revmusings

Been a bit quiet on the blog front as I have been in the last stages of settlement when everything becomes very intense and confidential. The conclusion is that I have received a call to a church in the south and have gladly accepted that call - it's exciting and scary all at the same time! I am really looking forward to the move and have  a real sense of God leading me on to pastures new and yet undiscovered. The church serves a very different community to my current one and so I face a new set of challenges.

The hard part has been telling my current community - I was shaking as the final hymn was sung and then the fateful words..I have news for you..... Some were not surprised; some saguine (ministers come and go); some very sad; some managed to be pleased for me and were very supportive; some said nothing! I still have a number of others, shut-ins and wider community to tell but already many know and seem sad. (Some have, in jest, called me a rat and a traitor! I feel like it sometimes!)

The strange thing is the many affirmations I have received as I have told people and the thought that in church we are bad at thanking people for what they do till they stop doing it! It's good to know I have made a positive difference in some lives during my time here

Thr hard part is these next 3 months (last service is Christmas day which caused much consternation as many will be away) the sense that you are both leaving and arriving all at the same time. The new church are being very generous and giving me a whole month to leave here and arrive there which helps somewhat as I don't need to make too many decisions about future stuff whilst I am here.

How to leave well for me and the church, how to prepare them for the future...these and I am sure many others are the questions that I now need to work through.

I caught a radio news report yesterday afternoon which said that someone in the States had had they death sentacne delayed for a week.

The reason? To allow time for an appeal or to seek clemency?

No it was because after 6 or 7 attempts they had failed to find a vein into which they could inject the lethal poison.

So this person, who had prepared themselves for their moment of death, had their last meal, said their farewells and been strapped down was now released for another week of 'last days' and another day to go through it all again and the chance that again they will not be able to find a suitable vein and so the cycle could continue.

I don't know who they are or what they did, and I know I have never supported the detah penalty but even if their crime was appalling this is inhumane.

And we call ourselves civilsed and morally able to make the decision to take someone else's life in cold blood.......

I believe that you, God, speak into people's lives - that through a myriad of means we can learn more of you, of you love and mercy towards the world, your dep yearning to reconcile all the world to you. As your covenant people we have access to Scripture, to Jesus, to the power of the Holy Spirit - all pointing us to you and aiding us in our sanctification and transformation.

So how is it that different church can listen to the same scriptures, know your Son and his scarifice, have the same Holy Spirit in us and yet turn out so differently! Some turn in on themselves, only caring about their own (and sometimes not even them) and their needs whilst another turns outwards, their only concern to be so transformed and so used that the world might come to believe in you and your saving grace?

Where does it all go so wrong? A bad minister, a bad leadership, a bad experience, the surrounding culture? Or are all these just excuses for our own sinfulness, our own refusal to be transformed and to challenge others to be transformed too? So often as Christians our niceness means we don't challenge poor behaviour or actions in ourselves or others. Mutual accountability is absent from our churches.

So what should happen to the churches that have turned inwards - should they be left to die so scare resources can be channelled more effectively - or should we never give up on them, trusting in your awesome ability to use even the most weak or sinful of people - me included?

You might have thought Susan Boyle vs Diversity was a veritable clash of the titans in TV talent show terms, but the winner of Ukraine's Got Talent makes both of them look like lightweights.

Kseniya Simonova's heart-wrenching sand painting set to music provoked tears of emotion as it depicted the invasion of Ukraine by Germany in World War Two - showing peaceful scenes engulfed by death and destruction and ending with the message "you are always near".

She's rumoured to be coming to Britain soon, but check out the amazing video right now...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=518XP8prwZo