Tonight at 'thing in a pub' our speaker was the Chief Constable of Leicestershire, who is an incredibly entertaining and engaging speaker as well as being a very committed Christian.  We'd worked quite hard to advertise the event - including paying over £50 for a press advert - and attracted just two people who'd seen the advert and came because it was an opportunity to speak to the Chief Constable about something that was important to them.  At least they sat through his testimony first!

Whilst I'm glad that these folk came along - and I guess being cornered is an occupational hazard for this particular speaker - I was disappointed that the turn out overall was so low.  Some would tell me it is because it's not what God wants (though they can't tell me what God actually does want instead) some blame the day, time or venue, indeed anything but their own apathy.  Next month we have the local MP, and I guess we'll once more get a few folk who want to catch his ear.

Apart from physically dragging people in off the streets, I'm not sure what more we can do... answers on a postcard.

In the meantime at least I know that those who came along had an excellent evening, were entertained, inspired and challenged in fairly equal measure. 

Here's one for the classical music buffs out there.  I am preparing a short act of worship built around images of Jacob's dream at Bethel and his encounter at Peniel.  I am trying to find some suitable music, preferably instrumental and preferably not a hymn tune or overworked item, to use as 'background' for this.  I have some miscellaneous reflection music (of the one hour of piano music that never quite goes anywhere variety) but I'm a bit tired of it, and a reasonable selection of 'sacred' and 'secular' stuff but nothing that quite seems to do the biz.  Any (sensible!) suggestions?

I am tossing around a few ideas for the paper I have to write from scratch in the next week or so on the potential role of denominational historical materials as a resource for theological reflection in the area of church health (need some more 'punchy' words, methinks).  One of the things that strikes me as that Church Health approaches focus solely on the story of one congregation, as it recalls it (small), whilst Church History focuses on overviews, trajectories, dates and heroes (great).  The gap is pretty much self-evident when expressed like this.  One of the things I need to try to get my head around is what might 'middle-sized' look like?  I have a suspicion that unless/until the gap is bridged the potential of the resource will remain unrealised.

Of course, 'All things of average brightness and appearance, all creatures of medium proportions, all things of average intelligence and allure' wouldn't exactly make for an appealing hymn!  What is needed is not mediocrity but something intermediate.  If one of the limitations/criticisms of traditional Systematic/Dogmatic theology is that it is too theoretical/intellectual, and one of the limitations/criticisms of Practical/Contextual theology is that it is too localised/partial then maybe, just maybe, this endeavour will in some way help to bridge a more generic gap? (Or am I just fooling myself?!)

Yesterday I watched the first episode (is that the right word?) of Britain's Missing Top Model - a programme seeking to find a female model with a physical disability who can 'cut it' in the world of modelling.  The eight girls - six Brits and two from overseas - have a variety of disabilities, some from birth others due to accidents.  Some have very visible disabilities - missing limbs or mobility restrictions, two are deaf, one of whom has no speech and depends on a BSL interpreter.

Last night the first elimination was between the girl who speaks BSL and a girl who has had a leg amputated.  One of the issues raised when the judges were making their decision was whether the person they are after should have a visible disability.  An intriguing question - one implication of which might be that being born deaf is not disabled enough whilst having a traumatic amputation is.  I don't think that's what the judges meant, but it could have been heard that way.  I was annoyed that the associated website poll asked the question "should the eventual winner... have a visible disability" with a yes/no option.  If you answer 'yes' that means you automatically prelude a deaf girl from eligibility; if you answer 'no' you say that a visible disability precludes a person from winning; not a question I can answer.  A better question would have been 'must... she have a visible disability' - and then I'd have voted (and chosen 'no').

The question seemed to me to open up other potential avenues of debate and value judgements - and a timely reminder that whilst people look at outward appearances, God looks at the inside. 

I would not have the first clue how to select a potential model, and it is somewhat beyond me why anyone would wish to be one, but if this series manages to challenge some of the assumptions about beauty and makes people think about tough questions, then it'll achieve something worthwhile.

July sees the end of the school year, and here in Leicestershire that comes at least a fortnight earlier than it did in the north west (here schools close on 11 July; to my knowledge in parts of Cheshire it'll be 25th).  As the school year closes, so life slows down for 4-8 weeks, organisations take a break, congregations dwindle and I am trying to work out why it seemed a good idea to undertake two conference papers and a two week, 200 mile, long distance footpath this summer!

Yesterday I posted off the first, completed, paper to Manchester University and, although it has its limitations, there was definitely a sense of closure as I handed the envelope to the woman in the Post Office.  Had to smile, wryly, when she asked if it was valuable or precious - irreplaceable but worthless I replied!  In the end I sent it Special Delivery which is evidently safer than Recorded...

Today is the Girls' Brigade end of year parents' evening.  Last night I was printing off programmes (grand title for hymn sheets really!) and trying to think just which songs the non-church-going parents and family members might possibly know (and wondering why we have to sing when no-one joins in anyway).  So I will once more endure 'Give me oil in my lamp' which was the bain of my teenage years when every visiting preacher thought it was original to relate it to the lamp that sits at the base of the GB crest...  It's been a good year, and we've had some fun along the way.  Lots of changes afoot though, as one of the leaders steps back and we seek to work with a small team of church members who've agreed to act together to cover her role.  I hope the girls enjoy this evening - and I hope that whatever I end up saying for the devotional bit carries meaning for them.

A week on Friday is our last ever Kids Club.  This Friday as the main leader is away, I will be standing in, and hope to be able to find from the children how they'd like to mark the end of this chapter it their lives.  The last year has been challenging, with some horrendous behaviour and a leader forced to stand down due to major illness, yet whenever I see the children out and about they seem genuinely pleased to see me.  I do hope we have given them something to last a lifetime - and not just memories of me telling them I will not tolerate racist/sexist/homophobic/bad language!  I have yet to work out how to mark this closure in church, but it needs to be done - and the consequences faced.

Then on 18th July bidding closes on our defunct building.  Because I will be regaling people with my thoughts on Baptist historiography, and because many deacons are away that week, we cannot review the bids until the following Monday, but the hope is that sale will then go through in around 28 days bringing closure to another chapter of church life.

It is strange - but quite pleasant - having a fairly empty diary at the moment, though I am mad enough to have three services to take on 13th July, have accepted a guest preach a hundred miles away on 20th (when I land back in England at midnight!) and another at my 'sending church' the day between finishing my hike and starting my second conference!  As things close down for summer, there seem to be some natural conclusions occurring - which inevitably are the heralds of new beginnings yet to be discovered.