Spirit of Service

A whole month has gone by since the last blog! This is largely because Les and I have had a fortnight's holiday up in Northumberland, which was restful and refreshing. We so much love that part of the country, with its wide open spaces and wonderful coastline. Once again we did the Farne Islands boat trip, and returned to Lindisfarne.

We also returned to Durham, where we met (can it be?) 47 years ago, and walked the city walls of Berwick for the first time. Maybe another North-eastern holiday next year? Perhaps back in Alnmouth, which we slightly preferred to the property we rented is Alnwick this year. Needless to say, Barter Books - a huge second-hand bookshop in Alnwick, was one of our first ports of call. Unfortunately, the box of books I intended to try and sell back to them remained on our kitchen floor when we left. So they will go to a charity shop instead.

Just before we left, we had a brilliant parish conference, where each of our four churches reported to members of the other three where they were at, in terms of our recent 'conversations'. I have to say it was one of the best meetings I have ever attended, with thoughtful, honest and colourful presentations from each church. There were 8 tables, and on each one were 4 sheets of paper, so members could doodle or write their thoughts and comments about each church in turn. Thus, each had 8 sheets of encouragement to take away with them for further thought, prayer and discussion.  Vision is emerging!

Today, we completed our 'Worship4Today' course, which has been running since last September. 20 people have seen it through to the end, and we are hopeful that in each church, this will lead to a refreshing and greater creativity in our worship, as well as the releasing of these wonderful people into their own ministry.

We are coming to the end of Brian McLaren's book. Tomorrow we think about how 'the Holy Spirit leads us downwards', in contrast to the upward mobility many seek in today's culture. Just today, I was reading how celebrity couples now seem to be trying to outdo each other in the luxuries they lavish upon their children, so that these little ones become part of the accoutrements of their parents' success. Learning to accept a lower place in society, to promote others rather than ourselves, to stand up for the weak and powerless - these are signs of the Spirit of God.