This morning I have sat down with a sheet of paper to try to plan out a preaching scheme for the autumn.  You all know the joke: tell God your plans and s/he laughs.  Well, our preaching plan is certainly funny, but in a good way.  It looks like we will be very busy with 'specials', so much so that I can't see how we will fit in a harvest festival - unless it's in December!

In September we have an invitation service (Back to Church Sunday done Dibley style).  In October we will (hopefully) have a Baptismal service one week, go to some sheltered housing the next and to the Anglicans for a One World Week service the next.  In November there is a week at D+1, then Remembrance before we start to think about Advent.  December includes carols in the pub, then our big annual ecumenical outreach event, a Christingle, a home-based evening communion and a united Christmas Day service.  On top of that I already have a guest preach at a church whose secretary used to work for me which will combine GB/BB enrolment (some churches do still do that, it seems) and an infant blessing and another at a small church in Leicestershire who insist on inviting speakers from far away when it is dark, wet and foggy!  Lastly, somewhere in all this I still have to fit in two 'off' Sundays - hmm.

Normal services might be resumed in January - by which time our service time review will mean that normal is not what is is now!

Oh, and in case you wonder, I think I can see a hint of some themes for preaching from the Lectionary, as a lot of superb Matthean parables are coming up and some of the readings for 9 November are very appropriate for my context.

Why does it cost me more to keep a Saxo on the road for two years than a Metro for ten?  My wonderful second metro (Rover 100 to purists) only failed one MOT, when I was forced to let her go because parts were no longer available.  My Saxo has had two MOTs since I've owned it, and failed both, and I will have spent more in two years than I did on my Metro in ten - and almost as much as on two Metros in twenty!  So now we know why Rover went bust...

I have just been re-reading 1 Corinthians 12, 13 14 and decided to check out what it actually says in Greek rather than NIV-ish.  So I need some help from people who really understand Greek!  In 1 Cor 12:30 and 14:1 use is made of the word that transliterates roughly as 'zelute'.  According to my trusty lexicon, this is a second person plural present tense (which I knew anyway!) but looks the same whether it is indicative (you are doing this) or imperative (a command: you, do this... i.e. you ought to be doing this), or for that matter subjunctive (er, yes, whatever!).  It seems to me it matters which it is, as the way I read the sentences seems to differ - and impacts on how I understand 1 Cor 13.  If the greatest gift is love ( 1 Cor 13) and people are desiring or to desire the greater/greatest gift (what does the comparative 'greater' mean here?  I seem to recall it can mean 'greatest' if it has a 'the')?  And if so where does that put the other charismatic gifts?  Hmm.

Any one who really understands Greek help me here?

2008 has been rather 'pants' for Dibley Baptist Church, but today I am doing a little dance around my office because there has been some GOOD news after several months of SAD news.

Tonight I received a request for baptism from one of our folk. This would be welcome news in any church, granted, but especially so for us - the first one in almost a decade and... this is the REALLY exciting bit... it comes from someone in her 70's!  She is meeting me to discuss things further on Wednesday and then I shall be able to tell the church meeting on Thursday. 

Yeay, I'm cheered!

This week at "thing in a pub" we undertook a review of what we've achieved and where we want to go next.  We have plans to the end of 2008, which will culminate in the Radio Leicester 'Sing Christmas' but what beyond then?  Those who were at the review meeting (a whole four of us, with apologies from one) are keen to continue doing something but don't think it is right to try to find speakers to talk to such tiny groups.  They also conceded that no-one has brought anyone along to the events and that even press adverts at £50 a go for genuine big-name (locally!) speakers had only attracted one or two - there is clearly a sense of apathy to be overcome.  But what to do?  I mentioned both 'Lyfe' and 'Pints of View' as ideas to consider, but the latter seems more like branding than resourcing (unless we buy stuff from them, which I'm not about to do on spec.) and the former is more explicitly a new take on Bible study, good stuff, but not necessarily what we are after.

So, has anyone used these materials/resources, and if so how do you rate them? Does anyone have any other ideas for a 'presence' model of church in a pub?  If my people want to carry on - and they do - we need to find something for them to do.  I'd be quite happy if it became a monthly Bible-study that happened to meet in a pub, but I'd be happier if it became something that could engage others in considering the possibility of exploring Christian faith.