Today we repeated an experiment we did this time last year... we explicitly combined our church meeting and morning worship so that each was part of the other.  I guess having done it twice, it is now a tradition...  The great advantage was that we had more people present for more of the material, and we all got away earlier than if we had a normal service followed by a meeting.  I think we probably also had some better quality conversations because we were a tad less exhausted!

It was good to meet and not make any decisions; rather we had some open-ended conversations to pick up again next time we meet.  There was no rocket science; no radical new ideas were shared... like any and every church we were simply revisiting perennial topics for a new season.

Next Sunday is so exciting (for me) I could almost pop... so watch this space, cos it is going to be a-may-zing!

I was recently asked to provide a photo of myself to someone who is collecting images of Baptist women  'firsts'.  Not exactly Miss Photogenic 2013, and not exactly sure what I look like anymore, I posted three possibilities on my Facebook page and invited my 'friends' to vote.  It was interesting to read the comments and reasons for choices, but the one they chose, and which will find its way into Baptist lore is this one:

It was taken on the day of my 50th birthday bash at church, and I like it because I am wearing some of favourite colours.  It's also not too formal but not too casual either.  Of course a more honest portrayal would be the dragged through a hedge backwards look... but no-one said it had to be honest!