Tag: christian

Back to our meetings in the park.

Social distancing is difficult. We may all mean to try and keep our distance but it is just not normal.
So, how can we meet and still keep our distance?

We have found that it helps to set boundaries. (Literally)

Theses boundaries could be anything.
A picnic blanket, which you stay on (a towel makes a good blanket).
Off the top of my head, a jumper, coat or even a bag placed on the ground could be used as a marker to say, you stay on your side and I’ll stay on mine.

It all sounds a bit silly but in order to keep social distancing then something is needed.
We just have this tendency to want to group together and when social distancing is required then something needs to be done.

So What do we do?

We have chosen to do the slightly crazy.

We have a white electrical cable (a thin multi core cable, cheaply bought from Wilko) which is 6 meters long. In the middle of the cable there is some black insulation tape added (in order to show the middle point).
The middle point is then used as a corner so that when the cable is laid out on the ground it forms two edges of a box.
Another cable with the same set up is then placed opposite this and then we have a cross on the floor (+).
We then have four boundary lines down for four house holds to have there own space in.

It’s easier to do this if everyone brings their own cable themselves to the park.

We have now learnt to all keep our distance from the cable.
This wasn’t always the case as we still had the tendency to want to move up to the line instead of keeping our distance from it, (I told you social distancing is difficult.) 🙂

If we were still struggling with keeping our distance from the lines then we could always have two more cables and then make a expanded cross.
What I mean is we could all have our corner to sit in with a gap between each cable that is big enough so that we do keep apart from each other.

This is not a normal thing to be doing, but it does actually work.

Whilst we were in tier 4 restrictions we met as described above.
We all kind of thought, is today the day when we are told to move on or receive that fine we really don’t want.
The COVID marshals were in the park, but we still carried on as we had been.
A marshal did walk over to see what we were doing, as we were singing and praying at the time. (The BBC web site did say that religious assemblies were allowed), so there we were having a religious assembly in the park! No problem with that…is there…???
The marshal looked at what we were doing, stayed for a few minutes and then walked off. PHEW. 🙂

At the end, as we were leaving he came back and said to us that what we were doing was good.
We took this as we are OK to carry on, whilst in tier 4.

One of the things I have heard in church is “the worlds problems are the Churches opportunities”.

I know this may sound really silly and on a very trivial level but I do think that we as a church (of people), are demonstrating to all, how anybody could meet together during this time in a socially responsible manner.

Anyone could follow the steps we are taking and meet in a socially responsible way. You still need to keep your distance when coming together and leaving, but it can be done. We try to stagger when people leave. Arriving is a bit easier as we don’t all arrive at the same time and keeping distance is easier at the start, for some reason.

When lock down came we then had to stop meeting together.
For the first one which was only about 4 weeks we broke up to smaller groups of two house holds (I think that it was mostly just two people) who met for prayer walks and fellowship instead. It was only going to be 4 weeks or there about anyway.

For the lockdown which happened in the new year and went on a wee little bit longer, well something else had to done.
If you haven’t guessed it yet, that should be the next post which should hopefully go out soon.

The Best place to start with is… the start. 🙂

So how did we start meeting in the park?

My wife felt moved to call a friend to say… well, hello (basically).
So she did just that.

I then took the phone and also said hello.
It was during this conversation that both me and my good friend were stating that we were both fed up with not being able to meet up at church at the present moment.
So we then said that we should just meet up in a park.

The problem with the word “should” is that it can, so often, be code for never.

At some point during the conversation we agreed that we WILL do church in the park on the next available Sunday.

This, in essence is where the seed was planted.

Some people were not so keen on the idea of us doing this though as COVID restrictions were in place. Although groups of six were allowed at the time.
I believe that some thought that it just wasn’t worth the risk and that everyone needed to be sensible in order to beat COVID.
There was more to it than that but in essence I think that was the main objection.

There was the threat (probably more in my mind than anywhere else) that the authorities could descend on us at any time and at the very least tell us to move on or issue fines for a “not allowed gathering”.

We did plan to keep our distance and had some funny ideas of how to do this. (Details will probably shared further down the line.)
But we were still left asking, should we even be doing this?

As I thought about this I wrote my next post (even before I was blogging) To conform or not to conform, That is the question?

As it’s already been written the next post should be posted up very soon 🙂

If you haven’t already, then I would suggest that you read Strange Dream Part 1 first as this is a continuation from that.

The dream with the rich mans electric car being moved into his lounge then continued in it’s strangeness.

After the car had been moved into the lounge a large water fountain was then moved into the room nearby, one that really belongs in a pond, and the cable was plugged into a wall socket (for the pump obviously).

It was then switched on and water began to spray out of it’s top and fall all over the carpet. (No I didn’t see the water supply connected, the water was just there, it was only a strange dream after all.)

The rich mans wife was then suddenly all aghast and screamed, turn it off, turn it off and take that thing outside!

I told you it was a strange dream 🙂

Any interpretations for this bit…???

I have had some thoughts but it’s still all a bit strange to me.

At the moment we are not able to meet in church as we would like to, COVID restrictions and all.
Even if we are able to meet up then we are still restricted to what we can and can’t do.
Singing is currently not allowed in church.

I have been fortunate enough to have connected with a group of other Christian believers who have like wise had enough of not meeting together and as such we have been meeting in the park. (Whilst keeping socially distanced.)

One of our number is a very good musician and as such he brings his guitar and we are able to sing. We are able to sing and worship in this this current day and age!
It’s sooo good to do something we all took for granted for so long.

You might have guessed where I’m going with this now.
I’m thinking that the fountain is people singing.
At present that is not allowed inside.
Are we being told, take our singing outside?

I don’t know where I heard it but a phrase keeps coming back to me.

Take my Church outside!

I have seen a few things on the TV where this has happened and it might have been one of those where I heard it.
Where ever I heard it (or dreamt it) it still keeps coming back to me.

A thought has just occurred to me as I write this.
Could the car and the fountain be one and the same thing?
Could it be that Father is calling us to bring his Church outside?

I’ll try just writing the next bit, and just see if it resonates with you.

The car and the fountain are indeed the same thing.
For too long now you have been hiding away in your buildings.
It is time to bring my Church to the outside for all to see and hear.
It is time to stop hiding in your own little space.
At present you are just tied up in knots, even if you do meet up inside a building. Only so many people allowed at any one time and even then, not even allowed to sing or interact as you would like to.
Enough is Enough!
Take my Church outside and worship Me in the open, where all can see and hear that the Lord your God is GOOD!

That is a message that is easy for me to hear and receive as I am already doing just that, on a small scale.
Does it resonate with you though?
If it does, will you act upon it?

The next question is how can you act upon it.

I can’t give you a definitive answer of how to answer that question.
You need to hear from Father for the details of what you can do.
I can take you through some of my journey though with the next couple of posts.

There’s more to come so come back soon.

I woke up last night. I took one look at at the clock and saw it was 4 o’clock something, and just thought, oh great, it’s 4 o’clock something and here I am wide awake.
I’m not quite sure why but the next thing I thought or spoke was OK, speak Lord your servant is listening.

I must have fallen straight off to sleep after that because the next thing I know is I am waking up again after the having had one of the strangest of dreams.
If you are ever wide awake and not able to sleep you could try saying, speak Lord for your servant is listening. It worked for me 🙂

In the dream I had, I was in a rich mans garage.
There was an electric car in the garage. It was one of those classy expensive ones which actually worked. It had a decent range and could be recharged quickly.
In short it was an electric car which worked and looked good.
The type of car which would be noticed for all the right reasons, if it was used that is.

And this is where things went a bit strange.
The car was never used. It only had 2 to 3 miles on the clock!
The owner never wanted to use it. He wanted to keep it for himself.

The rich man then wanted it moved into his lounge, so a child was put into the driving seat (who was then having a whale of a time) and every one else then had to push the car into the lounge, whilst trying to convince the child to concentrate and do the right thing. I told you it was strange.

It left me thinking, What on earth was that all about…???

As I have pondered on it during the day I have possibly got an interpretation, of sorts.
If interpretation is your thing then you could ask for an interpretation before carrying on reading and see if you are given the same thoughts as me. 🙂

The thoughts I got was:

How silly is it to have an electric car and never use it.
How silly it is to have a car that doesn’t pollute, works and will gain attention for all the right reason and yet never use and instead only want to keep it to yourself
How silly and selfish it is to have an answer to a problem and never want to use it.

How silly is it to have Jesus in your life but never allow him to be seen.
How silly and selfish it is to have the solution for the world but to only want to keep him to yourself.

For the rich man to use the car all he would need to do is sit in the drivers seat and drive it on the open road.
He wouldn’t need to try and look good, all he would need to do is drive it and people would just notice it for all the right reasons.

If we take Jesus with us all the time and not only when we are happy too, then how much difference could it make to us?

Could we then have that something different about us that people just notice? Not put on or just trying to be a good witness but just naturally that something special that’s just there.

If we took the child out of the driving seat of our relationship with Jesus and took the driving seat for ourselves then how much more could we see and experience and how much more would others then notice?

Father help us all to let you in that much more.
Help us to know how to take hold of the driving seat all the time and to be that much more serious with you all the time and not just when we think it’s convenient for us.
Help us to let you be the true Lord of our lives so that you just shine through us.