On the day that the 40th Anniversary of the first moon landing was marked, I came back off sabbatical ! “That’s one small step….one giant leap.. ” !!!!!

In many ways it seems like these 13 weeks have flown by and in other ways that Dad’s and Lads weekend seems years ago !

So what have i learned or been reminded of ? Lots of things for which there is not enough space here ! But i guess it is all summed up in the Bible passage for today: Luke 8v1 “Jesus travelled around…. proclaiming the kingdom of God.”  That’s my focus as a Christian Minister. Jesus did not travel around getting bogged down by ‘churchianity’ ; he was first and foremost about enabling lives to be changed and trasformed by God’s kingly rule (=the kingdom of God)  I’m up for that,both for myself and as I minister to others !!

And so,to use John Wesley’s words afte his conversion experience, I commit myself to be ‘more vile’ for God in ministry…and I hope you see that in it’s 18th century use of the word,not the 21st century usuage !!

And the first test of all of this is Church Council tonight !!!

But probably week 12 !

What a brilliant week last week. I spent 3 days with my brother (who i rarely see alone) which was a good chance to do some ‘bonding’ as well as eat whatever we liked. we also went to the Royal Agricultural Show  where we saw one of our old school teachers (he wasn’t in the show,but he was showing some animals !)

Then i moved on to North Wales to catch up with some friends and do my ‘editorial’ task with the forthcoming ‘Science and Genesis’ book. On Friday I took off alone to walk Tryfan,Glyder Fach and Glyder Fawr …all over 3,000 feet mountains as my legs still remind me ! (picture coming soon !) On top of Tryfan is ‘Adam and Eve’ (see picture) which is the ultimate test of nerve and manhood as it is a sheer drop if you miss the 4 foot gap in between…did I do it…… guess by comments  !!

So this is the last week of my sabbatical and inevitably ‘this time next week’ begins to be the order of the day. But before then a few other niceties like going to London tomorrow with Kathryn and then on Saturday Dorothy and I are going out for the day to celebrate 25 years since we started going out…. and who said it wouldn’t last (a few people at the time,actually !!)

speak to you all again soon

BTW …just joined Facebook so see you there as well !!

It seems I’ve missed a week..as I only have 2 weeks left of sabbatical so the heading should really be ‘Sabbatical week 11….or maybe I should have an extra week off to ‘catch up’ ?!!!!

This last week I’ve been doing lots of reading as well as stuff like watching Mark play cricket (rain stopped play last night for the first time !). Last Sunday Mark and I did a ‘church crawl’ in London. First we went to ‘Hillsong London’ which meets at the Dominion Theatre (which for the rest of the week hosts ‘We will Rock you’) This was ‘theatrical’ church with lights, sound,visuals and given they have 4 services on a Sunday with the theatre 2/3’s full each time, they must be doing something right ! On Sunday afternoon we went to Westminster Abbey for Choral Evensong (going back to my roots !)…which reminded me why I’d moved away from my roots ! Then a move across to Holy Trinity Brompton (home of the Alpha Course) where we walked into people playing Wii on the big screen before the service !!

Many reflections and thoughts about Sunday…. the variety of worship; the God we worship; the style of worship. But here’s the big one….. I wonder whether many churches try and put too much variety and too many styles into one act of worship ? There would be catastrophy if you tried putting these three styles together one Sunday morning service….but that is sometimes what we try to do !!  The three examples on Sunday clearly showed that when you focus on one style per service, it ‘works’ as you remove elements of ‘compromise’.  But that doesn’t mean to say you can’t have more than one ’style’ per church…as the HTB Sunday programme of services shows.  So that should get the ‘regulars’ at FMC worried about what that means in practice for us ! ‘I don’t know’ at this moment in time…but worth a discussion and prayer for God to lead us

So the mind starts,inevitably, to thinking of two weeks time and return to work..which reminds me… all those clerical shirts I packed away when I started sabbatical I’ll need to get back out and iron !!!!!

How time flies when you are enjoying yourself. Lovely weather…this is why sabbaticals are best taken at this time of the year !!

It’s a been a mixed last week. On the family front, Kathryn has officially left school marked by her ‘Prom’ last Thursday (a rare sight…Kathryn in a long dress…or any dress come to think of it !! ) Then on Monday it was off to Sixth Form college to learn about the next chapter.

I’m really delighted that I have about 60 returns for my Questionnaire on men in the church (and more to come, I’m told by the late brigade!) so the task of collating all that info starts now. This last week I’ve also been on a ‘journey through time’. A good friend of mine, Paul Edwards, has written a book ‘Science and Genesis’ and he’s asked me to look through it before sending to a publisher. The book finds no incompatibility between science and religion in terms of the creation….but going back billions of years slightly does your head in…let alone makes you feel ever so slightly insignificant in the grand scale of things !

Quote of the week (2 for this week !)

1) From the book I’m reading ‘Why men don’t listen and women don’t read maps’   ’It’s obvious that women are smarter than men. Think about it – diamonds are a girls best friend; man’s best friend is a dog’ (Joan Rivers)

 2) From the TV Show ‘Mary Queen of Shops’ (where she is trying to improve a charity shop) ‘Just because you are volunteers doesn’t mean that bad behaviour is acceptable’ !