I am now over halfway into my (almost) three weeks in Vancouver, and the overwhelming feeling I have to convey is one of gratitude. Gratitude to my congregation at Ballygrainey for allowing me this time to be refreshed and renewed in ministry. Grateful to my hosts in Vancouver, the McConaghy family and Melanie Ross for allowing this strange, wandering Irishman into their homes. Grateful for a place like Regent College where faith is explored intellectually, spiritually and missionally with an overwhelming desire to make Christ known in our culture and in our day. Grateful to Paula, Ewan and Andrew for allowing me this time away and recognising how important it is for me, for them and for our church.
I am grateful to have been able to sit under teaching and receive for a while. It has reoriented me in my understanding of what it will mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in the age and culture in which we find ourselves and what it means to hear and understand what Jesus is saying to us today, particularly through his parables. It will take me some time to fully process all that I have been learning but I can already identify a few new perspectives that this time away has given me.
I have been given a new perspective on the work God has given me. If the church's task in the world is about making disciples that means that I have to be a disciple-maker. I have to invest intentionally in people the way Jesus did. The focus of my work has to be how I can partner with Jesus to make mature, equipped followers of his in every area of life. My longing for the people in my church family for a long time has been that they be known to be followers of Jesus in every place where they find themselves. If you're reading this and you're a member of that church family and deep down you want this for yourself as well, you need to let me know and together we can work out how best to do this.
I myself need to be a more mature, equipped follower of Jesus if I am ever going to lead others on that path. That means I need to spend more time in God's word and not just for preparing sermons. It means I need to spend more time in prayer and not just when I perceive some pressing personal need. I can only be any good as a pastor if I deliberately and intentionally spend time developing my relationship with God. Come to think of it, I can only be any good as a husband, a father, a friend and a Christian man if I intentionally spend time on that too. That means I need to look at my schedule and revise it in the light of God's calling on my life. It means I need to learn the difference between the urgent and the important and learn to focus on the latter. Just this morning in worship I have been reminded that it will mean that I need to realise that I am not in control of how things ultimately turn out. God is in control and he can be trusted.
I have a new perspective on global Christianity. Here at Regent I have had the enormous privilege of worshipping and working alongside people from at least five continents and that has added a richness and diversity to both worship and study that I have not experienced before. Having said that it has been very gratifying in worship to hear people from all these parts of the world sing songs by Keith Getty, Robin Mark and Rend Collective - all from our wee country of Norn Iron!!
Once I read over my class notes and am able to further reflect, I will hopefully have a clearer idea of where all this is leading. But for now let it suffice to record my thanks to all the people mentioned above and above all to God who has refreshed me in this time and has helped me to grow deeper in my understanding of his word and his will for my life and for our life as a church family in Ballygrainey. I have learned once again, as I have to keep on learning, that he is always more ready to give than I am to receive.
