The church of a friend of mine is participating in their local Community Day, giving away loads of free stuff and offering various 'pause points' (my phrase) for people brave enough to cross the threshold into their building.  Among these is a space to complete this sentence:

Before I die I want to...

I suppose it could be seen as a bit ghoulish or even tempting of providence, if your mind works that way, but I wonder how would you complete the sentence?

My response was:

...live life in its fullness, love extravagantly and laugh til my sides split

Feel free to add your own ideas via comments!

(I'll be back online in about a week and a half from now!)

For three days I listened to Dr Don Carson speaking on aspects of the letter to the Ephesians.  Unlike some of my colleagues, I enjoyed it (sorry folks!).  It was well prepared, thoroughly researched and prompted me to think.  These for me are important attributes of a conference speaker.  We were told he was preaching.  He wasn't, he was teaching.  I did not agree with everything he said, though the vast majority was totally uncontentious.  I had expected a brash north American, instead I got a softly spoken man with deep convictions, some I share, some I don't.

One thing he said in the final Q&A session that I totally agree with is that we cannot 'not talk' about things just because they are contentious or thorny.  If we say 'topic x' is off limits for discussion, then we set ourselves up for explosions and fissions and schisms.  As I heard it, he even acknowledged that what some term 'heresy' has a vital role in forcing the church to think about topics and issues.

He also said that we need to avoid selectivity in our use of the Bible.  We should not skip past the bits that disquiet or disturb us, but should wrestle with them.  Whilst he and I would come to to some very different conclusions, we share a passion for taking the whole Bible seriously.

So, good stuff.  Not rocket science.  Not new.  But good to hear it said.

However.

There has to be a 'however' or a 'but' or two.

Firstly, in common with many people he spoke of the supreme authority of Scripture, which is contra Baptist (at least British Baptist) principles.  The supreme authority for us is 'our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ'.  As revealed in scripture for sure, but it is the incarnate WORD, not the written Word where we locate authority.  Some will say that is semantics, but its not.  Our supreme authority is none other than the infinite God, not the finite records of inspired writers.

And this leads me on to my second 'but'.  In the final session, focusing on the list of roles in Ephesians 4 - apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers - he said that these were all 'ministries of the word'.  I am not sure I agree with this, are not pastors primarily carers?  But suppose I accept the premise, then actually I'm thrown back to the beautiful Johannine phrases that 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us' along with good old Karl Barth's WORD. Word, word scheme.  Actually, these roles are not (just) about the word, the human speech of those who fulfil them, albeit inspired by God's Spirit.  No, they are about incarnating the Word (the message of the scriptures) and, mysteriously and mind-blowingly, the WORD (the Christ, of which the church is the visible body).  If I was mischievous, I would amend Barth's scheme to WORD, Word, works.  But then you'd need to understand the whole Hebrews thing about Abraham and the intimate relationship of faith and work.  Yes, I am called to 'preach the word' and I am a word-person.  But, dare I say, I - and we - are also called to incarnate the word, to live the gospel not just pronounce upon it?

Another minister made a profound and pertinent comment on this concept of 'word' ministries.  Where does this leave the person who has not learned to read?  Who has dyslexia?  Who is blind?  Who has learning disabilities?  Is s/he excluded from this set of roles?  I think of the intuitive pastoring gifts of many with Downs syndrome; of the simple proclamations of faith by the person with severe learning difficulties; of the willingness to go to tough places of the person with few advantages in life.  These people incarnate the Word, incarnate the WORD.  For Dr Carson to be correct in his conclusion on this we need a broader, deeper, more theologically sophisticated understanding of what we mean by the word 'word'.... Or is that just semantics too? :-))

Good to be given something to chew on.

The last few days gave been spent with a gathering of Baptist ministers in a seaside university town in Scotland.  This is the second time I've been, and I found it a much more positive experience this time than last.  These events are always something of a mixed blessing (I should know, I helped organise them for several years in my last place) and there is no way that anyone is ever going to please all, or even, most of those who go along.  I am grateful for the opporutnity to go along, and to thsoe who worked hard to plan and deliver it.

The good things included...

The fact that there were SIX women ministers present.  (Please don't call me a lady minister... unless you intend to call the other 95% gentlemen ministers...)

The speaker's careful and thorough preparation, and the few times he allowed himself to ground/root what he was saying in his own experience.  I found the account of his wife's utterly sensible prayer for a woman dying of secondary cancer very refreshing.  Others were equally moved by his account of his son's questions around faith.

The conversations over meals or in queues or in the pub or elsewhere some when some sessions were 'bunked off'.  I think I've come late to the joys of bunking off... in the old place there were explicitly no expectations that you be in any session, so there was no bunking to be done, you just opted in rather than out... clever, huh?

The not so good things were...

The fact that the vast majority of language was 'male', that every mention of 'minister' used the pronoun 'he', and that in prayers we were (with one notable execption, thank you G) referred to as 'brothers'   (Actually there were two, cos I said 'sisters and brothers', the order being just a teeny bit deliberate)

The use of a hymn that contained the expression 'holy war'.... what?  Jihad?  A quick search in Hymnquest revealed 16 more such hymns.  Oh dear.  Oh no.  No.  That's plain wrong.

The flippancy of response to a serious - and needed - request by one minister that time be given over for us to pray with and for one another, coupled with the expectation that those not on email or Facebook needed to get themselves online asap.  Disappointing.

The things that never change...

The futility of sending in dietary restrictions.  When I arrived I was told to go and speak to the chef, who was very helpful... but on each day there was no main course I could eat, and only one suitable dessert in the entire conference.  I have to say I ate remarkably healthily - but who goes to a conference to eat salad and fruit?!

The things that absolutely must change

Oh my word.  Communal shower rooms (albeit with lockable cubicles).  In this day and age.  With a mixed group.  No.  Not good enough.  Not even a decision to allocate one shower room for women (evidently there was a designated one two floors up...).  Shudder!

Overall?

Overall despite the grumblings above, I actually had quite a good time.  I think there is now a 'critical mass' on women which does make a difference to the feel of the event.  It was good to catch up with folk from other places, and to meet 'new' people.  I came away relaxed if not refreshed, intact if not inspired.  Yes, on balance, I think that, like earth, in the 2nd Ed. THHGTTG, it was 'mostly harmless'

(PS If anyone is reading this was there, and was offended or antagonised by my 'preacher' tee-shirt, I apologise; it was intended to 'provoke thought' but certainly not to hurt or offend.)

A very nutty but good couple of weeks in prospect, began today with a five hundred mile round trip to conduct a funeral.  Loads of rail travel (and a little bit of bus travel too) which totals around 2000 miles, includes two conferences, a funeral (today), a Baptism (at the far end of the two weeks) several services and no doubt other things I have temporarily forgotten.

All of which means that this space will be blog light for a while as I won't be taking my laptop everywhere with me.

Normal service will be resumed in a couple of weeks.

This afternoon our speaker for our West End Festival event was leading us in exploring some poetry - and a great time was had by all who shared in it.

One of the poems was called 'Message Clear'...

Very clever... read along each line forming words, then note that each line is formed by removing letters from the final line... or is it that the whole is more than sum of its parts?  I loved it!

(Tried to copy and paste but it lost the formatting)