Jon's Blog April 2014

Jon's Blog April 2014

 Dear St Mark’s,

This is my first Blog as Pioneer Curate of St.Mark’s! For the foreseeable future Hennie and I will be alternating the monthly clergy blog spot! So, as a young and hip minister of the word, I thought I should find out what a Blog was!

Blog (as you all know) is the combination of the two words Web and Log. A log on the web! Now when I hear the word 'Log' as a part time Trekki*, I think of the words ‘Captains log’! The Captains log was a voice over used in every episode of Star Trek. It's purpose was to either explain a part of the story that was easily missed, to re-cap on what just happened, or to give a preeminent forward look into the episode.

So, with that remit in mind welcome to ‘The Pioneer Curate’s Log, Star date: April 2014, going where no Pioneer Curate has gone before …’ (cue intro music) Following in the great Jean-Luc Picard's footsteps, in this blog, I will be taking the time to explain a little bit about me, a little bit on the season past and a bit on the season to come.

A bit on me (something that could be easily missed)

As you may have noted, I have the title Pioneer Curate. There may be some of you wondering why I have an extra word in my title. If you would like a really detailed explanation of what a Pioneer is, then do look up the Church of England website and look up Pioneers to see what they are! Equally, look up the Fresh Expressions** Website for a detailed list of stories and teaching on what pioneers do!

However, each Pioneer has their own take on what it means to be a Pioneer and here is mine: a Pioneer's primary background is normally in evangelism and church planting.  Therefore as an Anglican pioneer curate, I am being trained in two halves: half my time is spent being trained to learn the traditional form of ministry of an Anglican Vicar. The other half of my time is spent being trained to plant (pioneer) new forms of church to help people come to faith who would never attend a traditional church. Clear as mud ☺ and there is more …

Every Pioneer is different: some are prepared to plant churches anywhere doing anything and some have a background or culture that they intend to plant into. My background is theatre and my hope is that I will use theatre to start fresh expressions of church. It’s all very exciting and we are already seeing fruit!

So, that is enough about me, but please do come and talk to me and ask me questions! I love talking about this stuff and am more than happy to do so!

So, a bit on the last season!

This last term has been Colossians, Colossians, Colossians! We have been re-grounded in our gospel and our risen Lord who was, and is and is to come! We have been challenged: Are we rooted in the sufficiency of Christ? Do we know our gospel with confidence? Are we seeing the fruit of that gospel in our daily behaviour? These challenges were necessary for the young church of Colossae and they are necessary for us today.

We have seen the fruit of the gospel lived out in our community this last term. It has been a hard time with much illness and loss and we have witnessed the community of St Mark's equipped to support, love and care for those in need. We have been blessed to see God working in Jeremy Baxter-Smallwood in his quick recovery from his operation. We have also been distinctly blessed to see the ongoing recovery of Vaughan Hanning-Lee from his heart attack. There are many other stories of God moving!

Hennie and I had the privilege of going to the New Wine Leaders conference where we were challenged to see our ‘gathered’ communities – scattered. Not that we should not be ‘gathered,’ but from our gathered position we are then ‘sent out' into our communities. Reflecting on the amazing work of God in our community, are we prepared to cry out for more of God’s healing in our communities, in our neighbourhoods, our shops, our schools and our work places? Do not misunderstand me, I do not just mean physical healing (although that is very much included) I also mean healing of minds, lives and relationships! Are we offering what we have to our friends, families and neighbours? Can we share our lives and our faith with those around us? Exciting times are ahead of us if we are prepared to take hold of them. This leads me to my third section of my PC Blog:

A snapshot forward into the next season!

LENT! The classic question is often asked: ‘What have you given up?’ What a profound and deeply insightful question. In our lives we give up many things, some we realise and some we don’t. Some things we give up for good reasons and some for bad. I want to take this Blog to challenge us with that question: What have you given 'up' to God - rather than merely stopped doing it.

I would love to encourage us as we are near the middle of Lent to focus on whether we give things 'up'. In many ways, when we became Christians we chose to give everything 'up' to our God, because he sacrificed everything for us. But then throughout our lives we sometimes take things back, or God brings our attention to areas where He wants us to grow. Lent and fasting in general is a great opportunity to bring us back to our knees in prayer as we feel the lack of the thing we have sacrificed and as we prepare for Easter. But, I Are we giving these things 'up'? Every morning, every time we miss the thing we have chosen, do we once again, intentionally give it 'up' to God?

You may feel that you have missed Lent this year, or you have already failed at a hoped for fast. Well may I encourage you, it is never too late to consciously listen to God and hear the thing that He wants you to focus on giving 'up'. Take the time up to Easter to consciously give 'up' what God puts on your heart. And may we together as a community consciously anticipate the day that we get to say collectively 'Jesus is Risen' 'HE IS RISEN INDEED, HALLELUJAH!'

* Fan of Star Trek – for those completely detached from the nerdy scene!

** A Fresh Expression of Church or Fresh Expressions as its often called is two things: 1: it is the title of a newly planted church in a fresh format e.g. a Messy Church. 2: It is the name of the charity that oversees and supports many of these new forms of church.