Newbury Calling

The shock of the new

The last time I posted on here it was on the eve of my final sermon in a church where I had served as Minister for 19 years. The service itself was a great joy and a spiritual milestone. To pronounce a final blessing as pastor, looking out at the faces of those whose weddings I had conducted, whose children I had dedicated and whose loved ones I had buried was an inestimable privilege.

Now I find myself somewhere new. I have a set of keys to an unfamiliar office in an unfamiliar building and I am starting to pray through a list of unfamiliar names. In short, life has moved on. The #journey, though, remains unchanged. Every Christian ‘signs up’ to follow the onward call of Christ from the moment they agree to follow him. It is an open-ended commitment, with neither map nor itinerary.

In a couple of conversations with members of my new church this week, I have talked about the importance of call. To know that you are in the right place allows you to meet the challenges of failure and the joys of success with an underlying sense that all will be well. I have no doubt that I shall make mistakes within my first few months in this new chapter. Equally, though, I know that none of them can rob me of the sense that this is where the path is meant to lie just now.

Talking of the path, it seems to lie beside the most pleasant of still waters …

The Kennet and Avon Canal at Kintbury