Almost every time l met with my training vicar, he would ask this question,
“What is God saying to you?” Although l knew to expect this from him, l was
usually surprised at how challenging this made our encounters. l did have
to regularly ask myself why enquiring what God might be saying would
challenge me so much? Was it because l fervently believed what happens
between God and an individual to be a private matter? No, not always. Or
was it because my prayer life was so thin l only had time to talk to God, that
actually listening to him was reserved for serious Christians?
Looking back l find it slightly concerning that l felt so threatened in the
company of my training vicar. Then l became a vicar and l surprised myself
with how much l wanted my church to know what God was saying to it. But
these are challenging times and it became clear that the more stress my
congregation experienced, real or imagined, the more it would listen to
secular everyone and secular everything, other than God!
The great Danish physicist, philosopher and atheist, Niels Bohr wrote:
“Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us
to change our thinking in order to find it.”
Niels Bohr won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922. He was pivotal in the
allied development of an atomic bomb, to nullify rumours of a German
equivalent.
But l think l connected with him because of his unshakeable conviction that
charting a course through life’s challenges depended on finding the space
to change our thinking about the challenge. He stressed that experiments
and experimenters were indispensable to an institution, that space should
always be found for a generation with fresh ideas.
I tried to create space for my church to find new ways to ‘see’ new
possibilities. It was hard. Mostly l failed, but this process had to start with
me listening to God, and then loving like God.
The Church faces challenges! The secular culture of 21st century Scotland
is clearly winning the fight. So we must find the space to change our
thinking and live out what we say we believe, which will sound totally weird
to almost everyone! We must experiment more with our expressions of
faith, because we’re weeding more than we’re planting.
Clyde is no different from other presbyteries. We also find it hard being
counter-cultural. But I see a leaner Church for Scotland in 20-30 years, one
that will have a very different centre as, in small groups, it ultimately learns
to be courageously counter-cultural. This is what I’m encouraging in Clyde.
Small, disciple-making, missional experiments, that courageously iterate
faster than they fail and inspire others to try.
No one knows too much about what’s coming. Indeed it was Niels Bohr
who reportedly said that prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about
the future! Maybe so, but our unknown presbyterian journey is secure with
our known God. What’s he saying to you?
Andy Reid
Clyde Mission Officer
