it was important to ask the question, not assume it so. Some of the old ways are very much still good old ways. We must not lose them simply because we can't be bothered anymore. Potentially that's what 13 months have done to us - God forbid that we can't be bothered anymore! We need to be willing to serve - again! Everyone one of us is going to need to step up to the plate once again.</p><p>But then there is some stuff that frankly was mere "we're doing it because we've always done it!" So stopping and asking "why were we doing this?" That's a good question to ask it seems to me. We must not assume that "as it was, so shall it ever be!"</p><p>I never ever thought I'd see an electric car. It wasn't even in my mindset. The internal combustion engine was here to stay. Well I was wrong there, wasn't I!?</p>Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861800739183279845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-66720814337592247652020-08-16T10:24:00.011-07:002020-08-20T01:38:33.931-07:00Has the church regretted this season of livestreaming?<p>It was April of this year since I last blogged and we were about to dive below the surface of Coronavirus and we were living in extraordinary times. I blogged then about some misgivings about what I thought was ahead, and now it's August. To suggest that we are out of the other end or to continue with the imagery I've already mentioned - "we have risen to the surface", would be foolhardy in the extreme and quite presumptuous. Having live-streamed on Youtube, Facebooked live and Zoomed, (and even Microsoft Teamed on a few occasions) with other aspects of church life, I feel its right to blog again. We are due to reopen for worship in 3 Sundays time and the prospect is an exciting one. But I'd like to make some observations of the journey from under the water!</p><p><b><u>1) Rubbish has been talked of:</u></b> I have listened and read like many other Ministers to the buzzing of the social media airwaves and frankly, so much rubbish has been talked about. Perhaps that's the nature of social media and in ministry circles its an opportunity to fire off our insecurities and uncertainties. At the moment I am avoiding looking too heavily at such sites. And these have been days like no other. The early days of trial brought out those understandably wanting to ask the big questions: Where is God? What is he saying? What is he doing? Why is this happening to us? I'm not afraid of big questions, my theological training and 30 years worth of ministry have prepared me to wrestle with such. But some questions are just too big and certainly not worthy of trite easy answers in a post where people can respond with like or dislike. And I've heard some rubbish from people who really should know better, some quite prominent in baptist settings. The first I listened to told me that these virus days were an entirely a spiritual experience and God was in them. The second did not come from a particularly Christian source, but went along the lines of "the planet is fighting back and repairing itself." These two were the most memorable for me (stuck in my head), but in between these were a whole load of pronouncements that God was reforming the church and moving it away from archaic building dominated ministry to where it needed to be out there in the community and that our means of communication had now been rocketed up to new horizons as the internet propelled our contact and message to places we had been unable to go before. That last bit sounds quite Star-Trekky, I know! Certainly, our Youtube channel has steadily grown, and numerous other parts of our church life were successfully zoomed. </p><p>My observation is that this has been a dark time and that the virus has been nothing short of intrinsically evil. It has not been a spiritual experience into which God was wonderfully changing, speaking and moving the church. This has been a significant time of suffering and loss. Many have lost loved ones, many have lost jobs and income and far from the virus being some kind of journey which the church might be being mysteriously led by God to grow and change, all I can observe is that has been a time which has been predominantly disruptive and destructive. There is a high possibility that small village churches have been terminally struck and destroyed because their income has folded and this has had the effect of killing paid full or part-time ministry. In addition, churches have lost their fellowship contact to the point where some may not return to their home churches at all, some may physically go elsewhere to those bigger churches that they have liked the look of online, and still others will continue to sit at home on their couches and remotes and engage with something bizarre called cyber-church where the consumer mentality reigns, and where they are not required to respond in discipleship or engage in live Spirit breathed worship. If you think I am being harsh and merely firing off, then I cannot apologise. I have reflected and pondered and as much as we have been successful (and we really have been) in our internet streaming ministry, and as much as it has to some extent sustained some aspects of the church fellowship life (zoom prayer, men's ladies, children's, youth, tea with the vicar etc etc etc), and that this challenge was risen to with a fantastic sense of team focus, I cannot on balance see that it in any shape or form that it has provided an experience of a Spirit-filled church that we had before. Please don't misunderstand me, we were not a perfect church before, but this season has done nothing to perfect us. Slow us down perhaps. Simplify church life maybe. Stress-test our unity maybe (I know - this sounds like "What have the Romans ever done for us?"). It may have actually stifled our mission capability?! Not completely sure about that one. Definitely, it has though deepened the longing for the restoration of fellowship and our gathering just a few weeks ago on the church lawn for a socially distanced picnic and communion, even though rained on, provided something in the hearts of the church family that no upload speed could ever do. In fact, far from the rocketing channel subscribers observed in the first weeks of streaming life, it would be honest to say that most churches have seen a waining of their viewing counts and the numbers have not been sustained. Given the mindset of screen consumerism and the mindset of channel surfing, this is unsurprising! </p><p><b><u>2) It's been fast-moving and exhausting: </u></b>Taking some of the thoughts from point 1, I would observe that rather like a curve on a classroom oscilloscope that we once all wrestled with in a physics class, no one week has been the same. In fact, I would say that I have seen the curve fly all over the place. In over 30 years of ministry I have never experienced days like these. I guess the last few decades have been those of relative comfort and ease in Western Christianity! Now perhaps, these have been the beginning of days of trial? Perhaps even of toughening up? What is certain is that we are not saying and doing the same things now that we were at the start of the virus. There has been movement and progression and when the title of "new normal" arrived we concluded that this would be "it" and that we would all get what it was and settle down to a new routine, albeit of a church life that was lighter, simpler, less constrained by "this is what we have always done!" The new normal seems somewhat rubbery and it certainly isn't possible to grab hold of it and say "this is what it is." Even now bloggers are providing 10 easy observations about the new normal - well it might do for this week, but it will be out of date next week or the week after. The energy given over to slick video and worship reflections online have mostly run-flat and been replaced with a need for biblical teaching that will go the distance. The hunger for prayer that was apparently reflected in google analytics early on has been questioned and found wanting. And many of my Pastor colleagues and I who have done a sterling job in holding their primary calling of the church they were called to together and literally laying down every ounce sacrificially in the service of their church are mentally, physically and spiritually exhausted. The pastoral support mechanisms that their denominations and streams were initially providing have dried up and are no longer being provided, perhaps through exhaustion too. We have died a death from a myriad of regulations and guidelines sent out (sometimes daily) and some of the national zoom opportunities that were initially helpful have turned into something that have lost their way because we are totally zoomed out and have no appetite left for sitting in front of our screens anymore. Ministry is changing, re-shaping, moving on.</p><p><b><u>3) The task at the start was a sustaining ministry, now it's a recovery operation</u></b>: I set out to our church leadership team at the very start the aim of "keeping the church family in faith, fellowship, prayer, care and worship." And we have been highly successful as a team in gathering around this vision and throwing all our collective energy into making this happen. The church I pastor comes out of this time with a good feeling of spiritual and financial stability and each team member as well as the teams that they have overseen have worked their hearts and souls off to bring great blessing to the church. But now the task has changed - from sustaining to a recovery focus. I cannot underestimate the task that is before us. This season of the virus has not necessarily created healthy habits. People have not necessarily engaged in worship in front of their laptops, they have consumed from their couches as if watching an edition of their favourite weekly TV programme, And the habit of coming together and being the church has been replaced by becoming the remote church, literally separated and almost comparable to old testament times of exile - who knows! This remote church experience is very specific: Surely I can do all that I need to in terms of my previous church existence by staying at home and never coming out again? Other things can be done such as shopping and ironing whilst watching church, but coming together again and being the church seems like a lot of work to be honest, and the habits have been long lost. So now the focus ahead of us Pastors is of a recovery operation. When we reopen our church in 3 sundays time, I am not expecting the seats to be full - no! It will be a drip-feed return to church. Some may not even return for several months. We will, in any case, continue to stream our services, so people could stay home and continue as was. But what a loss! The church is in a risky place right now and we are going to have to work to recover what we have lost, and all of that so long as we have no second or third waves of the virus and further lockdowns - Lord, please no! Yes, the church in every place is in all honesty not in a place of sudden and fantastic recovery, we are going to have to work and pray hard. I'm sure that there will be so exciting new aspects of this new season, but right now we have a significant task ahead of us, and it's not going to be easy.</p><p>Has the church regretted this season of live streaming? I can't actually answer that head-on. Probably not, and yet I have never completely felt at ease behind the camera. And I don't think that we have suddenly discovered the future of ministry. I really hope we haven't gained a perception that the future of church is cyber church! Certainly, we have grown in our understanding of technology and in slicker forms of communication. But this evil virus has brought destruction and much suffering and right now some of the pieces are still to fall to the ground! We will have to see in the coming weeks and months how the shape of ministry changes as the oscilloscope curve fluctuates up and down, again and again, as it will for certain. </p><p>Oh, and as to the planet fighting back theory - the new challenge of the oceans is that they are filling up now with all our throw away facemasks and gloves. If that's progress then I'll eat my mask!</p>Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861800739183279845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-53415402914801601442020-04-06T06:15:00.002-07:002020-04-07T01:27:17.834-07:00Will the church regret this season of live-streaming?<br />
So the coronavirus came like a thief in the night and in a matter of hours and days our entire church life has been overturned, and many of us have, in a reactive and necessary way, ended up cantering towards the brave new world of live-streaming our church services and exploring numerous means of doing so. But of course, not all have been able to do this. We are now all experts (of course not) - or getting there, and like reaching a new challenging level in a computer game or entering a foreign country where the language is quite different, we are coming to terms with this brave new world. I'm in the groove now with the preliminary levels of expertise of the technology: I can do the basics well and each week I find myself modifying or adapting some of the tek, and getting slicker with the presentation. I've taught myself to predominantly get past the lack of a physical presence of a congregation with which I can make eye contact, and yet to imagine our viewers in the homes that I have visited pastorally. And I've taught myself to look at the camera and make presentation snappy. And yes, I've even caught myself thinking "Oh, I don't look like that on camera do I?" And "I really must tidy myself up and brush my hair." And then I've chuckled when others have gone on camera and done the same thing. Then I've found myself unhealthily playing a pointless game that I long gave up years ago, and bound myself over to never, ever play again - the "bums on seats" numbers game, except that this time it's with "the number of channel subscribers game." And it felt good and momentarily injected my ego that we've xxx more subscribers this week. Wow! And then I slapped myself around the face, told myself how stupid I'd been for falling for the old game again, and recommitted myself that this streaming experience was primarily for our own church family, anything else was well "nice, but wasn't why we were primarily doing it." And so we keep going with this brave new world of doing church and we are adapting and perhaps this is a plateau for the moment. The loss of not being together physically Sunday by Sunday is an ache that we all feel, but we have no choice and we must make the best of what we are doing so far. And we are, and we will. Except that I have a sinking feeling that this is not completely all good and how will we recover from it? In the brave new world of cyber church, parts can be cut out, muted, changed and so that we only get to hear what we want to hear. And in cyber church, the complete lack of tangible fellowship holds no one to account.<br />
<br />
And the entire world has gone Zoom, Facebook-live or Youtube mad. Now everyone and their mother is doing it! Suddenly I am receiving invitations to zoom-meet with my denominational leaders, association leaders, and church world leaders in the intimacy of my home where before I've not heard a dicky-bird from them. Now, all of a sudden my time can be taken up with all-day Zoom meetings, and my steady emotionally-healthy-spirituality routine has been smashed to bits. I'm just not going to survive the pace if this goes on. More to the point, I'm not going to find the silence, let alone the downtime to just relax.<br />
<br />
I recognise that not all churches have either been able to or in fact, wanted to stream and that some church members and congregation attendees are essentially wanting to and needing to engage with an act of worship that is in their style and worship diet. So I guess the natural thing would be to find a nearby suitable church and connect in with their streaming. But now my social media feed is full of a steady list of virtually every possible church from here, there and everywhere advertising their stream. So the opportunity now exists to pick and choose what your diet is going to be each Sunday. Why stick with one? Even my local association is advertising a different church each Sunday to do this with. And okay, I might be a tad moaning here, or overdoing my argument, but the glorious spirit of spiritual consumerism is now fully present in our homes. You can surf the proverbial channels and literally pick and choose and no one will ever know. In fact, speaking as a Pastor of a local Baptist Church, I have no ability to track whether my church members are faithfully tuning in to our channel, or whether this glorious "extended church holiday" is actually a great opportunity to look around and view what others are doing. You see Youtube tells me how many are present, but not who. Facebook is I think different. Zoom shows people's faces. And will this enforced diet divide into a number of different responses? Firstly, will it mean that some will never actually come back to a physical church in the future because of the easier experience of staying at home in your pyjamas and tuning into your preferred cyber church of choice for that day? This I think has been fairly minor in the UK until now, though the USA has lived with the TV church for several decades. The assessment is mixed - physical church attendance has still continued in the US, but the consumer spirit has been strong. Secondly, will it mean that some are using this time as an opportunity to look around other churches, and actually they will choose a new, different church to attend physically in the future? That could be a gain or a loss of course! And thirdly, will there be some who actually will never ever return to church at all, because they haven't missed it. That would be a very worrying situation and one that is out of the control of anyone.<br />
<br />
On the upside, service streaming is doing something that I recognise is a positive experience and takes me all the way back to our short few days of training in radio at theological college 30 years ago, where we had to write a "thought for the day" and you discover that most have written far too much waffle and the red pen needs to be applied. Here's what I think its doing: our first service stream was way too long, but it reflected what we normally did on a Sunday morning. But in the TV world, no one is going to stick around that long. So its made me look at what we've been doing in terms of content and cutting it right back to the really important bits, and removing the unnecessary. And actually, most churches have been woefully asleep in this respect. They have thought that what they have been churning out on a Sunday is what people want to see and experience and they have been utterly wrong. This is an unhelpful wake-up call to Preachers, Worship Leaders and all involved to wake up and get their act together. And I'm not talking here about style necessarily - after all some very contemporary churches have for a while been pitching their services almost as rock concerts where the focus is on the hero band, rather than a corporate worship occasion or experience. What we are understanding about the days we have been living in is that people are thirsty for real spirituality. That's why some of the Cathedrals of the UK have been experiencing extensive congregational growth.<br />
<br />
We are all looking forward to getting back to normal, in our lives and in our churches. But will that actually be a good thing? We can't go back to how it was in any aspect of our lives. And in terms of church, there are things that we should leave behind. But nor should we merely buy completely into the future of this brave new world. Many have and are grieving what was. But I'm already grieving what we might become. The danger signs are already ahead on the road and much wisdom will be needed to discern carefully what we should take up, as well as letting go of the past.Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861800739183279845noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-85854804682243803182019-10-27T09:05:00.001-07:002019-10-27T09:05:12.486-07:00Good article on clergy mental healthhttps://www.christianpost.com/voice/how-to-truly-appreciate-your-pastor-233590/Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861800739183279845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-13260518201848981092019-10-20T08:24:00.001-07:002019-10-20T10:44:16.529-07:00ConsumptionThe language and ideas of consumption are upon our lips every day in these times. Right now, we are trying to reverse our consumption of "things" so that the planet is not worn out - and rightly so. My garage is no longer the traditional home of a motor vehicle, it never actually was anyway, but now it is full of different boxes and bags of different types of recycling. I can't help but wonder if someone has pulled a fast one where, instead of the recycling depot, our garage has now become a recycling processing site!<br />
The word "consume" brings all kinds of images into my head: something or someone consumes what is available, more often than not in a container, and then uses or digests the something, then often throwing away the container as rubbish. Also, in the case of fuel, a vehicle or boiler will consume fuel, and then having extracted energy, exhausts another substance which is what is leftover.<br />
The Christian concept of stewardship is significant here. Christians are meant to be good stewards of that which God has put them in charge of. Good rather than careless. Why? Because the scriptures are clear that we will have to give an account for how we have cared for things and people and a good few other items, I guess. In other words, consumption is a reality, but the manner in which we consume has to be a careful process.<br />
The word consume also suggests from a Christian perspective that we are not simply to be consumers, but that we are to be a people who give something back. We are not to be those that merely suck something dry, but actually, we are to be part of the process of inputting, so that others benefit.<br />
There is a significant pause for caution and reflection here too. The implication of consumption is that that which is discarded is seemingly no longer cared for. It is potentially thrown over our shoulders or dropped onto the floor, and considered as rubbish which we never look back on, because we are only focused on that which we have got out of the process.<br />
One of the side reflections of my dog walk today (on this topic), is that which I am very much concerned with and for as a local church pastor - the local church. Now the scriptures paint a very radical picture of the church. It is not a building or an institution or a kind of dead, lifeless and unimportant object. In fact, Baptist Doctrine which was my training at theological college and is the tradition to which I belong, very clearly paints the church as the people. The church is the committed group of people who make up a local family of believers. There are numerous types of these in local towns and they are all different. And if the local church is the living people who have committed to God and each other, then this is a living and active experience which is about how we give and put into the family, and it's not at all about what we consume. The danger here is all too clear in the context of consumption. Consumption would suggest that we are only interested in what we get out of it - in this sense, the local church. Being a church consumer would suggest precisely this - only what we get out of it, and when we are done with it, we merely discard what we no longer need and move on to something else or indeed somewhere else. In actual fact, the idea of consumption is completely foreign to being a part of a local church. No, this living relationship is a three-way process of giving to God, giving to others and receiving from others. But be in no doubt, the idea that somehow or other the local church is where you might consume or receive only, is a completely foreign, illogical and unbiblical concept which has no place in a Christian's life.Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861800739183279845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-74284690148775600692019-09-24T09:52:00.002-07:002019-09-24T09:52:22.444-07:00Engaging with local schoolsI can't quite believe it, but I've been in Schools Ministry for over 30 years. I find that amazing because I can't say I enjoyed school as a child, except that is for the sport.<br />
And I'm fairly sure that I didn't go to theological college (Spurgeons) with the idea that I had that the gifting in my kit bag for schools ministry, yet before I began thinking about becoming a Pastor, I was working with children as a Crusader Leader. Something seemed to happen once I began thinking about training to be a Pastor which seemed to make me unintentionally serious and boring and forget about those skills with children, and it wasn't until I met a fantastic guy in my first church called Richard Morrison, a schools worker, that I became freshly inspired to engage with schools, their classes, assemblies, staff, governors and structures. Even now whenever I walk into schools, I momentarily flick back to my childhood and think "what am I doing here?"<br />
Over the years I must have connected with a few hundred or so of children who have been on the end of one my school assemblies - a few silly songs, a prayer drill, an animated talk from a story in the Bible - initially using an Overhead Projector (sometimes coloured in) and then progressing over the years to a data/video projector. Mind you, some of the best assemblies involve no electronics and are entirely practical: a tennis racket and ball, a rugby or football, even my bike once, a water pistol, a golf ball and club and probably a whole load of other weird and peculiar items.<br />
Sometimes assemblies are long-planned and quite well prepared in advance, whilst others are fresh that morning and come from a mad idea that is way out. Strange looks and responses along the lines of "you're not going to do an assembly on that, are you?"<br />
I've also had to be keenly aware that sometimes the schools I've gone into have had our own children in, and for better or for worse my kids have ducked at the moment their dad appears at the front with yet another crazy idea.<br />
Also, over the years schools ministry has been in different political cultures. I think that's the best way of putting it. Initially (in my lifetime) under Thatcher etc, a daily act of worship in an assembly was required and invited. This has moved over the years as assemblies with faith have become less popular. The stark reality is that unless a local Christian leader or Schools Worker goes into a school, or unless there is a Christian on the staff of the school, then a Christian assembly - or put another way - a school assembly with Christian input (the two are not the same) then a school assembly today is now reduced to a thought for the day, a presentation of a few certificates, maybe something musical, and then a nice moral "be kind to one another" kind of quick thought. I would observe that years ago the schools phoned me up to chase me for an assembly date, now the boot is on the other foot: unless I phone up and chase the school, then nothing is going to happen. That's quite a significant change.<br />
One of the most frustrating sides of connecting with schools right now and ok, this might seem minor, but it feels major to me, is that having established a connection with a key contact in a typical local school for planning assembly dates, and other activities, and ensuring that we stay connected and communicate with each other, is that then the school seems to change that named person every year now, in the same way that the Maths Lead Teacher or English Lead Teacher is changed. This is completely confusing and means that communication is hard and the relationship has to start all over again every year.<br />
The best connections with schools lead to some great things. In my current experience we see schools coming on to our church site for Harvest Festivals, Christmas Services, Class visits to the church to look at symbols of faith, Live demo full immersion baptisms, and even on one occasion - a live demo of a wedding service. The most memorable moments just now are when I get the teachers out the front for a kind of Blue Peter "make something in a speedy 2 minutes" kind of way, like an Advent clothes hanger candle, all whilst competing against each other. And probably the most rewarding moments are the Christmas carol services.<br />
So I like Schools Ministry very much. Over the years it has led to me being a School Chaplain, a School Governor and it certainly keeps you young!Samhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861800739183279845noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-991104403140236152017-04-14T09:11:00.000-07:002017-04-14T09:14:46.368-07:00Good Friday & Easter – Christians must be daft – isnt it all just a myth? <br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">There are some who look
at what Christians do at Easter and think we are mad or weird. We carry a cross
down a street on Good Friday and get excited about the person who was executed
on it. If you think we are stupid (because you may be atheist or agnostic, or
maybe you can’t be bothered) here’s the reversal of your world: you are
fighting a battle against history! </span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Jewish historians alone logged as a fact
both the existence of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, as well as his death. He lived,
he existed, he died. Historical facts. It’s also true to say that he said he
was God. When asked during his trial, he stated clearly that he was, and it was
on this basis of blasphemy (and that alone) that the Jews claimed he had to
die. And then executed him.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">If you thought Jesus
never existed, then – no offence, but you are fighting a daft battle that is
akin to arguing that the world is flat. At best that’s a hilarious position and
historically silly, at worst we’d have to question a lot of the other things
you say too. No, that’s not where real question is. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The real question is
whether Jesus rose from the dead. </span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Okay, let’s take a look at that. The first
thing that people say about the resurrection is that Jesus didn’t actually die.
Yes, he was nailed to the cross, but he didn’t die. Would you mind if we pull
that one to shreds for a second? </span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Jesus was beaten to bloody shreds by
the whip used by the Roman guards. Jesus was so weak after His torture that He
couldn’t carry the patibulum of His cross to the crucifixion site. Jesus had
spikes driven through His wrists and feet and hung bleeding for six hours. The
Romans thrust a spear deep into Jesus’ side, confirming beyond doubt that
Jesus was dead. Jesus was prepared for burial according to exacting Jewish
custom. His body was encased in wrapped linen and spices. Jesus was then
entombed, and a massive, heavy rock was rolled across the tomb entrance. A
unit of highly trained Roman guards vigilantly guarded the entrance—knowing
they would be punished if Jesus’ body went AWOL. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">In his
article, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.godonthe.net/evidence/swoon.htm"><b><span style="color: #193161; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none;">A Lawyer Examines The Swoon Theory</span></b></a></span><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">, Texas attorney
Joseph “Rick” Reinckens satirically unpacks this theory. I will just
share a snippet of this must-read:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">“Even in His
weakened condition, in a quiet private cemetery, Jesus manages to push back the
stone door without any of the guards noticing! Why go half-way? Jesus has been
whipped, beaten and stabbed, is hemorrhaging, and hasn’t had any food or drink
for at least three days. Does He just push the stone open enough to squeeze
through? No, He pushes the stone door COMPLETELY out of the way!!!”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Adds </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://bible.org/article/false-theories-against-resurrection-christ"><b><span style="color: #193161; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none;">J. Hampton Keathley, III</span></b></a></span><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">, a graduate of
Dallas Theological Seminary and a pastor of 28 years:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">“If Christ had only
swooned, He still would have still been half dead. A great deal of time would
have been needed for recuperation. In His weakened condition He could not have
walked the seven miles on the Emmaus road. It would have been impossible for
someone who had only resuscitated from the agonies the Lord endured with the
beatings and crucifixion to so quickly give the impression that He was the
Conqueror of death and the grave, the Prince of Life.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<b><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Could the Roman
soldiers have been asleep? Is that how Jesus supposedly made His sneaky
escape? </span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics-more/resurrection-evidence.htm"><b><span style="color: #193161; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Peter Kreeft</span></b></a></span><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">, a popular writer
of Christian philosophy, theology and apologetics, says no way:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">“The story the
Jewish authorities spread, that the guards fell asleep and the disciples stole
the body is unbelievable. Roman guards would not fall asleep on a job like
that; if they did, they would lose their lives. And even if they did fall
asleep, the crowd and the effort and the noise it would have taken to move an
enormous boulder would have wakened them.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">So that argument is
way off and just doesn’t stand a chance of being correct. The next thing people
say is that those who saw all this happen (and there were loads) were
hallucinating. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">It’s
important to note that hallucinations come from <i>within a person</i>,
not outside a person. <i>Meaning</i> <i>hallucinations are entirely
subjective</i>. Science tells us that, generally, only particular kinds of
people have hallucinations: persons who are paranoid or schizophrenic, or people
under the influence of drugs.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<b><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The New Testament
tells us, however, that all kinds of people saw Jesus after His resurrection.
Different ages, different occupations, different backgrounds, different
viewpoints.</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Dr. Gary Habermas
observes:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">“That these different
individuals in each of these circumstances would all be candidates for
hallucinations really stretches the limits of credibility.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Says Peter Kreeft:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">“Hallucinations
usually happen only once, except to the insane. This one returned many times,
to ordinary people. Five hundred separate Elvis sightings may be dismissed, but
if five hundred simple fishermen in Maine saw, touched and talked with him at
once, in the same town, that would be a different matter.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Adds Dr. Michael
Licona, a professor of theology:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">“Hallucinations are
like dreams. They are private occurrences … You could not share an
hallucination you were having with someone any more than you could wake up your
spouse in the middle of the night and ask him or her to join you in a dream you
were having.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Hallucinations do
not cause people to change or create new beliefs. The fact that many people
chose to believe in Jesus, after talking with Him and touching His wounds,
also helps to refute this theory. Hallucinations are an individual event. If
500 people have the same hallucination, that’s a bigger miracle than the
resurrection.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The next and only
option (apart from the actual truth that he did rise again from the dead) is
that this was a conspiracy. The conspiracy theory goes like this: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Christ’s disciples simply stole
His body and fabricated the resurrection story.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The great historian
Eusebius (A.D. 314-318) was the first to argue that it is inconceivable
that such a well-planned and thought-out conspiracy could succeed. Eusebius
satirically imagined how the disciples might have motivated each other to take
this route:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Let us band
together to invent all the miracles and resurrection appearances which we never
saw and let us carry the sham even to death! Why not die for nothing? Why
dislike torture and whipping inflicted for no good reason? Let us go out to all
the nations and overthrow their institutions and denounce their gods! And even
if we don’t convince anybody, at least we’ll have the satisfaction of drawing
down on ourselves the punishment for our own deceit.</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Chuck Colson,
special counsel to President Nixon during the Watergate scandal in the 1960s,
knows full well how difficult it is to keep a conspiracy together. Says Colson:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">“I know how
impossible it is for a group of people, even some of the most powerful in the
world, to maintain a lie. The Watergate cover-up lasted only a few weeks before
the first conspirator broke and turned state’s evidence.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 16px 0px;">
<span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Adds </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/vxE8p86Gowk" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #193161; margin: 0px;">Paul E. Little</span></b></a></span><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">, author of <i>Know
What You Believe</i>:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<i><span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">“Men will die for
what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not,
however, die for what they know is a lie.”</span></i></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 13px;">
<span style="color: #4b4b4b; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">So the only possible option left is that Jesus did
actually rise again from the dead. Now who’s daft? Perhaps it’s time you
considered the facts before deciding that you don’t believe all this (as you might call it) "twaddle".</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-86257307270010443492015-10-05T06:51:00.000-07:002015-10-05T10:48:42.168-07:00What is "call"?<p dir="ltr">In the Christian world we place emphasis on the word "call" in terms of whether God has called us to do something or other, but ironically I've heard on numerous  occasions those who would probably own up to little faith or none say "it's very clear that that was their calling." Stated of course with a lack of clarity as to who or what is precisely doing the calling, to what and to whom.<br>
In The Christian world call is at the very heart of our faith. We believe God calls specific people to specific tasks. Let me just clarify how I re-wrote that sentence: I started by typing "....call used to be at the ..." and then decided to scratch that. Because in the days that we live in it doesn't always feel that way. It almost seems like "everyone did as he saw fit" (Judges 21 vs 25), and also as if <i>in these days</i> "the word of the Lord <i>is</i> rare, there were not many visions." (1 Samuel 3 vs 1). In actual fact, it seems that we live in days where there is at times a total relucatance by many to anything at all, let alone anything sacrifical , unless there is a spin off for the individual, a bonus or some kind of profit. Essentially, we live in days it seems where getting anybody to do anything that costs is darned right hard work. As someone once amusingly stated, it seems like the same players on the sports field are again and again asked to do the same tasks 24/7 and they are already exhausted. And of course, the days we live in display the vast quantity of the population to be simply too busy, too tired, overdrawn, too stressed, even though we seem to find hours and hours to surf the internet, play on our smartphones or watch TV. These, if they are true, are quite damming charges.</p>
<p dir="ltr">So where has call gone? Where has it vanished to? What are the ingredients of call?</p>
<p dir="ltr">It seems to me that our response to these questions can be varied, and it does depend on how we see God's guidance. Yet if we are to read the signs of the times, call seems to have largely vanished and the word of the Lord does seem to be for some, quite rare! Has call, or our sense of hearing call vanished? Let's jump straight back and say that on the basis of scripture and it's principles, and the still vast mission field, God cannot be silent, but still issuing calls to his people.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Take for example Isaiah 6 vs 1-10. A classic gobbet of scrpture on call. vs 8 and 9 are the call verses in a section that is built up to on the holiness of God. Maybe this is a theophany - probably. But what is clear is that there isn't much of a carry on! This is straight in with the question from God: "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And the reply is instant: "Here am I. send me!"<br>
What fascinates me about this text is that the call is given, and there is a speedy response. What is unclear here is that we don't know whether the call is general - ie to anyone, or whether it is specific, ie to Isaiah. What we do know is that Isaiah is in a place of worship and prayer, which leads him to a place of vision from God. The descriptive language is detailed. But if we look closely at the question from God, the "Whom" it gives the strong sense that this call could be for anyone, and indeed they will take anyone who offers! So if that is the case, Isaiah speedily puts himself forward in obedience. We don't know if there are others around him in the same room, or even if there are whether they are experiencing the same vision. But Isaiah doesn't hesitate. There is a divine call and need and it must be responded to. Short of Isaiah's sinfulness, which has been dealt with in vs 6 and 7, there is nothing to stop him saying "here I am." And if we measure Isaiah's response to our modern day processes what we can say is that there is a divine need and Isaiah sees and hears the need and just responds. No checking of his work load, his diary, or family circumstances. Just a simple heart response.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We can potentially draw some conclusions from this: God shows a need, he requires someone to go to fulfill that need, he issues a summons to any who will hear his call. His people hear that call and respond in obedience. This we could conclude is call. As someone once said on this subject during my studies at Spurgeons, call is about "can I do a work here". In other words, this is less about flashing lights and more about the simple response of our hearts to always be ready and obedient to go!</p>
<p dir="ltr">Another example is found in Acts 16. The scripture is far more specific here and the work of the Holy Spirit quite distinct, as of course you would expect in the book of Acts. Paul and the vision from the man of Macedonia is a well known section. It is notable because vs 6 starts with the immediate sense of the Spirit keeping them from preaching in Asia. How this was made clear, we are not told. Verse 7 reveals more, stating that they tried to enter Bithynia, but "the Spirit of Jesus would not allow." Again, how, we are not told. Then we move to the vision (again) and during the night Paul is given the vision of a man from Macedonia begging him to cover and help them." We don't know whether Paul had options here, in other words whether he could have said "no". But what are shown is Paul's rapid preparation and re-deployment, and the vs 10b makes clear Paul's thinking "concluding that God had called us to to preach the Gospel to them."<br>
We are only told the key points in this account, and not told "the what-ifs". Yet we can observe what seems to be the Spirit bringing about circumstances to provide call to Paul. Paul is not detached from this. He is not an individual who is invited to stop thinking. Actually, quite the opposite, he does use his brain. But what he sees yet again is his immediate response to need, and this is obedience to go!</p>
<p dir="ltr">Again, if we were to draw some principles from this, we could say that Paul the great teacher and church planter is open to God's leading. It's clear that "Paul had <i>his</i> plans", but the Spirit led otherwise. What is clear is that Paul changed his plans to comply with the Spirit's call, and was obedient. In Paul's case the call was quite specific - to preach the Gospel and plant churches.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Can it be then that we have either removed call from our spirituality today? Are we more concerned with what we want to do? We will go wherever we please, do whatever we want, but not listen well to the Spirit, let alone respond in simple obedience?<br>
So often in church life need is made abundantly clear, but few respond. Good reasons are given, but when we compare our responses to the above biblical ones, it seems somewhat that the drivers of "me-church" and our own consumer needs are what takes priority to the Spirit's call.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Or perhaps we have become <u>too</u> entrenched in simply forgetting the old biblical principles, and now we simply choose using modern secular methods of choice and guidance. Where in these scoring methods does the voice of God get listened to?</p>
<p dir="ltr">For Isaiah, there was simply a need, and this was responded to.<br>
For Paul, the Spirit distinctly guided.<br>
In both cases the priority was God, and his Kingdom needs, not our own comforts.</p>
Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-55367359515971038672015-09-17T05:02:00.000-07:002015-09-17T05:02:12.970-07:00How to do politics as a Christian (be careful what you post)Since before the recent UK General Election campaign, and more recently with the election of a new Socialist leader I have been pondering and worrying about how Christians come across regarding their political views. I suppose some of my uneasiness has come from the crazy sound and vision bite world of Social Networking, where we seem to post and re-post and "share post" odd and wierd pieces of snippets from here and there that may or may not reflect our political or ideological position. They kind of sound right, and we like the snappy one liner that it is, and even more so if we get oh so many "likes" or even more so if someone then shares it. But as my mother keep saying as a defence for not being on Facebook, "becareful, one of these days what you put up will come back to haunt you!" And I can't help but wonder whether she is actually right!<br />
But more centrally I want to ask in this blog a number of key questions which I think need answering:<br />
<br />
1. What comes first for you, your Christian faith or your politics? I think this is a really important question. Some would immediately jump up and say neither, they are entirely meshed. After all, the sermon on the mount etc etc and all that gives me a mandate to engage politically as a Christian. My political views are an outoworking of my Christian faith. And yes, I get that completely. I would say the same.<br />
But be careful. The latter must never come before the former! The New Testament makes it clear that only full and undivided whole hearted committment to Jesus Christ is acceptable, and nothing must get in the way of our walk as a disciple. Yes, even politics. Then we must also take into consideration the classic 1 Corinthians 8 text, often known as "The weaker brother" text. The key verse is 1 Corinthians 9 vs 9 "Be careful, however that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak." This is a key text that it is often forgotten in our 2015 world. The exogesis is very straightforward! If what you are doing, even though the scriptures do not command against, is causing your brother or sister in the Christian faith to be held back, fall away or pushed away or weakened in the faith, because they are not as mature as you, then you must stop what you are doing for their sake and the sake of the Gospel and the Kingdom. Fairly black and white, unarguable text! Applied to our political views and what we post, then we should all be careful about what we put up! But someone will say "I'm just trying to make people think!" Yes, I get that too, but again the scripture is clear - our freedom should not be abused, lest it become a stumbling block. And primarily do we present Christ, or do we present our politics? 2 Corinthians 2 vs 16 is also worth pondering in this context: "to the one we are the smell of death, to the other the fragrance of life." What precisely are we presenting as an aroma as we make our posts? It's a very fine line, and Paul says therefore be very careful! Paul in the weaker brother scripture of 1 Corinthians 8 vs 12, says that when we sin against our brother by abusing our freedoms, then we sin against Christ.<br />
<br />
2. Let's be clear, there is no one political party for Christians! Oliver Cromwell tried this in his puritan wisdom (or lack?) and the whole thing major backfired. His attempt as Lord Protector to cancel Christmas and to essentially attempt to recreate the Kingdom of God in the kingdom of England went big time wrong. In that sense Cromwell failed to factor in the freedom of conscience of all, most especially those who disagreed with him, let alone those who did not believe the same thing as he or the Puritans. But why be reminded of this piece of English history? Simply this - Christians of sincere and true faith exist in all different political parties, and exist on either side of the debating chamber, whether it be Westminster, or your local county or town council. We may scratch our head and attempt to make judgement on them (which would be wrong), but they have sincerely before God made their choice, and read the same scriptures and worship the same God. Yes, by all means make clear your own political views, but be careful not to judge another believer in this respect. And cromwellism is still seen in our churches today as if there is a preset Christian political view that must be adhered to or if you don't accept the same, then you are amongst the reprobate or deemed a false prophet. Again, be very careful! Freedom of conscience must be given to interpret differently and hold different views, and still be a committed Christian, and yes a brother or sister in Christ. I ask the question again - what is primary? Our Christian faith or our political views? Scripture I believe would support the former not the latter.<br />
<br />
3. There's nothing wrong with thinking outside the box, and being made to think about difficult issues. As I've said to our kids time and time again as they have engaged at secondary school level with their essays - "Remember, there are no black and white issues, even as a Christian!" I simply want us to avoid the trap that there is a single right view for the Christian to have and hold on every single tricky ethical issue that there is. Oh I know we like to think as Evangelicals that there are set views, and we even reach for our traditional text books on the shelves to read what it says and then in the worse case repeat them back. But thats the stuff of cults which generally say "this is what we believe in this group, and therefore this is what you are to believe as a follower!" And basically if you don't believe their teaching then you are cast out. Christianity has never been so badly misrepresented if such views are held. No, God has given us a brain and freedom to think, and we should carefully study and read, ponder and reflect and then listen to others, before reaching a conclusion of our own. And even then, remain open to change your views as time goes on. Nothing is ever black and white!<br />
<br />
So we should be careful how we express our views, careful what we put first as primary! Faith or politics? Careful what we post, and careful not to judge! And deep, studious and open to the views of others, as we ponder our ethical and political view points!Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-87520069099736873332015-07-26T02:36:00.001-07:002015-07-26T02:36:08.927-07:00Highland holiday snaps<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-yg6xV0rHICAjxHjFtm3Ywfg4DKN5ACsziUCgnNuu3kD2MhPYHs-xwqwPJSSTLTegoq9xKY1lVZBHu8Ss45Vqx82i7on1zh0Hd0xgUy33ClEiCgFYnqTNJbC38O66Bd1GqS-Je6TaA4/s1600/20150724_181136_Richtone%252528HDR%252529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-yg6xV0rHICAjxHjFtm3Ywfg4DKN5ACsziUCgnNuu3kD2MhPYHs-xwqwPJSSTLTegoq9xKY1lVZBHu8Ss45Vqx82i7on1zh0Hd0xgUy33ClEiCgFYnqTNJbC38O66Bd1GqS-Je6TaA4/s640/20150724_181136_Richtone%252528HDR%252529.jpg"> </a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTngngWG7nJu-Ipih9Phis5C2iOF3sw3xh6wn6BH2N2DWc8x06Fyv_RLuvArKUspbDPAGFDEzvsV7nJU7sEUGvqZeBTM38L5I_nxKqg6nY-izr9BpUyhFuOjgvt_SH-p3NRkneW5ZfG9M/s1600/20150724_181027_Richtone%252528HDR%252529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTngngWG7nJu-Ipih9Phis5C2iOF3sw3xh6wn6BH2N2DWc8x06Fyv_RLuvArKUspbDPAGFDEzvsV7nJU7sEUGvqZeBTM38L5I_nxKqg6nY-izr9BpUyhFuOjgvt_SH-p3NRkneW5ZfG9M/s640/20150724_181027_Richtone%252528HDR%252529.jpg"> </a> </div>Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-41303241628527193712015-07-25T14:57:00.001-07:002015-07-25T14:59:09.468-07:00Highland holiday <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC9h6F_lPLB60135PXhYctMxh1pSKP-FzzsdHV5ubmntuRU_3dmjJ-TVrBVJwNCaV86v8wi4odCzFnIlzV1gY64mC1aLEdRRuoZxnRU1x6hM-Eec6PTElMFKK9RPSdI7oqkOHioVg-vtI/s1600/20150719_121527_Richtone%252528HDR%252529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC9h6F_lPLB60135PXhYctMxh1pSKP-FzzsdHV5ubmntuRU_3dmjJ-TVrBVJwNCaV86v8wi4odCzFnIlzV1gY64mC1aLEdRRuoZxnRU1x6hM-Eec6PTElMFKK9RPSdI7oqkOHioVg-vtI/s640/20150719_121527_Richtone%252528HDR%252529.jpg"> </a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRV7ePuX-hOUZbBNcGKpeNz4Bd0sZ0sfwUZcYyo9_eIFBgAhLcvRvlavtQ2NXTR5RzkyhhLaffFFPzLo7nl0259nSH8MD0aryVuoCfyDiOg3Y1bD8nwq2BEtMDsUeqb6ngvetyNdZRS7Q/s1600/20150719_123040.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRV7ePuX-hOUZbBNcGKpeNz4Bd0sZ0sfwUZcYyo9_eIFBgAhLcvRvlavtQ2NXTR5RzkyhhLaffFFPzLo7nl0259nSH8MD0aryVuoCfyDiOg3Y1bD8nwq2BEtMDsUeqb6ngvetyNdZRS7Q/s640/20150719_123040.jpg"> </a> </div>Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-60821980297473561692015-06-06T02:40:00.001-07:002015-06-06T02:40:25.349-07:00Each cog has to meshAs a former Engineer, the visual imagery of a set of gears in any type of gearbox, always leaves me both amazed and concerned. Amazed because it really does take some brains and skills to make a series of cogs hit just the right place at just the right time. Concerned because every engineer's worst nightmare is the crunch and smash that results from this going oh so wrong. 'Tis both expensive and somewhat soul destroying. The expression "back to the drawing board" - the cry of designers and engineers the world over, is so often true as the project explodes and there is nothing left of it. Ouch! and most of us over 40 years can well remember the Morris Minor, famed for its unique exhaust sound and heard from at least 1/2 a mile away, as also the crunch of the gears is then heard. It ain't wonderful. Cringe! Cometh the problem, cometh Saint Cog, Birmingham born no doubt, and Patron Saint of Syncromesh. Blessed be him.<br />
<br />
But it got me thinking the other day about the short sentence in Ephesians 4 v16, in the Bible: "as each part does it's work." The chapter has been about encouraging spiritual gifts in the church family and showing that different people have different gifts, and the thrust of the message from St Paul is to paint the image of the local church family as a body, wherein each part of the body is dependent upon the other. A veritable "gear box" indeed!<br />
So it is necessary for the gearbox of cogs to be functioning, and essentially working well, together! There is a noticeable reliance upon each of the other cogs to function and work as designed. When an engineer builds a gearbox, the intention is to then to hold it all in place within a housing, just so the springs and nuts don't escape. There is no space for independence or prima donna cogs. The gears have to work, and they have to work together. And the truth is that if one part of the working mechanism breaks down, chooses to not function or break, then the mechanism is in real trouble.<br />
So too the church of God's people. In this seemingly volunteer environment, this is a big ask and a huge expectation. It seems no one can be contained by a housing? Truth is if important components don't function properly or break, and in our "oh so polite" world of church we so easily say "that's fine, don't worry", but the effort required soon falls on others if one or some choose to not fulfil their tasks. And soon, other cogs are overloaded and will more easily ware out. Each part does need to do it's work. If it doesn't, then we are soon in trouble. Nothing causes more frustration and upset when a cog doesn't work!<br />
<br />
Its worth thinking about.Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-10958302994376162522014-09-17T02:44:00.002-07:002014-09-17T02:44:35.698-07:00My opinion? Who cares! A lesson from Spurgeon's Sermon ClassAnother 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!"<br />
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!"<br />
<br />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!<br />
<br />
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!<br />
<br />
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!<br />
<br />
But this is just my opinion!Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-1464842465128059332014-03-17T06:26:00.002-07:002014-03-17T13:53:17.981-07:0083.5 Christian Ministry TruthsI've haven't blogged (again) for oodles, so feeling okay-ish today I thought I would throw some "stuff" into the arena.<br>
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:<br>
<br>
<b>First: Pointers to the Baptist Family I belong to:</b><br>
<br>
<ol>
<li>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?</li>
<li>When is "the local" going to mean "the local church"?</li>
<li>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?</li>
<li>What is the next national vision? And if there isn't to be one, can it be "the local"?</li>
<li>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?</li>
</ol>
<br>
Second, I thought I'd re-visit my
<b>"Ministry Truths"</b> list which I produced 5 years ago, and consider any
new additions, as well as smile and cringe at those I scribed back then.<br>
<br>
So this is how it went, in no particular order, but 5 years on I have added and edited: <br>
<br>
<ol>
<li>You can never ever please everyone but you must defintely always please God.</li>
<li>You can only minister where there is invitation.</li>
<li>Never assume anything.</li>
<li>Never think you've seen the worst situation, be unshockable.</li>
<li>Beware of people in fluorescent jackets</li>
<li>Everyone sees "it" differently and has an "agenda." See "it" God's way.</li>
<li>Any and every situation is never "black and white".</li>
<li>At the end of the day you can only do what you can do. Then you have to hand it over to God.</li>
<li>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.</li>
<li>Some people think you live at the church all the time.</li>
<li>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.</li>
<li>Conversely, if you sort/manage/service regularly the above group with "strokes" then ministry life tends to have less crisis points.</li>
<li>The Kingdom of God is substantially bigger than you, your world, your life & your church.</li>
<li>Some people like to play games.</li>
<li>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.</li>
<li>Demon possession is always, always the very last conclusion to reach. What else is going on?</li>
<li>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.</li>
<li>People often get angry at you, even though it hurts, don't take it personally.</li>
<li>Always put the family before the church.</li>
<li>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.</li>
<li>Don't panic.</li>
<li>Keep a balance in all things.</li>
<li>The Kingdom of God does not work to the principal of logic.</li>
<li>Be kind to yourself.</li>
<li>Spiritually and liturgicaly, be open to the new, do not forget the best of the past.</li>
<li>Protect yourself, guard yourself.</li>
<li>Keep going. Never give up. You're doing a good job.</li>
<li>Ministry is not the whole picture. There is another life!</li>
</ol>
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!Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-19864108302216879522014-01-16T02:16:00.003-08:002014-01-16T02:16:50.440-08:00What'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!<br />
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!"<br />
<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
And in some respects, once the core issues are dealt with, then, seemingly, discipleship becomes a lot more fruitful.<br />
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.<br />
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.Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-85663091045768221762014-01-09T02:17:00.003-08:002014-01-09T02:17:57.264-08:00There 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!<br />
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!<br />
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!<br />
<br />
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!<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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!Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-75622791508972193072013-09-20T02:11:00.001-07:002013-09-20T05:16:03.558-07:00Being like Jesus is such a tricky thing ..Being like Jesus is such a tricky thing, which is odd really, because Christians seem to sing about it most sundays, and even shout out "we want to be like you, Jesus!" And whilst I know this is a judgmental observation, there doesn't seem to be an awful lot of understanding about what that means, let alone attempts to be like Jesus. In fact on the whole I get the feel - and yes, it's a judgment thing again, it seems like there is a desire for the comfort or consumerism of God-stuff than an attempt to go Jesus' way. Yes, I know, the goal of every Christian should be to be like Jesus, but ..., and as our college pastoral lecturer famously and unforgettably once said, "it's a big but(t)!"<br />
.... If I'm to be like Jesus, then I just don't know if I can be precisely like Him. I'm honestly not sure if the Jesus of the scriptures that I read about in say the Garden of Gethsemane, where he tussles with his will and Father's will - and incidentally, his disciples cannot stay awake and pray with him; they shall we say "cannot go his way" and be precisely "like him!" And when I read about the passover lamb - Jesus, in Isaiah 53 - "He was despised and rejected of men ...." [that bit] (as in the Messiah), I'm even less sure that I can travel such a painful way. Does that make sense? Right now, as I write this, I feel like I am betraying Jesus - does that make sense too?<br />
In the end this is all about Jesus the suffering servant, and the way of grace. That's what this is all about - probably! You see Jesus gave himself totally and utterly for the sin of the world upon the cross to die this agonising death. I'm sure that humanly he didn't want to, but as God there was only one option. The sinless lamb had to be sacrificed as an atonement. And Jesus so readily served others in his ministry. But can we be like that? Can we be like him? Of course, that's a lifetime goal.<br />
But this journey of grace in us is a tough one. Let me unpack that: learning to be graceful, patient, merciful, forgiving - and loads of other Galatian 5 fruit stuff, that's just so not easy. I can do it when the pressure is off of course, then it's a kind of thing that begins in my head, T's off to the heart - "that would be a good thing to do", and eventually leads to actions - and wow! That was good! But from the heart, that's a real tough ask. From the heart where it becomes "second nature" (interesting phrase) or should that be "first nature"? Where it becomes automatic.<br />
Now of course we are in the new world of boundaries and what is acceptable and what is not. In many ways these are extremely helpful tools that counselling, coaching and team skills (etc) have so wonderfully taught us. In other words, there are limits to how much we can appropriately take, or give before we need to say that enough is enough, or something is unacceptable. I'm right there - these are so very helpful for everyone, especially those in people work, ministry being one of them. More often that not, these tools more than preserve people from being abused in all kinds of life, but sadly, not all.<br />
But then you see you get this Jesus come along and as the "suffering servant" mostly defies all this boundary stuff. And that's where I ponder whether I can really be like Jesus? And "people" have this expectation of me as a Pastor or a Church Leader that essentially I am "ok" to take anything thats thrown at me. "Oh, he gets paid to do it!" (I'm both creasing up in hilarity and in tears of sadness right now.) Of course in one sense thats immaterial because that's not what this is about, it's all about our personal worlds: "Us" as disciples, and whether we can really go the way of Jesus, rather than anything else.<br />
Over the years I've read account upon account of people who are just so much more graceful than me, and seem to demonstrate far more vividly what all this "stuff" is really all about, which is grace. It crosses my mind that this journey of "going the way of Jesus" is indeed a lifetime journey. As a slight personal encouragement but not as one of pride, I hope I am a little more graceful than in my younger days, but let's not get stuck there and pass swiftly on! And ultimately I am that way because of the painful and challenging parts of life that I have been through. This is, as one person describes, "divine sandpaper" where God puts us into situations where it is the exact opposite of our nature, to teach us and change us. That over the years the divine sandpaper begins it's at times painful lesson of smooothing off our sharp edges, until one day we get to the lower grade sandpaper, and then it's all just about buffing!<br />
So yes, this being like Jesus is such a hugely tricky thing. In one sense "no" we are not to be like Jesus in that we never ever place our feet in his exact footsteps. That's just not possible. But in another sense, "yes" we have no choice but to go the way of Jesus.Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-759625919181620332013-09-13T01:59:00.005-07:002013-09-13T02:00:11.074-07:00On a different planetI realise that I haven't blogged for ages, so this is well overdue. And looking back at the last one, I see that I was embarking upon a Gym phase, which i need to state right now was really good and wonderful. And yes, I did go regularly and felt better as a result. But my GP referral phase (which I had requested) came to an abrupt end, and that was that. It's ironic that it was doing me so much good - physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, but that I honestly cannot afford £15/month or £180/annum. It just doesn't fit into a family budget. There is something to reflect on here: the gym made me feel better and perhaps less likely to be in need of medical care in the future, and be any burden to the NHS, but to do so you have to be, in all probability, earning near to £40K/annum to afford it, because lets face it, this is percieved as an extra and for those he can afford it. I have always justified that God has given the open air, the hills and paths to run on, so I'll take that as a freebie. Mind you, as a regular visitor to the osteopath, paying £30/session and going say 6 times a year, the gym would strengthen my back and there would no need for the Osteo?!<br />
The last "review" session with my gym trainer was a chuckle, where he said he would see if he could swing something with his Manager for the diocese. "Yes, Yes" - I responded, wondering what that meant in Baptist terms.<br />
So to the title - "On a different planet" which is a term of warm assessment for those who seem disconnected from reality. Well it comes home to roost! Because this week I did it again! Yes, I accidentally filled up my Diesel car with a small amount of unleaded, and well .....the rest is ....kind of embarrasing. I last did this about 10 years ago - maybe, on the way to my Dad's 80th party. And then I said I'd never do it again. In mitigation, I was nicely relaxed and in fairly detached reflection. I had had a busy 2 hours, and my plan was in my head: get a Costa, fill up at the same petrol station, and only enough until I get to a supermarket where I could then fill up with cheaper diesel. But something was happening deep in me, and I wasn't there. I also need to say that our other car drinks unleaded, so when I fill up with that its the green stuff, when I'm in this car, it's the black stuff. So now I'm waiting for the heavy bill.Oh and one other thing, when I called my breakdown company, and said "oh I know what I've done, I filled up with the wrong gas!" That was it, they said they couldn't rescue me because it was my own fault. Thanks guys! So that cost me a £100!<br />
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Finally, some observations that are not unique, it happens to all of us. My mother has finally put our family home on the market, and it's the right decision for her having just turned 80 years. But of course it has the deeper pull of being more than bricks and mortar: that was our home for certainly 45years, and it goes even deeper because Dad built it. So there are deep emotions and memories. Remembering the games that were played, the windows broken, the concreting, the gardening, the friends that came round, the flooding from the dishwasher and the the washing machine, the train room, the parties, the noises and smells, the illnesses, the laughter and tears, and so it goes on! I cannot say that it is anything less than painful, and yes emotional. We even have an array of all of our feet shapes set in the driveway concrete - that will have to come with us!Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-8099632357968923612013-06-20T05:32:00.002-07:002013-06-20T05:32:39.785-07:00Run Forest run ....So I've finally given in to what I had always said I wouldn't do!<br />
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To briefly sign up for the local gym. I say briefly, because it is in essence a GP referall scheme membership of 8 weeks only. Please don't get the wrong idea here; the GP did not look at me and laugh and say "you need to do this!" I actually asked him for it, knowing there was a price cut advantage. He then reached for his forms, finally found them, and then laughed! No, he was far too professional to laugh, but was that the squeeky door as I left or a strange snigger of hilarity?<br />
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Anyway, I object to doing to the gym and paying for it. Give it to me free and maybe I'd be there, but there just seems to be a sense that running on a treadmill and being charged for it, somehow goes against the grain when I could just go and jog. Well that's my argument anyway.<br />
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On the other hand, I've now been to the gym about 4 times in the last 8 days, so there must be something working in the concept of it all. So now I have this choice of running treadmill, odd skiing machine - or thats what the bloke said, a cycle machine and then the old fashioned weights and clunking machines. Yes there is pain, and yes a building up of sweat, but the surreal thing is that I can watch TV as I do so. Yesterday it was the tennis at Eastbourne, and I kid you not, running my allotted time on the belt I could fairly nicely follow the game and guess the shots. And yes, though everything in me cries "don't go", I'm managing to be deaf to the deep screams within.<br />
Downstairs it's a different story; yesterday whilst doing my stuff I became aware of the almost Rhino like screams and trumpetting noises of some bloke as literally fought the block of weights to make them go up. Far too dramatic for me, I was going for reps!<br />
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But it feels great after the gym; somehow I feel more alive, and with it, until early evening, and thats when I seem to suddenly crash out!<br />
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I suppose the worst part of it all is that some of the machines I just cannot fathom. As much as I press every button, it will just not do what I want it to do.<br />
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So watch this space. I can feel a new fit Pastor forming!Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-71044904854365745362013-04-17T06:44:00.000-07:002013-04-18T03:05:11.125-07:00Of Thatcher, leadership and graceThe death in the past week and today's funeral of Lady Thatcher has brought numerous reactions from all ends of the spectrum of politics, from the ordinary person in the street of the United Kingdom, as well as globally from prominent world leaders of the past and present.<br />
As a '66 baby, I grew up in Thatcher's time in Politics as PM, so I believe I, like many others of this era, am qualified to make some small comment - even if it's subjective nonsense! I make these comments not showing any political colours - I cannot say growing up in Thatcher's Britain was easy, but our nation needed leadership and cometh the hour cometh the leader. And without a doubt she was a leader who had an enormous effect upon our country, and this in and of itself brings different reactions.<br />
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For the record, Churchill was our WW2 champion - given a state funeral, and rightly so! Cometh the hour, cometh the man! But Churchill was useless as a peace time PM and people disliked him for it and rapidly voted him out! Never let us forget that people allow themselves to go forward for public office - no easy ride or call. They do so to serve our nation - no easy task - would you like to do that? And are mandated by the people in vote - nb here, we get what we vote for! And some but not all reach the highest office in the land to serve our country - there are many good Politicians, but to be 'First Lord of the Treasury' is the big one! Big demand and normally a person of extreme ability where hard work, pressure, little rest - and yes pressure on the family too. That in and of itself is worthy of our thanks - to any PM of any colour. And I have no problem with any former PM, whether Blair or Brown or Cameron receiving such a funeral - whatever my opinions. Or will there be objectors at Blair's funeral over the Iraq war? If the nation wants no statesmen or stateswomen in the future, then don't bother honouring them! But in truth, all are worthy of our honour and thanks. And all were and are human beings who served to the best of their abilities, even if some decisions were wrong or badly handled.<br />
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But I have been unsettled and dismayed at some of the quite offensive reactions from some leaders of today, as well as by people celebrating, having parties, supporting "wicked witch" singles, turning their backs, blogging or social networking quite unnecessarily rude comments and statements. These are not the values of our British society, and whilst yes, there is a democratic right and freedom to express opinion, what is it that makes us feel we have a right to degenerate and be rude at someone's death? This is the direct opposite of the Christian fruit of grace and mercy, and against the principles and values of our country.<br />
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When someone dies we are always filled with numerous emotions, but with a death comes a funeral, and with a death comes grieving relatives - and Margaret Thatcher was a mother, a husband, a grandmother and a human being. In otherwords people are involved.<br />
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I have learnt as a Pastor over the years, that whenever a death and funeral arrives, my task is to commend someone into the hands of a loving and merciful God, and to pray and support their family and relatives. Actually I think that is the task of us all! Whatever we may feel.<br />
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But it is <u>never</u> appropriate to be rude, judgemental and offensive at these times. There will come a time when history - either in the micro-picture of family discussion or reflection or the national archives of history, which will be the appropriate judge of all of our lives in this world, and spiritually as the scriptures tell us - God is the spiritual and ultimate judge of our lives. And note that this is God's task and his alone! I do find many people seem to want to do God's job of judgement for him. But let not one of us ever think we are any more superior than another, let alone a stateswoman, in terms of our own track records and lives.<br />
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And this got me thinking about Leadership and Margaret Thatcher. One of the over-riding images I have of her is that she was a Leader. And Leaders often get a bad press. It comes with the territory mind you. It was said to me "if you stick your head out, expect to get it cut off!" I don't think thats a french revolution comment by the way!<br />
But the one central main task of being a leader is to lead. There are followers - yes, and an awful lot of them, but perhaps in our political world today - not many leaders. Perhaps not of her calibre anyway. Ask any leader and they would more than happily give up sometimes and simply be a follower. Being a follower is easy! But being a Leader is a difficult and lonely task because as much as it's absolutely right to consult, consider and research, reflect, ask for opinion and be as collective as possible, sometimes leadership requires you and you alone to make a final decision. When you look for someone else to make this with you or for you, often many have deserted to the hills or the burrows! Leadership is always accountable, but often it is painful and lonely. As much as the leader - himself or herself requires someone else to make the decision, the central task of leadership is to lead. Even if its uncomfortable and sometimes unpopular.<br />
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Are leaders born or made? Good question! Probably both and probably never only born and never only made. In otherwords good leaders learn from their mistakes and from growing in life.<br />
Yes we may want to make sweeping judements of leaders. Some of these may well be cheap and unworthy - why? Because we are not them. And we simply don't know the whole picture. We weren't there and were not privy to all of the information - some confidential, some secret, some only for the eyes and ears of leaders. Quick to judge? Do so and it might well be unfair and unworthy because we are not them, and we are not in their shoes. Judge without the full facts? Many of us do and jump to the wrong conclusions. And that is unfair. But the nature of leadership is sometimes, often, that things are confidential, come what may. Leadership requires gifts that not all have. Thats why some are not leaders, but followers. It's so much easier being a follower - no responsibilities! But at the end of the day, leaders must lead. And leaders must pay the cost of leading - often a high cost, of being misunderstood. The Bible has much to say on this - leaders will be judged far more than others.<br />
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So let us let history be the final mortal judge, and God the final spiritual judge. But let none of us be offensive. Yes if there is evil present - as in the case of Hitler or others, then we have a right to speak out and if necessary to take up weapons, but for our Prime Ministers let us give thanks to them for their service, honour their memory and pray for their grieving families. And let us pray and work for a country that has the moral backbone to the know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil and to behave properly. And let us pray for leaders everywhere.Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-86853346571577010932013-02-08T03:19:00.002-08:002013-02-08T03:19:54.342-08:00Why is the church rubbish at learning stylesI've got to say that in general, the church is rubbish at learning styles! There is this expectation, albeit that maybe attached to the generations - "maybe", that seems to think that one size fits all. And it doesn't!<br />
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In other words, it expects everyone to come along to the traditional features of church life - a congregation, to stand in a line, sing, and then sit and listen to a sermon, dribbled out by a mono-tone voice, that is seemingly unending for 30 minutes, or even worse! I suppose that some may jump up at this point and attempt to mitigate - "Oh but we have powerpoint now" [aka 'death by powerpoint'], "and we even show video, and stuff like that", but to be honest that's as far as it goes as an attempt in this direction. Oh by the way, the church's decision to "go multi-media" was never a primary response to learning styles, it was more a case of "everyone's got it, so we'd better have it!" But enough of this TV generation twaddle, because learning styles "stuff" is far more than anything to do with a screen.<br />
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To be honest, I was cheated and badly in my school upbringing. There was only one learning style in the 70's and 80's, and that was sit down, face the front, learn by heart, repeat parrot fashion, write in neat lines, remember, and most of all - reproduce all that twaddle in the exam. And, success was judged on whether you did well in that exam. And in those days, if you didn't fit into the Grammar School framework of this one learning style, then you got relegated to secondary modern school, and deemed unfairly by the populous to be "not bright". As for me, I was forced and squeezed by my parents into the then changing environment from Grammar to Comprehensive education system, but which in it's transfer was largely still of that one same learning style. Essentially all the teachers who had been in the Grammar School were switched into the comprehensive system, but kept teaching the one learning style. That's why I flunked not once, but twice my O levels. And Maths too - 4 times! I should have been in the secondary mod stream by all rights, but my parents couldn't face the realities of this, and so "hit with the hammer" the small nail which was me, into the system, and it was flipping painful. But I left college later with A's in a good few O levels, 9 if I remember rightly, and maths - a B, and head held high. But to this day, I remember the agony of walking to the window of the school to see my results with my mum, knowing what they would say, and just wanting to die.<br />
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My learning style is quite practical actually. I learn by both doing, watching, listening and then reading - in that order. I don't think it's just a man thing. Schools are big now - and have been for oodles of years, on finding out what your learning style is, and then going with it. No shame, we're all different.<br />
So why doesn't the church adapt and take this "no-brainer" stuff on board? For example, I know that if I don't preach exegetically - in the standard "Spurgeonic" way, that I will get complaints. I've somehow committed the 8th deadly sin somehow by having the same aim of teaching the bible and it's principles if I go about it differently in a small group study or discussion. Same result? You bet! If not better than the one church learning style of the sermon!<br />
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Am I having a downer on the sermon? Yes, no, maybe! There are thousands upon thousands of better preachers than me. I've noticed different congregation reactions in 25 years of preaching. How lovely and wonderful= naff sermon Pastor! Silence - nothing said = you possibly borred me! Anger and animated responses = you really hit home, and because of that I'm cross with you, so you'd better hear what I've got to say!<br />
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I have a love-hate relationship with the exogetical sermon. Spurgeon's spewed us all out of the college sausage machine saying "this is it, walk ye in it!" [or else]. I'd probably get criticised left, right and centre in the sermon class we all underwent. But hey, ho! This last sunday I merely preached on a difficult passage, didn't go to the door and went quietly to my office and desk, sat for 5 minutes, then put my coat on, gathered the kids, and went home. I didn't want to hear anything feedback. Not sure why, but I just needed to.<br />
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So what's your learning style?Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7023260813072254135.post-10962066799665023132013-01-11T03:20:00.000-08:002013-01-11T03:20:00.145-08:00To upgrade or stick - January resolutionsFor a good few years now I have become increasingly disillusioned with January!<br />
Actually, that's one of those sentences designed to shock, rather than give any insight into anything too deep. But what I mean is this rather depressing habit people have of making New Year Resolutions. I mean - "just don't do it!"<br />
Actually I'm overstating my argument here in order to make a point. And in truth I don't totally mean what I say. Clearly for some, resolutions are a very positive step. But for the vast majority of folk, resolutions crash out within 6 weeks of making them. That is of course why the local gym adverts will have been prominent since Christmas, as they cash in on guilty consciences of over indulgence, and are very pleased to take anyone's money, thank you very much (chink, chink!).<br />
But it's that "no brain" or "reactionary" approach to new year resolutions, rather than the reflective, considered, and yes prayerful, that I just cannot abide! And the media is geared up to catch us - upgrade (your life) NOW! And sit back, having made that easy tick of the box, and watch what happens. And yes, instinctively, the leaving behind of an old year - with all of its joys and sorrows, somehow adds to the momentum in people that what they REALLY must do is upgrade to something new. Leave behind the negative or the difficult, and try something different that, in a matter of days, will amazingly and miraculously, totally transform your life to what you have always dreamed it should be! Do it! Yes now! Upgrade! And do it (in these days) with cash you don't have, because what really counts is how you feel!<br />
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So for me, now, January is a time to actually rest, and reflect and consider, but not to do drastic stuff. Yes, by all means consider and build towards some kind of change and decision that is a positive one, and which will bring lasting change for the better (and not always something that is easy). But never make a snap decision.<br />
And this way of reflection and pondering is the way of the Christian disciple. And actually, the way of the snap, frantic, no brain decision, is very much not!<br />
So thats how I'm starting 13! God Bless you in this year ahead.Sam Griffithshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15725271242975576746noreply@blogger.com0