It was with exhilaration and trepidation that I stepped into the role of Vicar of Beeston in January this year.
The privilege and responsibility of this sacred calling weighs heavily on me.
At times it can be quite overwhelming, however, I am blessed to be ministering in a diocese where diversity and inclusion are very much present; and here in Beeston I have found a reassuring openness and a warm welcome.
I was so worried that my sermons might sink, that the primary school teacher in me spent hours putting together pristine PowerPoints to support them. One Sunday the screens failed, so I had to adjust what I was going to say: no notes; no slides.
It was then I truly understood that whilst crafted sermons with ‘whizzy-bang’ PowerPoints are great, your congregation often just wants to connect with you and there are few better ways to do that than through story.
It's all well and good to bring new ideas, but unless the congregation get to know you and trust you, there can be a reticence in gaining co-operation. After all, most of them have been there a long time, holding the fort.
When you – not just the new vicar, but the newbie vicar bursts onto the scene – just like Joshua, what they are wordlessly asking is “Are you for us or against us?”
Like the angel you must be able to answer just as wordlessly (i.e. through your care and ministry) that you are there as the commander of the Lord’s army: then equally wordlessly, we can together fall facedown to the ground in reverence, there to build and to add to the Kingdom of God. (Joshua 5:13-14).
This takes patience, encouragement and more than anything an ability to love: and it’s impossible to love this way with just your own strength.
I am learning to adapt – laying down my plans, noble though they might be, to embrace what God is saying through the circumstances and situations I find in front of me, and asking “What message does my Lord have for his servant.”
So, even though as the weeks, months and years roll by and I become seasoned through experience, I must never be too proud or too embarrassed to say, or lose sight of the fact that “I’m new to this”.