Am sat watching ‘Eurovision’ – a guilty pleasure in the Critchyboy household once a year. I’d not hear our entry from “The Hump” until this afternoon… And it’s stayed in my mind since then. Perhaps that’s the new UK strategy – have a song that gets so into your psyche that it remains with you so that when it comes to voting all you can think of is, “When you love someone, follow your heart…” And end up voting for the UK!
Still we’re all sat watching and scoring except for Son #2 who is, hopefully, in bed asleep – not to disturb our evening!
Son #1 has been at a football tournament all day, playing for his local team and having lots of fun following a sleepover at his mates house. Son #2 slept this afternoon in the heat of the day after a fun morning at our adoptive Grandparents house whilst wife and I were in a meeting.
Our meeting was with a wonderful member of our District Team, training me and my wife to be Healthy Church Reviewers – a process to help local congregations recognise what their churches are doing well and what they need to work on.
I think this is a brilliant process having been through it wit one of my own churches – a process that has reinforced what I’ve been banging on about for four years, proving that I do know some useful things(!), and helped us as a ragtag collection of believers to focus our activities more towards serving the community we find ourselves a part of. I mean, the chapel has raised in one week, enough money to supply every (and I mean every) household in the village with a New Testament
as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
I am looking forward to serving other churches in our District in this way as I think part of what Minsters as Church Leaders need to do is to enable everyone (or as many as possible) within the congregation to see and seize Gods vision for where they are and how to serve the community with all that they are. To engage as many as possible with the vision rather than doing it all themselves.
Perhaps, I speak with my experience of working within family size churches of between 20-70 folk rather than anything bigger… Places where walking alongside people has a great impact.
I will have to see where God leads in the future, but my experience of smaller churches is that they are willing, in time, to look forward, make difficult choices and follow what they feel to be Gods lead.
Anyhow, must not neglect Eurovision!! Come on UK, although that Russian Granny song is oddly endearing..!