View From a Cold Cottage.. Pastors last Ponderings for a while

(To See sponsorship details see earlier blog ref Lindisfarne)

                By the time most of you read this article I will have commenced my sabbatical. Truth is I’m feeling a bit guilty about that. At the same time, we as a church will have moved out of the building wherein we have worshipped for 44 years since our inception as Zion United Church. 

                Not much of a leader really… jumping ship whilst the crew have to steer through some fairly changeable and choppy waters. On the other hand, if I am the pilot, I should only ever consider myself the co-pilot, and in truth this is a time when of course we do want the chief shepherd the real pilot to guide us.  I am feeling a bit guilty, but at the same time I am feeling excited and confident for us as a church. A time of change is a real time of opportunity and I pray that my absence will make us all rely on God all the more.  If we do that then I believe this time of change and upheaval will also become a chance for us to develop as a community of God’s light… a beacon. 

                I am also a bit nervous, not so much about the work and the decisions that we will need to make, nor even about the upheaval… my prediction is that the car park is going to cause us the most problems… once the contractor starts shutting big bits of for safety reasons. No I am most nervous about people getting hurt… We all deal with change and upheaval differently and church is no different. I simply make this final plea to you all… Love one another. I think most of you love me….(even though you know me!) If you can love me, as I know you love Christ, please love one another… be patient with one another, forgive one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven us.  I doubt that I am famed for my patience, but I say to you all, please be patient with one another and put on large layers of grace. If we do that our prayers that we remain united during this process will be heard and answered.

                When I return, I hope and pray that I will be different. Perhaps I will understand a little better the society in which we live. I hope I will also have simply spent time with Christ. I’m pretty confident that I will be a little lighter and fitter. (If you want to sponsor me for my cycle pilgrimage to Lindisfarne, please fill in the sponsor forms in church or go online via my blog www.zuchurch.co.uk  to sponsor me directly there.) But what about the church, will you be different? I hope so. Perhaps there will be new people among us; perhaps the prospect of worshipping in a community hall with a slightly different style of worship will attract some new people. Perhaps we will have learnt and got to know each other better as change often fosters new relationships. I hope you too will have been able to spend time with Christ.

“If you love me you will obey what I command, And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counsellor (Parakletos) to be with you for ever.” John 14:15-16

This really is a good time for us all to rely on God. We need the chief shepherd our captain to guide us through these changes. Not simply building works, but if we are going to impact and offer the love of Christ to our families and workplaces and communities I believe we need to learn new ways to be the authentic church of Jesus Christ, to become a beacon of his love.  This is in effect what Jesus promised his disciples before he left them. He promised them another counsellor (Parakletos) the person of the Holy Spirit who would remain with them forever. The Greek word Parakletos, was actually the name that Greek sailors gave to boats which would come alongside vessels and steer them safely into harbour. Surely that is what we need, not a new or improved minister, or even one who will remain with you while you go through big changes… we all need a Parakletos a “New Counsellor.” To this end while I am away many important things will be happening. Perhaps though none is more important than the Ignite day, of which details are in the magazine.  The strapline reads.. An introductory ‘taster’ event, exploring the person and work of the Holy Spirit.  I do encourage you all to try and attend that event, certainly for me that particular teaching has been the most important I have ever experienced. 

I commend you all into God’s sure and safe keeping. I thank you for your on-going love and prayers for me. And I look forward to God guiding us together into every place that he will call us.

To Him be all the glory: Hallelujah

Stephen

training Week 3

Well, this week it was seriously cold..... Still had Chris to help me, which was great.

Hinton Hill was still achieved, but the cold made it a bit scary, especially going down hill... still I am getting used to going out, even when I didn't fancy it.

Equipment update: I now have a very fancy pair of well it's like a leotard really with a silly bib type thing... they did keep my legs warm... still no shoes.. My feet are too big!

Next week I'll be upping to two cycles a week....

Frampton to Holy Island Part 1

Well the training finally begun today for my Holy Island pilgrimage on a full Christmas Stomach I set of to see what I could manage.

WEIGHT: weighed in at 16 stone (Oh my stars!)
WEATHER: Windy with rain in the air basically miserable.
KIT: New jacket, new padded shorts. New borrowed bike (I almost felt like a proper cyclist.)
ROUTE: Somehow I managed to allow Chris to persuade me to try my Nemesis (HINTON HILL. 27 miles later, I can say I MADE IT... not quickly, but I did it, over 1,000 feet of climbing I think!

So the journey has begun.. day one of training and I feel better already! (Better to be starting to shed some weight... less to carry 400 miles!)

Revgoonersteve!

PS for sponsorship details see me directly or:
Subscribe to my blog to rejoice with me on the way! http://revgoonersteve.blogspot.co.uk/

To sponsor for Rom 1:11: https://my.give.net/lindisfarnebybike
For Mission Direct: http://www.justgiving.com/stephen-Newell2

Thought for the Day Don't give up

I wonder how many of us got what we really wanted at Christmas. I wanted time with the family and mostly I got that. For others, caught up in plane cancellations or indeed terrible flooding, Christmas has slipped past, and some I’m sure are left feeling quite empty. We don’t always get what we want.
For many 2012 has been a good year, especially from a sporting perspective; the Olympics, Bradley Wiggins at the tour de France and of course Andy Murray winning a tennis major. From a Bristol perspective it looks a bit different. I was at Bristol City yesterday as their match got rained of at the last minute and a victory for Peterborough as we travelled home left City feeling rock bottom. Things aren’t much better at Rovers either, also deep in the relegation zone. Many in our city did not get what they wanted! So how can we change things?
Perhaps you are an optimist and you think 2013 will bring you all you need, I fear many of us are more pessimistic. Watching the rain lash down and the officials and players trudge of the pitch it seemed hard to imagine things changing, but I personally believe change is always possible. So that’s my thought for today, perhaps the change you want can start in you. Knowing what you want and how to start to get there are good questions to ask. My faith means that I don’t start this process alone. Jesus’s core message was “repent God’s kingdom is near,” which to me means; stop, turn around, look: hope will always be near to those who really seek it. So don’t give up, after all a new year and a new start maybe just around the corner.

Christmas 2012

Apparently the Christmas season has begun, I am writing in mid-November. So I was told by a young man I visited recently. Apparently the first Christmas adverts were on telly, the first house has their Christmas lights illuminated and so once Halloween was over the Christmas season had begun.

When does your Christmas season begin? What are the signs that you look for? Certainly in our house preparations are beginning, a festival is being planned; a cake has been stirred, food is being stored and plans for the purchase of presents are underway. Actually I am more comfortable with this early preparation than I used to be. Both the material and the spiritual preparations are important. In a few days’ time (for me) Celtic Advent will begin. The people who first brought Christianity to these shores always marked Advent for the full 40 days prior to Christmas. These days were to be days of preparation; of prayer and fasting as the festival was approached.

It is relatively easy to bemoan our society's preparation for Christmas, the excesses of consumption are clear for all to see. It is harder to work out how as Christians and as a church we can redeem the core of this "Winter Festival." As Dickens implies in his great novel a Christmas Carol, a mean minded Scrooge approach is not the answer. Judaism always celebrated festivals, memorials and reminders of God's decisive acts in the past. So too Jesus himself was reviled by some as too much of a "party" animal, mixing consistently with the "wrong" crowd. Our own calling as those who call upon the name of Jesus must then be to mirror that sense of inclusion and joy. We of all people have a very real reason to celebrate. Jesus instructs us to be light in the world, not damp squibs!

The Festival which is Christmas is a great opportunity to offer those around us a really alternative vision of society. I do not believe that vision should be as pious, "holier than thou" kill joys, but as those who have real and lasting hope in a God who we believe is good. We believe God himself has entered into the story of humanity, both his birth and indeed his teaching and death show the story of hope and redemption. We are called to co-operate and even become part of that story. Light has dawned; God has generously given us new hope. To a society where consumerism reigns; still dominant even though bruised by years of fiscal decline, we have a different story to offer. We celebrate love, because God has loved us, we celebrate gifts, because God has come as a gift to the world, we truly rejoice because this is a season to rejoice: hope has entered the world, and even though crucified it cannot and will not be defeated. We are called not simply to prepare for Christmas and indeed to celebrate Christmas, the invitation to us is deeper: we are called to BE Christmas, to become part of the message of Good News that infiltrates the world with light.
"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light." And that light should be us, radiant joyful and hopeful: Christmas people with a lasting hope in our hearts. And please God a smile on our lips!

Stephen

PS Some of you will know that I have a Sabbatical planned for next year from Feb to April inclusive. I will be studying how the church must become more engaged with God's Mission in the world. I also plan to cycle to Lindisfarne: Holy Island as a sort of modern day pilgrimage. I am hoping as part of this I can raise money for two charities that I will visit next summer in Uganda: Mission Direct and Romans 1:11. I will also have some costs myself that I may need help with. If you would like to help me in any way please contact me stephen@zuchurch.co.uk. I will be cycling 400+ miles!!

Normal November

A reflection:
Lord, I want to be a disciple, a seeker, a follower.
Instead I find myself busy, distracted, and floundering.
Stop me Lord, tickle me, distract me with yourself.
So that finding you I can begin to know who I am again.

Lord we want to be a church, part of a kingdom, a light.
Instead we find ourselves in meetings, bickering, in darkness.
Stop us Lord, tickle us, remind us who you are.
So that finding you we can begin to see your light again.

November is the sort of month we could live without really. It has neither the allure of Christmas nor the beauty of October’s falling leaves; it can often be a damp squib. However I think for Zion, this November may be a really important month. We are at the stage that the whole Beacon Project has a great deal of momentum, many people are working away in the background with the hope that we can go out to tender and find a real company who will give us real prices that could then be tested against the finances that we have accumulated. More information will no doubt follow but please do pray that November is a break through month for the Beacon.

November is also a month where often nothing very major happens: there are no harvest celebrations or bank holidays, few of us take holidays in November. It could be described as just a “normal” month. As such I think it is a good opportunity to look at our “normal” Christian life. How is my discipleship, how am I expressing the blessing that I have received, what part am I playing in the normal blessing which is upon and through the church of Jesus Christ. For many of us a sober reflection of our “normal” Christian life and our “normal” engagement with the kingdom of God, will lead us to self-chastisement. That will probably only get worse if we were to read a devotional classic by a Chinese Christian from the 20’s watchman Lee. His book is entitled, “The Normal Christian Life.” It is an extraordinary call for Christian discipleship, as the “normal” Christian life. Rather than making us feel bad, Nee, a man who spent over 20 years in prison for his faith, would rather have us realise that through Christ we can actually please God; we can bring joy to his heart. By studying Romans 5-8 Nee: “walks you beautifully through all that and leaves you with an assurance that (in Christ) we can live a life that pleases our Father in heaven. “
Our discipleship is often a lot like November; unspectacular. On the other hand, November is a month where we can please our Father in heaven; he gives us 30 whole days to do so. Each normal day is a chance to watch what God is doing, and so to join in with Christ’s help. I trust you will all have a very normal November.

Stephen

Preparation

Pastor’s Ponderings!

Preparation
Sometimes I simply have to sit down in astonishment when I realise how different we all are! The Bible says we are made in the image of God, but yet that image expresses itself in so many varied hues. Let me take the issue of preparation as an example. Some people prepare, others don’t, and kind of erupt into action with approximately one minute to go. Sadly by nature I fall into the latter category. If a holiday or a trip is approaching, I carry on blissfully unaware of the need to ensure that, for instance, there are even enough pairs of clean underwear to see me through the adventure ahead. (I fear I may have just exploded any opportunity of shared holidays with any of our friends!) On the other hands there are the “planners;” people so organized that even before they have decided on the trip, a bag is already packed with everything that could possibly be needed for the visit that will ensue. There is a strong part of me that longs to be like these people, but sadly that longing does not appear to be strong enough for me to do anything about it!

Preparation is actually quite a rich Christian concept. It has to do with formation, as we prepare so we are formed and moulded. Events such as Lent and Advent are placed into the Christian year to ensure that we do not simply tumble into Christmas and Easter unaware of the impending festivals. Rather we are asked to take stock, to become mindful of both the season and the reality we are to celebrate. Forty days to prepare indicates both the importance of the festival and also the reality that we ought not to simply throw a few bible verses into a bag in order to be ready to encounter the meaning that is revealed. In the same way we need to prepare for other events: In the New Year we are hoping that the “Beacon” project will commence, also at the end of January I will be on Sabbatical for three months. If your understanding of church is based around a building or being led by a single leader, then you are about to be challenged. Our home will be out of action for roughly six months and the leader that you called will be absent for three of those months. My understanding of church is not based around either a single leader or a building. It is based around people growing together under God’s guiding hand. This will be a time of change for us of course, but I also believe if we prepare correctly it can become a time of opportunity.

Details of the Beacon Project will be shared soon via a leaflet given out at church. For my sabbatical, which comes every ten years of ministry, I will be studying “Missional Leadership.” This is a course designed to challenge my thinking which I hope will result in us developing some more relevant approaches to the society of which we are a part. I will be writing at least three assessed essays. I must confess that I am very nervous about this, as although relatively competent as a science student, writing and reading was always harder for me. You will be glad to know that I am already “preparing,” with the dream that I can manage to write at least one essay even before I begin the sabbatical.
Finally as the autumn evenings draw in, I wish to challenge everyone reading this about their own preparation. Whilst we all prepare for holidays, or work in different ways, I believe we are all called to prepare our hearts with God. Our “religion” is not simply a static belief that we either have or do not have. We are asked to, “search” our own hearts, “to make every effort” to maintain unity, to “work out” our salvation with fear and trembling. We prepare carefully for so many things, and yet often we neglect to listen carefully with God. If we all prepare our hearts then I believe this season can indeed be a time of great blessing, even despite the changes and challenges we face. A church with no minister and indeed no building may just become a church prepared and ready to receive a fresh touch of the marvellous love of God, and a church able to express that love willingly back out into the world.