Church at its best

On Sunday morning it was announced that our minister is taking a short break for personal reasons for rest and reflection. This news was met by shock and dismay by the congregation. Having been in a Church where this has happened before and no one seemed to mind, I was overcome by the out pouring of love people showed towards our minister and his family. There were tears and upset but overwhelmingly a sense of calling on God for guidance, wisdom and provision.

Both services were filled with a tangible sense of the presence of God and the evening service in particular was sensitively and thoughfully led giving people time to reflect on God and an amazing time of open prayer happened where people prayed thoughtfully and with thanksgiving for what God has done and what God will do in this difficult and uncertain time.

This to me is Church as it should be with Jesus at the centre, guiding us and leading us. We were united around Him and were called afresh to focus on His word for guidance and comfort. We loved and supported each other and differences were cast aside. I can only pray that it continues and that the next three months will draw us as a community closer to the potter and that we will allow Him to shape and refine us.

Half Term Happenings

After a very busy summer holiday decorating our house, we have had a lovely chilled week off school. Went for a long walk in the Lake District around Great and Little Langdale which was just inspiring. Being that close to nature in all its glory makes me so aware of the majesty of God. But my legs ached for the rest of the week!!

We've played lots of board games with the Crowther and Downes and I have done plenty of scrap booking of our holiday in Gozo last summer. Have also sadly had to do some school work and been in to change a display around. Stephen has been very excited to go out and spend a couple of days policing with a regular officer and is always full of stories of exciting events that have happened!!

Alpha was still on and continues to excite me even though one of my group thinks I'm "sad" because I've read the Bible from cover to cover!! On the other hand another member of the group has started reading a Bible for the first time. Life is good and all about living it to the full -awesome!!

Alpha

As previously mentioned I am a small group leader at our Church Alpha course, although terrified by the propsect at the beginning, I am pleased to report that I am loving every minute of the course. Our group is nice and chatty and full of the kind of tough questions that make me think but show me that people are actively seeking God in their lives, it such a huge blessing to share a part of their journey of faith with them and everyweek I get more and more excited about the group members. I am praying earnestly and if you feel so inclined I would love to ask you to do the same, this is kingdom building stuff and its exciting and challenging.

Seeing the world through new eyes

As some of you may know I have recently become part of a 'connecting classrooms' project linking schools in Britain with schools in Ethiopia and Botswana. On Monday 4 teachers arrived from Botswana and 4 teachers from Ethiopia, it has been an amazing week but a very busy one aswell!!

The thing that has struck me most is how much I take everything for granted, they had never seen the sea before (not that Blackpool has the nicest sea to look at!!) or seen motorway service stations and lots of other things. They loved Blackpool tower and are obsessed about taking photos of everything.

Has been great to see the response of the children, they are like celebrities at school and have been so interested in seeing everything we do and getting really hands on with the children. Had a fantastic meeting with the school council and the teachers and the children gained so much from the experience and the chance to talk with them and ask all of their questions.

Off to the lake district tomorrow and then ready for more exciting adventures next week!!
will post some photos as soon as I work out how to do it properly!

Fear of the unknown

Today I did my first assembly at Stanley! Despite having taught there for two years and having been a youthworker in a previous life who did several assemblies a term this was a new and nerve wracking experience!!
Perhaps it was because the head was watching (it was meant to be his assembly but somehow I ended up doing it!!) perhaps it was because the other staff were there, or the two hundred children making me nervous, or that since leaving Lancaster Baptist I haven't done anything 'upfront' in front of lots of people. I don't know. I do know I was doing that pacing up and down thing I do when nervous. But I'm pleased to report it went well, the head said it was very good and he will use my assembly when he presents the Africa project to the junior children on Thursday! So thats a relief. Wonder when the next one will be?!

Equip and Refresh

A few weeks ago I was very surprised to be asked to be a small group leader at the up coming Alpha course at All Saints. Having done most Church related jobs/groups in the past few years you may be surprised to know I've only ever attended Alpha once a very long time ago and have managed to avoid any other involvement until now!!

Anyway my church along with some others organised this course in Preston on Saturday for people involved in Alpha and away I went to find oput what lies ahead of me!
Two things most struck me from the day:

1. It was really good to meet in a Catholic Church with Christians from all denominations and beliefs and be united in one goal of seeking how best to tell other people about Jesus and give them an opportunity to explore our faith. Perhaps this is where Church is at its best in these events, where we're united not divided.

2. Having been pondering 'times of ministry' following Mike's blog see here, was greatly impressed with the time of ministry led by Bishop Geoff of Lancaster which was quiet, reflective, sensitive and thoughtful. Was priviliged to be able to pray for people (was roped in at the last minute) but also encouraged that a Bishop was encouraging people to be actively filled with and seeking the Holy Spirit for help and strength.

Also enjoyed the day as it gave me chance to get to know some new people and learn about the logistics of Alpha, now I'm feeling a bit better prepared for my first training session tomorrow night.

The water that divides

Have just finished reading this quite old but very good book on baptism and the complicated issues. Being someone who grew up in a Baptist Church was dedicated as a baby, then baptised later, worked for an Anglican Church and society for two years and now finding myself attending an Anglican Church I have been puzzling over the issues of when and how to baptise people for a while and so my vicar lent me this book to read!

The book really made me think and challenged my views and opinions (a good thing) but I am still convinced that I am not in favour of baptising children when the family does not belong to the church. In cases where the family do belong to Jesus and therefore the Church it's a little different, but I have a real issue with getting people to say things like 'I turn to Christ' and 'I repent of my sins' when quite clearly they are doing neither. And I am not convinced by this whole use it as an evangelism tool either, I personally think it must upset God to hear people saying things like that when they don't mean it. And I haven't seen many examples of families coming to Church after they have had their children baptised (although I imagine ther must be some)

However as I am now committed to a Church which does baptise children who are not members of the Church, I will have to keep praying and working my way through this issue because it's not going to go away anytime soon.