Pilgrim Soldier

What is it that gives me my sense of belonging to a church or corps? What makes me feel as if I belong to it?

Is it the sense of belonging to a community of people who love each other? Is it a commitment to the mission of the corps/church? Is it the style of the worship that makes me feel at home?

Or do I simply go because that is where I’ve always gone? Or rather where I’ve been sent!

Why do I belong? Why even ask? Why?

Isn’t it enough just to belong? Isn’t it? Do I?

Lots of questions but no answers! I don’t know, but there must be a reason; there must be a purpose!

We hold on to what is comfortable and familiar to us.

This was a comment that I read recently elsewhere and it suggested that this should be seen as a positive thing so that we would be unique whilst other denominations/congregations kept copying each other, with little success. I also heard something similar today!

Now I know that change is uncomfortable and that many people might actually like the idea, but I couldn’t help thinking about it in the context of Jesus’ disciples! What would have happened in the early church had held onto ‘what is comfortable and familiar’ to them?

If nothing new is ever considered, if nothing ever changes, then where will we be in 20, 30, 50 years time? If everything must stay the same then how are we ever going to reach out to a rapidly changing world?

Now I’m not naive enough to expect everything to change, but what is sacrosanct and what is up for grabs? I’m coming to the conclusion that very little of what we actually get upset about when things change is what really matters, because in fact a lot of that is cultural. It is though a way of protecting ourselves from change in other areas. But then what does that say about our reliance on God? Surely it is the never-changing God who really protects us, not the never-changing ‘Army’!

So what am I holding onto that needs to change? Probably more than I’d like to admit, but please Lord don’t let me hold onto it just because it offers me comfort. Instead I want to throw off everything that hinders for the sake of God’s Kingdom!

There’s a news article over at the website for the men’s magazine Sorted that says:

“Men who go to church regularly prefer “proper macho songs” and feel uncomfortable with hugging and sitting in circles discussing their feelings…”

The whole area of why men don’t go to church is one that I’m increasingly concerned about so I did a search to see what some of the other blog writers around are saying about it. I found only a handful of articles most of which seemed to fall into two categories: those who seemed to complain about women in ministry within the church, and those who got caught up on the ‘happy-clappy’ vs ‘traditional’ forms of worship, plus one who focussed on the fact that men do things other than blatant evangelism to bond! In each case it seems the same theme runs through many of the posts on those sites!

My question though is why people can’t see that men are in the minority in the majority of our congregations in the Western world? Why does it have to come down our personal agenda all the time when issues like this crop up instead of trying to work out what to really do about it? Maybe the solution is not necessarily in the things we value but in really change to something that isn’t necessarily comfortable for us!

Well we woke up this morning to see that the snow that had been falling last night had continued, as promised, to fall and life here at the college has descended into a series of snowball fights!

It’s really strange to have quite so much snow as it’s the first major fall we’ve seen since getting back from Latvia almost 18 months ago! Of course, unlike Latvia the roads are virtually empty, the schools are shut and people are slipping and sliding all over the place! It’s great to see it all though and it’s made me feel more than a little homesick for Riga!

It’s hard to believe that we’re already two weeks into the new term at College and that already deadlines are fast approaching! Have to hand the first sermon in this coming Thursday before I preach it in a fortnights time!

I really don’t have a lot to report, although this week has been a week of seeing friends. Sarah has been over from Latvia and Lisbeth was at the college for a course earlier in the week. Henrik was also sighted for a coffee but we didn’t see him! So all in all it felt like a Latvian reunion for a few days!

One thing that has happened is that I have started to try to keep a little more fit! As part of that I’ve joined with a group of cadets to attempt the feat of rowing around Lake Victoria on the rowing machine here at college. The aim is to build up sponsors in aid of the Army’s ‘A Cry in the Darkness’ campaign. Not sure how far I’ll actually be able to row myself, but I’ll work out a widget in the sidebar (the bit to the left) for those who might be interested. Once I know how the sponsoring will work I’ll let people know who might want to sponsor me/us as well.

We’re now nearly at the end of a 2 week break from college! It’s been nice to have, especially after the handing in of 5 essays in 5 weeks that we had at the end of term. Thankfully, I’ve managed to pass both the two papers that we have had handed back! The next stage of the process will see a return to preaching and leading meetings as we will be having 7 Sundays at Chalk Farm corps over the coming weeks. Both Zoe & I are looking forward to this, even though it’s not quite what we’ve been used to in recent years as far as worship is concerned. It’ll be good to spend some time at another corps though and get to know some new people.

The break has been a time of family, friends and travel! For the first time, we were able to get round all the closest family. We spent Christmas Eve and Boxing Day at Zoe’s mum’s and on Boxing Day got to see our rapidly growing nephew, Oliver. It was then off to my family for a couple of nights which culminated with an invite to our eldest nephew’s 18th birthday party in April!! Despite the amount of travelling we’ve had to do, it was well worth the effort to spend Christmas with the family!

We’ve also managed to get some time with friends as well, which is always good. In fact the last three days have been spent with either friends who’ve been to visit us, or amongst the college community now we’re back in London.

And so we’re back! Still quite a bit to do before we restart lectures on Monday, but its been a great Christmas and a nice end to 2008. Here’s to 2009!

Just wanted to wish anyone who is still reading this blog a very happy 2009!

Hopefully I’ll be posting a bit more often over the coming months although no promises with college work having to take priority! Thanks for the support of those who comment and I pray that everyone will have a wonderful year!