I love Assembly... I love the gathering and greeting, the listening and learning, the commemorating and celebrating... it is good to be together as part of this this crazy, diverse, mixed-up, sometimes quarrelsome, sometimes frustrating, family of Jesus-followers.

And this was a good Assembly, with a feeling of warmth and welcome, openness and acceptance.  We heard good key note speakers (Helen Paynter and Leone Martin), we shared times of prayer and worship, times of food and fellowship, times of catching up and - yes - times of whinging.

Having been to Assembly almost every year for more than a quarter of a century, I find that the same themes recur in new guises, as new generations ask the age-old questions... Is that a good thing? Maybe.  It's good that younger people continue to bring energy and enthusiasm, but sad that the same old injustices and inequities are perpetuated. 

Overall, it was good.  I came home good-tired having had lots of conversation, having met new people and reconnected with people I've known for ages.  My Assembly 'bingo' card of words/phrases/irritations/celebrations was a full house - and that, too, is good... my Baptist family in all its fullness, doing its best to follow Jesus, each congregation, college and association at liberty under the guidance of God's Spirit to discern what it means for them to be speaking and being Good News in a broken and disordered world... I'm glad to be part of that.