What a Week!!

My apologies I haven't updated for a while, it's been a busy week.

I was in College four days this week, due to 2 extra days attending the Child Protection Course, which was really good and thorough, but involved alot of thinking and listening to processes and outcomes and some legislation. I felt absolutely exhausted when I got home last night, physically and mentally, but particularly mentally.

It's one thing when you have to listen to case studies, but it's another to think about offenders and how best to approach them in the context of a church fellowship, wanting to be open to all people who want to attend, but also at the same time ensuring the safety and security of your young people and children is the first priority.

I don't think I'll comment further here in detail about what we studied, but suffice it to say it was vitally important, but also slightly disturbing and uncomfortable.

Frustration is spelt 'W.I.R.E.L.E.S.S.''

Today has been my day off. I say 'has been', because it's nearly over, and what have I done all day?!

Messed about and faffed around with compauters laptops and wireless routers...

Suffice it to say that after about 5 hours I've sorted it, but I wish people would make things simple in the computing world.

The problem I had was that because we're with AOL, we received our new wireless router today. (well to be precise we missed a delivery and had to pick it up from R.M. delivery centre in Liscard Village) I plugged it in, switched it on, and typed in all the neccessary codes, etc, and had one problem after the other:

First, the router was on, but it showed no green internet light. (solution: plug in the DSL filter into the upstairs phone socket because thats actually the main one!)

Second, Meg's laptop wouldn't connect wirelessly after several attempts. (solution: switch off and restart laptop, plug in the yellow ethernet cable, get the laptop to 'recognize' the router, then unplug the cable and switch the LAN wireless circuit on, on the laptop!)

Third, my desktop downstairs using a USB wireless adaptor, would recognize the network (i.e. router) but wouldn't connect to it. After various attempts, I rang AOL who informed me it was because the particular adaptor worked with WEP encryption and the router was WPA encryption. (Solution: change the encryption software on the router via the laptop, which will result in the laptop being disconnected from the network!)

Now that encryption is changed, connect my desktop, and also re-connect the laptop, whilst making up my own encryption key so that the network is secure.

It's done, but I wish they'd tell you this stuff in the beginning!!

Support!

Off to my Support Group Day at College with Alison.

Technically I haven't got a Support Group yet, but I'm sure it'll happen soon!

Write later...

Oh Well!!

Today was meant to be a day off, but I have to meet with someone at 2pm, who's preaching in a few weeks time at church.

It's important that I meet with them and unfortunately there's no other option as they only have a certain window of time in which to meet, and I'm in College 4 days next week...

I'd better go and prepare, write again later...

Reflection, Long Words and Quietness!

Today has been a good day. I got quite a bit of reading done for College, I just have to type up my notes now so I can remember it all!

Thursdays are usually a day for planning, because it's when I specifically meet up with Alison for that purpose. We usually look at services that are coming up, and discuss and plan who's doing what, and what the structure and theme of them are, etc. We usually review any information I need to pass on regarding College as well.

We had some good discussions about the nature of 'church', and the fact that what convictions we hold, determine the outcome of how we plan services and how we see 'church'. We discussed meetings we've both had this week, both 'official' and pastoral. I really value the time we have on Thursday mornings, as I'm sure Alison has loads of things she could be doing, but she chooses to give a learning student the time!

It's good to reflect on the week we've both had so far, and to commit our work to God. We both reflected and talked about our roles, and being people who are available, both for people, and for God to speak to. That's not easy when you have a list of things to accomplish and you're aware of 'stuff' you have to get done, but it is really important. All of us, whether we're 'full-time' or not, (in quotes, because technically ALL Christians are full-time for God) need time to stop 'doing', and just 'be'.

In the Psalms, those famous words are uttered:

 Psalm 46:10 (New International Version)

10 "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

It's interesting to note that God infers that he will be exalted no matter what happens in the world, maybe that's why we need to be still before Him! All our scurrying around trying to glorify Him won't affect the outcome of His Glory, that's a given!

It's interesting that in my journey so far, this has been the biggest struggle for me: to stop trying to do things for God, but instead do things from God. What I mean by that is it's hard for me to come straight from a Bookshop Manager's job, where everything was about performance and targets and profit and loss; it's been so hard for me to realise that the one imperative for me as a Minister is going to be to STOP! To stop trying to do things for God, and to just simply give Him time and space in my life to listen to what He's saying. I've a suspicious feeling that being a Minister is not going to be about achieving things, but maybe more about watching things grow and change and observing them.

Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God being like a seed, well technically if you think about it, a seed just needs an environment to grow. Yes, the Farmer can give it the right soil, and water and a place where it gets sunlight, but that's all he does. The rest is up to the seed! The farmer will not influence that seed directly by anything else he does, he cannot make it grow, the rest is up to the seed and God!

Maybe we have too many 'programs' and 'visions' and 'meetings' and 'effort' in the church general, maybe we need to learn more about abiding in God, and resting in Him. Maybe then we would see real change...

Something to ponder more on...

Going Deeper...

I'm finding it interesting how developments in psycho-analysis and psychology in the early twentieth century are being linked with the development of the 'Theology By Heart' method of Theological Reflection.

It's interesting (though I'm not sure whether I agree with it or not) that William James, in his book 'The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature' (1902) wrote this:

'I do believe, that feeling is the deeper source of religion, and that philosophic and theological formulas are secondary products, like translations of a text into another tongue...'

The author in the book I'm reading ('Theological Reflection:Methods' Graham, et al)  points out that certain well known characters of Christian/Church History, (i.e. Augustine and Wesley) seemed to experience learning from God through dialogue with other believers and sometimes themselves, in the form of letters and journals. They reflected on their Theology from what they had written down themselves, not just what they had read in the Bible, and this experience of 'dialogue' changed them as they reflected on it.

I'm not entirely convinced that all of that can be put down to just psychology, that they were 'learning from themselves', but I have known times in my life where I have realised something fresh and new as I looked back on my own writing in a journal or blog, or something I had written to another person, or sermon notes/bible studies I had prepared. I don't neccesarily think that's all just psychology, but I think God can work through anything, even psychology; after all, he made our minds and the ability to reason as our Creator didn't he!

Interesting...

Headaches are good for the soul... (I think?!)

Just catching up on reading I should have done for the first lecture, last Monday.

I'm reading about Methods of Theological Reflection.

You may be asking "what the heck is that?", well basically it's about our practice as Christians informing our Theology. It sounds as if that means practice first, but it's actually a bit more complicated than that. In actual effect, it goes like this: we take part in an action because we believe things, but the very taking part raises questions for us about what we believe. In a way, it's a circle of theory and practice. Theological Reflection then, is the method of reflecting on our practice so that we can question our theology (what we know/believe about God), so that it effects the way we live it out!

Simple, see?!

*sighs*

I wish the book I'm reading at the moment was that simple, academics just LOVE to make things more complicated and go into every single minutae of a model or theory (in this case of Reflection) and then use LOTS of big words to explain and test it out!!

I'm enjoying thinking through all this stuff, but it is giving me a headache!

Oh Dear...

I've just realised that because I'm behind in my reading because the books I ordered didn't arive, (explained in the post below) it means I've now got 17 pages from one book, and 218 pages from another to read and digest before Monday's lecture!!

Ouch!!

Another Update!

It's Wednesday already!

(that's not the update by the way)

I can't believe how quickly the weeks go, it seems unreal.

Ok, here goes, update from when I last posted (Sat) till now...

Monday:

First full (ish) day at College in Manchester, but not quite!

To explain...

Usually I will get there early (say 8.30/9-ish) to study/write up notes/get books from the library before my Tutorial at 10am for an hour with my Tutor, Richard. This week I hadn't set up tutorials yet, so I was aiming to get there for 1pm, as my lecture starts at 2pm on a Monday, till 5.30 normally. I left the house at 11:00, got the bus to church as I'd forgotten and left my Bible there the previous night, and then got the bus again into Liverpool, to catch the train at Lime Street for 12:13, to get me into Piccadily for 1pm, to get to College before 2!

That was the plan.

The part right up to where I get to Piccadily station for 1pm went ok, unfortunately the part where I arrive in College 30 or 40 minutes early, producing sweet-smelling clouds of sereneness and calmness from my person, didn't! The bus from Piccadily to College (which usually takes 15 mins) has a driver who was of Eastern European origin I think, and did not really speak much English. This meant that the bus journey doubled, maybe tripled in time, as he had to ask everyone who got on at every stop on the way to repeat themselves so he could understand where they were asking to go! Also, usually each stop would involve some fumbling with change, which I think presented him also with a few problems to do with currency, etc. I felt very sorry for him as more and more people got increasingly annoyed at him, especially when he didn't know what the stops on the route were called, so anyone who got on and asked, "does this go to...?" were greeted with a shrug or some mumbling or a shake of the head, or a lifting of the eyebrows that conveyed he didn't know or have a clue!

What also made the situation worse was that the route has to go through the main University district/road in Manchester, and it was Fresher's Week...

Literally thousands of students had set up stalls and placards advertising all sorts of clubs and memberships, with a mixture of people shouting through bullhorns and very loud dance music and rnb being played through stereos and some very strange costume-wearing people!! This all added to make the bus journey even longer than usual as traffic was very very bad!

Thankfully, the bus driver did know the route even though he didn't know the names of the streets, and I got there excactly for the start of the lecture, sweaty and out of breath from rushing in my usual "oh my gosh I'm late" kind of way...

Luckily, the lecturer's printer was playing up, printing notes, so he was about 10 minutes late trying to sort that out, so I think I got away with it in the end! God was obviously smiling down on me!

In the first lecture of this term, we talked about each of our own backgrounds and where we were coming from, as a kind of introduction to thinking theologically. It was good, though I was a bit surprised there were no "notes" as such that we could make, as it was quite informal and relaxed.

I learnt that next week we're making up for that, in that there are lots of resources and suggested reading already posted up on the module website for us. I've printed them off but not read them yet. We're going to be looking at models of power in a church, and thinking through each of our placement congregations, and how it will relate to that. We're also going to be looking at Foucault and how he envisioned power, and his theory of how power is not owned by one person, but moves through an organisation or structure, and what that has to say or can say about the way we pastor/lead in a church setting. As you can tell, I've done a little reading, but not lots yet. I plan to get that done later today, and tommorrow afternoon.

 Getting back to College... We finished at 5:15pm, and then raced to the Chapel to undergo embarrasing ice-breaker games, before dinner/tea. (however you say it!) After tea we met for a service, and to go through introductions to the rest of the Baptist College staff and students, including other years.

Our time of worship finished at 7:30, and then the rest of the evening was free time. I chatted to other students, and went to bed about 10:30-ish, after I rang Meg!

In the morning, I had breakfast and then went to the library to get two books for the module I'm currently doing. I'd ordered them from Amazon, but because of the Postal strikes, etc, I haven't had them yet, so I got them out of the Library with the view of returning them for someone else as soon as "my" copies arrive.

At 11:30, all the Baptist students and staff met again in the Chapel for worship, which went well except for the fact that our row row (the back row of course! :p) got missed out of the Communion service!! After the worship time, all us first year students went immediately to another Lecture room to have "Baptist Time", which this week was introducing us to what we'd be covering over the next few weeks. We ate sandwhiches and discussed our placement churches and started to begin the process of planning what we'd cover this semester as a group.

I left College at 2:30, and eventually got home at 5:15pm!! Then I waited for Meg to come home from work, and we went out to a Newcomers meeting at Margaret's house, a chance for some of the new people at church to question us and get to know us. Unfortunately quite a few people rang to say they couldn't make it, so it was eventually, Alison, Meg, Margaret, myself, and two others.  One of them gave us his impressions of the church as a newcomer, and got me thinking/reflecting on what the mission/aim/point of the church is, something that I will think about and build on more for the next few weeks as I plan some bible studies/intro/discipleship meetings.

That's it so far, I'll update again when I can!! Lot's of reading to do for now...

Hmmmm...

My apologies those of you who viewed my page and saw lots of cussing on the twitter part... It seems twitter has been posting other people's posts on my page while I've been away, so that part has been removed for now until they can fix it.

Very annoying, I apologise if any of you were offended by anything you saw there, it twas not me, I assure you!!

Weekly Update!

I'll try to do this particular post once a week, so as to give you an idea of the week that I'll have had.

Let's think...

Monday was my MA Induction Day in Manchester at College, and was very interesting and overwhelming all at once! I met a group of about 16 others who are doing the MA course, all for very different reasons. Some are doing it like me, as a way to train for the ministry, others are already in ministry and wanted to do some more study. We've got a good mix of Baptists, Anglicans and Methodists, and possibly others, though I haven't got to know anybody yet, and am finding names a problem, as my train was late and I missed the first 20 minutes of introductions! Not a good start! I'll have to get an earlier train in future I think, just in case.

We spent the day talking through the subjects we'd be studying, and made our choices in modules, as it's a modular course. I have opted for two modules this year, as I want to take it easy and ease into study again after being away from it for more than 14 years, blimey I'm getting old!!

I'm doing 'Introduction to Contextual Theology/Studying at M Level', for the first five weeks, then for the next five I'll be doing 'Examples in Contextual Theology'. That will basically take me up to Christmas, (assignment for that module will be 4,000 words and due in on the 6th Jan) and in the New Year I'll be starting another module called 'Contemporary Trends in Evangelism'. (the assignment for that will be the same length and due in sometime in July I think) I'll have a mixture of Seminars/Lectures/Independant Study/Tutorials to assist me in learning, and will have to do alot of reading, both before and after lectures.

Part of the day we also spent being trained in use of the Library at the College, and Registering online for each module we were doing, so as to be able to pick up online notes/suggested reading, etc from each tutor.

Tuesday was spent trying to sort out stuff I haven't been able to do until now, such as registering to vote at the new address, registering to pay Council Tax, setting up Direct Debits, etc. I also started some preparatory reading for the lecture on Monday.

Wednesday morning I met up with Alan Garner at Costa in Liverpool, to review and get some feedback on my preaching at his church last Sunday. It turned into a really good conversation, and I got some really valuable feedback for me to use the next time I'll be speaking. The afternoon was spent chasing up more bank related things, and trying to sort tax stuff.

Thursday mornings tend to always be the same routine as I meet with Alison (the Pastor) for a few hours to help with planning services and reviewing what I'm doing, and also to pray together and have some bible study. From next week we'll be able to plan more involvement for me, as by then I will have sorted out some Learning Aims and Objectives with my Tutor Richard to put into practice in the church. Thursday afternoon was off, as I had a meeting in the evening. Thursday evening I went to a URC Council Cluster meeting, which sounds very ominous but isn't!! It's basically a local network of all the URC churches in the Wallasey area who meet up three or four times a year to share together about what's happening in their churches and to encourage and pray for each other and make decisions.

Friday morning I went to church and studied in a very concentrated way in my office at church. (yes, I do have my own office, but it has lot's of stuff in it from the church, so technically it's the church's office, but Alison has her own, so I claimed it as mine!!) It was very quiet during the day on Friday, so I got quite a bit of studying done and made my head hurt! (my head always hurts when I have to think and ponder alot!)

I left church at dinnertime, as there was no-one about and I got a sore back sitting on the chair in the office leaning over the desk! I came home and read in the comfort of my leather desk chair, which was much better! In case anyone is interested, (probably not!) I was studying the Translation Model in Contextual Theology, and trying to understand what makes a Translation view/model unique as compared to other approaches. It's actually very interesting, but my head hurts when I read the textbooks because I've got to get used to 'academic speak' again. I just wish they would use plain English!! For example, instead of the phrase 'current approach' they would say 'contemporaneous approach'. Meg agreed there was just no need for it, and she's a writer who's been trained in the correct use of English, so there!! :p

Today was a day off, although for a few hours this evening I went to a barbecue at church (in the rain - typical!) which was all the local URC Churches (Cluster Group) meeting together to be socialable. The food was good, the conversation was good, but the Quiz was really hard!! It was a Cryptic Clues quiz on sweet names, with clues like 'Royal herb'. (= Imperial Mint!) - Huh?  I must mention that Sarah (collins) came to take Meg out for a few hours and we showed her round the flat very quickly before they both went off to look at fabric, or something... (I didn't show much enthusiasm, my apologies!! :D)

Anyway, that's my week so far, tommorrow I'm obserbving Alison leading Chapel Communion before the main service, then leading part of the morning service, and taking part in a sketch!

That's all for now!

We'll Meet Again...

I have shaved my poor excuse for a beard off, so that I can start again.

This may not be the most enthralling news in the universe, but alas it is mine!

I like having a beard, but cannot seem to get it to grow in a straight line, even with a beard trimmer, etc. It is very frustrating! I will attempt it again, and if it doesn't grow straight this time, then I may have to go back to looking 5 years old... Oh well.

In The Beginning... Was The Blog

Ok.

I've done it.

I've entered the world of blogdom with a new blog, partly so that people who know me (us) can keep in touch, and partly so that I can have a record to scoff and laugh at... er I mean reflect on in years to come!

Roll on my first lecture on Monday...