Gleanings 3) And next?

What happened afterwards? I heard nothing. Nothing at all!  Later I learned that many said I was too young for this 250 plus congregation church (and maybe it was the preaching too!). Disappointed, I went on to preach with a squint at another church which proved much keener to follow up with me.  However, just before I was due to preach with a view there, eight weeks later in the Christmas post came an invitation to preach with a view in Blackburn on 30th January 1972.

I am surprised at the sermons I preached. I really am. In the morning But Peter said 'No' (Acts 10: 1-16) engaged with the age old confrontation between man of habit, God of change; static man, dynamic God; man stays entrenched, God moves on.  I talked about experiments on 'learned responses' like those born blind who had recovered sight yet could not identify shapes they once knew by touch.  Now they had to count the corners by sight!  Peter finds personal habits, social habits and especially religious habits that have bound him are radically transformed and he cannot say No to God's new way.  I ended by confession that we look at those habits in our personal and church lives that restrict our response to God now. Dramatically different from my previous visit I involved myself in a willingness to be changed. And I needed to show the OT mattered too! In the evening 2 Samuel 18:24- 19:8 took some challenges from the narrative about David mourning his son Absalom.

An important notice (underlined) on the service sheet mentioned the Special Church and Congregational Meeting on February 8th. to make its decision about me.  This time I did hear back quickly that the majority felt (despite my 27 years) that God was calling me to be their minister. Carol and I had fallen in love with Blackburn and the church on our first visit and I remembered my pastor father's advice about discerning a call: 'You should fall in love with it.' We had and this confirmed it powerfully.