Further to my post the other day, see this post from Brother Maynard on the question of introversion, and the article he links to in The Atlantic online.

Technorati Tags: personality, ministry, BrotherMaynard

And another thing about the last week: along with two others whose names are on a church noticeboard, I received an abusive phone call a week ago yesterday. Apparently I’d been having an affair with this man’s wife and he’d found the text messages. The nice thing was my wife’s support: she found the allegation so laughable.

Reporting it to the police  and BT (a nuisance call is a criminal offence in the UK) was interesting, though. I wasn’t surprised at all to learn that they didn’t think there was enough evidence to pursue the issue. They said it took three incidents before telcommunications abuse could be investigated. The fact that three of us were blatantly targetted by this man didn’t count: it had to be three calls on the same line. BT said the call wouldn’t be traceable (and of course the offender had withheld his number when dialling). But you can bet  your granny, your house and your own life that if I were a terrorist suspect that call would have been traced. Small-scale abuse is obviously ‘acceptable’ in the eyes of the authorities. It’s one technological version of ministers being a soft target. Debbie and I can laugh about it; others can’t.

Technorati Tags: phone, BT, police

This week has been mad, crazy and stressful. I have been competing for the computer with my wife, who has thrown her hat into the ring to become chair of our children’s pre-school. The current incumbent is something of a David Brent type, but is thankfully standing down. There are major budget issues to resolve.

Much more seriously, there has been a potentially major health issue to face. Last week Debbie went to the GP about a cough she has had for months, and which also now includes a hoarse voice. He said, ‘You could have throat cancer,’ and referred her urgently to an ENT consultant. Debbie saw her on Wednesday, and thankfully there is no sign of anything sinister. It could be mild late onset asthma. Much rejoicing, and a celebratory ice cream with the kids.

Ministry has been varied this week. Highlights include a fair bit of Fresh Expressions stuff. I spent Monday morning with some lay leaders of a Methodist church in Essex, who are trying to pursue new areas of worship and outreach. It was fun to share a lot of the theological principles with them: attractional versus missional church; Michael Frost’s notion that first comes Christology, that leads to missiology and only after that do you get to ecclesiology. I’m also auditing the Mission-Shaped Ministry course that Fresh Expressions is rolling out across the country. Chelmsford Diocese is running it locally. I’m sitting in on lectures (and might even give the odd one myself) as and when church commitments permit. Those on the course pay £250: I’m turning up for free. Thank you, Pete Pillinger.

Today I interrupted my usual day off for some youth stuff. I did my occasional turn on Boys’ Brigade devotions, but then zoomed up to a meeting at the Salvation Army in Hatfield Peverel where my village church is. We and the ‘Army’ have been approached by a parish councillor who wants to see a children’s club and a youth club start in the village. We both have (just about) suitable premises, and the trustees of the village hall don’t want to know, because of bad past experiences with youth. We’re willing to be vulnerable and take the risks of faith (well, subject to Church Council, of course!).

Technorati Tags: FreshExpressions, MichaelFrost, MissionShapedMinistry, ChelmsfordDiocese, BoysBrigade, SalvationArmy, HatfieldPeverel

I returned to the hospital this morning for a three-month check-up on the problem of the blood in my urine. As I walked in to see the registrar he spied my latest copy of The Word magazine that I had been reading in the waiting room. ‘Glad to see you’re not reading any dirty magazines,’ he jested. It was then I told him my profession – deep embarrassment on the part of him and the nurse, but I roared with laughter, promised to use the incident in a sermon and said I’d blog it.

And by the way, although there are still microscopic traces of blood, there is nothing sinister and I’ve been discharged.

Technorati Tags: hospital, TheWord, ministry, pornography

Great quote from this week’s Ministry Toolbox by Rick Warren:

“Praise and criticism are like bubble gum – you chew on them but you don’t swallow them.”

Technorati Tags: praise, criticism, RickWarren

Jonathan Gledhill, the Bishop of Lichfield, has addressed his Diocesan Synod, having noted that nine of his clergy resigned on health grounds between 1999 and 2005. He plans to bring in health checks. One of his clergy said these checks should include not only physical but mental health, since anxiety and stress were major issues today.

I found it interesting to read this today, when I have been to see my GP this morning. It was a follow-up appointment, having seen him last month in the wake of … a health check, which this Methodist District pays for every two years. Although my recent urology appointment cleared me of anything sinister in that region, there remained the questions of my raised blood pressure and cholesterol.

The bad news was that the hospital had failed to report my cholesterol score in the blood test report, so I’ll have to waste another morning returning to have the test again. (Not that my GP is too worried, though.)

My blood pressure is a bit higher than he would like it: not so much as to need tablets, thankfully. He said that two things were needed to reduce it: one was that my new régime of regular exercise will help bring it down, the other was the stress of my work. ‘Get rid of the stress,’ he said. ‘More like deal with the stress,’ I replied. I could of course get rid of the stress but that would involve the nuking in Christian love of certain select individuals, and the consequences might hamper my ability to minister and be an active father and husband.

One in particular took special trouble to be rude, hostile and pejorative yesterday at an annual General Church Meeting. Fortunately many in the church know what this person is like. I don’t know how this person squares their behaviour with Christ, but I must quickly add a cliché about how we all fall short.

As to dealing with the stress, from the spiritual side some of that will come from the persistent discipline of forgiveness and from allowing my belief that I am made in the image of God and redeemed at immense cost reminding me how loved and treasured I am by God that I can have confidence in him. Moving that from head to a body that seems to go into a reflex stress reaction is something I haven’t solved yet.

Technorati Tags: stress, ministry. JonathanGledhill, Lichfield

Shocking American statistics from Eugene Cho – pastors are a higher risk for life insurance than munitions workers. (Link via Scot McKnight.) I don’t like singling out ministers like this, but perhaps Cho’s post connects with me due to my recent ministry experiences.

I was back in the saddle today. I preached the same sermon morning and evening. Everything was received wonderfully well in the morning at my LEP church, despite me forgetting at first the prayers of confession, failing to notice that the reader for one of the lessons had arrived and forgetting to choose music to be played during communion. It’s the church I shouldn’t fit in at really: my Anglican colleague is at the opposite end of the theological spectrum and candle from me but she is a kind and compassionate person (sorry, I don’t mean that to sound patronising) and the real beauty of the congregation is that they are wonderfully normal. They laugh and they are honest.

In contrast this evening I re-preached it at the church where I have had the tensions I recently mentioned. No reaction at all. The service (Holy Communion) lasted 1 hour 12 minutes, so that should have been acceptable to those who have grumbled about the length of my services. The sermon was done inside 20. There were, however, six hymns (and two had eight verses) – which has been cause for complaint (you’d never know ‘Methodism was born in song’) and I doggedly kept the modern text for the Lord’s Prayer (which according to one of my critics isn’t inclusive, only the ‘traditional’ version is). I guess I only hear when there’s something to complain about, rather than something worth affirming.

I gather I’m not the first minister to get this treatment there, and that relieves me – not because I wish ill on colleagues but because it highlights the pattern, makes me feel less strange and less like this is a concern for me to get strokes. It raises issues about the place of vulnerable people in this culture – not that there aren’t a good number of kind, caring folk there, because there are. More and more do I understand the preoccupation in recent years for church health ahead of church growth.

Just some gut thoughts before bedtime …

Technorati Tags: ministry, Eugene+Cho, Scot+McKnight, health