Family Cook

This is the final post in this series looking back at the worship songs that have been particularly important to me during 2020.

Spirit and Truth

Worship has obviously been very different in the last year. We’ve not been in a Church building since March. The summer festivals I’ve been going to every year since a teenager didn’t happen in the usual way. We haven’t been able to join together in worship with others (apart from family) in the same place. We’ve adapted to worshipping at home. Sometimes on our own, sometimes joining in with a live stream or pre-recorded time of worship.  It has been strange. Uncomfortable at times.

Does Jesus’ promise that “where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them” (Matthew 18:20) only apply if people are in the same physical space? What does it mean to gather together in worship when we cannot be in the same building?

But yet we’ve been singing “We’re gathered here, the time has come to praise the Father, Spirit, Son”. We sung that song with our Church on one of the first Sundays of online worship during the 1st Lockdown. And it felt strange, yet somehow reassuring, to be proclaiming that “we are gathered here” when we were all in our own homes.

The Dutch community ‘De Spil‘ say that “We pray together even if it isn’t in one chapel”. Wherever we gather, I am sure that God meets us. Whether we are physically present with others, joined with people through the wonders of modern technology or simply united by the power of the Holy Spirit we can sing with confidence and assurance that “we’re gathered here the time has come to praise the Father, Spirit, Son”.

We Shall Not Be Shaken

This is an older song than the others I’ve shared. It was written during the time of the financial crisis in 2008/9 when a number of banks in the UK collapsed. It’s message is even more relevant now. With all that we have been facing over the last year, this song is a reminder that “When fear is found all around” God is the “solid ground”.

This doesn’t mean nothing will go wrong, or that we will be protected from any harm. “Nations could be quaking, Economies failing”. Or viruses spreading. God is still our solid ground.

2020 has been a crazy year with events that no-one would have expected or predicted. We last posted here almost three years ago to the day sharing how 2018 was the start of us becoming “settlers” after a time of journeying. We had been led to a new community where we felt called to love and serve both the gathered congregation and the people who live in the local area, and at the time had envisaged that we would remain part of that community indefinitely.

Continue reading “A new voyage begins”

We first realised that God was leading us on a new adventure on New Year’s Eve 2016 when chatting with friends about our hopes and dreams for 2017.

A year later and we are settled in our beautiful new home. It has been a delight to spend time here over Christmas and New Year and have the chance to entertain several friends and family, as well as get to know our neighbours and begin to explore the local community.

A year later and we are now settled in a new church community where we have have already made connections and built friendships with people. In a week’s time, I will be licensed as lay minister, taking up a leadership role within the church, and it is a privilege for the whole family to be able to play a small part in what God is doing here.

This is the start of a new season for us. We have been encouraged by having a couple of other people also join us on the adventure here, and being able to share life and dream with close friends has been and will continue to be extremely special and important. There are new experiences which are certainly pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone (I never thought I would end up playing piano and leading worship in Church!) A passage from Isaiah has been speaking to me lately:

Do not remember the former things,
    or consider the things of old.
 I am about to do a new thing;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert.

(Isaiah 43:18-19)

We might now be settlers rather than voyagers, but that doesn’t mean the adventure is over. I’m pretty sure it is just beginning!

Although it has been a while since we posted an update, there have been lots of developments on our Treasure Hunt – the most significant being we have found a house! We are staying more local than we first thought we might and hope to move in early October. Prayers for all the bits of the jigsaw to fall into place as the solicitors do their thing would be much appreciated!

In August, I had the privilege of attending the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit in Chicago. The GLS features speakers from both Christian and secular organisations – working from the premise that “armed with enough humility, leaders can learn from anyone”. Hearing from so many great leaders in the space of 2-days was a treat, and there was so much to absorb but one theme in particular has been resonating with me since getting back home: The power of proximity. And this has been particularly interesting given our journey to explore where God might be calling us to serve in the future.

Bryan Stephenson is an American civil rights lawyer who works to challenge biases against the poor and minorities in the criminal justice system, particularly children. (His TED talk is well worth watching!) He spoke about how we cannot be effective leaders from a distance. That we need to get close so we can see and hear things that we would otherwise miss, and so that the people we are serving truly believe we are alongside them. How too often we think that we need to have the answers before we get involved, but if we don’t understand the real issues, we can’t solve the problems. Bryan challenged us to take risks, be willing to do uncomfortable things and position ourselves in uncomfortable places.

I’ve been reflecting on what this means for us as we seek to join in with the “Missio Dei” – the mission of God. How are we alongside and in proximity with those in our communities? In my experience, it is so often easier to do to, rather than to do with. We can be present but without getting to know people personally. Pope Francis called on priests to be “shepherds living with the smell of the sheep”.

Pope Francis also wrote:

My mission of being in the heart of the people is not just a part of my life or a badge I can take off…we have to regard ourselves as sealed, even branded by this mission of bringing light, blessing, enlivening, raising up, healing and freeing.

Just as Jesus became God incarnate or “moved into the Neighbourhood” (as The Message translates John 1:14) so we have an incarnational mission to join in with. And that means smelling like the sheep we are serving!

What does that mean for us on our journey? We have some exciting possibilities to explore – opportunities to be part of what God is already doing. Please pray for clarity, wisdom and discernment as we continue to journey and explore.

The last few weeks have been good news but no news at the same time. We’ve received – and provisionally accepted – an offer on our house which is fantastic, but our buyer hasn’t yet sold her property, so we can’t proceed and so our house remains on the market.

We have also seen somewhere we like but have had two offers rejected and don’t want to get into more negotiations until we know exactly what’s happening with our sale. We’ve not yet seen anywhere else that gives us the space we’re looking for in the right location and at the right price.

Of course, we know God has perfect timing. But it’s hard to be patient. If you can, please pray that we’ll trust his timing to make all the bits of the jigsaw come into place!

Our house is finally up for sale! We tried to move a couple of years ago, and it ended up not working out. One of our friends reminded us that at the time she thought it would work out for us in two years’ time, and so we’re praying that this will be the right time, an that we’ll find a buyer quickly (we already have viewings lined up).

We would also value prayers about where we move to. We want our next home to be a place we can use to offer hospitality, and we believe that the location of our next house is particularly important as we look to build and be part of a new community.

Our journey continues…!

Image taken by Mark Moz and used  under a Creative Commons Attribution licence