One of the tasks for the modern minister is that from time to time I am asked to write a biopic for one website or another. This is a fairly new phenomenon for me and is always an interesting process. The other task that I need to accomplish around this time of the year is the writing of our annual Christmas letter. Personally, I am not a lover of the Christmas round robin letter, back in the day, I remember my mum sitting down with her Basildon Bond writing pad and hand writing a personal letter to each of her friends, despite all of that, I race the clock to scribble down a few memories of the year, print a load off and send them out with our Christmas cards, written by my long-suffering wife.
The interesting thing about both these activities, is that I find myself looking back at my life. I left school at sixteen and went to work for a progressive company who in its day had a first-class training course for school leavers, my one ambition as a sixteen-year-old was to pass my driving test and get myself a job which would provide me with a Ford Cortina company car. I pushed myself well out of my comfort zone and gave my career all that I had.
Coming of age at eighteen, I felt that I had my whole life mapped out before me, I had a plethora of goals and ambitions, and as a sixty-five-year-old I can admit that I accomplished most of the things I fantasised about as a teenager. I never ever dreamed of being a multi-millionaire, driving a Ferrari, or having a country mansion, my goals were far more realistic than that, but looking back over the years, my values have changed.
One of the most important lessons I have learned over the years is to accept that I don’t have the monopoly on good ideas, and time and time again, I have gone into a meeting and made a suggestion, following a sensible conversation with wise people we have collectively come up with a far better solution. One of the biggest problems I come across is when people have very fixed views on what is right and won’t listen to others.
Churches around the country pray week by week for revival and as I look back to my own teenage years and all my ideals as a young man, I was very different to sixteen-year-olds today and for the modern Church to be relevant to younger people, we need to do things differently, but are we ready to change? Or do we expect others to change to behave more like us?
Following our Advent theme “out of the ordinary” in week two we reflect on the theme “Preparing for the extraordinary – Changing your mind” One of the biggest problems in the time of Jesus was that the religious people of his day wanted a Messiah