Here I am

Posted: Sat 05 July, 2008 at 20:52pm

Well, here's my second posting. This one's all about a shift in the normal pattern of mine and my family's life. Some of you may already know but for those who don't.....

As the opening blurb to my website states, I'm a Christian, and for some time now I've been involved in leading/speaking/leadership kind of things. Since arriving back in Gloucester after uni in 2001, I’ve been involved in youth leadership, led services and more recently (last couple of years) I've been given opportunity to preach at a small number of local churches, including my own. Since August of last year I became an Elder of my church - Abbey Church in Gloucester.

Throughout the last few years, I have met up occasionally with an elder of my church for a pub lunch. During some of these meet-ups we have talked about the 'what-ifs' of full-time ministry. The question "Where are the next generation of leaders going to come from?" has come up during our chats and this question has haunted me (in a good way!) ever since I heard it. It doesn't mean that there aren't any future leaders at all, but simply that there isn't enough. I’ve continually felt that, maybe, I should step up to the mark…

Another thing is that I can’t shake off the certainty that I will meet Jesus at some point, and I will have to answer His question about what I've done with the gifts I've been given, and I don't want to reply with a prolonged silence when I try to think of an 'acceptable' excuse. I’d dearly love to hear Him say "well done good and faithful servant”.

I do not profess to be the greatest leader or the most eloquent speaker, but what I do know is that God has given me certain gifts (as He does to us all!) and that the bible tells me I should be using them for Him and His purposes. These gifts, to those who know me, obviously need developing and improving with additional training, but this presents a problem. It's a simple maths problem that requires little or no maths expertise:

Number of hours in a week / (family hours + church hours + work hours) = 1

There aren’t enough hours in the week!  In the past months I have been considering and praying about what I should do to make the sums add up. I have been convinced that I should alter the equation. This change is crucially supported by my wife, having herself become convinced also of where God is taking us.

I'm not about to ditch my family, or church come to that, so therefore the equation must now read:

Number of hours in a week / (family hours + church hours + ministry hours) = 1

Exactly what "ministry hours" actually is, remains a bit blurry. What I know I must do is improve my gifts. So it is at this point we get to the crux (excuse the pun) of it all. I applied to the Cornhill Training Course which is based in London, and have since been accepted. I'll be doing this course part-time over two years. I will be starting the course in mid-September when I will be reducing my working week to two days per week to accommodate this.

This obviously has been a huge decision but we truly believe, the right one. So it is exciting as well as a little daunting!

I start at Cornhill on Monday 15th September (the course runs Mondays and Tuesdays in the first year, Thursdays and Fridays in the second) – staying overnight with some kind friends who have offered to give me a bed for the night.  The course is 30 weeks of the year (split into 3 terms).  I will then have a study day at home.  During ‘holiday’ times, I will be able to do extra work – so if any of you need anything webby – let me know!

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