funky doo

long awaited return...

yikes, have been off this blog for ages...quite unintentional really! Life as usual has overtaken the best laid plans. Lots of good stuff happening in the world of the Smiths and lots of crappy stuff too which I won't write about here...

Had a full work day today, preaching this morning in Billericay and then at a youth group in Chelmsford this evening - final verdict is that I am rubbish at pool and slightly better than rubbish at table tennis, must be out of practice. My last youth group were major Uni-Hoc fans so the 'traditional' youth groups games as per the above didn't get a look in...looking back, perhaps there was a bit of a violence issue bubbling underneath the surface (only kidding any ex-youthy readers!)

We also went through our finances today - really yuksome with a new mortgage and increased child care costs as of last week. Really has made us realise how little impact our money seems to have and how poor our giving is in relation to our spending. Our church had a Vision Offering Day today, and has had for the last 3 years we have been around. The attendance was apparently really low...and the giving was lower than previous years too. We have lots to reflect on now in terms of our outgoings, expenses and giving/tithing and I am haunted a little by my friend Jenny's mantra "Give your tithe first and everything else will fall into place". I confess that it is usually the biggest and most scary item that is paid first (i.e. mortgage) followed closely by food and anything Matilda related...

So, alongside that, we have been saving for the last year as many will know and have today reserved flights for our holiday to the USA in August! Yay! 10 days in New York and 10 days in Knoxville (Tennessee) followed by weekend back in New York when my family will be around and we can spend some time with them.

What else has been happening? I'm gonna write a list and if you want to know anymore about any item, I will expand on it in a later post - sort of like a reader led blog to help me get back in the habit!! So.....I went to a Jehovah's Witness meeting on Easter Saturday - Jesus Memorial meal. My regular meetings with Fernanda have stopped for the moment and that meeting certainly put me off ever being a JW (not that I was thinking about it!) I have also got a bit reimmersed in my Mormon theology reading and am seriously hoping and trying to get some writing done around that which could translate into training...

I have been planning new training for my church on Child Protection

Andy and I had our first night away (together) without Matilda since she was born (we've both been away from her, but never together). I won't give any more detail on that!

I have been planning my birthday weekend away with my parents, my sister and her husband and Andy and Matilda to celebrate my 30th...we are each pairing up to cook an evening meal through the weekend and I have been paired with my brother in law Ollie...could be an interesting combo! My sister meanwhile is paired with my dad, neither of them think the other can cook so it could be competitive in a good way...or not!

The looming 30th has been an interesting process - both in terms of me as a person and also in terms of my job. I have that nagging question of how long I can go on being convincing, authentic, relevant etc as a youth worker...how old is too old? I know so many people who have such a gift for engaging with young people and being alongside them and teaching and stuff that they can almost never stop doing it...a true calling. I have such a sense of calling to work on behalf of young people and I know that I need to keep it grounded by hanging out with yp's like I did tonight. The question came up last week at the regional meeting of Diocesan Youth Officer's...some are looking to the future and moving on, but overall the conversation had such a sense that there's almost nothing left after being a DYO...not that it's a bad thing to be, but it's kinda a dead end in terms of the Church of England. Maybe that's why so many perhaps go onto ordination. That's not going to be me, despite the lady this morning who commented on my sermon by telling me, "you'd be a lovely Vicar"!

I'd only do it to get rid of the mortgage!

mormon president

I was amazed to find that I had completely missed the passing on of the Mormon President and Prophet, Seer and Revelator of the Latter Day Saints, Gordon B Hinckley. While I was at University I had a healthy obsession with all things Mormon, prompted by a friendship with lovely Annette from Sociology elective at the start of my degree and culminating in my dissertation on Mormon Temple Worship and the exaltation of the family unit (I got a first for it!!)

It's been somewhat away from my radar recently, as I've been otherwise engaged with Jehovah's witness theological debate and having a baby and such things! It's been a distraction today as I've browsed the internet looking at obituaries and other commentary on his death and the next step for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Whatever else you might say about the Mormons (and people say plenty, there are some horrible web sites out there slating their beliefs...mainly set up and used by 'Christians', makes me embarassed) - President Hinckley built more temples and travelled more of the world than any other Prophet before him...you could never say the Mormons aren't committed to their cause. Although I do believe they are wrong about the Trinity, who God is and what happens to us when we die, we have a lot to learn from them in terms of their missionary zeal and community support programs.

The new Mormon President has been named as (no, not Mitt Romney!) Thomas A Monson. Good luck to him!

I really must do something about putting together my training package around understanding pseudo-Christian sects, especially in relation to young people who are particularly susceptible to new and different thinking at that time in their lives...and are involved and committed to something before they realise it. I've started writing a course a couple of times but always lost momentum - maybe a booking to do the session somewhere would be the motivation I need?! Any takers!

Other things today have been finally booking a venue and a date for the Sophia Network gathering for the Essex/South East area for women in youth ministry. Further details are:

Wednesday 23rd April, 10.30am for 11 start. Finish by 1pm and those who can head off for a pub lunch or similar.

Rayleigh Holy Trinity Church Hall, Rayleigh, Essex

All women welcome, you don't have to be a member of Sophia and please pass on this info to anyone you know who is a woman in this field!

gotta go pick up the baby now!

preaching on the Trinity...eek!

today was my godson Joshua's birthday (son of Natalie and Baggy) - which he shares with our friends Lewis and Gemma's daughter Evie - both two. Can't believe that 2 years ago today Joshua was so tiny that his body fitted in the palm of Andy's hand. It's miraculous and the power of prayer is so apparent in his life - and brilliant to see him leaping around to Bob the Builder and playing Pass the Parcel at his party!!

apart from that it's been a quiet day, just me and Matilda as Andy is off doing Great North Run tomorrow. I've been thinking a lot in the quiet (matilda makes noise, but it's not quite conversation yet!) about what I am going to preach on in a couple of weeks when I'm speaking at my own church - always a lot more scary than preaching to strangers! I think in the still small quiet God has been telling me to preach on the Trinity - which may be very odd to you! However, since before the summer, I have been meeting weekly with two Jehovah's Witness ladies who came to my door randomly and we got talking, as you do!! In my student life, I did my Uni dissertation on Mormonism and I have a long running fascination and interest in 'pseudo Christian sects' - those which use a lot of our language such as Father, salvation, grace, redemption but in very different ways and with different theology. I don't really have the time for such research and thinking into that theology now, so this has been an opportunity for me to think again on that deeper level about what I believe and standing up for the key tenets of the Christian faith.

The Trinity has become an area where we have had to disagree and I have realised just how limited my Bible knowledge has become. I wonder whether doing a 'Christian' job makes me a bit blase about it and I don't discipline myself as I used to? Fernanda, one of the ladies has done an excellent job of going through the Bible and proving that the Trinity is not biblical in any way and that Jesus was literally God's Son and therefore not God. I don't believe her but I admire her ability to move around the Bible and use passages and speak about them in relation to their history, context and prophetic links to the New Testament.

So, I think I'm going to put some time into thinking through how the Trinity theology came to be, so I can be certain of what I believe as well as what I know. Hopefully this will become the foundation for some teaching about being firm in our faith, not just through experience but also through apologetics and reasoning.