A Life of Privilege

Today has been a difficult day. Not the first we have faced, and it certainly won't be the last. Failsworth SA is a great church to be part of, but a complex place to lead: 17 employees working across 2 sites with all the management challenges they bring; holding together a community of faith whose diversity in expression and SA heritage touches the extremes at both ends; a demanding programme that will need to flex if we are to develop some of the new ministries that God has laid on our hearts.

Today was a day when the diary had to be changed at short notice due to factors outside my control - pastoral and managerial. It is often like that. However, amidst all the challenges I am overwhelmed by a sense of privilege. I am privileged in having been called by God and appointed to serve Him here; privileged in being involved in people's lives; privileged to be able to play my part in God's mission in Failsworth.

A couple of weeks ago we conducted the funeral of lady whose family are not yet Christians. Today, we have sat by the bedside of one of our soldiers suddenly taken very ill and had the privilege of ministering not just to her, but also to her family who, again, are not yet Christians. Earlier this week I collected some harvest tins from one of our neighbouring churches and later the same day we handed them straight out to a lady with three children and a drug habit to feed, who, because of the postal strike hadn't been able to receive her "crisis loan" from the DSS.

Sometimes, when personnel issues and the day-to-day stuff that goes with our building and other assets seem to have me bogged down, I have found myself wondering whether I am spending enough time with people who do not yet name the name of Jesus Christ. Today, I have realised that God has graciously been placing me alongside such people all along. I pray that I will be the signpost to the Kingdom that someone needs to see.

Difficulty and privilege seem to go hand-in-hand...

...And I wouldn't be doing anything else.