A Christian Leader is … ?

In his book "Being Leaders" Aubrey Malphurs says, "It's my view that the decline of the church in the West is due in part to boards that consist of well-meaning laypeople who don't understand or know how to lead churches."

Wow!  That sounds harsh, but is he right?  I think I would want to say "… well-meaning lay and ordained people who haven't grasped (or have forgotten) that the role of the church is to tell of Jesus, live the life of Jesus and proclaim the kingship of Jesus and have thus taken their eye and focus off the essential role of the church to bring those who don't know Him before His throne."  

Personally I would encourage any Christian leader to do a course like the 'Leadership, Renewal and Mission' course at Cliff College as an essential introduction to what leadership in the church is about - rather than all the current focus on man-management and use of resources.

Growing the rural Church

Yesterday I set off a little earlier than normal to go to worship at a church in a rural environment.  It is many years now since I last regularly led worship in the country chapels in the Skipton and Grassington Circuit so I was keen to see how rural ministry was shaping up to the changing times.

While I could not in all honesty say the church was well filled - it most certainly was not - the welcome was very warm - well you can hardly creep unnoticed into a small chapel and while I probably sat in someone's regular pew no one said anything or communicated it in any other way!

Led by one of my colleagues I knew we were in for a good service, but it immediately became clear that this was going to be a service with a difference - a new member was to be confirmed.  Now it has to be said that this too infrequently happens, so it was a great encouragement especially as the confirmee was a young man in his 20's.  This is also one of real privelidges of Ministry in the  Methodist Church because we actually preside at the Confirmation; we don't have to step aside for a Bishop as do our Anglican colleagues.  As a total aside, it did cross my mind how, in the renewed commitment that our Conference has just made to move towards visible unity with the Church of England, how this issue will be handled!

As the service continued towards the Confirmation, with all the words reminding us about what our faith means to us and demands of us, my colleague then invited myself and a retired Minister who was also in the congregation to join him at the front.  We were then asked to jointly Confirm this new member - now that was a totally unexpected but really apprecaited privilege.  It made a very good point - people are not Confirmed into membership of one congregation, nor just of the Methodist Church, but into the worldwide Christian Church!

The sermon slot was based on two great New Testament passages reminding us about what it means to be a Christian in a community of Faith and, being an all-age service (the Sunday School stayed in), the sermon slot unpacked the readings in a very accessible and visual manner which engaged everyone by demanding ideas and responses through looking at what it meant to 'belong'.

At the end of the service I felt there was hope for growth in the church in the rural community and privileged to have been asked to be a part in the service.

New College Bird Methodist Church

Post by W Arthur Harbottle.

New College Bird was badly affected by the earthquake and where the church lost a lots of its senior Ministers when a building they were meeting in collapsed.  Though the Church survived (except for the tower) much around it has been rebuilt.  These shots show something of the Church and school today.
 

Thomassin Methodist Church

Post by W Arthur Harbottle.

Furcy Mission, Church, school and Clinic

It was a true privilege to go to Furcy this morning. Only about 15 mile from Port-au-Prince but at an altitude of some 5300 feet the air temps are a much more bearable 22 or so degs! The steeply sloping hillsides are terraced in a manner which reminds one of the Andes or Himalayas, with houses dotted around and groups of people working the ground to produce crops to be sold on to the markets in PaP.

The area has suffered much from erosion due to so much of the area having been stripped of its native hardwood to repay debts to the west and a major reason for some of the poverty here. It is virtually impossible to get down to the church, school, clinic, hostel (for work teams and another for teachers) in a vehicle, so we completed the journey on foot. We were greeted by many who recognised John as the Doctor who came to the clinic on some Mondays - clearly confusing some because it was a Saturday!

Life cannot be easy here, not least as it gets so cold at night, but there is such beauty I felt so honoured to see what many others will never have the chance to set their eyes upon.

Post by W Arthur Harbottle.

The earthquake mass grave

When I was told we would visit the earthquake mass grave I had in mind something like the graves in Europe from the two World Wars.  Certainly, at least in my mind, a place were 260,000 of the 300,000 victims of the earthquake were interred would seem to need a significant memorial.

The first picture is an artist's impression of one idea for the site.

But on arrival at the site I was …. to say the least ….. caught totally unawares, for this is what we found.

A large boulder surrounded by a concrete fence, secured by metal gates .

No flowers, no pictures, no recognition of the individuals who died!

It is a place which still stirs in me emotion every time I visit it in my mind's-eye.  Can you imagine how this place would be if it were marking such a disaster in Europe?

However, as I reflected upon it and upon my response, I began to admire Haitians.  Even though this site is a full 10 miles from PaP and difficult for most to access with public transport, Haitians clearly don't need to have a place to focus their grief and memories the way we do in the UK.  The past is the past - what has happened is done - and life goes on.  Maybe in time, when the Government there has surplus funds or another country offers to underwrite the cost they will complete the memorial garden, but until such a time every penny - sorry, Gourde - has a better function to fulfil, to rebuild a nation, to rebuild a future, to create a society in which Haitians today can flourish!

Freres Methodist Church

This is the church on the compound where all the Church Offices have been since the earthquake and where our Mission Partners, Dr John & Sharon Harbottle live.  The church draws from the surrounding area which includes people from the school and District Offices.

Post by W Arthur Harbottle.

First impressions of Haiti

Apart from the most incredible heat which hits you as you leave the airport terminal building in Port au Prince, all other expectations of a country which has suffered that which Haiti has in the past 4 years was much as expected.

Flying in, some of the pockets of severe poverty were immediately visible, the tin-roofed dwellings around La Saline, and though the main tent encampments are now a thing of the past, in some areas they still exist.

Driving through Port au Prince one is constantly reminded of the earthquake.  Many buildings still bear the scars and others still await being demolished.  The rubble and dust from fallen buildings is all around and I wondered how Haitians cope with the on-going reminder of the disaster.  Of course the simple answer is that they have no option but to cope, not helped by the lack of promised aid.  Though figures are disputed greatly, very little of the aid money promised by other countries has found its way to the Haiti people or for their Government to use.  The major use of aid seems to have been in the support is UN forces (who are suspected of being responsible for the start of the cholera epidemic) whose presence my have been initially helpful in creating stability and security, but who clearly live at a standard most Haitians can only dream about, grants to NGO's who often have their own agendas and don't always always work in collaboration with the Haiti people, and in building works which donor Governments insist their own companies get the contracts for.  In the meantime, Haitians are left without work or income!  It maybe over simplified, but I would just want to provide the materials, the equipment and those able to train Haitians to use the equipment and let them got on with it, but hey, I am only an engineer, not a politician!

In the meantime most Haitians in PaP survive by being involved in informal street trading, sitting at the side of a road trying to sell enough to get enough to feed the family!

Water was another interesting issue.  Most utilities collapsed during the earthquake so water is now supplied in bottled form or in plastic bags!  It is quite usual to see locals drinking from a triangular plastic bag, sold by a lad who walks around with a great bag of these it on his head.

In places you have to be very careful where you walk

The gentle breeze of the Spirit wafts afresh through dusty corridors

At first glance, the tired and unkempt façade of this old Methodist Church, stuck in back alleys just out of the town centre of Darlington, speaks of a church just waiting for some crisis to close it.  Having recently celebrated its bicentenary it really does look like a church which has passed its sell-by date and failed to make any attempt to become aesthetically attractive in contemporary terms, not helped I guess, by the certainty of it being "Listed" to one degree or another - it really does beg the question, "Who in their right mind would want to preserve such a monstrosity?"

However, on two Sunday mornings each month the sleepy monster wakes at 9-30 am to the rhythm of contemporary worship music emanating from a hall at the back of these huge premises.  This morning, as I followed the sound of music, I found a good cross-section of ages gathered in cafe-style, tucking into breakfast and chattering happily together in a nicely appointed hall.  It was explained that numbers where fewer than usual as many had gone down to the Spring Bank holiday festival at Cliff College.

However, despite this, the gathered assembly raised their voices in praise and adoration to God to the accompaniment of two guitars, a keyboard, a Sax and a "drum" the like of which I have never seen before!  Even the "more mature" of the congregation joined in with the contemporary worship songs even when we were taught a new one, even joining in with the actions which were led by three children. We were led in a study on the theme of "community" which was linked to Philippians ch 2, with questions for the adults to consider around their tables while the youngsters were in their separate activities.  The theme was well brought together by the young Minister who left three challenging points for is to go away and ponder on with regard to our place within the community of the "church".

The "service" wound up with the children performing a rap they has learnt on the theme, prayers and a final hymn.  Now this is the sort of gathering which, if it were a weekly event, I would be most happy to make a home here - relaxed, friendly, modern, all-age, early enough in the day to allow for other activities.  This is "breakfast@9".

What stood out most was the provision of a simple breakfast at the start (with its echoes of the early church), the cafe-style setting with all words projected on a screen and ….  no offering!  I am sure I heard the tapping of toes from the foundations of this building as it too sensed the rhythm of praise which it must have remembered from former years.

Interestingly two of the "more mature" attendees admitted that they enjoyed it and felt they could more easily invite others to this, rather than the traditional service (which they then went out to join in the main sanctuary)!  It is just a shame that the church does not have the courage to abandon its traditional morning service and support, en mass, this "fresh expression" which is run by others in the local Methodist Circuit.  If they did, then maybe, the gentle breeze of the Spirit's work might blow stronger and bring renewed life to this tired old building, and maybe, renewal to the church.

Blogging restarts

It was 7 years ago that this blog was first started to record thoughts from our first-ever Sabbatical.  It crawled on in a haphazard fashion but was overtaken to some degree by Social Media and a more recent blog which has what I hope is a more inspiring, uplifting and thought-provoking but anonymous content.
However, with Sabbatical 2014 just starting today I am relaunching this one with glimpses of some of what we get up to!