The Stone Roses »

Just because my son is 8 this weekend and he likes this.

Just because he took the CD into school this week and sang it in front of his class when everyone else was bringing in mass produced, corporate, music-lite.

Just because this is fantastic.

Mind you, I tried and failed to explain ‘the Madchester baggy swagger’ to him.

church, random »

I arrived early for a meeting. That in itself is unusual; I rarely am early.

The church building was in an area that was so unlike the area I live in, it could have been in another continent, let alone another country. ‘Poor’ where I live is generally what happens in other countries, ‘poor’ in that area meant a weekly struggle to afford the basics. I was expecting a ‘make do and mend’ building, but I was astonished at the quality and the newness.

I was more astonished by the ordinary church members. They did not see the church building as many see it; as akin to a Temple and bearing more relationship to Old Testament Temple theology than the new. They spoke, without boasting, of how the building was a means to an end, of how it was used and how it offered service and a home. They talked of plans to use it more. They spoke of how a worshipping community was growing through service.

One of the things that amazed me most was, although the church and area were generally poor, the quality of finish was high. Everything about it said ‘you are valued’. Yet I have seen rural chapels with a much richer catchment where the finish is ‘tired’ and the quality based on the ‘make do and mend’ principle…

random, rant »

‘They never spoke to me. I stood behind them in the queue and they never even noticed me.’

Someone was relating a tale to me about a minister they had some aquaintance with and about how they didn’t like them.

And all the time when I was hearing this tale (second hand) I was stifling the response ‘Well; didn’t you try and talk to them?’

Why do some people sometimes imagine we are supernatural?

funeral, thoughts »

‘So how do you do it?’ asked my wife. ‘You know; go into a room of people that you have never met and start talking?’

I should explain; I have had a rash of funerals recently (‘rash’ may not be the right word ‘gloom’ may be a better one). Part of a funeral is the tea that follows. I am often asked to pop in. I know others who are asked who don’t go; to go into a room of strangers is hard. I generally go: I like food and talking. I also think that funerals are not just a ‘job’ with targets, times and agreed outcomes and am am paid to ‘loiter with intent’ (one reason why I am becoming increasingly uneasy with any move to make a minister a ‘strategic leader’).

In this environment people talk: it may be their only encounter with ‘religion’. But you have to listen and be aware that lots and lots of small talk is neccesary and also almost ‘sacred’. If someone ever says they don’t do small talk I am tempted to say ‘And you expect to lead and inspire people?!’ Tempted: I am far too passive to say that out loud.

I think it is good for a minister’s soul to do this: to be on someone else’s territory, to play by someone else’s rules, to not be in control; in short to be a ‘stranger and refugee’.

So how do you do it? One of my favourite exchanges from the BBC ‘Pride and Prejudice’ a few years back:-

‘I am not much good at talking to people.’

‘I am not much good at playing the piano, but I practice.’

You just take a deep breath, pray madly, and here is the really technical thing: you talk. And then you listen. And you make sure you do most of the latter. And no; it is not easy.

Uncategorized »

Some of it is conscious (and unconscious) choice and some of it to do with stage in life: children 10 and nearly 8 and lives full of activity and a wife who seems to work more than me. Things feel a little ‘intense’: lie ins don’t happen at all until term ends and then rarely and I can think of at least one friend whom we haven’t managed to arrange anything with and have promised to do for months.

I hesitate to use the word ‘busy’ as I loathe that word and I have seen many people (particularly ordained) who use the word to say ‘Look, I’m important’ and seem so rushed. But I am approaching ‘busy’ and I don’t like what it is doing to me.

My reading, as in slow deliberate immersion in a text in a systematic and attentive way has largely gone. This is not good. I have just splashed out on a hardback book (a hardback book!), almost as a sacrament and intend to carve out some deliberate time to read.

This is it:-

It is from a writer whom I hugely admire and who has been a voice of sense for me for many years. I am looking forward to it.