Some great and wide-ranging conversations after yesterday's service on Naaman's wife's maid and the concept of the 'child at the centre'...

Two people told me what they'd seen on QI  about language and customs relating to children... that the word 'girl' once covered both genders and that there was a time when girls wore blue and boys pink...

A conversation about the concept of leprosy and whether it mattered that Naaman's almost certainly did not have what is now technically termed leprosy being instead a skin disease that evoked dread - and the contemporary parallels with other diseases.  Someone also lent me some booklets on the history of TLM and one on a medical perspective on Biblical leprosy.

Someone else majored on the nascent faith of children and told me of a child in our church who had demonstrated, at the age of five, an understanding of 'all things being made new' in heaven after a much loved pet was injured.

All in all a good morning.

And a good and equally interesting evening, in which I was able to listen to someone else's work, focussing on aspects of Pascal's philosophy and faith.

For my first weekend back after the break it was an excellent beginning.  It's good to be home... and I'm sure the coming months will be 'quite interesting' too.

Following on from the last post, and the comments it raised, I wondered what the stereotypical Baptist manse is... not least as unlike other Christian denominations we have no minimum specification on size or facilities.  So, if you want to add your thoughts, positive or negative, based on experience, personal or otherwise, please do.

But for starters....

The sterotypical Baptist manse is:

• cold, damp and draughty with never quite the right number or configuration of rooms
• probably Victorian, and was probably last rewired when Eddison was a boy
• a repository for spare green hymnbooks (or red ones, or old editions of Songs of Fellowship or Spring Harvest Praise or OHP acetates or whatever hymns/songs your brand of Baptist hoards)
• a place whose occupants will be thrilled to have your cast off kitchen units, carpets and, if they are really blessed, curtains, especially those faded, frayed ones that were rescued from great auntie Maud's house after the great flood of 1923.

More positively...

• a place where the kettle is always freshly boiled and tea/coffee and biscuits/cakes await
• a place where you can be sure to be listened to - and your darkest secrets never get out of the four (crumbling) walls
• a place where laughter and love abound
• a place where gospel is lived by flawed and failing disciples in the fish-bowl glare of every knowing who you are.

Over to you...

Last night three of us went out to view a flat, a possible for the manse.  Having braved arctic conditions even in relatively tropical Glasgow (it was a mere -9 to -10) we entered the cosy abode and were shown around by the owner.  She then commented, "I gather you're looking for a house for a minister."  Yes, we said, and exhibit 'A' stepped forward.  The poor vendor was most embarrassed and cross with herself, 'oh my goodness, I just assumed it would be a man, and me a feminist too' (or words to that effect).  I appreciate I am something of an a rarity in this part of world, but such an assumption wouldn't be that odd further south either.  Still, I guess a girl in jeans, boots and a thick winter coat doesn't exactly look like the stereoptypical Reverend.... thankfully!

Next week's 'leprosy link' sermon will focus on the account in Luke 17 of Jesus cleansing ten lepers.  When I was at college, a visiting preacher gave a sermon on this passage, the point of which was that only one of the ten was healed.  It wasn't the greatest sermon ever, and didn't quite convince, but did make me think about the difference between 'curing' (or 'cleansing' as the Greek expressed it) and 'healing.'  Curing refers to the bodily effects of the disease, healing is about wholeness and has other dimensions - spiritual, emotional, even communal.  I have known this for decades, and have always been very clear in my own mind that to pray for healing was not the same as praying for a cure, though that might be part of the answer.  So, come 17th January my folk will get a sermon that explores ideas of healing and wholeness in relation to TLM.

I have also been thinking about our life together as a community of faith, and how we develop what we already have to be even more what it is meant to be. Two sets of thoughts have come to mind...

First is a model adopted by a church in Yorkshire, the ministry team all being folk I know quite well, where people are invited to engage within three broad strands of (as I recall it) worship, learning and service.  It's quite a large and diverse fellowship with lots of styles of worship on offer, numerous midweek groups and a fair variety of missional connections.  People are invited to choose from menus under each heading and mix-and-match a healthy blend of activities.  As I understand it, any and all are free to challenge and be challenged on their choices - if you pick only from one or two strands you are gently reminded of what is missing; if you try to do everything you are told to get a life!

The second is the dear old Girls' Brigade 'four square' programme of spiritual, physical, educational and service, which again expects members to engage with each of the strands.  If you were to substitute 'physical' for 'get a life' the similarity with the Yorkshire church's idea is clear and shows there is nothing new under the sun.  The Guides 'eight point programme' is not wildly different and I'm sure the organisations for boys and young men are not a million miles removed.  A healthy blend is what is needed.

Later this year (I have enough ideas for the next 20 years already!) I hope to be encouraging my folk actively to commit to a sense of holsitic disicipleship: spirituality (worship and prayer), learning (Bible study, theological reflection, education), service (mission in many modes) and relaxing (getting a life!).  I know where my weaknesses are in this set of four strands, and it would be good to be accountable to, with and for others as we seek to address those we each have.

Amazing isn't it, how God works... I chose to do a series on 'leprosy stories' to connect with a project our Sunday School are doing to support The Leprosy Mission (Scotland) and out of these stories emerge some of the big themes I feel we need to be working with this year.  Maybe that's part of the wholeness too?

It seems that there is not much news at the moment when all the radio news programmes and comments relate to semi-intelligible jargon used in business. Most of it seems pretty obvious - phrases such as 'the moon on a stick' or 'a bite from the reality sandwich' don't need a lot of explaining but the idea of 'coming at this with an open kimono' is seriously scary!!

Then I noted a reference to the Archbishop of Canterbury struggling to avoid a 'fractured communion' which, looking beyond the sadness and seriousness of the reality to which it refers, hinted at an amusing lack of knowledge of Anglican or ecclesiastical jargon - isn't fracture of the communion actually something Anglicans do every week...?  I mean, the technical term for breaking the bread/wafer is 'fraction'?  Probably says more about my warped mind than anything else.

Anyway, if you want to 'touch base on or off line' you know where I am.  Happy cliches whatever you're adoing of.