This evening I had intended to watch the opening ceremony of the Paralympics.  I them remembered that I'd forgotten I was meant to be at the Glasgow Baptist Prayer Gathering.  I have to confess to groaning as I knew the right thing to do was go and pray, because I'd looked forward to watching the ceremony.

Still, off I went, and I'm glad I did.  It was nice to have a musical lead who could not only sing but direct singing, and who knew a wide variety of 'world church' stuff as well as contemporary stuff, and although I baulked at a song that required me to refer to myself as 'a sinful man' on the whole the music was good.

The organisation was such that each church was allocated a table where someone had to sit to guide the prayers being offered and after five minutes or so, the people moved on to another table.  It was quite humbling to lead prayer with people I don't know (or don't know well) and to hear them pray for our church.

In one of the groups who came to 'my' table was a man who was quite excited by what he was experiencing.  In his prayer he observed that he'd never been to such an event before but it was lovely to find out what all the churches were doing and how it was like pebbles being dropped into a pond and the ripples spreading out and overlapping in a beautiful pattern.  I liked that.  It was, for me the most profound moment of the evening.

Yummy cakes and tea afterwards, and a lift home rather than standing on a lonely train platform late at night.  Would still have liked to watch the Paralympic ceremony, but I'm glad I went to the Prayer Gathering to experience some people praying nicely together.

A long first day back at work... but a good one.

So today I am back at work after a lovely, leisurely week off during which I visited and re-visited many great places in and around Glasgow; I also discovered some were closed for refurbishment, and that googling 'Hunterian' can lead you to the wrong place if you aren't careful.  Anyway, from military bands to Nardini's ice-cream, sailing on the Waverly to a 3D IMAX dinosaur docu-drama film, and finally doing the open-top bus tour, it was fun.

Now, as the ubiquitous saying goes, it's old clothes and porridge, aka back to work.

This morning's PAYG was the story of the beheading of John the Baptist, on which I preached just a few weeks back.  One of the slants they took was about the challenge of trying to 'do the right thing' when under pressure to 'give people what they want'.  Whilst Herod directly contributed to his dilemma, and we may not always be so obviously complicit, it was a good question to ponder at the start of the new season.  We have several new initiatives that we have deemed 'the right thing' but not everyone is going to like all of them, maybe any of them, so how do I respond?

Tricky, as by nature I'm a 'people pleaser' but know fine well 'you can't please all of the people'.  So my plan of action?

Firstly, I intend to enjoy the new things!  They are opportunities to grow in faith and in grace, to meet new people, to unlock hidden talents, to play our part in God's Mission.

Secondly, these are the decisions of the church, not of me, and therefore we are together equally responsible for the changes and their management.

Lastly, I need to do my best to be caring, pastoral, supportive to those who find it difficult, whilst encouraging people to engage with things that are new and maybe challenging.

~

Back to John the Baptist and Herod

No-one is going to ask me for someone's head on a plate - but I am still challenged to reflect on those areas where, ultimately, I will go with the flow for a quiet life even when I have a sense of disquiet.  Maybe sometimes I do well to be disturbed by glimpsing myself in the 'villains' of the stories.

~

Now then - first job of the new season - go to Coffee Club!  How brilliant is that?!

BBC Beyond Belief presented a brilliant example of Baptists, well, being Baptist...  "agree to disagree and still love each other."  Go listen.  Especially proud of my former research supervisor Ruth Gouldbourne.  Some interesting questions and answers, and hopefully illuminating for all who listened.

Will be available to download after the i-player version has expired.

I have no idea if Ship of Fools have spotted this one, but oh, my, word...

According to Amazon it is a "spiritual male praying hands sculpture... looks like David Beckham."  Nuff said.  (I was looking for a large praying hands decal (sticker)...)

Today we used the Roots 'Gigantic Welcome' material as a basis for our service.  It was the first of our 'new format' services so it was not without some trepidation that I stood up to lead.  It is a complicated theme, and I'm not sure I did it any justice whatsoever... my sermon was still not the greatest despite five attempts, and I think that's perhaps because I was trying to juggle too many balls.  People were gracious and generous in their response - even those who are not entirely convinced this is the way to go and the closing activity 'responding all together' seemed to work well as we made 'welcome bunting' for the church.

More than forty hand-crafted 'flags' which I have just threaded onto string (perversely I'm relieved a lot of people were away - the usual congregation would have meant double that!) assisted, or is that hindered, by a black and white furry fiend friend.  A few photos to give just a hint of the kind of thing we made... just as thy were threaded along, so systematic selection I can assure you!