A Cambridge God Adventure* 59) At last the decision and a crash

(*please skip if you have not been following this story).  Recently a friend who has been patiently reading this story commented how difficult the decision process about building was - with such variant views.  And how complicated it was allowed to be with everyone speaking their mind.  Quite so!  But I believe that 'seeking the mind of Christ' is often a complicated corporate process!  For a whole people to own a process there is nothing more effective than wrestling in prayer together through good and bad.

On December 2 1987 we shared in an extraordinary meeting open to everyone in the congregation when we sought to take the big decision to sign the contract and actually begin the work.  We agreed to participate in communion as part of our meeting.  What was the risen Lord calling us to do as he met with us in bread and wine? We were still way behind financial needs with our promises and gifts lagging yet momentum had grown.  So much praying and giving had accompanied the good and bad news so far.    And, at last, the meeting agreed to sign the contract and move ahead. A mixture of fear and excitement continued as the plunge was taken. 

Then comes a note in the prayer diary within a red ink box: 'MQ viral hepatitis Dec 1986-March 1987.'  As I crashed out-of -view the brand new team minister Nigel Manges had to step up and take responsibility for public leadership through heady days of Advent, New Year, baptisms, demolition of buildings alongside the church, digging foundations with steel structure appearing above the hoardings along the street.  Thrillingly, he demonstrated immense gifts and proved how right his appointment was.

Meanwhile,  I languished with multiple pains on the side-lines.  A few months earlier I had been in Singapore speaking at the Baptist World Congress and sampling the local culture, and we wondered whether this explained some of my poor health ever since I returned, culminating in this illness.  But, no doubt, the strains of leading through this 'complicated corporate process' took its toll too!