I was reading(-ish) a pull-out supplement from a Christian publication and saw an attention grabbing headline that really annoyed me:

"The [Evangelism Resource] more than anything else in the world has enabled people to follow Jesus... And we're not going to stop"

It annoys we because it is humanly wrong - the vast majority of Christians through time have never even heard of this resource and I suspect even in our own time it accounts only for a small fraction of conversions/commitments

It annoys me even more because it theologically wrong - last time I looked it was the Holy Spirit who enabled people to follow Jesus

It annoys me because it as arrogant and in the language of marketing, 'new Raz washes whiter; improved action Bosh kills 99.999% of germs, etc

It saddens me because I know people who have faithfully delivered this brand and seen no tangible results

It saddens me because I know people for whom this brand has been incredibly important in their own story, but was recognised not as 'the thing' but 'a thing'

It saddens me because it reduces Christian experience to a formula, as if one size fits all (or at most has adaptations for awkward traditions like Baptists and Catholics).

It also saddens me because the person being interviewed is evidently fulfilling a great and important mission and pastoral role yet a slant in reporting appropraites this for some other goal (or so it feels to me)

So, at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, a short rant!

So, a long day at the Spring Fayre later time for a couple of funny moments...

One of the items I donated was a squirrel nutcracker like this one:

It attracted a fair deal of derision and caused much amusement, yet no-one wanted to buy it.  I nicknamed it the 'double your money' item as per the lunchtime TV programme 'Car Booty.'  A few minutes before the end of the Fayre I noticed it had gone and commented on this to the stall holder: no he hadn't sold it, neither had his colleague... it appears it had been nicked!

Talking of nicked, one of the items I spotted on the bric-a-brac stall was a collection of seven pencils held together with a rubber band for the princely sum of 10p. which I duly paid - pencils which I had lent out in a church service and which had mysteriously walked.  Which just goes to show it's the little old ladies you have to watch out for.

All good fun.  We raised about £1k for the redevelopment fund, saw lots of people come through the doors and had some good conversations.

And if the nutcracker-napper is out there, we forgive you.

Last night as we set up for the Spring Fayre (which looks amazing) someone asked me if I was going to run a stall selling indulgences.  After postulating selling blessings at 10p a word (cheaper than the Herald personal ads...) deducing that pigs' blood might contravene 'elf and satey' and that chicken bones were a little too obvious, I will be supplying hand crafted vanilla slices and fresh cream strawberry slices for anyone who craves a little indulgence.  Hurrah for Sainsbugs (other brands are available) pre-rolled puff pastry!

Other delights for those seeking some edible Saturday indulgence include homemade tablet (~fudge), marmalade, chutney, banana bread, cookies and sponges.  Should be a good day.

Plagiarising Sean's Galatians 3 Bible study at Baptist Assembly two years ago, pre-empting my sermon on Sunday, and noting the views of two of my blog-friends here and here: in Christ there is neither Gooners nor Spurs but until we get our heads around that... love your rivals, pray for those who trounce you.

This morning was an early start necessitating two car trips to church to deliver the boxes of books, bric-a-brac, and so forth for the church Spring Fayre.  Even with the benefits of a lift at home, the energy expended in moving the boxes from a legal parking space (the parking wardens were out at 7:30) justified, in my opinion, a trip to the independent coffee house for a take out skinny-skinny latte and 'quelquechose a manger.'  Checking out what was on offer I saw something called a 'tournade au choclat' - basically a twist of puff pastry with chocolate chips and gloopy stuff down the middle (tastes way better than it sounds).  The man repeating my order back to me said 'a tournade or chocolate - or "one of them chocolate twist thingies" as some people say'.  Indeed.

Last night was spent baking cookies on behalf of Millie Mole.  It is quite problematic sharing your life with a fur fabric creature as suddenly they start to dictate your actions (I think there is a nice place for people so affected where the staff wear white coats and the doors are incredibly tricky to open from the inside...).  Anyway, Millie Mole's Cookies are now made and almost ready to go on sale.  Plagiarism?  Nah.  Not much.

Hopefully lots of people will come along tomorrow to buy all the stuff we have on offer, both raising some money for the (re-)development fund and allowing us to get to know our neighbours better.   Meantime I better do something a little more overtly ministerial than talking about food.