Wednesday 23 November 2011

Sarangkot

Here's the view of the Annapurna's from Sarangkot at sunrise. It was such a blessing as the weather meant it had been cloudy for weeks before and again the day after. For me, this is the kind of view, which does put life in perspective. 



Well done Delia Smith:
“As I’ve got older I have become more aware of the simplicity of our faith,” she said. “If Jesus has said, ‘there’s only one thing needed’, we cannot grow as Christians without incorporating that ‘one thing’ into our daily lives and take his words utterly seriously.”


We had a good time with Roy Searle, speaking at our Leaders Day today on Missional Living. From my perspective this is the key issue facing us and the discipleship factor seems to be key in whatever culture, or context, in today's world. Over the last two weeks I've heard:


In Nepal: without discipleship we shall be too shallow, if persecution returns.
In Bangladesh: without discipleship Christians will be indistinguishable from everyone else.
In India: the discipleship of the planters is what this movement depends upon.


Whilst I've been away, BU Council has met and I've noted a couple of things: 
i.  The Baptist Times will cease publication at the end of this year due to falling circulation numbers. This saddens me, to say 'I told you so', but I just hope it will serve as a reminder to us all we cannot bury our heads in the sand and simply hope things will turn around in other aspects of Baptist life. The reality is, we should have realised we needed a different expression of 'Baptist times' years ago and radically changed what the paper was for. The sooner we stop playing at trying to be a proper denomination and start cultivating an environment in which missional discipleship flourishes the better. 
ii. The fact of our £1 million budget deficit is now on public display. This represents a huge challenge to our way of being, but I'm one of those who sees it as an opportunity to get real about what Delia is talking about: simplicity and simply following Jesus. Of course, we could bury our heads in the sand again.










No comments: