Well, for those faithful readers who read last week's stuff, you were right, I escaped unlinched after today's service.  One person thought it was a good service - and had found the agricultural stuff interesting!!!  Someone else decided to announce he had loads of cooking apples free to good home.... ah me.

It has been a varied weekend.

Yesterday I was in Nuneaton at an induction service with a very lively and enthusiastic sermon based on Matthew's version of the beattitudes.  It was good stuff, and whilst I'm not sure I can recall all four "legs" of the sermon, it seemed a very encouraging message for minister and church.  Although I missed some of the more usual aspects of such services (where were greetings and endless folk to shake hands with the new minister?) it was a good experinece and I was glad to be part of this celebration of a new beginning.

After dropping off my passenger in Anthracite-juxta-Dibley (or Charcoal-cum-Dibley, or any other weird and wonderful code name for the adjacent town) I headed to Loughborough where I was stewarding for the Riding Lights production of 'Pipe Dreams.'  With their usual aplomb, the cast of four young actors held the audience's attention for a two hour show (with a short interval) which took us backward and forward in time and around the globe in support of the charity Water Aid.  For those who think Christian drama must be explicitly Biblical, polite and twee, well perhaps it was a bit of a surprise; certainly one of my fellow stewards bemoaned the move away from "the text," perhaps missing the faith-in-action message.  If it's in your area, it's worth a look and at £9/head not too dear.

This week I am due to be interviewed over the phone for the BUGB prayer guide 2007 and then am off to Swanwick with another fifty or so Baptist ministers for our annual conference at which I am involved in leading the closing worship.  I think I am sort of looking forward to both of these: the first is quite encouraging and the second feels like a privilege; both are a little scary.

In between times there's a sermon on "wheat and tares" to write, some reading to do (when I get told what it is) ready for my first college 'weekend' in Manchester and the church junior games group to visit...  So plenty of variety, if not much time to actually stand backand think about things.