Silent in the Background

Two childhood memories: One: "Our family is not creative!" I remember being told this in response to my frustration with my ineptitude with paints and pencils.*  I'm sure the intention was to encourage and let me know that I was not alone - that it was not important.  But the effect was that I grew up believing that I could produce nothing of any worth, even to myself, in the creative line.  To this day, I have a visceral pit-of-the-stomach reaction to any suggestion that I should express myself through any artistic medium. Two: "Write a story - it can be about anything at all, let your imagination run wild!" said my English teacher.  Imagination was something else I knew I didn't have, and any attempt to write a story led me into an inescapable paradox: For every idea in my head of a storyline or character, I knew its source in something else I'd seen or read.  This meant it had to be rejected as not a product of my imagination and thus unsuitable for i

An inspiring book, leaving me with nagging questions. This is the third book I've come across which addresses the spirituality of a life in crisis, and the new and better perspective to be had on the other side of the crisis.  The first was Richard Rohr's Falling Upward ; I did not get through the introduction as Rohr's writing annoyed me too much.  The second was Nick Page's The Dark Night of the Shed  which I read all through, entertained by his light and humorous writing style, and appreciating the lessons he draws from a man's midlife crisis, especially the desire to build a shed. What Martin's book shares with these is the assertion that a significant life crisis (be it shed building, falling, or a shipwreck) can and does change one's perspective on life, God and the world around fundamentally, and for the better. He writes: ...it's useless to try to make ourselves or anyone else see the world with more empathy and compassion. That kind of seeing is

For the past couple of months at Catford Community Church we've been thinking through prayer, in various different forms, based on Pete Grieg's How to Pray - P ause, R ejoice, A sk, Y ield. In the middle of exploring 'Asking-Prayer' I was interested to come across a new little book focussed on how we can revitalise our asking prayers by looking at the pattern of prayer in the Bible and in the church.  In To You All Hearts Are Open Scot McKnight identifies a particular pattern of prayer in prayers recorded in the Bible, which is reflected in the prayers of many churches known as 'Collects'. McKnight sees five elements that commonly appear in biblical prayers that ask something of God, so that the person praying: Addresses God - often in the Old Testament this was simply addressing God as 'Lord' or 'Lord Almighty'.  Jesus and the New Testament writers encourage

Why a blog, and why the name? In November 2020 I was given an award for being 'silent in the background'. Strictly speaking, my wife and I were given an award at our local Social Services awards day.  Part of the citation referred to my working silently in the background in support of the joint project with Home for Good to recruit more foster carers from local churches. Apart from sounding a little sinister, the phrase caused me to reflect that, on many occasions, working in the background in support of others is where I feel most at home, where I function best. That might sound strange, given that I am currently leading a church, but I learned years ago that much of leadership is 'dogsbody' work in the background that no one will see, and humility is needed in church leadership , as much as, if not more than, anywhere else. Silent?  Sometimes I wish I was more silent, when I speak up in meetings and other places and wish afterwards that I'd said less or expressed