Food for thought

Sorry I didn't write a blog last week - I was off having fun on our annual Bible-Centred Youthworker Conference. This week one of the guys from that conference sent me his newsletter. He has kindly allowed me to quote two chunks from it - thanks Matt! I won't add any comments to them. I found his thoughts very stimulating - and hope you will too.

'How does one pursue a career in which a central quality is meekness of spirit?  How does one be ambitious about a calling which asks us to die to self?  How does one be a leader of men when one's motive should be motivated by servant-hood?  How can one strive for success in a field where complete dependence on God is required?  Actually these statements should and do apply to everyone who considers themselves a follower of Jesus.  We are all called to minister with our lives no matter our occupation.  However, these questions are particularly applicable and difficult for me who finds himself called to ministry in the traditional sense.  How much should my current activities be motivated by a desire to be qualified and successful? We live in a world where employers look just as hard at the resume-CV of those aspiring to be pastors as to medical doctors.  Every resume expert will tell you to speak as glowingly as you can about yourself without actually lying.  They will say to use exciting adjectives such as: passionate, motivated, creative, enthusiastic, imaginative, organized, dynamic, inspirational, bursting with ideas, exceptional.  And if you think this doesn't apply to pastors, these adjectives were all taken directly from advertisements for ministry-workers at the back of a Christian magazine I looked at recently.'

and...

'It's amazing how long someone can be a Christian, how many times one can have read the Bible, and how many classes one can have taken, and yet still be at a quite elementary level faith-wise.  My guess is that much that looks like the growth of a Christian is really more growth into the culture of Christianity, or growth into deeper head-knowledge of your particular church's beliefs, rather than actually growing closer to God and growing to trust Him more moment by moment.'

Our Father knows us

Yesterday morning, the leader of our service took an unusual approach to a classic youth activity. Have you ever played the game where five or six young people line up behind a blanket, with just one foot poking out below the blanket - and someone has to guess who each foot belongs to? This was the same idea, but with slits cut in a sheet so that hands could be poked through. The lovely thing was that the leader then asked for half a dozen Dads to come up with their children. The Dads lined up nervously, while their children hid behind the sheet and each popped through one small hand. Could each Dad recognise their own child's hand? Would anyone get it wrong? It was a tense moment...

Thankfully, each Dad spotted his own child and all was well - but two of them looked mightily relieved! The service leader then made a link between human Dads and our heavenly Father - how He knows and cares for each one of us.

It was a great activity. One I shall doubtless 'borrow' at some point. You may like to as well. And what a lovely reminder that, even if a Dad had felt that one little hand looked much like another, that our heavenly Father made us, knows us, loves us. 'Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head (and hand!) are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.' Luke 12v6-7

The curious incident of the wasp in the night-time

A few nights ago - at exactly one minute past midnight - my bed was dive-bombed by a large, loud wasp, seemingly unaware that it shouldn't be awake in early January. Half an hour, and a variety of implements, later, the wasp was still refusing to leave my bedroom. It attached itself firmly to a rug hanging on the wall, and wouldn't budge. I ended up lifting the rug off the wall, carrying it out of my flat, down two flights of stairs and into the road - where I then had to beat it for several more minutes before the wasp deigned to fly off. (I was beating the rug, not the wasp!).

The thing that struck me was what an impact this wasp had on me. It was late, dark and cold - I was tired and in bed - but I sprang into action. I never considered giving up - I knew I couldn't go back to sleep while the wasp was still above my bed.

In my years as a Schools' Worker, as I visited up to 20 schools a week, I noticed a definite trend in January. Many of the teachers had come back to school tired. The Christmas term had been long, the Christmas 'holiday' was hardly restful, and there were bugs aplenty waiting to be caught. As a result, schools were full of tired and stressed teachers. Maybe that's how you're feeling too? The pre-Christmas rush of special events and evangelistic opportunities is fantastic - but also draining. Maybe you then had a busy, family-filled, non restful Christmas - plus a wee bug to keep you company! Now you're starting a new term, but feeling tired and perhaps struggling to find your full enthusiasm for your ministry.

It might be that you genuinely need more rest, in which case see if you can build in a couple of days off. But otherwise, ask God to show you what would help stir you into action. (What's your 'wasp'??) Meeting up with others to plan an upcoming session, rather than doing it on your own? Inviting someone for coffee and to pray for each member of your group? Reading a challenging, encouraging book? Downloading a talk* that will spark your thinking? For me, it was praying with the rest of the team just before leading our group on Sunday morning - that's what sparked me back to full enthusiam for the children we were about to serve. As people who 'hope in the Lord', let us ask God to help us to 'run and not grow weary' (Isaiah 41v31).

* One suggestion for helpful listening would be the main talks and seminars from last year's Bible-Centred Youthworker Conference. These are all available for free download here.

Look back in wonder

I'm writing this on New Year's Eve. As a good Scot that means I've been desperately tidying up ready for Hogmanay (tidying being something I do very little of on the other 364 days!). I'm not planning any New Year's resolutions - although I can tell you a grand way to keep them, if you're interested (see below).* Instead of looking ahead to my soon-to-be-broken and wildly unrealistic resolutions (anything involving a tidy flat or desk), I'd rather look back on the never-broken faithfulness of our wonderful Lord God. In our last church homegroup meeting of 2007, we had a prayer time where it was suggested that we each thank God for one thing during the past year. We prayed... and prayed... and prayed... No one was able to restrict themselves to just one thing - there was SO much to thank God for! For myself, one of the highlights was the time spent with Christian brothers and sisters in South Africa - being thrilled by their enthusiasm for serving God, and encouraged by their faithfulness to Him. Looking further back, I was privileged during the travels on my sabbattical to meet many Godly people - separated by thousands of miles, but joined by a mutual trust in the Lord Jesus. Many of them are also joined by a common desire to teach God's Word faithfully to children and young people. My prayer for them, and for you, and for myself, is that we will all be able to look back in wonder as we see how God has worked in the lives of the young people we serve, and then look forward in trust to all that He will do in the coming year.

Happy New Year to you all!

* I once resolved to read the whole Bible during the year. I then admitted this resolution to 400 people at an all-age service, and asked them to check up on me. I can confirm that this is a very effective way to stick to a resolution!!

'Such a great guy'

Recently I have been creating lists galore in preparation for our next Bible-Centred Youthworker Conference in January. As I've poured over the names of those coming - 130 so far - I've caught myself thinking (and sometimes saying out loud!), 'Oh, he's such a great guy', 'She's so lovely', 'He's a terrific bloke', 'He's so nice', 'I'm so pleased she's coming back' and so on... I got to the end of the list of 130 and realised that I'd thought something nice about every one of them. This isn't because I'm a sweet person who loves everyone (!), but because the children's and youth workers I've got to know over the past few years are such a terrific bunch. So, if you're one of them, thank you - it's a joy and privilege to know you.

Puzzled by Pullman?

I haven't seen the film yet, and it's years since I read the book - but I HAVE already had a number of circular emails from concerned Christians recommending boycotting 'The Golden Compass'. I'm always wary of mass boycotts. It's true that there are some books and films whose content means we want to warn our young people against them - but given that most of our children and young people are likely to be swept up in the razzmatazz of this film, aren't we better to engage with the issues rather than avoid them? There is a very helpful article on this in the December issue of Youthwork magazine, written by Dr Mark Stibbe (pages 8 & 9). It should soon be possible to get a copy of 'How Golden is Pullman's Compass?' from Mark Stibbe's website. If it's anything like his article, this talk should be good - I'm certainly planning to hear it as soon as it's available.

Is Christmas about Christ?

In a Sunday Telegraph survey of 100 schools, only one in five is opting to stage some kind of nativity play. One in three will stage a religion-free Christmas play or have no event at all. Why? 'To avoid upsetting pupils (and parents?) of other faiths.' The Telegraph article seemed quite balanced to me - you can read it here.

It's the readers comments about it I found fascinating:

• In 78 added comments, only three mention 'Christ' (and one of those is as a swear word!) and none mention 'Jesus'
• Most people assume that scrapping school nativity plays is an attack - but not on Christian belief. They see it as an attack on our national identity.
• Many of the writers assume that it is people of other faiths who are pushing to get nativity plays banned - and sadly some go on to say that these 'immigrants' should go back to their own countries and stop interfering in ours.
• The assumption made by nearly all is that the nativity play is all about tradition.

Where does this leave us, as we aim to teach the Bible's fantastic message about Jesus this Christmas? Since most people believe that we should continue to have nativity plays, let's grab that opportunity in any way we can - and then use it to help them see that the Christmas story isn't about tradition, it's about Jesus Christ, our wonderful, loving, rescuing King.