I’m sat here, on my own in the Chasers lounge, with my clerical collar on, a bit like ‘Billy no-mates!’ -or Perhaps a Rev. Billy No-Mates.
The idea and vision behind this was to build relationships within the town centre community and then be in the same place available each week, talking about the issues of life and offering prayer, indeed I have been doing something similar on a Wednesday evening in first Weatherspoon’s and then the Kings Arms.
I do feel this was from God, but at the moment, I just feel a bit of a lemon stuck here in my dog collar typing away, every time the door opens wonder, is this someone coming to join me, but no…
This made me think a bit theologically, I’m sure this is from God so am not planning to quit anytime soon, I remember a great quote from Bill Wilson of Metro Ministries (the worlds largest Sunday School in New York, working in the toughest areas of the city) “Christians often quit before the miracles kick in”.
When we launched the Street Pastors 6 years ago, we were reminded of a Bible verse; Galatians 6:9 “Do not grow weary in doing good but at the right time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up…”
But also, I’ve been pondering the ideas between waiting and seeking, waiting can be a bit of an abdication, an inactive and passive word, just hanging about…
Where seeking is active, it’s participating, it walks over across the room, and is prepared to look a little bit foolish, in the hope and expectation that God might be doing something.
Theologically we are called to be seekers after God, the ‘waiting on God’ is often (but not always) a way dressing up laziness in spiritual sounding language!
It is easy to just sit here, but there is something about looking and seeking for where God is opening up conversations, sometimes requires a smile, making oneself approachable, maybe a conversation about nothing much so that a conversation and much can happen (someone once said “Christian’s that never build bridges to reach out to people wonder why they don’t get opportunities to talk about Jesus!)
Also, sat here, more or less on my own, it helped me to re-think the importance of one…Although on my own today, I have had little conversations, an small opportunities over the weeks and months I have been doing this… Often in one’s and two’s, small numbers and small conversations, but I am reminded that scripture reminds me “not to despise the day of small things” (Zech.4.10).
I love the story of the woman at the well, a great story of Jesus having an impromptu (and socially inappropriate!) chat with a Samaritan Woman (Jn 4).
Yet in the passage before we see that Jesus has been busy with a million and one ministry things (his disciples baptizing people left right and center, interestingly they were baptist them, before they had fully grasped who Jesus was, wondering if this has something to do with our desire to be busy?!) and yet he has time for the one.
Do we sometimes loose track of the significance of the one, because we want bigger things, do we sometimes give up when Jesus says keep going, are what we think are failures, simple contractions of a new birth (births are rarely quick).
Actually is the success anything to do with us anyway?
Aren’t we just called to be faithful?
So for the time being, I will stay in this Coffee Shop with my dog collar, lap top, and take any opportunity to chat and engage with anyone God places across my path.
scruffyvicar 