Time for something lighter on this blog methinks.

I arrived at the end of the road where church is this morning to discover 'road closed' signs and a police cordon running across the road at the end of the church building.  Various forensic type people were wandering about from an 'incident' van and ordinary police officers were guarding the cordon.

'Can I get to the church?' I asked

'Oh yes, people such as yourself are fine, just stay on the path'

So, here I am, safely in the church, looking out at a cordoned off cross-roads, wondering how my car-based folk will get to the church, if the cordon will still be there when the foot folk arrive (unlike me some of them are not going to be able to duck under the cordon)

It is amusing watching the conversations between police and passers-by - lots of of hand-waving and finger pointing about whatever it is that has closed the road (I am guessing a traffic incident).

Any way, being a person like me seems to mean that so long as I'm going to church I can cross a police cordon with impunity!

I get the BMS e-mail update regularly and, if I'm honest, tend to skim through it and move on to the next email fairly quickly.

Not so this morning.  As I scrolled through I read of a 24 year-old BMS worked who had died in Afghanistan.  The name rang a bell and as I clicked the link to the BMS website the picture confirmed my worst fears.  After a bit more web searching to check I wasn't wrong, I am now 99.9% sure I met this young woman, as she came to my little church in Dibley in June 2004 as part of a BMS Action team on tour.  She was due to go to university to study Environmental Sciences that autumn.  In her I detected clear evidence of a prophetic ministry (not someone who sees the future, someone who sees as God sees and speaks God's truth into a disordered world) and encouraged her to test out her call. I well recall her saying how she had reflected on the disparity between the wealth she took for granted as British citizen and the extreme poverty of people in Uganda.  Why has God given us so much, she pondered, and them so little?  She knew why it wasn't.  Not, she concluded, for us to enjoy a life of decadence but that somehow - she wasn't clear how - so that we could employ that wealth in the service of others.  She was not excusing poverty, she knew that was wrong too.  And she knew that simple answers were wrong answer: she showed wisdom beyond her experience.

And now she is dead.  And a million thoughts run through my head.

What I do know is that Fay was a beautiful, honest and faithful girl who loved her Lord and was willing to take the risks of faithful discipleship, physically, emotionally and even spiritually.  Somewhere in one of my boxes I believe I still have the hand-made thank you card she sent me after her visit, and certainly when packing up to move north found a crumpled photo of the four young people in Ugandan dress who came and shared a week with us, a week that was so incredibly significant in the life of that little church, coinciding with the Insurance Inspection that led to the building being closed.

I pray for Fay's family at this time, that they will find the comfort and consolation they need.  And I thank God for the privilege of meeting her, if only for a short time, praying that she is at peace and safe with her Lord.

So, my reading has now reached the halfway through the book stage and I have landed at a whole series of questions to ponder - they are good, thoughtful and thought provoking, though most I have seen and thought about before.  But this one made me slow down considerably:

Is there a difference for me between the "God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" and the "God of my fathers"?

Yes, no, maybe, perhaps, probably, possibly... all, some or none of the above... but why do we answer as we do?

This is why it is always worth reading new books on old topics (and slogging through yet another attempt to explain the trinitarian concept of person with its Greek and relational origins) - there are always a few gems to be discovered.

We all know how easily we make God in our own image, or at least in the image we want, but hoe often do we critically ponder that image?

A good question for a Friday afternoon methinks.

Today I am doing one of those things that all good ministers should do, but which so readily get squeezed out, that is, I am reading; tending to my own nurture, allowing myself in some sense to be mentored by a book about mentoring.

The book, The Potter's Rib, arrived yesterday and I began to read it last night (but only until 9p.m. when Silent Witness began cos ministers need R&R too).  So far I can't say it has told me anything I hadn't heard before, but it has helped me to pause and reflect on my own experiences of being mentored and of mentoring and supervising others.

I won't bore you with the details, but I have been well served through the years by the men and women who were charged with acting as supervisors, tutors, advisers and mentors, as well as a range of informal networks for mutual support, sharing and honing.  I have also found great reward in sharing with others as they have been supervised or mentored.

Good, official mentoring seems to me to be vital to the formation of ministers - and other roles for that matter - and good systems, training and accountability are vital in that endeavour.  But there is also lots of scope for informal mentoring and for being open to being mentored in surprising ways.  I am grateful to various folk who through the years both encouraged and chastised me (even if I resented the latter at the time!) who affirmed my gifts and identifed my gaps.  And I am grateful to this book, which so far has simply said to me 'yes, I know you know this, but maybe you need to think about it once again?'

Formation, as the book rightly observes, is never finished, it goes on always.  It is not merely the accumulation of knowledge or even experience but the transformation that arises: reflection leads to insights, and insights (hopefully) to wisdom.  So, I will read, learn and inwardly digest - in the hope of growing along the way.

An exercise for the student - or those who won't hear my 'reflection' at the WPCU service on Sunday evening.

Who is/are 'you' - check through Luke 24 and decide who the people were who were told they were witnesses.  How many were there?  What were their names?  Yes!  It's a bit of a trick question, but do it anyway.

What are 'these things' - again read the chapter and decide what they witnessed (saw/heard/experienced).

Now think what it means about diversity and unity, difference and similarity, authenticity and acceptability.

The 'you' is a diverse group, the 'what' is as diverse as they are, the command is as true today as it was then.

So what?  You work it out!