Happy Hallowe'en!

This seems like a good day for a dose of John Bunyan.

Hallowe'en is a helpful annual reminder of why it is a good thing to be progressing through this world rather than belonging here - something well worth celebrating!

Young

Yesterday we had an Evening Service where the average age of the participants was under 20 years old.  And no-one was as old as half my age.  I like that.



I thought about it when I read about the UK Youth Parliament.  I think that is a great idea too.  But what I noticed about that is that it is three days - not three full days mind - in the summer hols.  I am confident no young person I have met even knows it exists.  I am not entirely convinced that most politicians know it exists.

Here's the blurb: 'For the last ten years MYPs from all across the UK have come together to take part in workshops, debates, and develop the UK Youth Parliament’s campaigns for the year ahead at our annual summit.'

Laudable, but definitely not powerful.

When young people - indeed when children - lead times of worship and reflection on the much greater things of God the amazing thing is this: they are often more able and powerful than adults.  And certainly, as heaven looks down, heaven does not think,

'Oh, it's just a Youth-led Service tonight'

Dentist

Yesterday I went to the dentist.

My official position on this is that 'I hate the dentist'.  I am not alone in thinking that of course.

This is wrong in a number of ways. 

For a start, my dentist is very nice.  She's funny and, as far as I can tell, she's good at her job.  So I don't hate my dentist at all.  Perhaps, instead, I hate going to my dentist.

But that is wrong-headed too.  I'm afraid my teeth are not in the condition of the ones in the mirror above but at least this time there was no work to be done.  To find that out, and have them cleaned, and come away with change from a £20.00 note - it's hardly the worst thing in my week.  Perhaps I hate being treated by my dentist.

This too is crazily wrong.  Frankly, I have had most of my dental treatment at short notice when I have been desperate to be treated by my dentist.  It is closer to the truth to say I hate not being treated by my dentist - the kind of dread that comes with a worrying crunch on something hard when away on holiday.  Perhaps it's just the thought - I hate the thought of being treated by my dentist.

But no.  That thought is a great privilege as I walk past my dentist's surgery as I often do.  Along the road from her is my doctor's surgery, down from there the hospital (just past the pharmacies).  To walk to all four and home again would be about two miles.  How many places in the world is that possible?

I don't hate my dentist at all.  I hate having bad teeth sometimes.

And when somebody says the hate God or Jesus (or probably even the Church) they probably mean they hate not being righteous - only they never think about it long enough to work it through.

Off-Road

Some years ago I visited Rhode Island and saw this historic Church - the first Baptist Church building in America.

Yesterday we had an awayday for our leadership at this Baptist Chapel:

It's not very big, and its not as old as the one in Providence, Rhode Island.  More pointedly it is situated behind a Post Office and a Public House.  Is this typical of the Brits, we ask?  Americans (even early ones) give themselves a prominent landmark, we put ourselves out of the way in, effectively, someones back garden.

History tells a rather different story.  Chapels were built off road because in their founding day their founders were lucky if they were allowed to build at all.  Indeed, there were times when, in England, a body of believers outside the establishment could only meet - as would today be true in some other lands - in private houses.

It isn't getting any easier to witness publicly for Christ in 21st Century Britain.  But it's immeasurably easier than it's been for many of our forebears and many of our brothers and sisters through the world.