It was, for me at least, an early start this morning. As I pulled back the bedroom curtains mist
was swirling around the garden as the sun tried to burn through. I was up early because Amersham Free Church
was ‘hosting’ the monthly Bucks Baptist Ministers’ Breakfast. I left the Manse at 7.20am to walk to church
and meet up with folk who had got up even earlier to help prepare the food.
My route into town normally takes me over the red footbridge at the station. By the time I got there it was about 7.30am and I was surprised to see the platform crowded with commuters ready to start their daily journey ‘up to town’. The car park was frantic as people were being dropped off. ‘A different world’ from mine I thought. This is a side of life here in Amersham I rarely see and never take part in. If I go up to London I always catch a train after 9.15am because it’s cheaper! Not so these folk – everyday up, out and catching the 7.32am.
The other evening walking home from an Elders’ Meeting lots of people were, this time, coming out of the station clutching their brief cases and bags looking totally exhausted. It was 10.30pm – what a time to be returning home from the office.
For many who are now retired at AFC this was a daily way of life and for a smaller group it remains so.
It’s never easy ‘to walk in someone else’s moccasins’! My world is very different from a city commuter’s, a doctor’s or a shop assistant’s. The challenge for me is that all sorts of people with all sorts of Monday to Friday professions come to church to listen to my sermons on Sundays! It makes me wonder if we have got the balance quite right and how we might ‘hear’ more from those in the world of work during a service; because it’s important to make that connection.
That’s the reason I was impressed by a colleague's Sabbatical arrangements recently. We ministers often use this leave of absence to go on theological conferences or spiritual retreats – which is fine. Yet my friend shunned all of that and spent his three months away from his church routine working as a voluntary porter at the local hospital. He simply wanted to become re-acquainted with the world of work because he believed it would enhance his ministry.
Perhaps our time together on a Sunday is a bit like that central, overlapping point of a Venn diagram. We have other spheres we inhabit: be they at work or out in our communities. Yet we share this moment of weekly worship together – bringing our whole selves to it praying that something about the fellowship, liturgy and sermon will touch a chord with us and resonate, giving us some of the strength we need to get back on the 7.32 to Marylebone on Monday morning!
With best wishes,
My route into town normally takes me over the red footbridge at the station. By the time I got there it was about 7.30am and I was surprised to see the platform crowded with commuters ready to start their daily journey ‘up to town’. The car park was frantic as people were being dropped off. ‘A different world’ from mine I thought. This is a side of life here in Amersham I rarely see and never take part in. If I go up to London I always catch a train after 9.15am because it’s cheaper! Not so these folk – everyday up, out and catching the 7.32am.
The other evening walking home from an Elders’ Meeting lots of people were, this time, coming out of the station clutching their brief cases and bags looking totally exhausted. It was 10.30pm – what a time to be returning home from the office.
For many who are now retired at AFC this was a daily way of life and for a smaller group it remains so.
It’s never easy ‘to walk in someone else’s moccasins’! My world is very different from a city commuter’s, a doctor’s or a shop assistant’s. The challenge for me is that all sorts of people with all sorts of Monday to Friday professions come to church to listen to my sermons on Sundays! It makes me wonder if we have got the balance quite right and how we might ‘hear’ more from those in the world of work during a service; because it’s important to make that connection.
That’s the reason I was impressed by a colleague's Sabbatical arrangements recently. We ministers often use this leave of absence to go on theological conferences or spiritual retreats – which is fine. Yet my friend shunned all of that and spent his three months away from his church routine working as a voluntary porter at the local hospital. He simply wanted to become re-acquainted with the world of work because he believed it would enhance his ministry.
Perhaps our time together on a Sunday is a bit like that central, overlapping point of a Venn diagram. We have other spheres we inhabit: be they at work or out in our communities. Yet we share this moment of weekly worship together – bringing our whole selves to it praying that something about the fellowship, liturgy and sermon will touch a chord with us and resonate, giving us some of the strength we need to get back on the 7.32 to Marylebone on Monday morning!
With best wishes,
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