By the kindness of the presence of God and his teaching from the story of Elijah I’ve had to ‘get out of my cave’ of disappointment these past weeks. I pray that if you find yourself in that place…

You may have noticed that the nights are drawing in, the temperatures have dropped and it’s beginning to look a lot like……. NO, please don’t mention it! Well, you’re right, it’s not Christmas yet and you don’t want to make the mistake to talk about it too early as I’m already boycotting the supermarkets where Christmas cards and mince pies have appeared. However, when you work on a church staff team it is important to think ahead and Christmas is looming at the end of this term.

We hate to remind you of the annual event that is coming, but now really is a good time to talk about our approach. Not the approach of the number of services, or how many visitors we will be looking after, but how our personal approach says a lot about our trust in God and what “efficiency” looks like.

At home, we’ve just secured planning for a small garden room extension on the back of the house. My husband is an architect and I’ve had the luxury of not having to get involved in the design work or the planning process, for which I’m VERY grateful. But now the preparation for foundation laying is underway I have no choice but to get involved! Suffice to say the house is a little fuller and messier downstairs and the garden looks like the beginnings of a building site (sigh)…

I have recently taken my senior management team at work through a Belbin assessment. If you’re not familiar with the tool it can be a useful way of identifying the strengths and contributions that individuals bring to a team. Try and identify your own profile if you haven’t ‘been Belbin’d’!

Reading Hebrews 12, when Paul paints the vivid picture of the Christian life being like a race, my mind automatically goes to scenes of the London marathon. I can’t imagine the sheer amount of inner-strength it must take not to quit when everything hurts on a physical level and when the inner narrative says, ‘I can’t go on, I can’t finish this’.