Its a Sign!

Had an excellent time together at our cessionconnect planning meeting (that's worship) last night.  A great group - we shared communion together as part of our devotions (we thought of our American friends as we poured the wine).  Melissa (who leads this group) led us in some thought-provoking liturgical prayers and pointed us in the direction of the idea of the church as a sacrament - the quote she used referred to the church as "a symbol of divine love".  In celebrating communion I spoke briefly on the alternative to "symbol" as a partial explanation for the sacrament suggested Keith Drury in an article I read - the sacraments as being more than symbols of an inward grace, but rather as "signs" of grace - and added to the reflection the idea that Jesus was much more than a symbol of God's love, grace and truth - he was certainly a sign of it at least - the idea of the church as a sign of grace, as tangible evidence of God's love, launched us into our planning for the next 2 weeks of the (Un)Orthodox-Y series on the church.  Good times - fun, enriching and productive.

2 days down and I'm not sure I'm that happy with progress down my to-do list.  I did manage to finish the cession brochure I was updating - that was good.  Recruit a leader to cessioncare our pastoral and hospitality ministry (Yay!) and organise some print promotions for an upcoming series...but there's a lot more to do yet.  I'm very glad that the teaching phase of my latest online class comes to an end this Friday - just the marking to do after that which I can schedule to suit me.  Its not been as bad as the first time though - my routines have adapted much better!  I'll have a month back to full time ministry.

I've just emailed my Law boss to take up an offer to teach face to face for 6 weeks on a full time basis in September/October.  I feel a little conflicted about this because it will put the pressure on with the 20 hours for church and down the line into family time.  A week that is 60 hours on paper is hard to hold at that.  But the real conflict is between whether this is God's provision in action or whether I am jumping (prematurely) at the chance to put away some cash to get us over the December - February period when there will likely only be 20 hours pw for the church.  Its one of the disadvantages of our current scenario wth cession - if we get to the point where internally we could up my hours it has to be balanced against the wider ECW cluster of churches (ECW Family and ECW Mandarin) and the total picture now is in the red.  Against that we wouldn't have been able to plant as a fully autonomous unit without the support of this structure - I think we barely spent $2000 on the launch as it was!  So, really making the call on gut.  I hope its not out of a misguided sense of a need to provide, when God is really the guy for that.

"Let me employed for you or laid aside for you"

The Flying Kiwi