Confusion

That's me, not you reader. And the reason for my confusion? Well its probably all in my head. I started out this blog to tell people of our experiences in setting up BCLC and then I started doing the local leaders training and that is throwing up so many thoughts that I am not sure which I am blogging about at any one point.

I will stick to something that happened in the LLC for today and then post a BCLC post later (it's a good one btw so do come back to read).

Well we were on a day looking at Pastoral care just over a week ago. Brilliant day run by a brilliant man, Jim Hollyman. If any of you have come across Jim on your travels you will know what I mean. His take on Pastoral care and the experiences he shared with us really made me think about the whole thing afresh.

It was more a side issue that I wanted to discuss today though. We were looking at someone's theory on the stages and ages of faith and I was saying something about how poeple of a certain age have become stuck in a certain stage and no matter what life throws at them they feel that their faith has never been, and will never be, altered by it. I pointed out that this was so different to my experiences and, I suspect, others of my generation for whom their faith is contantly challenged, thought about and reviewed or revised. We then discussed the usual poles in the church being liberals versus fundamentalists and therein comes most of the tension. It occured to me that what we have in the URC is the situation where we have a group that are dedicated (fundamental) to the reformed tradition (liberal) , in effect 'fundamentalist liberals'. They are certain that whatever happens church isn't going to encroach on their real lives. I know this is a over generalisation but how else can you explain how families with parents with the faith I describe manage to bring up children in such a way that they never darken the churches doorways for the rest of their lives? Could it be that the children see something hollow and not worth their time in the practices of their parents and want nothing more to do with it?

One of the main aims I have for BCLC is to take church from it's special 'golden hour' on a Sunday and try to make it more a part of people's everyday lives. This doesn't mean just giving old people somewhere for a cup of tea or divorced parents a place to see their kids (as important as these services obviously are) it's about giving people the chance to explore how a belief in God and faith in the teachings of Jesus can really impact their lives to the good.

When I was a teenager I used to go to Jim's house with my friends on a Sunday evening and we talked about all sorts of 'issues'. This made a massive impression on me and it is something I have missed in the intervening years. So now with BCLC we are giving poeple the chance to do the same.

So Jim, thanks, I owe a lot of this to you.