Yesterday was, among other things, World Leprosy Day and we had been counting our blessings during the previous week using the TLM prayer sheet as guidance. The extent of our blessings is self evident in that we raised over £500 in response.  How great is the love and decadent generosity of our God that we should have so much, and how encouraging that we can respond with our own generosity of giving.  Blessings given from blessings received.

I'm still mildly amused that TLM "charged" me £3 for not having any pets whilst those with pets "paid" £1 per animal (good job no-one keeps stick insects!) and to discover just who is the self-confessed 'Imelda' of our church (evidently owning about 18 pairs of shoes).  It was fun and it was thought-provoking, which seems a good balance to me.

Does anyone, honestly, understand Colossians 1:24?  Last night's joint service took the form of an interactive Bible study looking at the first chapter of this letter and one of the avenues of exploration was this problematic verse:

Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. (NIV)

Undoubtedly scholars spend hours pondering nuances of Greek, preachers offer their own hypotheses or, more likely, just skip over it (which I have to confess would be a strong temptation) but what does it reallly mean?  Does anyone, other the author (another debated topic), actually know what it means?  Answers in plain English on a postcard to the usual address....

There is a really horrid expression 'normal for Norfolk' which is used derogatively to describe people who are not exactly over-endowed with intellect.  The was a similar expression in Dibley and I recall preaching an alternative interpretation as part of a challenge to a general underlying negativity I experienced in my early days.  But, there are underlying norms everywhere, and it can take a while to discover them, as I am beginning to realise when my assumptions/presuppositions don't match those of others.

One big difference in this corner of River City is that most church people have email (about 75% according to the directory) whereas in Dibley most did not (about 25%).  Inevitably each of these impacts how information is communicated and what people expect.  In each each case, it also raises questions about inclusion and exclusion and about what is communicated by what medium.  At one church I worked with (neither of the above) one Deacon had information sent to her son's email address, about which I was always unhappy, but it was the only way she could be kept in the loop as everything was done by email.  When I first went to Dibley I used to hand deliver copies of any emails to the two non-email deacons, and everything for general consumption was done on paper.

I guess what I am being reminded is that "Normal for Anytown Baptist Church" is not the same as normal for any Baptist church in any aspect, whether administrative, worship or whatever.  It keeps me on my toes anyway!

This from ASBO Jesus made me laugh out loud (and think a bit too!)

Quite a well worn topic, but picked up here by Ruth Gledhill, and maybe worth a look

My biggest gripe with 'men don't like singing love songs to Jesus' is that the songs to which they object are invariably written by men...

Oh, and if you read to the end of the article you will spot this:

Instead of having to queue for coffee, why not ask some of the women to go round with trays of coffee and biscuits or chocky bars? Coupled with a charming smile, many men would find that very attractive! (Of course, the men may like to take turns and serve coffee in return.)

This is one girl/woman who is not about to spend her time serving mugs of coffee and chunky chocolate bars to males, so don't anyone start getting ideas.  I am very happy to serve refreshments to anyone of either gender - but not to 'fish for men' in the process; I am sure flirting with the parishioners must be bordering on conduct unbecoming...

See what you make of it!