An Adventure in Ministry

Throughout the years, as one year draws to a close and a new one is on the horizon, I have asked God to give me a word to take me through the next year. The words have always been prophetic and it has been fascinating to see how that year has been woven through circumstances and situations in my life. The words have always filled me with excitement, words such as Joy, Adore, Restore and Wait. This year, however, when I spent time with God asking him what word he had for me this year, when he revealed the word (or two!) to me  I didnt feel the usual bubble of excitement, and as I researched the word I came to understand why!  The words that God gave me for 2024 were ‘Patient Endurance’ As I began to look at where these words appear together in the bible, I discovered that they always tend to appear when talking about trials, suffering and even the end of days! I must admit I did have a bit of an argument with God about it, telling him I didn’t want the words for the year 2024, ...

  One of the things I love the most about Christmas is the food! There are so many delicious things to eat and drink over Christmas and I find myself guarding the cupboards and fridge in the build up declaring “You Can’t Eat that…It’s for Christmas!” This year God has been challenging me and my thinking of advent and in a funny way it has changed the way I consider all those Christmas treats!  Advent is a season of waiting and is all about awaiting Christmas and the birth of Jesus. Throughout this time we wait with anticipation and expectancy, and there seems to be a stillness in the waiting. This is often contrasted sharply with the preparation, the busyness and ‘doing’ of sharing the news about the coming of Jesus.  For many years I have found this a really difficult tension. I feel guilty about the ever, growing to do list if I slow down to the advent rhythm of waiting  or even stop for a while. I often feel too, however, that I am failing to wait well if I go abo...

One of the things that fascinated me when I was a secondary school teacher was the new words children would come up with and use. They weren’t necessarily made up words, but they took words and changed its meaning to make it ‘trendy’ . The truth is Language is often changing and evolving and we see a great example of this in the carol ‘God rest ye merry gentlemen. The meaning of the words of that famous first line has changed since it was written roughly around the 1500s.  This carol was first put into print in 1760 and at that time the word ‘rest’ meant to keep or continue or make, and the word ‘merry’ meant great or mighty. Therefore the first line should read: ‘God make you mighty, Gentlemen!’ The carol was made popular by Charles Dickens in his book ‘A Christmas Carol’ in which it describes: “... at the first sound of ‘God bless you, merry gentlemen! May nothing you dismay!’, Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole...

For many people the carol ‘O Holy night’ is one of their favourite carols and when listened to live, it is bound to bring goosebumps! This french song began as a poem written by De Roquemaure, but he soon realised it was better suited to a song and sent it to a friend Adolphe Charles Adams to compose the music. Although Adams was Jewish, and therefore didn’t celebrate Christmas, he composed the tune and it was sung at midnight mass on Christmas eve. It wasn’t long, however, until this song caused controversy with a tune written by a Jew and Roquemaure leaving the church to become a socialist and it was banned in the church. However, people continued to sing it and its popularity grew.  It is an endearing history, however I came across a couple of stories connected to this song that really challenged me, hundreds of years after it was written. There is a legend that in the Franco-Prussian war, on Christmas eve 1871, a French soldier sprung up from the trenches amidst fierce fighting...

  One of the things that I love about Christmas, particularly as someone within the Salvation Army, is carolling. I play in our brass band and I love when the time comes to begin to play carols! Often we sing Christmas carols but don’t really take notice of the words or where they came from. Recently as I have been looking at some of the Christmas Carols we sing, I have found some fascinating stories. For the second Carol in my series of Christmas Carols unwrapped we are looking at a beautiful carol - ‘It came upon a midnight clear’ This carol was written by Edmund Hamilton Sears in America the 19th Century. It was written at a time of great personal turmoil. He was a pastor and had recently suffered a breakdown as a result of the stresses of ministry and had moved back to a congregation he had previously shepherded.  Sears was also struggling with the state of the world around him. The United States were at war with Mexico and further afield there was revolution in Europe. Th...

  Recently I have been doing a deep dive into some of the hymns and songs that we sing in church, considering the stories behind them and how they impact our understanding of the song and indeed faith itself. As the season of Christmas approaches (or if you are anything like me, it is well and truly here already!) I thought it would be interesting to do a blog series on some of the songs and carols we sing at Christmas and using their backstories, see what God might teach us anew.  Our first Christmas song is one that most would never consider a carol about Jesus, but is one with plenty of hidden meanings! If you know me in person, you will know that I am one of those people who can never simply sit still and do nothing, I always have something on the go! So one way in which I have found really useful as I try and switch off is by doing cross stitch. In the last few years I have completed some pretty complicated projects (see the photos below) Currently I am working on a Chris...

In the past week I have heard some beautiful stories while in conversation with people. Each of these powerful conversations has one common theme, an encounter with Jesus. For some they encountered him for the first time, for others it was meeting with him once again and for others still, it was one of many regular encounters.  Over the weekend around the dinner a friend shared about how his life had been completely transformed. The things that once had such great power simply don’t anymore. He was a different man….and the difference was Jesus.  Last week, I had the privilege of hearing another friend talking about how she has recently returned to her faith and how she realised God has been with her all along. She talked about a happiness she now felt and how different everything was…and the difference was Jesus. While away at officers councils and eating the most amazing chocolate fondue, I sat with colleague ministers of the gospel and we shared the good news going on within...