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A home to belong

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The last couple months have been a bit of a whirlwind for me and the family.

In July 2023 we completed the final ‘lasts’ in West Sussex – saying goodbye to churches, colleagues and friends. A painful and difficult experience!

then through August we finished packing, saw all our worldly possessions loaded – and then unloaded – and we began to unpack everything again.

In September our girls started a new school, and I began serving in my new appointment, serving in the Dorking and Horsham Methodist circuit two-thirds time, and serving one-third time as an assistant chair in the South East District of the Methodist Church.

Threaded throughout that whirlwind of a journey has been a rumbling question I’ve been pondering and praying about – where do I belong?

This week someone ended an email to me with the following words:

Hope Leatherhead is beginning to feel like home!

And actually, I can say it has – but it’s been a bit of a journey!

Coming to terms with God’s calling me to move on from my ministry in West Sussex was a challenge to come to terms with. Even as I made the decision in May 2022 and told congregations, it wasn’t really what I personally wanted. I was 100% sure it was what God was calling of me, and I was willing to follow God’s lead – but it took a long time to come to terms with this myself.

West Sussex, and particualrly the communities of Bognor Regis, Westergate and Felpham, had become family to me. We’d journeyed through so much together, and coming to the decision to say I would be moving on felt like I was severing the ties that bind us. The decision to move on began to impact my own sense of belonging… and I began to feel adrift at sea, not sure what my heading was.

It wasn’t until November 2023 when I was invited to visit Dorking and Horsham circuit that I began to feel a heading, and re-finding my ships anchor! Despite the unexpectedness of the match – the role was not exactly what I’d been expecting, and the geography wasn’t exactly what we’d have intially desired either – we felt such a strong sense of God’s hand on us, that we knew it was where God was calling us to be.

Cue 10 months of preparation, lasts and endings, and comnig to terms with letting go on all that was in West Sussex, in readiness to take up ministry in the communities of Leatherhead, Cobham and Effingham, as well as the wider South East Methodist District.

By the end of July, I would say that despite the pain of goodbyes, I felt I’d ended well. I felt I had left the appointment in as strong a place as I could, and held felt such a strong presence of God holding me in those last months. I’d been able to spend 10 months encouraging, thanking and building up the amazing people I had belonged with, which had been a privilege. But letting go and moving on means belonging

Then, an interlude to all the moving – a week serving on team at Satellites, a youth camp and festival that was entering it’s second year. One might think going away for a week, just a few days before you move house is a foolish thing to do – but for me it was absolutely the best thing.

It took me out of all the letting go for a few days, and I got immerse myself serving with am amazing team of people to whom, despite never meeting many of them before, within hours felt to be a family. A family to whom, for a week of the year, we serve together and belong.

Driving home afterwards, felt weird. The move was a few days away, and I’d loved the week serving on team – and belonging to the Satellite family. As I drove into Bognor Regis, I felt weird. I can only describe it as feeling like I was driving through somewhere you used to live. There is a sameness, but yet a differentness to it. As i drove into Bognor, I felt like this wasn’t home any more.

It was as if, I’d sort of already moved mentally, emotionally, spiritually – and for me it was just the physical move left to do.

On the one hand that was really hard because I felt out of place. On the other, it felt like a gift, because through all the endings and lasts, God was helping me prepare to move on.

And then as I entered the front door – what greeted me but tear-inducing posters from my girls!

WELCOME HOME DAD

You love us and care for us and look after us. You are so kind.

You tell us what is going on whatever it is.

You don’t let us down at all.

You cheer us up when we are sad!

Dad, we love you loads.

As I walked through the door with the complex feelings of belonging driving in to Bognor Regis had brought – God immediately gave me the answer.

Where do I belong? Among the people God places me among. For a time it had been in West Sussex, now it was to be among people in Surrey, but always it is among the family which God has gifted me.

I don’t think my girls will ever know just how powerfully God worked through them that day. Louise, my wife, had had nothing to do with it aside from taking the photo’s. She wasn’t allowed in the room which they did their secret project! God is amazing, my girls are amazing. My family is such a special gift, to whom I can belong.

So is Leatherhead beginning to feel like home?

Definitely! We’ve been so wonderfully welcomed, and the month of firsts has been another whirlwind – but a whirlwind of joy, affirmation, encouragement and anticipation for the journey with God that is ahead of us.

But more than that, home is among the people – the people God has called me to serve, and the among the family God has gifted me. And I commit to cherish both.

All the while – being constantly assured that God is always with me, and will never leave me.

NB – header image is of our first homecooked meal in our new home.

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Keep Watching….

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The stage was set…
The house lights dimmed…
Silence…
Waiting…
Watching…
Anticipation building.

Then with great gusto, The orchestra begin to play,
The curtain begins to rise…
The stage is revealed, and the show begins. 

I still remember my first trip to the West End.
Anticipation was strong.
We knew the story we were about to witness,
Yet we didn’t know quite how they would do it on the stage.

So as we sat there,
We sat between the known and unknown,
intensifying the anticipation of what was coming…
The knowing made the waiting even more electrifying.
The unknowing made the waiting more exciting.

That image, for me, captures the essence of Advent,
A time of waiting in expectation,
Between the known and the unknown,
Remembering what was.
Waiting and watching for what will be.

Waiting inhabits most areas of our lives, in one way or another.
Sometimes waiting passes by unnoticed.
At others, waiting is a heavy millstone around our necks.

Sometimes waiting can be a joyous and uplifting time,
At others, it can be draining of all life.

And over the last 2 years waiting has taken a whole new meaning for us… waiting for our turn in the vaccine roll out, waiting for another news conference, waiting to know if there will or will not be more changes to the way we live our lives….

In Luke 1:39-45 we read of Mary and Elizabeth.
Both are pregnant…
Unexpectedly pregnant in fact…
Both families have been visited by angels foretelling something of what will happen.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 

Luke 1:41-42

Amidst all the unknowns…
Amidst the crazy uncertainty…,.
Elizabeth somehow knows Mary carry’s God’s promised one…
She doesn’t know how, what, why…
But she knows that this baby would be a fulfilment of God’s promise.

How it must have felt for Mary and Elizabeth,
Having a glimpse of what might be coming,
A glimpse of what God was doing,
Yet not really knowing God’s plan at all.

Confusion. Uncertainty. Fear. Disbelief. Loneliness.
Why them?
Why now?
How?
When?
What?

There must have been more q’s than answers.
But they were willing.
They trusted.
Waited.

2000 or so years on, we’re in a different place…
The promised Messiah came
Jesus came, lived, ministered, died, rose again.
Left the Spirit of God with us.

All could be made well with the world…
Peace, hope, harmony, justice, righteousness, clarity….

2000 years on, perhaps the world isn’t quite so different as we sometimes like to think. Humankind might have progressed, but thw world is still a mess.

While I don’t think any of you are expecting to give birth to a son of God any time soon…we are all also like Mary & Elizabeth.

We’re human.
Still human.
Still live with anxiety, fear.
We live with questions.
We live with uncertainty.

For me, there’s something about the known and unknown of the season of advent, the watching and waiting which reminds me that God is as much in the waiting, uncertainty and the unknown, as everything else.

As Advent reminds us of what was, is and will be,
We are reminded we worship a God who’s work has not finished.
Has never finished.
Advent reminds us to keep watching…
Watching for glimpses of the God in our daily lives.
Watching for the activity of God in the world.
Watching for God’s invitation to us to participate in that activity.

For that is God’s gracious and generous offer to us.
Inviting we watchers and waiters to participate in the continuing work of God.
So, keep watching.
In advent and in all our days…

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“Do not be afraid”

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A personal reflection on Advent, where I find myself in Minsitry and Gabriel’s words, Do not be afraid’ – with thanks to Tim Lea’s video ‘No to Fear’.

The angel said to Mary, ‘Do not be afraid, for you have found favour with God. 

Luke 1:30

I took up running earlier in the Autumn. In was loving getting out first thing in the morning and jogging along as dawn began to break. I managed to capture some of those moments in photo’s – but often they photo’s didn’t do justice to the moments – just as the cover photo above demonstrates! it is hard to capture the dawn on a phone camera because light is sparse, and the conditions of the day still uncertain.

Then I got a cold, and the weather turned colder, wetting, darker, and I gave up – but I keep telling myself I will try again in Spring when the conditions are better.

As I joruney through advent 2021, I am finding the conditions around me really challenging. The pandemic began 18 months after I began ministry here on the Sussex Coast and now 22 months later the pandemic is still with us. I think sometimes we forget how much of an upheaval the pandemic has been, turning every aspect of our lives upside down, and challenging every assumption of what normal means.

In ministry right now there are many pressures around us and among us. There are practical uncertainties. There are quesitons about what activity to resume, and how to do it. There are questions about whether the conditions around are right to do something new, or additional, or to resume something else.

And all that comes within a culture that recognises the decline of the church in the UK and a sense of urgency that we must seek growth, numerically and spiritually.  

I’m finding this period the hardest of all the periods of the pandemic so far. This seemingly endless period of of tentative, anxious, uncertain emergence from lockdown and transition to work out how to ‘live with covid’ when we don’t know how to do that well yet is exhausting, and draining let alone factoring in the advent of Omicron and all the anxieties about the future of the church.

I’ve been feeling this for a while, but only more recently begun to make sense of it enough that I can begin to articulate it – largely because last week I actually did have the quarter days I had put in my diary – rather than let other expectations and demands crowd out the space.

Then at the end of last week God has encouraged me through a Fuelcast Video that reflected on Gabriel’s words: ‘Do not be afraid’. I encourage you to watch it if you can by clicking this link

‘Do not be afraid’ – the opposite of this is to fear. I’ve realised that all the conditions of ministry I’ve mentioned above have been feeding a sense of fear within me. In the video Tim suggests fear can kill faith & stifle holy creativity because our eyes become focused on the circumstances we find ourselves in, rather than on Jesus. 

That has lead me to think again about Sabbath, divine and holy rest, offering space for contemplation, basking in God’s presence & opportunity for healing and wholeness. I’ve been pondering whether my focus should be more heavily on rest, on my being, on our wellness – rather than on activity and concerns about the future. 

That seems ironic given we’re in December and I have a whole host of Christmas activities to plan for! 

But as the video reminds us – God’ timing is perfect and will bring things forth at the right moment – if we are making space for God – and we do that through pausing, resting, Sabbath-ing.

Advent is a season of waiting that quite often the church pays some level of lip service to in it’s drive to make the most of the opportunties for mission and outreach. And as admirable as that may be, I wonder whether our desperate rush to get to Christmas means we skip Advent’s spiritual reminder that time is God’s. That just as God’s people both patiently and impatiently waited for Emmanuel, God’s moment came.

Perhaps we need to focus more heavily on rest, on recover, on being compassionate to ourselves, each other, to the church – to allow ourselves space to turn from fear to faithfulness, and trust that God’s moment will come.

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Reflecting on Vocation

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Marking Vocation Sunday 2021. To explore the theme of vocation further head to the Methodist vocation website

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On Sunday 2nd May the Methodist Connexion marks Vocation Sunday. A day when we celebrate and reflect on the vocation of individuals and communities.

What do we mean by vocation?

it’s perhaps a church-y word – but it’s an important one.

it differentiates from the idea of work, of job, and of economic activity.

Vocation connects with our very selves, our identity, our humanity, and says this is what I am created for at this time, in this place. My collection of gifts and skills suits me to this role, this function, this way of being – this vocation.

And of course, all of that, within our faith, is encompassed in the belief that God gives each of us life and breath and gifts and skills. The truth and belief that God gifts us and equips us for the vocations he calls us to.

But not only that, but also the belief that God is active in the world inviting us to notice and respond by getting involved with what God is doing. For getting involved in what God is doing is indeed our vocation as Christian people. Noticing where God is at work, the places where there is evidence of the fruit of God’s Spirit – and joining in.

Words like calling and vocation can scare us sometimes. Perhaps it is helpful to think of it like this: the primary call of a Christian is to follow Jesus, and the journey that emerges from that, for each of us, is our own unique vocation.

Do you see your journey with Jesus as a vocation?

Or do you think that vocations are just for Ministers, and nurses and teachers?

A couple weeks ago my daughter Lydia lost a particular soft toy – dog from TV programme Paw Patrol, – and we searched high and low for it. The last time we knew we’d had it was on a bike ride and we wondered if it had fallen out of the seat it have been sat in.

We looked and looked but could not find it anywhere. After 4 or 5 days of looking, Louise and I had just about settled that it was lost, and gave up looking. Then, one evening Louise noticed something behind the pedestal sink, and there was the toy. We’d been looking in the wrong places.

Do we sometimes look for a sense of vocation where it is not?

In John 15 we read of Jesus presenting himself as the true vine and that those who follow him are the branches.

A vine is a plant that bears grapes. For a vine, or any plant to grow strong, it needs to be well fed with nutrients, water and sunlight. Different plants can require different combinations of this food to grow and, if fruit bearing, to produce fruit.

On this Vocations Sunday, I wonder where our life is bearing fruit.

‘could this be evidence of my vocation?’

Sometimes a plant needs its branches cutting shorter, to be pruned – because this helps the new branch that grows to have more fruit. Sometimes there are things in our lives, and the lives of our faith communities that were once bearing abundant fruit, that were once our vocation, but are not anymore.

Are there things you are doing or were doing, possibly in the name of God and church, that are actually now a burden & chore that bring a sense of gloom, and either don’t bear any fruit or the fruit is no longer abundant and juicy?

If so, it might be time for change, time to have those branches pruned.  Sometimes pruning plants looks and feels brutal, but it is sometimes necessary if the plant is to grow new and delicious fruit.

Vocation is not only something that is about you and me as individuals; it is also about the vocation of the church.

As we emerge from lockdown, this is the time to ask, what is the vocation of my church in the time and the place we find ourselves?

Footnotes

Some material in this weeks reflection developed from material for celebrating Vocation Sunday 2021 vocations-sunday-2021-english-language.pdf (methodist.org.uk)

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Need a hero? Colossians week 2

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“I need a hero! I’m holding out for a hero to the end of the night!”[i]

Are you looking for a hero?

Yes? No? Not sure?
I think, truthfully a lot of us are, though we may not always realise it, or coin it in that way.

Society loves a hero.
Someone who will save us, a figurehead to give hope.
Film and TV is full of hero’s we love – from Marvel to Harry Potter to Poldark to Doctor Who,
We love a hero, and especially love a hero that appears an underdog, that rises up to save the day against the odds.

Even in the real world, away from sci-fi and fiction, we like to look for a hero.
We’ve spent a significant part of 2020 putting a ‘protective shield around the NHS’, trying to maximise it’s potential to save life.
But of course we have to also cope with the painful reality that life one earth cannot always be saved.

I wonder if sometimes we expect our politicians to be hero’s too.
Decisions have to be made, based on the best knowledge they have to had,
but there will always be alternative choices that could have been – and hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it can also be a curse.

I’m not wanting to defend all political choices here,
but to remind us that we need be aware of our human propensity to create hero’s.
Aware of who and where we place our hope.
Remembering that we live in this world – not the world of sci-fi and fiction.

The letter to the Colossians is written to a group of Christians who are facing pressure.
Pressure to put their trust, hope and faith in new ideas, alternative hero’s and unrealistic portrayals of salvation.

But here in Colossians we are reminded that there is someone who really did come to this world to save.

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.

Colossians 2:6-9, New Living Translation

If you know you’re looking for a hero – enjoy your sci-fi and fiction – I do – but look to Jesus.
If you’re not sure if you’re looking for a hero – still look to Jesus.
If you said you weren’t – still look to Jesus.

Jesus Christ was an underdog, and hung out with human beings like you and me.
People with doubts and questions and uncertainties.
People who were anxious and broken and unsure.
People living with guilt and shame.
People looking for truth, and disillusioned by the way of the world.

Jesus comes not to irradicate that. But to live in it.
To experience it. To live with us.
Jesus came to earth, living and walking in our shoes.
Jesus understands what it is to be human.

These words from Colossians tell us Jesus wasn’t simply human, Jesus was the fullness of God in human form. Jesus is human, and Jesus is God.

I believe Jesus is our Saviour – who came to save the world, you and me, because of God’s love for the world, for you and me.
And to point us to a way of living that is filled with hope and truth.

But – Jesus isn’t a hero who comes to save us because we’re helpless.
He’s not that sort of hero.
He’s the hero who knows who we are, knows our potential, and so wants us to grow and be built up. Need a hero? Let your roots grow in Jesus.

[i] Written by Jim Steinman with Dean Pitchford.

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Finding Home: Ruth 4

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As part of Bible Month 2020 we are unpacking the short story of Ruth, a story of finding hope and finding home in the midst of vulnerability and loss. Find out more here.

Video: Ruth 4 – Finding Home

Growing up one of my favourite films was Toy Story. I loved the idea that my toys lived in a world of their own every time I left the room.

In the first film, Buzz is a new toy who enters Andy’s toybox community as an outsider. Buzz believes he is a real space ranger, not a toy, and believes he can fly. Throughout the film Buzz is on a journey of discovering who he really is, while the rest of the toys are on their own journey of learning to welcome difference  into their community.

In Ruth 3, we found Ruth visiting Boaz at night, hoping he would give her a home, long term security and survival for her and Naomi.

Naomi and Ruth had lost much, their husbands, their security, safety. They were grieving. They were struggling for hope. The nature of the culture of the day meant they were vulnerable to the nth degree.

But Boaz is not the immediate next-of-kin. There is someone else who is a closer kinsman, and in keeping with the culture, has first rights to act as next-of-kin to Naomi and Ruth. 

At the start of Ruth 4, Boaz takes centre stage. It’s his turn to take action. He speaks to the closer next-of-kin who does have first rights to act.

Now Boaz, perhaps, pulls a bit of a sly move here. I think as readers of the story we’re encouraged to see Boaz in a positive light, but it could also be said he’s possibly a bit manipulative here, or self-seeking.

Maybe he really did like Ruth and wanted her to be his wife, and twisted things in his favour. Or maybe he saw an opportunity to obtain land and so did what he had to do to get it.

So Boaz meets this closer next-of-kin, at the city gates, in public, with 10 of the city elders with them. He says to this man, – “hey, you know Naomi, she’s back, and she’s selling the land that belonging to our kinsman, Elimelech. So, I thought I’d tell you about it here and now in front of all these witnesses. If you will redeem it, do, but if not, tell me and I will redeem it.“

The unexpected discovery that Naomi own’s some land is a surprise, it was Elimelech’s, perhaps left during the famine and never returned to. The fact she’s selling the land is probably a sign that Naomi has lost all other hope, and selling the land, that would, one would think, offer long-term fruitfulness,  is the only way for her to survive in the short term.

The man says to Boaz “yes – I will redeem it”. Then Boaz goes on, and claims that by taking the land, he must also take Ruth, the Moabite, and maintain the dead man’s name. This would mean any children they had would be named for Ruth’s dead husband… and that they would, in the end, inherit the land.

The man says – “I can’t redeem, it will; damage my own inheritance. You redeem it.” Does Boaz use Ruth’s foreigner status to his advantage? Or does he use this to overcome the fact that there was a prohibition against marrying a foreigner – because by becoming next-of-kin he can legal marry Ruth despite that.

They have a son, Obed, who Naomi cares for – in some ways he becomes a son to Ruth, Boaz and Naomi – Obed becomes symbol of the restoration of hope – because there can now be descendants.

No longer is Ruth an outsider, she’s found hope. She’s found home.
And not just with Boaz, but with the community.

Ruth and Boaz marry, all the people and elders are at the marriage, and bless Ruth – ‘may she build up the house of Israel’ they say (Ruth 4:11). Ruth is now seen as a member of the Israelite community.

And that’s where Buzz and Toy Story come in.
In life we often encounter people who are strangers to us.
People different from ourselves.

As Churches – Christian communities, I believe God call us to be a community that reaches out in love to all.
To welcome in the name of Christ those we perceive to be, and not be, like us.
Cowboys or Space Rangers.
Slinky Dogs or Potato heads.
Barbie dolls or dinosaurs.

To help each other discover who we are – made in the image of God – to work out if we are real or just a toy, if we can fly, or fall with style (if you don’t understand the references – do watch the film).

To make space for all people to find hope, through faith in the God who is a God for all.

To discover that the community of faith is the place in which all people, no matter background or belief or race or gender or sexuality or ethnicity or self-confidence – can find home and belong.

Church – God’s challenge to us, regardless of lockdown, regardless of what gathered community is going to look like in the coming weeks and months, is to make sure that this call from God is the reality found among us.
A community of hope.
A community that points to the home that can be found when we discover we belong to God.
A community that reaches in love to all.

God works through the unexpected.
God works through the stranger.
We are never without Hope.
In God, we find home.

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How does Ruth 4 speak to you?
What is on your heart today?

How have you benefitted from Bible Month 2020?

You can share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Sunday Reflections: Barriers Overcome

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In this week’s reflections (available in audio and text), I look at how Acts 15 might help us overcome some of the barriers physical distancing is forcing us to face.

Barriers Overcome

Barriers.
Barriers can stop us from getting from one place to another.
Some barriers keep us safe.
Some barriers get in our way.

Barriers can separate.
Barriers can block and divide.

Some of us will have begun to get used to barriers at supermarkets, guiding us in or around the store, with markings on the floor to constantly remind us to keep 2m apart. Barriers to keep us safe that also keep us physically apart.

In 2020 we’re dealing with barriers in way’s many of us have never seen before. Due to coronavirus we’re blocked from being able to physically gather together. Christians can’t go to worship or prayer in church buildings, we can’t meet for coffee or children’s, youth and families ministry. Communities can’t gather for coffee mornings. We are physically distanced from one another.

But we are not socially distant. Over the last few weeks I’ve said many a time in conversations that I don’t find the term social distancing helpful, that I think it would be more helpful to have called it physical distancing.  

Why? Because even while 2m or more apart,  I think we can still be social. We may be physically distanced, but that doesn’t stop us being the social beings we are, made in the image of God to live in relationship. While not the same as physical meeting, the barriers of physical distancing can to some extent be overcome.

We can still have a conversation with the stranger who is walking on the other side of the road. We can still thank our posties and delivery drivers. From this week can sit in our gardens or in the park with a friend (still 2m apart of course).

In every phone call, every physically distanced catch up, every WhatsApp message, every video call, we have been gathering. Sharing fellowship. Seeking to encourage one another and build each other up.

I’ve been so deeply encouraged by just how ready so many in the churches I have been called to serve have been to phone, write, email, text and more to continue in fellowship together, encouraging and building each other up. And beyond that, reaching out to neighbours and friends, offering to pray for them, encouraging them, caring from them. This is mission, this is outreach, this is overcoming the barriers of coronavirus and building relationships.

For the moment we no longer have doors to open, so we are forced to use all that we have left, and we open lives, arms (metaphorically!) and hearts to others. And I wonder if in doing so we discover that it is in open hearted relationships in the streets in which we live, that we see the missio dei – mission of God – at work.

In Acts 15, at the council at Jerusalem Peter has his own barriers to deal with. Gentile believers were being told that unless they were circumcised there were not saved (15:1). The insider-outside separation that 21st Century human society seems so addicted to creating is no new phenomenon. Gentiles were not Jews, Gentiles were not circumcised. Gentiles were not the same as ‘us’ – so how can they be saved?

What does Peter say?  

‘My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. 8 And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; 9 and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. 10 Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? 11 On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.’

Acts 15:7b-11, NRSV

Cast our minds back to Acts 10, and we remember that Peter has already had is time to learn that God is bigger than the barriers of human society:

‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’

Acts 10:15b, NRSV

Peter had already been learning that God does not look for our outward actions, but at our heart. And that brings us in equality with our fellow human beings, not barriers between us.

Peter says:

“we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

Acts 15:11

So what may God be saying to us today through Acts 15? That’s for each of us to ponder for ourselves. For me, I think God is reminding me that I’m saved not by my actions but by God’s grace.

That I can let go of some of what I thought was most important. That for a time at least, my calling to this vocation will look very different. And while that feels to me very different, unfamiliar and uncertain, it’s going to be ok. God knows my heart finds the barriers of physical distancing tough. God knows that some days are harder than others. And despite it all, God’s grace is always overflowing, and God’s love always unconditional, he knows my heart. With God, barriers are overcome.

God knows your heart too. However you feel today, wherever you read this, whoever you are. God knows how you feel, your struggles, your anxieties, your joys. And God is seeing you right now, with a heart that is overflowing with love and grace for you.

With God, barriers are overcome.

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if you’ve got thoughts or something to share you can comment below and share them with us all – I’d love to hear from you.

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Acts: Day 1

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Today some of us begin a journey through the book of Acts. Visit the Worship Resources page and you’ll find the guide and info under prayer and devotion. Anyone is welcome to join!

Studying together, while physically distanced will be new for many of us, but as we continue to navigate these unchartered waters of lockdown, I’ve been minded to ‘just go for it’ and learn along the way. We’ll see where God takes!

As part of the daily rhythm I’ve suggested some pointers for daily reflection:

Some Pointers to help Daily Reflection

  • What verse stands out to you?
    • Read it again, chew on the words…
    • What message might you be hearing today?
  • What is God saying to you through today’s chapter?
    • Write it down. Pray about it. Come back to it later.
  • Where may God be speaking to the church today through the passage?
    • Make a note of it. Share it with someone else from church.

I won’t post on here every day, but for day 1 I thought I would share briefly my reflections.

What verse stands out?
For me, it was 1:7 ‘It is not for you to know the time or period’.
A lot of life at the moment feels like waiting, waiting for lockdown to ease, waiting for the next change to come, waiting for an idea of how much longer we’ll be physically distanced from one another. I don’t know the time or period.

What is God saying to me?
I feel God saying “Don’t worry about tomorrow, I’ve got you”. Be patient and embrace TODAY – don’t worry about tomorrow for now, by my Spirit I will provide the strength and resource you need for each day. Trust me.

Where may God be speaking to the church today
As they wait for the time God has promised will one day come, the believers pray (1:14, 24). In uncertain waiting, it was to the act of prayer that the disciples turned. Perhaps that’s the greatest and power powerful action God’s people can make right now.

Share your reflections

Why not read Acts 1 and reflect for yourself, and share your thoughts in the comments below. How is God speaking to you today?

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Testimony Thursday: Turned Soil

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Turned Soil: Where has God been in your week?

Many in my churches will know that this year is a ‘Year of Testimony’ across the Methodist Connexion and we’ve been sharing stories of God at work among us in recent weeks.

I want to encourage us to continue to see and speak about where God is speaking and working among us now, during this time of distance and isolation, because even though we may be distant from each other, God is not distant from us.

Many in my churches will know that a sermon illustration from my garden is often not far away, and on Sunday afternoon, I took the plunge to dig the veggie patch. It was covered in weeds and very much not ready to do any planting! But I turned it, fork by fork, pulled the weeds out, moved any stones I found, and broken down the chunks of soil so that it is now ready for me to start some planting.

For me – God spoke to me through that process, about how church and ministry might look now.

For me, much that was familiar and growing has sadly gone, almost all the weekly routine I took for granted has been turned on it’s head. Yet I’ve had a really strong feeling that God has been saying there’s now potential for new ground to be tilled, new planting to be done and new growth to be seen.

I am about to do a new thing;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43:19

This week God has been saying to me, reminding me, that while life and ministry feels like it has been turned on it’s head, while I miss seeing people and already long to be able to communicate without using phone, email or other technology, God has not turned on his head.

God is still as present as ever, and even in the chaos and uncertainty, is able to do new things, and will do new things in me, and I pray, in us as we journey through this together.

God is with us, and will make a way through the wilderness – do you perceive it?

Where has God been in your week? Comment below and share your stories of God with us, in us and among us.