I have just been looking through Patterns and Prayers and Gathering for Worship at the questions that are suggested for Baptismal candidates -and they all seem different from what I recall being asked!  As I have a tape recording of the service where I was done I can easily check out my recollection.

As I recall it, the three questions I was asked were along the lines of

• Do you believe in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
• Do you accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord?
• Is it of your own free choice that you come to Baptism?

The last of these is, in my experience widely used - and I intend to use it with our candidate - but not in any of the liturgies I've seen, many of which look remarkably as if they were lifted from BCP or RCIA.

So, what do others ask of their candidates?

Does everyone still have 'greeters' with towels?

Do people still give their testimonies?

Do candidates still get to choose a hymn?

Is now normal for ministers to have a co-dunker with them (an idea I quite like) and how is that person selected?

So many things they don't teach you at college!!!

I am hoping we can get this service done on 5th October, for one totally unspiritual reason - it is the 11th anniversary of my own dunking, hot on the heels of which came my sense of call to ordained ministry.  I probably ought to warn my 70-something of this, but at least the BU would see her as too old for ordination!!

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!