assembled reflections

I have blogged much recently about my travel woes and the removal of gruntle among rail travellers. But I have not said much about the Baptist Assembly itself.

I want to say a big ‘Thank You’ to God for all he did and said through the participants. I want to say a big ‘Thank You’ to the participants and people working behind the scenes for being open to him speaking through them.

This was the first Assembly I have attended since I moved up the Baptist ladder from working in the Mission Department at Baptist House and moved back to leading a local church. I loved it. It was SO good meeting so many people who have blessed me in the past and renewing friendships, catching up with news and being with them.

It was also really good to be a recipient at the Assembly rather than a ‘deliverer’. I could sit back and relax in the sessions I chose to attend (all of the main sessions and lots of others). I could concentrate on what God was saying and doing at that time rather than having at least half of my brain (the working half) thinking about what I had to do next and where I had to be. I could chill. I described it to someone as a ‘mini sabbatical’ where I was refreshed and blessed by God through his people.

What’s that? You want to know specifically what God said and did?

OK.

The Assembly theme was ‘Your Kingdom Come’ and I received reminders about the inclusive nature of God’s Kingdom. The invitation is for all and we need to be ready to welcome all who seek to find it through our church. Nobody should be excluded. Nobody should feel unwelcome.

I also received reminders about the breadth of God’s Kingdom. It is not limited to our church, our denomination, or even churches in general. God’s Kingdom is where his will is done on earth as it is in heaven and that is not limited to those of us who are explicitly following Jesus.

I received reminders about the values of our church. I warmed to Jeff Lucas’s church’s approach that includes ‘intentional fun’ as a value of their church. It won’t surprise regular readers of this bloggerel that this resonated loudly with me. Fun does not mean trivial. Nor does it mean flippant or irreverent. It is not always appropriate. But it is something God has given us as a gift.

I received a reminder about the power and value of prayer and was nudged about my own prayer life as well as the prayer life of our church.

I received ideas about different ways of doing things in our church that will be more inclusive and enable more people to encounter God and be blessed.

And, if I am allowed, I felt proud of our church. We are not perfect. We have our problems. We are still looking to follow Jesus. But when people asked me how I was and how it was going I couldn’t help grinning because I am a part of this lovely community of followers of Jesus. I couldn’t help thinking about them on Sunday at service times and wondering how the rest of them were doing. I felt joy as I thought of them. Perhaps it was the closest I have got to being like Paul!

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 1:3-6)

Be blessed. Be a blessing.

One day a lawyer told another lawyer friend that he had become a Sunday School teacher at his church. His astonished friend replied, “You? A Sunday School teacher? I bet you don’t even know the Lord’s Prayer!”

“Why everybody knows that,” the other answered. “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon this little child. Pity my simplicity, teach me Lord to come to thee.” 

His friend was astonished! He said, “You win! I didn’t know you knew so much about the Bible.”

And a true story:

In my first church we had some football teams that played in the local league. For most of the players this was their only contact with church. It was a club tradition that we always prayed before a match. One day the players realised that there was nobody from the church to lead a prayer. One of them remembered a prayer from school so he prayed: “For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful.”

Wonderful!

God heard the prayer too. They lost 9-0 and found it hilarious!