The game of choice this year has been Pandemic, a cooperative board game where all players join together to defeat viruses outbreaks across the world. I don’t know what made us think of this, but there we are. Pandemic is a notoriously difficult cooperative game…
I am not fully decided whether it is the pandemic or the predicted economic and employment turmoil that I am most concerned about.
In Acts 9 we read of Saul’s encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road, and his sudden and unexpected experience of being rendered blind. Done to him, it plunged him into darkness and removed from him every confidence, certainty, and comfort that he was previously used to, and made him dependent upon others.
I remember press coverage of a “private” conversation between world leaders at a G8 summit a few years back where our (then) prime minister complained about the lack of thinking time and the relentless unceasing mill of meetings and decisions. There was no opportunity to pause or reflect or to gather evidence before setting events in motion, and as the leaders talked they each revealed a longing for space to reflect and consider.
If you’re starting to struggle, you’re not alone. I’ve been grappling this week with feeling sad at the ministries and gatherings that have dropped away because they can’t meet, and trying to summon up the energy to make some calls to colleagues. I suspect I’m not alone in wanting things to hurry up in a return to “normal”.
In just a short time it will be Good Friday when we will be remembering, once again, the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for us. And one of the most moving parts of the Good Friday story for me is that of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before he is arrested.
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Do you ever find that it’s the moments when you’ve run out of time and are already late that your computer seems to sense it? Ok, perhaps this is mild paranoia on my part, but on occasion I think ‘they’ know I’m in a rush and slow down intentionally to teach me patience. Take yesterday as an example. Already pushed for time and sitting waiting for files to sync with my OneDrive it felt like the laptop clicked into ‘slow mode’ just at that very moment!
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As on many days, my Lectio 365 app provided the right Bible passage for prompt, encouragement and challenge, on the specific day I needed to hear it. As I sit in a church centre café this morning (4th January 2024), starting to write my last UCAN mailing article as a Director, this passage from Isaiah 43 greeted me.
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
In a season of newness, transition and change, God is ever present, ever sovereign, and ever Good. More about this in this article…
The recent hot spell has seen us indulging in ice-cream in our household! Enjoying a 99 ice-cream reminded me of recent newspaper articles citing ice-cream sellers’ dismay when finding their Cadbury flakes were now ‘too flaky’ for the classic ice-cream.
Apparently, a shift in production sites left vendors complaining the choccy sticks were now too crumbly for use. Understandably, their paying customers couldn’t be served a 99 with a broken flake, and some sellers have turned to German ‘milk chocolate flaked sticks’ as alternatives.
What has a broken flake on a 99-ice-cream got to do with church administration I hear you ask? Good question....read on to find out more…
Are you sitting comfortably?
Have you heard the story about Goldilocks and the church?
A woman named Goldilocks goes for a walk on a Sunday morning trying to find a church to join. To her delight she comes upon a beautiful looking church building which she enters and joins the service that’s just starting. But the worship style is too formal for her taste - with liturgy and hymns she doesn’t know - and she doesn’t enjoy it. She tries another service, but the sung worship style feels too loud and repetitive, and she doesn’t like it. She tries another service and this one feels just right.
Read more here…
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