When Small Churches Get Thin on the Ground

What is going on at Bures Baptist Church? I ask myself as I sit down to write another blog.

I’d love to be able to fill it with stories of all the small miracles that happen in the life of an active church every week. I’d love to share with you all the little details and answers to prayers, but frankly, mostly all I’ve talked about this week is babies, and the ways in which our prayers have been answered, well, I’ve been too sick to notice!

But it’s not necessarily an easy time in the church all round. Over the last few months a lot of our church members and helpers have been away or out of action, for short or long periods, sometimes once, sometimes repeatedly. Some have simply gotten a bit worn down, others have had changes in their day job, various different reasons.

I’m not talking about any one person in particular, but across the board, circumstances seem to have conspired to make our ministries a little difficult to manage/staff recently.

As a small church perhaps already punching above its weight with its contribution to the community, it can be a struggle. I hate to see people weighed down by their responsibilities, unable to get a break because we simply don’t have the back up. It’s not fair, and yet as a church God seems to have given us a lot of work to do.

We spoke this morning at assembly about how when life gets hard it’s easy to think God is being unfair to us. But actually we know that God is always just and if we look out for it we can still see the good things He is doing for us.

So we take heart and we find ourselves praying for God to ‘send more workers into the harvest field’, and to give rest to the weary, as the bible tells us He will.

A small church must still let God’s people get out and do the things they feel are right, it can’t be constantly hauling them in for meetings or refusing to let them move on in their journey.

But ‘sending out’ (however biblical) can be painful when your numbers are few, and it can feel a lot more like ‘letting go’. So please pray for us to have grace in times when we are short staffed, to courageously prioritise rest for our members and attendees and to be able to sustain our ministries where God is calling us to. Thanks.

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Interested in more?

Check out some of our Sunday sermons at: http://www.buresbaptistchurch.org/sermon_catchup.php

Dangerous Trust

It’s been a big week for Chris and I because we were able to announce in this week’s service that we are expecting a baby in December!

Ever since finding out a lot of people have been impressing on me how different life will be when we have children, and how it’s like nothing you’ve experienced before.

I don’t think any first time parent can really get their head around all the changes that are about to happen in their life, and for a Christian, you really have no other option other than to just trust God for the future.

Trusting God for the future seems to be a very easy thing to do when it’s unfolding the way you expect. (And so far, with the pregnancy that’s been the case, thank God). But a few unexpected occurrences at church recently have shown me that really, it's lot harder to trust God’s got the future in hand when things happen in a way you’re not expecting.

I’m not one for unpredictability to be honest, I like things planned and organised. However God doesn’t always let me in on what He’s planning and that’s when I have to trust Him all the more. When it’s not quite clear why things are happening the way they are.

When questions come to you like: Why hasn’t God moved yet? How is this ever going to work out? Why isn’t God doing what I expected Him to? You’ll find you are having to trust God more than you feel comfortable or safe doing. But the bible tells us over and over not to play it safe but to give ourselves completely over to God.

Remember God’s words from Isaiah 55  

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

 neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth,     so are my ways higher than your ways    and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

We’re not always meant to know what God’s up to, but we are always meant to trust Him to get it right. If you are trusting God to the point where you feel vulnerable because He’s more in control than you are – your faith is growing. It may not feel like it, but it’s a good thing. Trust Him, and do not panic.

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Interested in more?

Check out some of our Sunday sermons at: http://www.buresbaptistchurch.org/sermon_catchup.php

A Summer of Celebration?

So far it seems to have been a ‘summer of celebration’ for me, although perhaps less of the ‘summer’ and more of the ‘celebration’ if you’re watching the weather.

We’ve had jubilee parties, my grandparents’ 60^th wedding anniversary, the 20 year anniversary of the Anglican vicar and his wife coming to Bures, Father’s Day, my own wedding anniversary, family reunions, birthdays, and there’s lots more to come. By the time England win the Euro’s and make a sweep of the golds at the Olympics, I imagine Tesco will be well and truly out of champagne.

It’s got me to thinking a little bit about celebrating.

Celebrating is after all, very biblically based. Right back into the beginnings of Christian history the early Jews were taught to party and celebrate their blessings.  Celebrations are good for morale. They also call us to thank God for all the good things He gives and to spend time with our loved ones.

But if you’ve been feeling a bit ‘celebrated-out’, don’t feel bad. Sometimes when we celebrate a lot, we don’t find the time to talk about the things that are difficult in our lives. That need to share our pain, as well as our joy, can start to make all the partying seem a bit hollow.

It’s not that life isn’t worth celebrating, it’s not that we don’t have an amazing Saviour to praise and it’s not that there’s anything wrong with the parties, it’s just that, the bad things in life keep ticking over, just the same as the good.

The good doesn’t undo the bad, though it might pleasantly distract for a while. Your problems and struggles still need recognising, and dealing with. Don’t let them eat away at you inside while you plaster your jubilee smile on for the umpteenth time. Make time to discuss life’s hardships with people who will listen and give you wise advice.

You need to know that when the last party popper goes off (and it will eventually), you’ve got an ordinary life to go back to which isn’t falling apart around you. So give yourself a break, make space in all the celebrations to attend to your needs.

Too much on to be a servant?

My word for the day this week has been a series focusing on being ‘servant-hearted’. Not finding any task “below” you, because Jesus didn’t. He washed the feet of his friends and died as a criminal for them. Jesus was the greatest authority ever to walk this Earth, how does our status compare to that?

Sometimes I don’t want to do menial tasks, perhaps not because I think they are above me, but because I think I have more important things to do. That is a difficult balance. This morning I have a blog to write, and studies to get on with, but I also have a lot of preparatory work to do for my college interview which is likely to be sooner than I thought. I also have our 9-13s club to prep for Friday and obviously a service to prepare later in the week. But it’s just me holding the fort at toddler group this morning, so I have lots of mums and children to see and at the end of it all, rather a lot of toys to put away, and a nappy bin to empty.

I don’t think clearing up etc is below me, I do it most weeks (although usually with 1 or 2 others) but it’s seems odd to me that this should be God’s priority, in a week when so much is on. But various people are away, so it seems like the toys and the nappy bins are my responsibility this week and God is going to have to take care of the rest.

Ever feel like that? Lots of important tasks looming over you but you don’t seem to be able to get much further than the nappy bin? Maybe God is teaching you (and me) something about humility, something about trusting Him.  I don’t know how or when half of these things will get done, but I keep praying God will help me organise my time and I believe He will.

In the mean time, perhaps it will turn out the menial WAS the important and the ‘important’, well God had it in hand all along. Afterall, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; [and] the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (1 Corinthians 1:27), He’s used to things being a bit topsy turvy.

Anyway, time to get out of the office and back to these toddlers!

Becoming a Rev?

An update for all you Bures Baptist fans.

On the off-chance that you’ve been reading my blog since I began it, you will be aware that I took up the post of Lay (unaccredited) Pastor of Bures Baptist Church last June. Since then, with God’s help I’ve been muddling my way through.

Well, today I had the second part of an interview that started in May last year, with the Baptist Union, to see if I could be recommended for ministerial training. I’ve been doing some theological study from home, but this would be ministry training. Training that might eventually make me a real “Rev”!

I’m happy to report that the panel were satisfied this year that it is my calling and they will be recommending me to study at Spurgeon’s College! This is great news, and providing my application to the college is successful I shall be happily beating a path through the library and the lecture theatres to a dog collar sometime soon. (Figuratively speaking. I don’t think I actually have to wear a dog collar...).

It’s an exciting thought being in a training programme alongside other new pastors like myself, although I’m sure there’s a lot of hard work ahead of me! Thanks to everyone who prayed for me and for the interview.

In other news: We had to cancel youthclub this week because the rascals damaged a car in our car park last time (respect our neighbours youthies!), we’re joining in with the big service at the Parish Church on Sunday which begins the village’s celebrations for the Queen’s Jubilee, and we have an awesome new monthly newsletter out, which this time has a great feature on our Footprints Toddler Group. Just another week in the life of an unaccredited-but-maybe-one-day-will-be-accredited-lay pastor... 

What's the right thing?

I love it when God makes things blindingly obvious. It’s great isn’t it? “Every bible verse I’ve read today and this week’s sermon and the guy on the radio, and my wife, two friends and my pastor all seemed to say the same thing – perhaps God is trying to tell me something...”

However more often than not situation is more like “What is God saying? I can’t seem to figure it out.” How do you choose a path when you don’t know which way to turn?

If you’re asking yourself ‘Why isn’t God making this clearer?’ It could be for a couple of reasons.

1)      You’re being a needy friend to God.

Sometimes we can start to have a ‘take take take’ attitude to God and it can become difficult to hear from Him. It’s when we are being like a needy friend, always asking and demanding, but never giving anything back. That’s not the relationship God wants with you. Yours prayers can’t always be “please”. He’s not Santa Claus, He’s your companion.

When did you last set aside time just to hang out with Him?  The Psalmist tells us to “Rest in the Lord”. That’s different to reading Him out a list of your requests. When you value God enough to just spend time with Him, you will hear His  voice more clearly.

2)      You are learning to trust.

When Jesus’ disciples were on a boat and a terrifying storm overtook them, it seemed to them that because Jesus was sleeping downstairs, He wasn’t in control and they were all going to die. So they hassled Him, they woke Him up, and He chastised them for their lack of faith. Of course, ‘asleep’ or not, He was in control all along.

Are you hassling God to stop ‘sleeping’ and help you, when really you should be being patient? You know He’s in control, but you’re starting to lose your nerve. Trusting that God will step in and change things when the time is right can feel like a huge gamble, but it is waiting, not receiving that requires faith.
Maybe God is deliberately keeping quiet on this issue, to develop your faith and trust in Him.

Love Is Blind

Recently I watched a strange dating programme. It was three couples having all their dates in pitch black.

After a compatibility test and three ‘dates in the dark’ each person has the chance to see what their date looks like for ten seconds and then they have to decide whether they want to see them again.

The sad thing was, even though two couples who had had a shaky start both came out wanting to give it a go, the couple that had got on best in the dark were completely derailed by seeing each other.

And that’s how we are sometimes, isn’t it? We can’t seem to get beyond appearances, even though we try.

But Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged”.

Jesus isn’t in the dark about who we are, He knows everything about us and yet He loves us completely. Whatever our shape or size, our personality or our history. You are His precious child and He loves you unconditionally.

How will you respond to this kind of love? Just pick and choose the things you want to believe about God and leave the rest in the dark? Walk away from Him and never experience the relationship He offers you?

Why not do what none of the people on that dating show managed to do, open your arms and embrace Him completely.

When you embrace God, you learn how to embrace others without judging. When you realise how much He has overlooked in your life, and that He instead chooses to call you ‘perfect’, how much more will you be able to forgive the flaws of others?  

No blog next week blog fans, so I’ll see you in a fortnight!