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.     

A huge thank you to everyone who has donated to my charity walk.  So far, in seven days, I've walked just over 58 miles (my secret goal is a lot higher than 100 miles!)

Since I began walking, based on average figure, something like 1120 people will have been diagnosed with breast cancer, and around 220 will have died. 

Should you wish to donate and haven't done so, the link is here but please don't feel obliged to do so.

How do you measure the size of a church?  As Baptists, we tend to count the number of people in formal or covenanted Membership, plus or minus those we have on the associate or non-active lists, who we may or may not retain as full Members for pastoral reasons (and who we may or may not count in the census data used for per capita subscriptions, fees and licences).  Then there are the Friends or Non-Members who are regular in attendance and active in service, who never get included in subs/fees/etc calculations and who may or may not ever choose to Covenant formally with a congregation for all sorts of reasons.  Lastly there are the under 18s... young people, teenagers, children, babes in arms.

Today, one of my tasks has been updating and consolidating the lists held by Railway Town Baptist Church.

By the time I leave at the end of August, we will have welcomed 5 (possibly 6) people into Covenanted Membership.  During the same time, two have died, and one has withdrawn from membership, suggesting a net gain of 2 or 3... or, growth of around 10%, based on the 'active list'. (I've excluded myself from those numbers, as I am a 'net zero')

When we closed our Sunday School, we were down to 'maximum of two, and sometimes no' children.  Since we began our new model, we have anything up to a dozen, rarely less than six, and with fifteen names on the role... or growth by a  factor of around 7 (or around 600% more than we started with).

Our Non-Active (mostly elderly and housebound) and Friends lists add as many again as the Active and Children's lists... if everyone arrived at once (which won't happen) we would be nearly 80; Sunday-by-Sunday we are around 40-50, which moves us to the 'large' end of 'small' churches.

As I reflect on almost three years, I feel that we have, together, done a good work, that from small-small we are, at last practically speaking, large-small, with a lower average age, greater demographic diversity and new faces emerging among those who take on leadership roles.  It's not about numbers, it's never about numbers - but even so, the numbers are encouraging (and the spreadsheet is complete!)  

It's now May, so I officially start walking my 100 miles from Breast Cancer Now.  Having (foolishly) linked my Fit-bit to Just Giving, the webpage claims I do very slow strolls at less than 2 miles an hour, whilst also recording me walking three miles in fifty minutes and other equally daft things!  The step count is more reliable (maybe...)  Ah well, it's all in a good cause.

Should you feel moved to sponsor me, the link is here: link 

Way back, in 2009. my name was sent to three Baptist churches in Scotland, each of whom was, in theory at least, willing to call a woman minister.  The one pictured here (I stole the image from their website) discerned that they needed a youth worker instead, so withdrew their invitation.

Way back in 2009. on the 26th April, I preached for the very first time in Glasgow.  It was the start of an adventure that lasted near enough a quarter of my lifetime, and that has helped shape my to the person I now am.

This year on 26th April, after I preach in Railway Town, I'll travel the Aberdeen church for the second time ever, and for the second time it's for the funeral of someone whose story interconnects with my own.  It was quite sobering thinking of who was there then, and won't be now.

It's a long and beautiful train ride, and I have a lot of work that I need to complete as I travel, but I am grateful to be able to say farewell to the women who was my Pastoral Supervisor and who encouraged me to train as one.