A Cambridge God Adventure 22) 50 new members - seriously?.

The day after the prayer meeting the figure 50 loomed large.  How would the wider fellowship see this prayer goal?  Was it borne out of passing enthusiasm?  In the following days as we entered 1981 it seemed as though the number 50 revealed a true hunger among many of us to go on with our nagging prayer agenda.  Expectations were raised by past answers to our corporate prayer - now for God's new thing.

But I know that some in the church viewed it absurd....especially when it was published in the monthly church magazine.  If we remembered it at the end of the year (and I think many assumed it would be buried in memory with covering embarrassment) it would be a sign of our presumption and failure to read the signs of a declining church.  Sheer spiritual overreach.

However, we entered 1981 with something else too. At our December Church Meeting in the concluding Any Other Business my wife Carol stood up.  (I was in the chair and you can imagine my dread!) She shared something with the meeting she had never mentioned to me though I think that her conviction had grown out of the meeting itself.  She proposed that we have a Church text for 1981 which would be a weekly focus throughout the year.  Though we had never had such a text before the church agreed with the idea unanimously.  Significantly the chosen text was: ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE... (Mark 9:23).  Every Sunday this text was printed on our bulletin as as reminder that when we truly trust in the Lord and seek to discern his will so many good things could happen.  Even 50 new members!