Leadership – Journeys of Heart and Mind

A moving experience

Part of a Small Group meeting

developing faith – 5

Yatton to St Neots

Donna and I were married in 1998 and Tony was my best man; Donna’s best friend, Jane, was her chief bridesmaid. Donna had taken a new job with Unilever Research at their research site a little north of Bedford. She bought a cottage in the village of Tilbrook and when we were married I moved into the cottage with her and Unilever offered me a job on their intranet web team, initially to create a website that could be duplicated for each of their research sites – two in the UK, one in the USA and one in the Netherlands.

Donna was keen to find a church in the nearby town of St Neots, or if necessary in Bedford.

We soon found the cottage was far too small, and moved to a four-bedroom property in Eaton Ford, part of St Neots. The internet had barely hit its stride in the late ’90s, so it wasn’t nearly as easy to find a church (or anything else) as it would be today.

One weekend before we were married, I was visiting Donna , and on the Sunday I said, ‘Come on , let’s drive into St Neots and see what we can find’. She said, ‘No, you’ll never find anything that way’. But we jumped into the car and I prayed very briefly to be shown where to go – and off we went. We drove through the middle of the town and out towards Eynesbury but saw nothing of interest, then I turned right and down a couple of streets and coming to a secondary school we spotted an A-board welcoming people to ‘Open Door Church’. We followed the sign, parked the car, and made our way into ‘Ernulf School’ and there we were – Open Door Church! It turned out to be a lively, welcoming place, just what Donna was looking for. Over the next week or so she got to know some of the people and was invited to join a cell group run by Rob and Jean and a couple from France who were planning to return home in a few weeks time. And that was that! By the time I was working at Unilever and had moved into the cottage full time, Donna was well-established at Open Door, the French couple had moved back to France, and Rob and Jean were running the cell group on their own. They quickly became good friends, we even had a holiday in Scotland with them one year.

A wrong step

How easily we do this! Wanting to support Donna, I was happy to go along to the Sunday meetings at Open Door and, far more to my taste, join in with the weekly cell meetings every Wednesday or Thursday. But there was a fly in the church ointment. It was expected that people taking part regularly would ‘join’ the church and sign the membership book. This also involved promising to give your allegiance to Open Door. That was something I found hard – a step too far, a very big ask. My allegiance was to Jesus and him alone. But I did want to support Donna in her new membership of Open Door and it seemed to be something couples were expected to do together. So I put my doubts to one side and signed up – that was a major wrong step!

Trying to right the wrong

What’s the best thing to do if you take a wrong turning? Usually the best thing is to retrace your steps to the point of the mistake and take a different path. As the weeks went by it became clearer and clearer to me that I was in a bad place. I had agreed to be guided by the leaders of Open Door Church but knew that my only guidance should come through Jesus and his Spirit working in me and in my brothers and sisters.

So I wrote to the elders, explaining my mistake and asking to be released from membership and the promise of allegiance I had made. Nothing like this had happened before and they really had no idea what to do. They invited me to visit the lead elder’s (Tony’s) house, and when I went along he had also invited another elder, Brian. They asked me to explain what I meant. I told them, as gently as I could, that in my view all followers of Jesus should follow him alone. I added that this did not mean I wanted to leave Open Door. The reaction surprised me, almost as if I had decided to follow Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism. They were cold, even a bit frosty, and it was very clear that they felt I was rejecting their authority in some rather dangerous way. It was as if they felt that following Jesus implied following the elders. I was left feeling, ‘Hang on, this is my life in which I can follow anyone I wish, and I’ve chosen Jesus. Do you think he will lead me to cause problems for you?’

They wanted to talk again the following week, and this time told me that they’d heard my point of view and now wanted me to hear the conditions under which I might continue to come to Open Door meetings. The main point was that they wanted to be assured that if I said or did anything in a meeting that they objected to, and they asked me to stop, that I would do so. And so, on those terms, I was allowed to continue to meet with them on Sunday mornings and for weekday cell group meetings.

Meeting again with other friends

Although I continued to meet at Open Door for some time, I felt unable to contribute freely on Sunday mornings. Sometimes I would share something prophetic, or a vision, but I didn’t want to upset Tony or the elders so I was always quite careful. And now and again I’d sing in the Spirit and others would join in, or I’d speak in a tongue and someone would interpret and that always felt safe enough because the interpretation was not through me! Or I’d dance, usually near the back of the room.

Rob and Jean, however, were personal friends and also seemed to have no issues over anything I said or did either on Sundays or at cell group sessions, but rather welcomed the input. Over the years the group leaders were changed repeatedly but I was still allowed the same freedom almost all of the time we lived in St Neots.

Meeting at home

All of this left me feeling that life in St Neots was poorer in some ways than life in Yatton. I missed my friends, but above all I missed the spiritual depth and intensity of meeting completely freely, guided by the Holy Spirit alone and allowing him to speak to each one through the way he was using all the others. I missed the kind of community I’d experienced in Yatton. I knew it didn’t depend on particular people being involved, but instead, what it required was that all those present intended to rely only on Jesus. ‘I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me’ (Philippians 4:13) and ‘Without Christ I can do nothing’ (John 15:5).

Where was I to find these people? I can’t be sure of the details at this point – who was involved first or how we got started. But my sister Rachael was involved very early on, as were various St Neots friends, my friends Jody and Peter from Unilever, and eventually many more from a wide area in Cambridgeshire, Northhamptonshire and Bedfordshire.

For eleven years I kept a list of meetings and now I can refer to that list to pick out the first time we met at each new location, and that will give a feeling for how the meetings spread and grew. There were rarely more than 10 people at a meeting, but I knew how these small gatherings worked (from long experience in Yatton). There were no rules, but we encouraged everyone to feel free to contribute in any way providing they felt it was from the Spirit and aligned with the way Jesus would contribute. So there was usually a sense of openness and freedom. Almost always there would be tongues with interpretation, Bible readings or at least a few quotes, prayer for guidance and for any needs expressed by those present, prophecy, and plenty of peaceful silence for thought and processing of what others had contributed. The meetings were never boring, and more often than not we could identify a theme that had come together little by little as we met. Most times we’d begin with coffee and a chat.

Dec 2002 – Eaton Ford
May 2006 – Rugby
Nov 2006 – Eaton Socon
Mar 2007 – Great Doddington
Feb 2008 – Little Paxton
May 2010 – Brampton
Jun 2010 – Hinchingbrooke
Jul 2010 – Letchworth
Jul 2010 – Eynesbury
Aug 2010 – Cornerstone, St Neots
Sep 2010 – Watton-at-Stone
Oct 2010 – Corby
Feb 2011 – Offord d’Arcy
Apr 2011 – Moggerhanger
Apr 2011 – Costa, St Neots
Nov 2011 – Earls Barton
May 2012 – Oundle

As you can see, things got under way slowly but spread in an accelerating manner. And in addition to these meetings all around the area, some of us were involved in other things, we had larger celebration meetings when we’d invite other friends along and there’d be music, singing, dancing and the praise and worship would be free and enthusisastic. For me these little meetings were encouraging and exciting – just as in Yatton there was a feeling that Father was pouring his nature and character out amongst us. Jesus was with us.

Donna meanwhile continued with Open Door and the cell group meetings (later renamed Small Group). I drifted away from Open Door’s Sunday meetings as I found it difficult to contribute and disagreed with a fair proportion of the teaching on offer. There was far more freedom in the Small Group environment.

The Eatons

Some time in the past, St Neots Evangelical Church had planted an offshoot called ‘The Eatons’ in Eaton Ford and Eaton Socon (once Bedfordshire villages but by this time absorbed as districts of the growing town of St Neots). Over time, the number of people meeting each week had fallen significantly and only a handful remained. I don’t recall how I heard about this situation, but I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me to go along one Sunday morning to meet them, and specifically to encourage them.

So I began to meet with them every Sunday morning and they were encouraged. I explained why I was there, and that encouraged them too. A turning point for me was that some of the members would go into another room to pray with whoever had been chosen to speak that morning. Sometimes there would be a visiting speaker, other times it would be one or two of the group. One day, only one person, Jim, went out to pray so I followed him out and joined in the prayer. He was touched by this I think, and we struck up a friendship which has lasted right up to the present day.

The Eatons reminded me very much of Zetland Road Church and Horsecastle Chapel (see part 2 of this series), they were just the same kind of traditional, independent, evangelical gathering. The Eatons had made a bargain with Jesus, they had ‘laid out a fleece’. They had stated that if two or three new families joined them by the end of the current year they would continue, but if not they would close down the meetings and wrap up the finances and the organisation. They counted my appearance as a step in the right direction, but I explained gently that I was not a permanent feature but had been told to come and encourage them. I was even invited to speak to them one Sunday morning which I did, though I’m not a great public speaker – far from it! I don’t recall what I spoke about but it was politely and kindly received. In due course The Eatons did close down but I had made some new friends. Not just Jim and his wife Pam, but some others too including Sean. Jim and Sean became involved in some of the home meetings mentioned earlier.

A longer perspective

From my longer perspective today at seventy-seven years old I can see that what seemed a minor difference between me and the Open Door elders is in truth a yawning gulf. It’s not just that I took a misstep, but that the entire edifice of following Jesus (Church almost everywhere and throughout history) took an enormous misstep at some point in its past development. Do we follow Jesus and Jesus alone? Or do we follow people who have structured what began as a simple community into a series of organisations that often disagree with one another on the details of what to think, what to believe, and how to behave?

The change may have been kickstarted by the Roman Empire making Christianity the official religion of the Empire in the 300s CE. Or it may go back even before that. But whatever the origins, it’s a misinterpretation and misrepresentation of what Jesus and the early church intended and practised. That all are equal under one head (Jesus), that all are filled with and empowered by his Spirit, and structures of stone or of management are not required or permitted. Church is community, a structure of children, women and men organised and motivated by the Same Holy Spirit and following only one master – Jesus!

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Leadership and the New Testament

Last words from JDMC

Pear-shaped

A book by Graham Pulkingham

developing faith – 4

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Arrival of Alan and Dorothy

A new family moved into the village and began to advise and work with Tony, Faith, Paul, Jenny and some of our friends from the next village, Claverham. During this time Judy and I began to feel that things were going a bit off-track. Judy actually wanted nothing to do with the new situation, I decided to go along to the meetings fairly often to keep in touch with our friends. I should add, right at the outset, that I don’t think there was any intention to derail the work that Father was doing amongst us, but rather to enrich it and bring additional knowledge and experience to the mix. But unintentionally this had the effect of changing track with a new focus on teaching that had not been there before. Teaching had never been a notable part of our meetings, we had always been guided mainly by prophecy, and by what we read in the Bible. We were exposed to teaching when we went to larger meetings (the pre-crusade rallies in Portishead for example and visits to Pip’n’Jay in Bristol or the meetings at Post Green), and from the popular books that were doing the rounds (books by Graham Pulkinhgham, Michael Harper, Colin Urquhart, David Watson and others) and we did a small amount of teaching when we were invited to visit local churches as ‘Fountain’. But in our own weekly and daily meetings there was little to no teaching. We were growing and learning together in our exciting faith journey. It was wonderful and extraordinary while it lasted.

But now Alan and Dorothy provided new songs (some of them truly excellent) and Alan taught regularly about how and when and where the meetings should take place as well as material about Jewish customs, feasts and celebrations. Alan and Dorothy came from a background of small gatherings in a different part of the UK (Blyth). So the Spirit-guided growth we had experienced gradually gave way to ideas and processes managed mainly by Alan. Something similar to this has happened over and over again throughout church history. Personally I learned a good deal by seeing it happen both from the outside (because I wasn’t directly involved in the events) and also from the inside (because I was at many of the meetings and had a ringside seat, so to speak). Sometimes I feel I should have shared my thoughts and feelings clearly, but Alan was experienced in meetings of this kind and I was not. I didn’t feel it was my place to interfere, nor was I part of what was happening. When I went along to a meeting I always felt I was accepted partly because I didn’t stir up trouble, but somehow seen as not quite making the grade. Everyone must have been aware that I had some doubts though I was careful not to express them too often or too forcefully. I was, however, grieving about the loss of the sense of direction we’d had together and the subtle shifts in emphasis.

A bad thing can sometimes spark good outcomes

What a strange heading, but it’s true! A few years later my wife Judy was diagnosed with bowel cancer and everything changed. Your friends are always your friends, through good times and bad, so at some point in late spring or early summer 1995 I think, I approached Tony and Faith with this really bad news and invited them to visit and pray with us. And because your friends are always your friends, they were not slow to respond. This coincided with a time when the meetings with Alan and Dorothy were proving rather difficult though I didn’t know that at the time.

Before long Tony and Faith, and Paul and Jenny were coming round for an evening visit at least once a week, and eventually two or even three times a week as Judy’s illness progressed. But what happened during those meetings was astounding and utterly unexpected. Jesus was palpably present every single time we met, and his Spirit was so active amongst us. We experienced prophecy, interpreted tongues, and deep coincidences between songs we were singing, what we were thinking and Bible readings that popped out in the moment. We knew we were right in Father’s presence every time we met. This was holy ground. None of us had experienced anything like it before. The cancer spread and I, for one, had no expectation of physical healing, but Judy and I were both blessed deeply by the renewed presence of our friends and by the experiences in the meetings. It’s fair to say we were all changed by these times together and I know that all of us who remain will never forget it. Judy died on 28th December 1995 and Paul is now no longer with us either. I’m sure all of us learned a lot through the shared experience of those times. Looking back from the perspective I have now, it seems that the change in the meetings following Alan and Dorothy’s arrival combined with the astounding times and experiences as we met again during Judy’s illness, starkly illuminated the difference between living and meeting in our own human wisdom and strength and the freedom we had in the pure presence of Jesus and his Spirit. There’s something further to say about this.

Teaching is not a bad thing, it’s an essential thing. A well-balanced community living in Jesus’ presence needs to receive truth from apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral and teaching gifts. If any are missing or if there is an imbalance, any group, no matter how well-meaning, risks derailment in one form or another.

Winding down

After Judy’s death, the five of us continued to meet for a while, and sometimes we were joined by a couple from Clevedon, members of a new local church, and also by Donna (now my second wife) who was a work colleague from Long Ashton Research Station.

These meetings, too, were good but things were still changing. I remain in touch with Tony and Faith occasionally, though less so with Jenny. Donna and I were married a few years later and left the south-west for the east of England, but that’s another story and I’ll share my personal journey of faith there in the next part of this series. Paul and Jenny moved east as well to be closer to more of her family. Tony and Faith still live in the village of Yatton. Donna and I moved west again ten years ago and now live in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.

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Leadership and the New Testament

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The apostolic gift

Community spirit

We didn’t see ourselves as a house church, more as a group of local believers from a range of denominations all wanting to be part of the exciting revival going on in the UK at the time, open to the gifts of the Spirit, but not wanting to become yet another splinter group.

Yatton, the village in Somerset where it all happened

developing faith – 3

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Moving on

Things were changing. We’d been fairly comfortable at Horsecastle Chapel in Yatton, and we’d learned a great deal and felt loved and made very welcome by the people there. But there were one or two niggles already mentioned in part two of this series. We felt it was not right, and rather unfortunate, that women were not able to take leading roles in meetings, that it was required that women wear hats (a minor thing, but an irritant nonetheless). It began to seem that some of these rules were made by people, not by our Father in heaven, and certainly not by his Son, Jesus. But the greater niggle was that we were not able to move in spiritual ways that were being revealed to us more and more as time went by.

An Anglican home group

For me it came into sharper focus when I went to an Anglican study group. Judy might have come to the same ideas in a different way, but she died in 1995 so I can’t check! I’m not sure we discussed it at the time, but we were moving on closely parallel paths, that I can say with certainty. I wanted to meet some of the Anglicans because I had the feeling there was supposed to be a single church, not a plurality of them. I couldn’t see any way that they could all be brought together, but I wanted to at least get to know some people of other denominations. Going along to the study group seemed a good way to approach this. I soon came to understand that the Holy Spirit was nudging me to go along, and rather quickly I discovered what he had in mind!

Friends and allies

The Anglican study group was held in the home of one of the St Mary’s congregation and was led by the Vicar, Revd Richard Acworth. I don’t remember what was discussed, but I very clearly remember the topic of humility coming up. There was a man in the group who protested, quite strongly, that he was not humble and didn’t intend to become so. I had the impression that he equated ‘humble’ with ‘impoverished’ or ‘weak’ or ‘demeaning’ or some other utterly unattractive idea. I think I was also a bit disappointed by the Vicar’s response.

Also in the group was a woman about my age and as we were leaving I mentioned the humility issue. She agreed quite enthusiastically and we had a brief conversation on the way home; her name was Faith. Judy and I would soon become good friends of Faith and her husband Tony. We shared a lot of views in common concerning Jesus, the Bible, and Church – and this excited me because we were from such different church traditions.

Meeting often

We began meeting quite regularly with Tony and Faith. We were like-minded on so many church matters, and some other things too. we both had young families so most often one of us would walk down to Tony and Faith’s house in Court Avenue in the evening while next time one of them would walk up to our house in Rectory Drive. We would do some Bible study, perhaps sing some of the Christian songs that were so common in those days, and we would pray together. But by far the most important thing we did was to listen to one another and to what the Holy Spirit seemed to be saying to us, sometimes in a whisper, sometimes rather loudly! We invited other people we knew to come and join us, especially Paul and Jenny who lived close as well, so four became six, and there were many other local people with us so on a weekly basis we took turns to host these larger meetings. Sometimes there’d be 20 people in our sitting room, on our sofa and armchairs or sitting on the floor. These were great times of blessing when all of us would feel the presence of the Holy Spirit right with us in every word read or spoken and in every song we sang. We were warned of the dangers we were facing by some of the elders at Horsecastle Chapel, we knew their hearts were in the right place and that the warnings were well-meant; but we knew we were following Jesus so we ignored the advice and warnings and carried on.

Music

Tony is a skilled bass guitarist, Paul was good on a steel-strung 12-string he had, And I would plonk along on a nylon-strung Spanish style acoustic guitar Judy and I had bought at a music shop in Park Street, Bristol while we lived in our flat in Belmont Road. This was an expensive instrument – I think it cost us £27 in 1970 or 1971 (around £540 today) and it replaced the two cheap, second-hand guitars we bought while at university. It seemed better to share one good guitar than to persevere with two older ones that were difficult to tune. Rather later, we were joined quite often by David and Mary Bolster, another couple living nearby. David worked for Scripture Union, and was usually busy with youth work of one kind or another. Judy and I went on a youth retreat with them one year at Wroughton near Swindon to help as assistant leaders, and visited them at a camp at Greatwood near Bridgewater in Somerset. The photo shows Fountain in the Church Hall at St Barnabas in Claverham (from left you can see Paul, Faith, me, Ian on flute, Jenny, Judy and Tony on bass). Ian joined us a little later but was a very useful addition providing a higher pitch in the mix and helping strengthen the melody line.

Tongues

One evening after walking down to Tony and Faith’s, Tony mentioned that he’d received the gift of tongues. We’d read about this in Acts and in some of Paul’s letters to the Greek churches. and we’d read about it in modern times too in books by Colin Urquhart, David Watson, Graham and Betty Pulkingham and others. On hearing this news from Tony I felt mild surprise, delight, frustration and envy all at the same time. So, of course I asked about how it had happened and what it was like. Tony told me he’d been having a bath so was very relaxed and he just started talking scribble. He felt warm and encouraged. As I walked home after that evening at Tony and Faith’s. I gave it a try – I talked some scribble words myself. I learned a valuable lesson right at that point. Was this a gift from the Holy Spirit or was it just me talking scribble and being really foolish. I realised right away that there was no way to tell. And I understood something that I’ve never forgotten since that evening. It’s not about me doing something or not doing something. Specifically, it’s all about Jesus doing something in me, and the only skill needed for that is the simple ability to listen to him and do what he wants, not what I want. This tiny revelation changed my entire life. Everything became real in that moment. In this journey with Jesus it’s not for us to do anything more than rest in his presence. If I do that one thing, consistently, he will do anything else that is necessary. My effort is not required, and life is often far better if I keep well out of the way, especially at moments when he’s touching someone else. My surprise and delight are in order, but never frustration or envy.

As the weeks and months went by, our home meetings grew in numbers, but more importantly in depth and in our appreciation of receiving gifts. We were being invited to bring music and teaching to local churches around the county of Avon and the northern areas of Somerset. We called ourselves ‘Fountain’, played all the latest choruses and songs, as well as some of our own songs and acted out little sketches to help people understand the charismatic revival that was taking hold all around us. Tongues and interpretation became normal for us in meetings, as did prophecy, but the most important things for me were the spirit of caring for one another that grew in our hearts and minds and the determination we all had to follow Jesus in everything.

Jesus provides gifts, but will we open them?

One of those sketches sticks in my mind so I’ll share it with you, Tony played the part of Jesus, and Paul was a typical church member. Tony had a cardboard box wrapped in colourful paper, perhaps with a ribbon tied in a bow. He gave the box to Paul, saying I have a special gift for you. Paul took it and made a point of thanking Tony several times, saying, ‘Oh it’s really lovely, thank you so much, but I don’t think I really deserve it’. He put it down on the table, walked round it, looked at it from all angles and carried on saying how lovely it was. Tony (Jesus) asked, ‘Aren’t you going to open it?’ I chose it specially for you, it’s just what you need, you know.’ Oh no, I couldn’t possibly open it,’ said Paul, ‘That would spoil it, it’s so beautifully wrapped, it would crumple that lovely paper. Jesus responded, but if you don’t open it you won’t find out what it is and you won’t be able to use it. I want you to open it’. And this went on for a while. Then we explained that Jesus has gifts for all of us, but we do need to open them and start using them. And without the gifts being unwrapped and used as intended, Jesus will find it a problem to help us do the work he has in mind for us. His work, building his church, growing his people. Pouring his grace and love into us so that we can share those things with those around us. He does not want us to be timid. We must gratefully receive everything he has for us. It’s for his glory, not ours and we shouldn’t stand in his way.

Good News Crusade

Another thing we did around the same time was print a monthly local newsletter called ‘Community Spirit’ with details of forthcoming meetings at churches around the area, and any special events in the pipeline too. One of these was a Good News Crusade with a series of pre-Crusade rallies beforehand at a church in Portishead. I recorded many of these meetings on a portable stereo cassette machine, and I produced copies from the originals so they could be passed around the community as widely as necessary.

Not a house church

Eventually we would be hosting home meetings of up to twenty people once a week at our house, Tony and Faith’s, or Paul and Jenny’s and one or two other homes in the nearby village of Claverham. There were other similar house meetings going on (for example the Bank House Fellowship in Clevedon). We didn’t see ourselves as a house church, more as a group of local believers from a range of denominations all wanting to be part of the exciting revival going on in the UK at the time, open to the gifts of the Spirit, but not wanting to become yet another splinter group. Much of the leadership effort at the time was spent on starting new streams of churches, New Frontiers for example or Vineyard, or on the other hand bringing spiritual gifts into the established denominations – Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist and so on. Both of these efforts became successful and widespread, but from my perspective today I can see very clearly that we made by far the better, and perhaps more obedient choice. We thought the way forward was more about bringing people together in freedom to follow Jesus in flexible ways, while providing information, help and encouragement both in the established churches and chapels in our area, and amongst Jesus followers with no connections to established churches. We were also keen to encourage new and deeper spiritual growth in all the local churches, though our links with some of the larger places were more tenuous than those with the smaller and self-governing groups. I still feel privileged to see things this way – as if I had a narrow escape from taking a wrong path. I think we all had a narrow escape, Jesus was protecting us and whispering to us, ‘Not that way, this way, just follow me!’ Many of the churches and chapels we encouraged still exist and remain active, some of their websites are listed below under the See also: heading.

Prophecy

It wasn’t just Tony, as time went by we all found ourselves receiving spiritual gifts in a variety of ways. For me, visions and prophecy became the main gifts and I well remember the first time I became aware of it.

I was sitting on the floor in Tony and Faith’s front room, it was just the three of us. (so before Paul and Jenny became involved). In my mind I saw us as children playing on a building site. There were muddy puddles and stacks of bricks all around. We took some of the bricks and stacked them up to make little ‘houses’, four bricks for walls and another balanced on top to make a roof. We were happy playing with the bricks together, but just then the builder arrived and spotted us. He walked over and smiled, though we thought he’d be cross with us. Somehow I knew the the builder was a representation of Jesus. And he said to us, don’t play with the bricks but bring them to me because I know how to use them to build real houses. If you bring them to me you’ll save me time and I’ll be able to build faster.

So that’s what we did, and the first real house started to rise! It wasn’t much of a stretch to see that the real house represented the church, and our job was not to build something ourselves but to bring people into Jesus’ presence and watch while he builds the church.

It was an important lesson and a growth point for me personally and perhaps for all of us as a group. And I’ve been used that way in meetings ever since. Sometimes it’s been well received, sometimes not.

The Fisherfolk/Community of Celebration

Around this time we became aware of the Fisherfolk, a music ministry that wrote and recorded many new Christian choruses focusing on spiritual growth, and particularly the receiving and use of spiritual gifts. This was right up our street! We bought the music books with words and, most helpfully with keyboard score and guitar chords as well, we bought the LP recordings and avidly absorbed it all, practicing Fisherfolk and other songs as well as creating some of our own.

But then a special opportunity came up. We learned that a weekend of music, praise and worship was planned at a site in Dorset – Lytchett Minster. There was a field for camping, the Fisherfolk would be playing and there’d be a lot of like-minded people to discuss things with. We booked space for three tents and went along. It turned out to be a time of growth and learning, just as we’d hoped – hugely beneficial, confirming much that we were already doing and encouraging us to continue.

Impressed as we were by the community style of living demonstrated by the Community of Celebration, we briefly toyed with the idea of selling our three homes and buying an old farmhouse with some land around it, Faith, Paul and I thought this would be a great idea, but Judy, Tony and Jenny disagreed and we didn’t follow through on the plan. It was only an idea in the back of our minds, we didn’t even start to look into the practicalities. but without unanimity, it couldn’t get off the ground.

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Why did I leave the Anglican Church?

Two welcoming families

Leadership and the New Testament

The work of the Spirit – 1

The work of the Spirit – 2

Blast from the past… 5

Do things when you can. Don’t wait, don’t hesitate, who knows what tomorrow might bring…

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Notes from bygone years – A load of Aprils

A year ago

I didn’t post an article in April 2022, but Donna and I visited Weston-super-Mare and I spotted this fruit and vegetable shop in one of the back streets. There were strawberries here, but they’re not in season; there were pineapples but those don’t grow in the UK; there were pears that should be ready to pick in September or October. Almost nothing in this shop was grown locally. Why?

It’s lovely to have choices like this, but they come at a cost to the environment that we usually overlook. The solution lies in my pocket and yours; we should try to buy locally produced fruit and vegetables that are within a few weeks of being in season.

Two years ago

No blog posts in April 2021 either, but on 4th April the weather was warm and bright and we enjoyed eating outside for the first time in 2021.

But oh my word, look at the same table just three days later. Snow! The moral of this little story is plain, do things while you can. Don’t wait, don’t hesitate, who knows what tomorrow might bring…

Five years ago

In April 2018 I had a bit of a rant about rescuing Britain from the dreadful mess it seemed to be in. I grumbled about the effects of Brexit, about poverty, the underfunded health service, an underfunded education system, the need for food-banks, the excessive cost of homes.

Read the article. Let me know if you think things have improved in the last five years.

Ten years ago

In April 2013 I wrote about ‘Men, women and children‘. The topic really was leadership, and I stand by all I wrote at that time.

Can men lead in church? How about women, are they allowed to lead? And what about children? Perhaps it depends who you ask, there are different opinions and different traditions.

Read my post from ten years ago and let me know what your views are.

Fifteen years ago

There was no article in April 2008. However, we had a holiday in Catalonia and visited Barcelona where we took a look at the famous Sagrada Familia with its amazing ‘biological’ shapes. What an astonishing place it it!

To learn more about this wonderful feat of design and engineering by the architect Antoni Gaudi, read the Wikipedia article.

Twenty years ago

In April 2003, I wrote about a meeting at home. Father spoke to us about leadership, coincidentally I drew on what I’d learned in this meeting when I wrote the article mentioned in the ‘Ten years ago’ section above!

We are weak, like freshly poured concrete; but Jesus is patient and knows we will become strong enough for the task he’s given us.

Twenty-five years ago

In April 1998, Donna and I were on our way home from our honeymoon in Florida, and I began a new job at Unilever’s Colworth Laboratory north of Bedford.

Thirty years ago

In April 1995 my first wife, Judy, was recovering from failed chemotherapy for bowel cancer metastases. Clearly this was not a great situation, but she was fitter than she had been since before her operation to remove the primary tumour. We began meeting again at home with friends in Yatton, near Bristol, where we lived. These were by far the best meetings with friends in Jesus’ presence that any of us had ever experienced. Awesome and hard to describe adequately.

Erm… I can’t count! That was not thirty years ago, it was twenty-eight years ago! Ah well, I’ll let it stand.

Thirty years ago

I’ll try again! In April 1993 Judy and I were living in Yatton with our daughters, and my Mum and Dad visited us on 15th. We drove into Bristol and looked around the covered market and The Galleries shopping centre.

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