An Adventure in Ministry

  I have recently returned from a beautiful holiday in Norfolk. The last year has been so busy with working, studying, caring for a child with special needs, recovering from surgery and much much more, so I was in desperate need of a rest! As we prepared to go away I clung on to two scriptures to help me focus.  Be still and know that I am God: Psalm 46: 10  “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” One of the things I love to do on holiday is read. Over the last year I have read so many books, some of them taxing, some of them long and some of them pretty dry, so I decided that this holiday I was going to read something a little different and so I went armed with the ...

I am in the middle of an interesting week of training at The Salvation Army's William Booth training college. I have been surrounded by some amazing colleagues who serve, like us, as Territorial Envoys, running Salvation Army churches up and down the country. This is our third year at our annual seminar and this year I have been shocked to see some gifted pastors, who in previous year had been full of passion and zeal, looking exhausted. In conversation they have admitted that amongst other things, they aren't finding time to take  their day off.  I'm am passionate about keeping the sabbath, and seeing my friends and colleagues so tired prompted me once again to consider its importance to us in a society and job that never seems to stop. We know that God created the world in 6 days and on the 7th day he rested. Yesterday one of  our soeakers very briefly posed the question "did God really need to rest on the 7th day?" The answer of course is no, but h...