Reflecting on the journey

It’s been good to have three weeks annual leave at the end of what has been a very busy church year. I don’t usually take three weeks off together but I lost a week’s holiday last November as I was off sick then. So I’m glad to have a lot of time to rest, be, catch up with things and reflect before I return to Ripon on 2 September to begin my fourth year of ministry there. The beginning of my silver jubilee year since ordination! Next summer will be great as my colleague Sarah is ordained and I mark 25 years since mine. We will be at hers, somewhere near Leeds and I think we will have a little trip to Southport to remember mine. The floral hall and Leyland Road Methodist Church need revisiting.

It’s been good this week to revisit places important to me around Stamford and Rutland. The Superintendency of the then Stamford and Rutland Circuit was my second appointment in ministry and I arrived in Oakham in 2002, making up how to lead a Circuit as I went along! On Sunday it was a blessing to return to Empingham for worship. 

Empingham was my great joy while in the Circuit as we refurbished the church, put a post office in the hall and became community focussed. The stained glass window behind the  communion table suddenly after we got rid of the miserable blue paint showed its colours. 

On Sunday it was a huge privilege to be at the service led by Rev Maureen Jones. Maureen, now well into her 80’s has decided to stop leading services and Sunday was her last service on the plan after a very successful ministry including being the Bishop of the Methodist Church in Kenya. 

She reflected on God being a great big God and his providence being there especially when we wobble. Sometimes we need reminding where he has been on the journey. It was humbling on Sunday to hear folk say how much I’d helped them in my time as their minister. To get them a lovely bright set of premises after suffering dark and didgey blue and water pouring in was a huge privilege. 

I’ve been challenged to write down one thing a day I am proud of. My time as superintendent of the Stamford and Rutland Circuit feels me with pride. I only left them for personal reasons which I later regretted acting on. It was lovely to mooch round Oakham again, where I enjoyed living. Rutland is a fiercely independent county but I get why it is. As its motto says there is much in little - multum in parvo! 

Where are the important places on the journey that shape us and make us who we are and which leave something of them in us forever. 

This week as well as revisiting Rutland, we’ve spent an afternoon in the Fens seeing three friends who befriended us in our year in that area when we really needed friends. Next week we are heading for Sussex for a night in Penhurst Retreat Centre, then a few days in Rye. Leaving my appointment in the area so ebruptly was hard but it will be good next week to lay some things down and have a new beginning. My time in the south will include a visit to Southwick, in what was the then Worthing Circuit, for a thanksgiving service for the life of Richard, a dear friend, encourager and preacher of the Gospel. Who are the important people on our journey without who we would not be the people we are today? 

As we begin a new church year in a week or so, we will in my services sing the mighty new year hymn penned by Charles Wesley including the line “his providence has brought us through another various year.” Perhaps it ought to say “various years.” We’ve all had ups and downs, times of mountain top ecstasy and tikes of deep depression, times when the way seems clear and  exciting and times when we have no clue whatsoever what to do, times when all is right with the world and times when we want to give up. There’s no point! 

 

I am writing this outside our holiday home in Stamford as it’s too hot to sleep and it is 2.30 in the morning! I’m sitting here reflecting on the people who’ve shaped me and nurtured me over nearly 27 years of ministry and 56 and a bit years of life. I’m still shocked when people say I’ve made a difference to their journey. But maybe I shouldn’t be.

 Maybe we have turned into a negative and complaining society and we’ve forgotten the church and every community only works when people do their little bit and leave what happens with that little bit to God. We’ve become very critical of ourselves and especially little churches but I say this - up and down this country every day little acts of kindness and faithfulness done in God’s name are keeping people going and growing. 

Remember the story of the hungry crowd and only a little boy’s packed lunch there. The disciples say “we have nothing here except this.”

Jesus says “bring it here to me” then a miracle happens. 

A healthy journey is about remembering God, the great big God is here and the ongoing journey is safe in his hands. The world may change, but God does not. He upholds and governs all things and he has the whole world, including ours, in his hands. And maybe we need to believe in ourselves a bit more too! As someone said once “we have enough to be the church.” I am glad I have been helpful to people over the years and I am glad to remember the Ian and Eileen’s and Maurice and Judith’s and Mollie, George and June’s and Richard’s out there. They may like me shudder with embarrassment they make a difference but they do, quietly.

So maybe in September when I launch a new church year and encourage positivity and encouragement I need to include another Wesley hymn with these words: the task we have to really make a difference:

“He bids us build each other up, and gathered into one, to our high calling’s glorious hope, we hand in hand go on.”