October 2023: Fire Extinguishers

September brought a lot of new things for our family as Orla started primary school! Here's me and her walking there on her first day:

My second year as a Ministry Trainee at St Paul's has begun not just with a flurry of activity, but also an unexpecting pouring out of CO₂ (see below for more details). Here's the usual mix of some highlights and prayer points:

What's new?

As I begin my second year at St Paul's, a few people have asked me how this year will look different to the first. Here's my best attempt to summarise what's changed:

• More stuff in general: Pete has talked about second year being a good opportunity to increase the intensity of responsibilities across the board now that I've had a year to try lots of different things out, and this seems very sensible to me.
• More preaching: We're aiming for approximately once a month, although this will probably fluctuate depending on what else I have on.
• More discipleship: I'm planning to spend more time meeting up with people at church, and thinking more generally about how we can help our church family grow in their love for the Lord.
• More door knocking: I did a lot of door knocking last year, but I'd really like to increase the weekly amount I do this year, as I feel like I'm still not particularly good at sharing my faith and want all the practice I can get. I don't know whether this will actually end up happening due to time constraints, but I'd like to try!
• Fewer regular commitments: I'm only attending our youth group (Eat. The Word) once a month now, compared to once a fortnight this time last year. I'm also no longer attending our toddler group (Tea and Toys), although I still help with setup/cleardown. I'll be sad to miss these things but it's nice to still be involved in some way. I'm also on fewer Sunday rotas compared to last year.

Highlights: Cornhill (possibly including Biblical Greek)

I've now begun my second year of study at the Cornhill Training Course. Cornhill was a real highlight last year – it was hugely encouraging seeing everyone in our teaching practice group getting noticeably better at understanding and teaching the Bible, so I'm delighted I get a second year of it.

I'm particularly looking forward to upcoming lectures on the book of Isaiah. I've always been intimidated by it, but I've become increasingly aware that the New Testament authors see it as a very big deal so it'll be great to get stuck in to it.

Cornhill are also offering an optional Biblical Greek class this year. I've attended the first few and am enjoying it so far, but I'm still trying to work out whether I realistically have time in my calendar to fit in the weekly work for it.

I've managed to learn the alphabet, helped in no small part by the fact that I already knew most of the letters from my Physics degree. I was dismayed to learn that the utterly unwriteable letters ζ and ξ continue to be part of the Ancient Greek alphabet, and will be avoiding them at all costs.

Highlights: Preaching

As I mentioned above, I'm happy to be continuing preaching on Sundays from time to time this year. I most recently preached on Luke 16:1-13 (The Parable of the Shrewd Manager) a couple of weeks ago. It's one of Jesus' more confusing parables, but I found it did me a huge amount of good in recalibrating the way I think about money. I think this verse captures Jesus' teaching pretty well:

Which I think you could summarise as: Be shrewd (like the manager in the parable), and pour your fading worldly riches into gospel causes that will actually last. There's a strong sense in the parable that all the money we have here and now is disappearing (particularly when contrasted with true riches in heaven), so we need to use it well while we have it.

Since my last post, I've also preached on Luke 13:31-35 ("A Man on a Mission") and Luke 14:25-35 ("First, Sit Down and Consider") (all available on the St Paul's Harringay Podcast)

Lowlights: BBQ Incompetence

Over the summer we had a church BBQ after one service. I was very happy to have been put in charge of the food, and have always taken pride in my outdoor cooking ability – but unfortunately I utterly disgraced myself in this instance as a lapse of concentration on my part led to the church BBQ briefly but undeniably catching fire.

Sadly no footage survives of the fire, but this photo does capture the immediate aftermath of me heroically and selflessly putting it out with a CO₂ fire extinguisher.

Stuff I'm praying for (and would like your prayers for)

Thanks:

• For the opportunity to spend another year doing full time gospel ministry! I can't wait to keep learning and serving. I'm particularly grateful for the individuals and funds that are so kindly supporting me financially. I feel a burden to make the most of your generosity by learning and serving as much as I can.
• That Orla has settled in well at school and our family has got into a good weekly rhythm after the summer holidays.

Ask:

• For a chance to read the Bible with a non-Christian this year. This wasn't something I was able to do last year but I'd love the opportunity to share my faith with someone.
• Wisdom to decide what happens after this year. There's a spectrum of options, with "go into full time ministry" at one end, and "go back to my old job as a software developer" at the other, and a host of other options in between.
• For chances to spend quality time with Courtney. Between us we quite often end up working evenings (due to childcare things cropping up during the day) and it means our time together gets squeezed out, so pray that we don't neglect our marriage.

Thanks so much for reading. Don't forget you can sign up here to be emailed whenever I send out an update!

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