A good, three-point alliterative post title.  Someone, somewhere would be pleased.

Posting 'late' today because I have been busy doing stuff, notably eating porridge and praying with our local Presbyterians.

The C of S church with whom we share our evening services has just started a once a month prayer breakfast and I was invited to go along.  For £1 you could have a big bowl of porridge (made by someone from Florida!!!) or a bacon buttie and as much tea or coffee as you wanted.  Then at 8:30 we shared in a simple act of guided prayer.  After that was the C of S "fraternal" (spit!) to which I am invited, and am beginning to discover more of the weird and wonderful nature of this tradition.  Oh, I am so glad I'm a Baptist!!!!!

Eleven of us shared breakfast and prayers.  And we were a motley crew.  Mostly retired people or ministers, we included someone off to Berkshire to protest outside somewhere I have worked and with whom, despite her initial defensiveness, I had an interesting conversation.

I was reminded of various things - such as the porridge/cornflakes graces:

Lord, make us not like porridge:
Sticky and hard to stir.
Make us like cornflakes:
Easy to stir and ready to serve.

and

Lord, make us to be, not like cornflakes:

Noisy, superficial, and cold;

But like porridge:

Sturdy, warm, and comforting.

Well, in my own fence sitting fashion, "both/and" actually

A good start to the day,and something I will look forward to again next 'First Tuesday' and will be encouraging others to consider attending.  But now I really must do what I'm paid for...

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!)