New Kid on the Blog

Book club last night went well. We talked through and around John Ortberg's 'God is closer than you think' which is a great book. I have previously recommended this as part of my post a day for November , so I am going to move on and recommend a book i should be reading TODAY because I want to use it as a basis for some thoughts tonight.... So Prayer is perhaps one of the most difficult things for many of us to get a handle on, particularly when we feel prayers aren't answered, or that we aren't quite sure what the purpose of prayer is. In fact, this is what I am meant to be talking about at Holy Joes this evening, so when I have some thoughts together perhaps I will get back to you on that. From what I have read of this book so far, it has some very good thoughts on the subject. Interestingly it relates to a lot of what Ortberg says in God Is Closer Than You Think , when he talks about when God feels absent and what our prayers do and don't or may or may n...

Having scoured my previous posts, not terribly vigourously, admittedly (just used the search box at the top of the page) I couldn't find any explanation of what Holy Joes is, so here's a very inadequate summary, tied up with my history of HJs in the 18 years or so I have been involved in one way or another... HJs started (or so folklore dictates) when Dave Tomlinson left one of the Charismatic Movements of the 80s (Harvesttime? Pioneer ? I think it was the latter) where he was in leadership, with the general feeling that the Theology of the movement was inadequate and he wasn't so keen on the style of leadership. I hope this isn't really misrepresenting the situation, but this is what I picked up on the way. Dave and his wife Pat decided that they wanted a place to explore faith which, apart from anything else, their kids (who were young adults) could get to grips with Christian faith, and which offered a safe place to believe, or not, but to examine and consider ...

First of all thank you for voting - I am now just above the poodle and dog blog in the Blog Village top 100! Next, a quick explanation of why I am so absent from the blogging world at the moment. We are down to two full time Clergy covering this thirteen village area, with very able help from two voluntary (ordained) ministers. One of our colleagues is on maternity leave, and another is signed off sick (long term) so having lost two very able ministers we are finding ourselves tied up with lots of cover and things which need doing - most of which is as valuable and important as all the stuff we were doing in our own 'patches' within the team anyway, so we don't want to neglect that and see it suffer for lack of clergy. It reminds me just how valuable the lay involvement in our parishes is, but also how much needs attention from those of us who are freed up to serve the Church full time. Anyway, that was a longer explanation than planned, but I don't seem to be able t...