Lynda's Blog

  I was reflecting on how difficult it must be to be a pastor or minister. In small churches they are responsible for much of the day-to-day business, administration and decision making. Some pastors who have a leadership team will pass every single decision through the team, others will feel comfortable enough to make some decisions themselves (and take the flack if the decision is not popular). Personally, I think a pastor should be wise and discerning enough to make some of the decisions themselves, especially if they are simply small decisions that are not really going to affect anyone. My observations are, that no matter how Godly a pastor is, there will always be those who complain about them. ‘They do not listen to my suggestions’; ‘they don’t act on my complaints’; ‘they are too busy’; ‘they are too lazy’; ‘they don’t take enough interest in my struggles’; ‘they are too nosy!’ The truth is they are never going to please everyone. It is important that pastors are account...

  I have been watching the news items, YouTube clips, and podcasts about the death of Charlie Kirk. I find it confusing that people hate so much they would be willing to kill someone with different views. Even more so, that this is so widespread (as we can see from the vicious and hateful comments celebrating his death). Quite frankly, if his views made you so angry, why watch him? Just turn off the video or podcast, just stay away from his gatherings. Why is it OK to have the freedom of speech to speak out unconscionable, violent, and hate-filled rhetoric, but not the freedom of speech to calmly and confidently share your own opinions, values, and thoughts with others. I don’t understand. But then we live in a broken world, and the enemy has full reign now. We have a choice to embrace evil or love. It is incredibly sad that some choose to embrace evil. It is sad that morality is now subjective rather than objective. I wonder what it is like to be so full of hate? Is it exhaust...

  What do you do when you think the Pastor or Senior Leadership Team have got it wrong! A friend was recently talking about a decision made by our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) including the Pastor. We are a small church community, so decisions affect every member there. However, unless directly involved in a programme or initiative the SLT do not know how a decision they make might impact on the on-the-ground day-to-day running of that programme or initiative. It is important to talk to those involved to get their perspective and even in a small church this might not necessarily happen. Having said that, our SLT are generally very good at consulting. So, what do you do if you think it’s an unwise decision? This will of course depend on size of the church, whether the Pastor is a good listener and is prepared to talk about it and I’m sure, many other factors. My perspective is that I do not want to be talking about the Pastor behind his back. I do not want to gossip about him ...

  In today’s fast paced, device driven world, it is increasingly difficult to teach Children’s Church—especially if you are an older person trying to keep up with the influences in children’s lives. To my dismay, I find that some of the children I teach do not have robust social skills. It is difficult to encourage them to participate in discussions or answer questions. Or is it me? I certainly must ponder that question. In the past, I have sometimes used online YouTube animated clips to tell a Bible story, and the children certainly pay attention, but are then unable to answer any questions about what they have just watched. So potentially, their attention span is decreasing. I decided that I would not buy into the worldly ‘device’ war and stopped using the clips to teach. Instead, I went the old-fashioned ‘object lesson’ way. They certainly enjoy that, but again it is exceedingly difficult to get them to participate in the following discussion. I base crafts and games on the same...