change?

Most Mondays will find me sat in my study at home, working on the sermon and service for the coming Sunday. This is something I have started doing since I came to serve Mutley Baptist Church, here in Plymouth (the original Plymouth in the UK). In previous churches and roles I used to prepare on a Thursday and can’t remember why I changed. But what I have found is that if I have a first draft by the end of Monday then it sits gently in the background for the rest of the week – simmering away in my subconscious – so that when I revisit it towards the end of the week new thoughts or revised thoughts come up. Later in the week I also usually prepare a PowerPoint slide show to accompany the sermon (for those who are visual learners) which also helps me see how it all fits together.

That’s not the only change I have made to what had become my ‘usual’ practice. In most Baptist churches I have served and visited the leaders of the church (who sometimes have churchy names such as ‘Deacons’ or ‘Elders’) gather with the Minister / preacher to pray before the service. Then, just at the anointed hour, someone says a final ‘amen’ and we’d troop out to where the congregation was waiting and the service could begin. I found it a blessing to have prayerful preparation just before the service.

But since coming here to Plymouth (the Ocean City in Devon, not Massachusetts, Montseratt, Minnesota, or Trinidad and Tobago) I have spent my time before the service going around talking with people as they arrive at the church. I have found that this enables me to catch up with people whom I may not have seen for a while, to personally welcome newcomers and to feel far more connected with the people in front of me when I am leading the service. And I don’t feel diminished by not praying with a group of people before the service – lots of prayer has already gone into the preparation and I don’t believe God’s Spirit only turns up if we fulfil a certain quota of praying.

Something else I have started doing here is putting on magic shows once a term – Mutley Magic. In fact there’s one this Saturday evening if you’re around (shameless plug alert).

Yes, part of the reason is that I love performing magic for people and this provides me with opportunities to do so. (In my previous role in Essex I used to perform with the Mid Essex Magical Society as part of their charity fundraising shows, but that opportunity doesn’t exist here at the moment). But it’s also mostly because it’s something I can do to help people get together and enjoy themselves. One of our values as a church is to be playfully creative and this seems to fit the bill!

One more thing that has changed now I am in Plymouth (the one at the mouth of the rivers Plym and Tamar) is that I meet most weeks with the South West Baptist Association Plymouth and District Cluster. This gathering includes those exercising ministry in some of the SWBA churches in the area, and some Baptist Ministers who exercise ministries beyond local churches but who live here. In previous local church ministries the groups would meet together monthly. That meant that if you missed a month it would effectively be 3 months between when you saw the others. That doesn’t really enable close relationships. When I was first told about the weekly meetings I was a bit surprised (especially as I was told we meet in my office at the church) but I have found it an immense blessing to build friendships and share prayerfully with these wonderful people.

If, before I came to Plymouth (the one that has its own Sound and from which the Mayflower set out to America) you’d told me I would be doing one of these things differently I would have raised a quizzical eyebrow. I am a creature of habit and I had found comfort in doing what I was familiar with. But in reassessing and being willing to do things differently I have found huge blessing both for me and for others.

It’s said that the seven last words of the Church when Jesus comes back will be: “We’ve never done things that way before.”

What things do you do the way you’ve always done them without thinking why? What happens when you ask yourself ‘why’? Might you do them differently?

Be blessed, be a blessing