Buying in

Over the years I have seen some strange things go on in churches but seeing a whole bunch of women turn up last Sunday morning with their slippers on was something a little different!

How many conferences have you been to where upon arrival you are presented with a pair of slippers? Well, it happened on Saturday at our first ever ‘Live with Passion – A day for Women.’ It was a very special day where our female guests were very much pampered and made to feel special. So much so that some of our ladies were still wearing those darned slippers on Sunday morning.

These past four weeks have been for me some of the most exciting and uplifting of times. The wonderful success of our first Church Camp, closely followed by a very stormy (weather wise) but highly encouraging Melbourne Cup celebration was a good start to November; and then last weekend’s activities really nailed things. In recent days we seem to have moved to another level of ministry in this place and we should be feeling highly encouraged as we move toward Christmas and the New Year.

Some years ago I was asked by someone if it would be okay if they started coming along to our church even if they did not necessarily hold with some of the stuff we believed. Interesting; I was asked a very similar question this past weekend.

One of my favourite Christian authors is a guy called Gordon McDonald. A few years back he wrote a book called ‘Mid-Course Correction’ which Gordon wrote as he headed into his sixties and was wondering what might lie ahead for him and others of us who have passed the half way mark. He referred to some research by Anthropologists (people who study anthrops) who had found that people in various cultures align themselves in two different ways. One is a circle that is defined by its outer circumference. In this scheme a person is either in or out of the circle. Those inside the circle define what it takes for people outside to get in. Many will of course recognise this as a very common model in a whole bunch of situations, very much including church. The other alternative is not concerned with the circle, its circumference, or who is in our out. The question is not are you in or out but ‘are you moving toward the centre or away from it?’

Now, depending on a whole bunch of things any organisation will have movements toward and away from the centre and I recognise that we are not immune from that movement and some people choose or circumstance dictates a move away from the centre. However, alongside this is the fact that a whole bunch of people are now moving toward the centre and that excites me.

A number of people are now pulling together our big Christmas Eve event (including a kids’ choir!) and other ministry areas such as Playgroup, Ginger Bread House, finance and property matters are all being infiltrated – in the nicest possible way - by different people. At the beginning of this year I identified one of my key areas of focus in 2007 has encouraging new leadership across the life of the church. It isn’t all that often that a good plan really comes together but I have been very happy to see this come to fruition over these past months. Praise God! People are moving toward the centre.

Remember that classic Aussie movie – The Castle? Daryl’s Lawyer is stuck for words as he faces the court and the best he can do is ‘It’s the vibe - it’s all about the vibe’. Well, the vibe around here right now appears to be pretty good. There is a wonderful spirit about the different ways in which NorthWest Uniting Church is going about stuff of late. There is a strong sense of hope, optimism and energy that is quite infectious. Good grief even I’m catching it!

Just today I had cause to reflect on just what it means to be about following Christ in today’s world. I think that Jesus’ illustration of being salt is a good way of looking at it: ‘You are the salt of the earth.’ In the days of Jesus salt was vital to preserve food and give taste. The thing was though; the salt had to be absorbed - disappear - to be most effective. Much of what we do cannot easily be defined and has no obvious spiritual agenda. It’s a bit like the vibe really. You can’t quite pin down what it is or why it is; but nevertheless it IS!

This coming Sunday I will be finishing my four week series – ‘An Infectious Faith’ with a talk titled ‘Shine like stars – A life worth Catching’. Those of you who have kept up (a chocolate bar to anyone hears all four) will know that we started with Courage, then Compassion and last week Credibility. So this week to keep up with the C’s theme we have Catching. Hope you can!