Looking Forward; looking back

Here I stand at the beginning of my fourth year in ministry and a wee voice at the back of my head says “naeb’dy said it wid be easy son”. There have been ups and downs on the mega rollercoaster scale – times when it’s all affected my family and me so much that I’ve just wanted to pack my bags and go home to Borrheid. There have also been days where the work I’ve done has lifted me up on the most euphoric high leaving me with an incredible sense of satisfaction that’s lasted for weeks. It’s not just these two extremes either; life ranges from one extreme to the other. In the last two weeks I’ve experienced both but at the end of 2011 it’s “my choice” to focus on the latter.
On Sunday morning as I sat in one of my churches surrounded by what must have been the highest attendance since my induction. My wife Anne was doing her rounds talking to people, my oldest daughter Rebecca whose recently joined the church was warming up with the praise band. The kids were preparing for the Nativity play and my middle daughter Hannah was in a Mary costume and Abigail, the youngest was an Angel; she’d knocked back boring old Mary in favour of wings and tinsel. There was a buzz all over the church – kids were running around everywhere, people were chatting. So engrossed in each other’s lives that for the first time ever in that church I had a little bother getting things started. People caring, people loving, people supporting one another and for the first time since I left Barrhead in 2008 I dared to think to myself “this is home now”.
This is the foundation of my ministry whatever form it will take. In 2012 we’ve got some stuff planned. Across the linked charge we will run our first holiday club since I arrived. We continue with our programme of monthly Sunday afternoon “Lifelink” services which are a series of informal services based on a particular theme – I think the only rooms in the building we haven’t used for these are the loos. Weekly care home services continue and both Berryhill Primary and Clyde Valley High School remain high in our list of priorities. Baby steps are what we’ve taken and are what we’ll continue to take. I haven’t filled a mega church but I’ve met and continue to meet on a daily basis new people. I’ve been allowed a glimpse of lives and in some instances they’ve had a glimpse of ours. People are beginning to come – that’s what the forward outlook is and that’s a blessing I can live with.