We had a good Easter break during which we saw several friends, some of whom we hadn't spent time with in ages. It was good to catch up. I also made a start on the office clear-out and had the first of my birthday golf-lessons. It was quite encouraging... the pro said that I had a natural gift for the game and that with a few minor tweaks to my swing there was no reason why in a few months I couldn't be down to a single-figure handicap and.... and then I woke up.
Then there was the day and and half of Tech Support... Judith's work laptop suddenly started behaving strangely, causing much panic as she had some course work on it NOT BACKED UP. I managed to salvage that OK after a couple of hours, but it turned out the problems were because the Hard Drive had started to die. The last Mac laptop HD I replaced was very simple, just lifted the keyboard and there it was, so I bought a new one... only to discover on this model it's a major take-to-bits job. Fortunately via good ol' Google I found a step-by-step guide with photographs. It still took several hours, but I'm glad to say the transplant was successful Doctor and the patient made a full recovery. Great time-savers these computers...
This week I've continued the office clear-out, a job which is proving much more time-consuming than I thought. A number of items have been given away via the Manchester Freecycle Group (see: http://uk.freecycle.org), a few sold on Ebay and a LOT dumped into binbags. Yesterday I went through 3 boxes of floppy discs, destroying any that might contain State Secrets, and purged another bunch of old files c/o a shredder (anyone need a mattress stuffing?)
Today was a reading day at Nazarene Theological College (NTC). The morning was reading more of "Into The Silent Land" by Martin Laird, and in the afternoon I read and made notes on ALL of 'The Church in the Back Streets' by Stanley Evans. Impressed? Actually, it's only 49 pages! But good stuff if a bit Anglican in places. More of the same tomorrow.
I said last time I'd say more about what came out of the day with the 'Spiritual Director'. After the emphasis on the importance of the 'Rest' part of my sabbatical 3 R's (the other two being Reflection and Re-focus) we looked at the importance of understanding my rhythm and the need to find one for after my sabbatical so, ideally, I don't get as tired and unbalanced again.
We then looked at how I function in ministry and came up with the words 'builder', 'shaper', 'developer', 'provoker' - enabling things to function, connect, run, fulfill their purpose, and giving leadership in those areas. Looking ahead (beginnings of the Re-focus bit) there was a sense of needing to sort out things to leave behind, and things I'd want to take further. Russ had a picture of me stretchering people from one place to another, the implication being that it was time to let them walk on their own now.
We looked at a verse in 2 Chronicles which talks about re-casting and the importance of covering and protection while this is going on (this is where your prayers come in folks!) and of giving time for cooling and solidification into the new shape. Thoughts of re-tooling and adding skills, and also of reproducing myself - i.e. finding and envisioning and/or training others to do the sorts of things I've been doing. This is all pretty vague at the moment, but hopefully more details will emerge as time goes on. One thing that did come to mind during a time of prayer was an old image one of the Urban Presence Trustees shared of Derek and I being on bungee ropes. This was in the context of a discussion about us participating in occasional events outside of Manchester and the idea was of always bouncing back here - i.e. what we did elsewhere would come out our experience here and would relate back to it. Could this indicate more work further afield?
Near the end of the day Russ felt a clear sense that God was fashioning a new tool for me, that I'd be able to pick things up and lay them down in an easier way than before. I'd need to lean a new skill in using this tool, but that would not be difficult. Encouraging.
Something someone else sent me last week which she felt may have been from God fits so well with a lot of this: "Don't confuse a willingness to serve with an obligation to do the jobs no-one else wants/get round to doing. You can choose to be a facilitator or step into the fullness of the ministry God has uniquely for you but you can't do both things well. Don't be tempted at the end of your sabbatical to pick up everything you laid down, not even with the intention of it being short term until a replacement is found. Take the opportunity to only pick up those things you are going to concentrate on." Nice.
One other thing... several weeks ago another friend emailed me Isaiah 8 v16-20. It puzzled me a bit at the time, but together with a couple of other things I've read or heard that have struck me, it now makes sense. In working in a 'mission with' situation it is important to be clear about your boundaries, guarding a distinctive Christian ethos and integrity and being aware of the dangers of signing up to the values and reference points of your not-necessarily-Christian co-workers. See the final 2 verses The passage also talks of disciples and having children, which could refer to finding and working with others.
All interesting stuff, eh? Your thoughts, comments, reactions, accusations of heresy etc are all welcome.
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Then there was the day and and half of Tech Support... Judith's work laptop suddenly started behaving strangely, causing much panic as she had some course work on it NOT BACKED UP. I managed to salvage that OK after a couple of hours, but it turned out the problems were because the Hard Drive had started to die. The last Mac laptop HD I replaced was very simple, just lifted the keyboard and there it was, so I bought a new one... only to discover on this model it's a major take-to-bits job. Fortunately via good ol' Google I found a step-by-step guide with photographs. It still took several hours, but I'm glad to say the transplant was successful Doctor and the patient made a full recovery. Great time-savers these computers...
This week I've continued the office clear-out, a job which is proving much more time-consuming than I thought. A number of items have been given away via the Manchester Freecycle Group (see: http://uk.freecycle.org), a few sold on Ebay and a LOT dumped into binbags. Yesterday I went through 3 boxes of floppy discs, destroying any that might contain State Secrets, and purged another bunch of old files c/o a shredder (anyone need a mattress stuffing?)
Today was a reading day at Nazarene Theological College (NTC). The morning was reading more of "Into The Silent Land" by Martin Laird, and in the afternoon I read and made notes on ALL of 'The Church in the Back Streets' by Stanley Evans. Impressed? Actually, it's only 49 pages! But good stuff if a bit Anglican in places. More of the same tomorrow.
I said last time I'd say more about what came out of the day with the 'Spiritual Director'. After the emphasis on the importance of the 'Rest' part of my sabbatical 3 R's (the other two being Reflection and Re-focus) we looked at the importance of understanding my rhythm and the need to find one for after my sabbatical so, ideally, I don't get as tired and unbalanced again.
We then looked at how I function in ministry and came up with the words 'builder', 'shaper', 'developer', 'provoker' - enabling things to function, connect, run, fulfill their purpose, and giving leadership in those areas. Looking ahead (beginnings of the Re-focus bit) there was a sense of needing to sort out things to leave behind, and things I'd want to take further. Russ had a picture of me stretchering people from one place to another, the implication being that it was time to let them walk on their own now.
We looked at a verse in 2 Chronicles which talks about re-casting and the importance of covering and protection while this is going on (this is where your prayers come in folks!) and of giving time for cooling and solidification into the new shape. Thoughts of re-tooling and adding skills, and also of reproducing myself - i.e. finding and envisioning and/or training others to do the sorts of things I've been doing. This is all pretty vague at the moment, but hopefully more details will emerge as time goes on. One thing that did come to mind during a time of prayer was an old image one of the Urban Presence Trustees shared of Derek and I being on bungee ropes. This was in the context of a discussion about us participating in occasional events outside of Manchester and the idea was of always bouncing back here - i.e. what we did elsewhere would come out our experience here and would relate back to it. Could this indicate more work further afield?
Near the end of the day Russ felt a clear sense that God was fashioning a new tool for me, that I'd be able to pick things up and lay them down in an easier way than before. I'd need to lean a new skill in using this tool, but that would not be difficult. Encouraging.
Something someone else sent me last week which she felt may have been from God fits so well with a lot of this: "Don't confuse a willingness to serve with an obligation to do the jobs no-one else wants/get round to doing. You can choose to be a facilitator or step into the fullness of the ministry God has uniquely for you but you can't do both things well. Don't be tempted at the end of your sabbatical to pick up everything you laid down, not even with the intention of it being short term until a replacement is found. Take the opportunity to only pick up those things you are going to concentrate on." Nice.
One other thing... several weeks ago another friend emailed me Isaiah 8 v16-20. It puzzled me a bit at the time, but together with a couple of other things I've read or heard that have struck me, it now makes sense. In working in a 'mission with' situation it is important to be clear about your boundaries, guarding a distinctive Christian ethos and integrity and being aware of the dangers of signing up to the values and reference points of your not-necessarily-Christian co-workers. See the final 2 verses The passage also talks of disciples and having children, which could refer to finding and working with others.
All interesting stuff, eh? Your thoughts, comments, reactions, accusations of heresy etc are all welcome.
Powered by ScribeFire.
