Hello friends,
Last week was the 20schemes Staff Week where about 120 people (the majority of the 20schemes staff) gathered together for three days to get caught up on admin changes, to listen to the Word being preached, to sing together, and to just get time to be with one another. It is wild to think that there were only a handful of people in 20schemes when it started, and now – ten years later – there’s over a hundred of us dotted about the country. I give God thanks for this.
Below: Staff Week. The second picture is from 20schemes, not me! And the video is of the 20schemes staff singing together…except that my thumb was over the camera the whole time. 🙂
During Staff Week, one of the talks that really affected me was by Andy Prime. He based it off of a book he read called English Pastoral. I’m in the middle of reading it at the moment and, basically, it is a book written by a farmer in the Lake District of England who recounts the years he grew up on a sheep farm and the lessons he learned from his Grandad. And many of those lessons from a shepherd have a direct corelation to ministry…
For example, one lesson is: plant some trees. View ministry as a long endeavour. Care about it enough to realise that your job may be to do the hard labour that your grandchildren and great grandchildren might see the fruit of.
Another lesson: in a noisy age, live quietly.
Another: remember that life isn’t about you or what you do. We have become so individualistic, even in ministry.
And: slow down. Take time to stop and lean on the gate. Observe those who are under your care and take time to know them. As the farmer says of his grandfather, “He would simply gaze at his cows or sheep for what felt like ages, leaning over a gate. As a result he knew them all as individuals. He could spot when they behaved differently because something was wrong … He thought only fools rushed around. He believed that a good farmer was patient and used his, or her, eyes and ears, nose and touch. Doing things well was his goal, not doing things quickly or with the least effort.”
These thoughts are what make up many of my prayers during these last eleven days I have in Merkinch. Time is running out quickly, yet I want to end well. In an age that is so focused on finding meaning in what we as individuals do and accomplish, the great thing is to remember in these last days to keep rejecting worldly standards of life and ministry and, instead, just keep knuckling down in being a sort of farmer here in Merkinch.
I pray that I would slow down and love those that the Lord puts in my path day by day. That I would truly see them and know them. That I would be a vessel to show them the love of Christ. There is a beautiful humility that I so desire that only grows out of this farmer approach to life and ministry – because in it we recognise that “neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:7).
And so that is how I ask that you would keep praying: that I would labour faithfully, steadfastly, and quietly for Jesus’ sake. That I would fade into the background so that Jesus might receive the honour. And that God might be pleased to bring Gospel growth in Merkinch through the saving of souls.
James 5:7-11,
Claire
Claire in Scotland 