A Cambridge God Adventure* 32) A mini-Pentecost

(*please skip if you have not been following this story).  Much was happening alongside burgeoning music life.  We rejoiced as many newcomers came into membership and the congregation visibly grew. I guess as I reflect over these months I see the next major highlight was Pentecost Sunday.

Ever since seven friends made faith commitments in January we had prepared them carefully for the next steps of baptism and church membership.  Those two elements belonged together - baptism into the body of Christ! Baptism is not only personal witness but corporate belonging. Preparing for both required considerable work because we knew the majority of students would leave Cambridge at the end of their courses and we yearned for them to find churches in which they could continue service.  Each prepared with a partner/mentor who worked through many weeks of study materials (using a booklet prepared by the Scottish Baptist Union).  Partners were encouraged to walk with their baptismal candidate before, during and (especially) after the service of baptism.  Everyone needed to realize what a big deal this was.   And how their witness would have such powerful evangelistic appeal as they invited family and friends.
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June 7th. 1981, Pentecost Sunday, therefore became the focus of intense prayer.  I can see that in our prayer agenda.  On this birthday of Christ's Church, eight people were baptized and we experienced yet another spiritual breakthrough event when God's trans-rational presence was powerfully felt.  Again, people came forward to the pool in response to the invitation.  The gallery was filled with students - most of whom had never seen a baptism. You can imagine why this was a highlight.  Compared with the previous year who could have imagined such a happening? We really were experiencing a mini-Pentecost of new life and purpose.

A Cambridge God Adventure* 31) Fresh melodies

(*please skip if you have not been following this story).  In his pre-university year Andrew was willing to work not only in the music life of the church but also to help with youth work.  It is fair to say that his youthful energy and optimism did not always receive the greatest encouragement from the elderly and musically-conservative choir.  Yet his classical training and expertise as an organist was quickly recognized as a wonderful gift to all of us.

Andrew was encouraged to dream - about developing an orchestra for special events and developing music beyond the Baptist Hymn book (and anthem book). The siting of a piano at the front of the church provoked considerable tension as did the introduction of worship materials from other sources.  Before long plans were afoot for compiling our own songbook to include contemporary songs and hymns.  The process of making choices and seeking permissions was tedious and, at the beginning, the church meeting only allowed the song book to be used in the evening services.  Because these were less well-attended I am sure critics felt this was a safe compromise.  Actually, the greater freedom within evening worship allowed guitars and the formation of a small music group.

I know one or two boycotted these evening services and several more hoped it was a passing fad so we could soon return to chants and anthems.  Yet, Andrew's patient leadership and musicianship enabled the choir to continue to function well and to complement the new.  To some it was threatening but to many others it was refreshing and a clear answer to our prayers.

I know Andrew sometimes reads my blog - I am sure he has strong memories of what it was like as a young man to be thrown into this music tension!   But how grateful we all were for this beginning and his willingness to be the answer to our prayers.  The consequent story of music in worship on the way to some glorious blended worship had many twists and turns but this beginning laid solid foundations.

A Cambridge God Adventure* 30) Oh, the music!

(*please skip if you have not been following this story).  Tragically, the expression 'worship wars' has emerged in recent years when churches have suffered conflict between traditional hymn singing with organ and contemporary songs with band (and drums!)  Many churches have gone through times of transition and so did we.

To say that the church's current music was traditional is a massive understatement.  One of the last Baptist churches in Britain to sing chants for both services, singing was led by a small elderly choir that sat behind the central pulpit and organ console. My ministerial predecessor, Arthur Jestice, was a gifted musician and he lavished care on the organ, finding extra pipes from dying organs to augment its rich tones. Services began with introits and contained anthems with the organ sedately accompanying hymns - a pattern unchanged from when I sat in the pews as a student in the 1960's.   And why should it need to change? many older members argued.

However, the declining choir and ageing organist had put as the opening request on our very first prayer agenda: a new church organist.  We all knew this was essential. But newcomers were hoping for greater music variety as contemporary music made impact in many churches across the country. As one outspoken visitor said to me: 'Oh the music! Something must be done, Michael!'

And, as sometimes happens in the Christian family, something surprising was done!  Andrew, one of my young people at my former church in Blackburn won a place at Magdalene College to begin in October 1981. In retirement his parents had moved to Cambridge in 1980. Andrew's musical gifts were evident in Blackburn, playing the organ for congregational worship, but now before he began as a full-time student he offered himself to work full-time in the church.  Was this an answer to prayer? You bet.

Meeting two authors

I enjoyed a fascinating evening this week when two detective mystery writers visited Cambridge - Ann Cleeves (of Vera and Shetland fame) and Louise Penny (of Inspector Gamache fame).  All my reading life I have enjoyed this genre and here were two friends at the top of their game, relaxed with each other and us as an audience willingly sharing themselves.  I love listening to creative people and noted several things:

-  both spoke of the compassion and kindness to which their own work testifies and of their conviction that contemporary detective fiction has moved to greater empathy with both victim and perpetrator.  As Louise Penny put it: 'Murder is such a terrible thing.  It reveals profound truths about humanity'.
-  they showed remarkable differences of approach.   Ann Cleeves told us that she never works out a plot beforehand and completes the book in one or two drafts.  Rather she lets the story tell itself as it is 'revealed' to her. Louise Penny agonizes through a long gestation period filling up her notebook with ideas and her first draft is a total mess (her words!)  It takes up to five drafts to arrive at something she is willing to show others.
-  their need for discipline.  Both work in the mornings and have to set themselves the specific target of 1,000 words each day.

They told us about their daily discipline after I had asked a question about their practice.  Later, when I queued up to get their latest books signed, Louise Penny thanked me for my question. 'Do you write?' she said. 'Yes, a little - academic books'.  'Oh, on what subject?'  'Preaching', I answered. 'How wonderful,' she enthused, 'That's just what we need at this time.....to help people preach!'  I was in a queue so sadly conversation was truncated. But it gave me a glow! 

A Cambridge God Adventure * 29) Losing some control

(*please skip if you have not been following this story).  I realize that I have written Dorothy's  story in some depth.  That's partly because this whole event gave the church a remarkable deacon and leader whose new-found energy had thanksgiving threaded through all she did. Even those who balked at the idea of Dorothy's healing marvelled at her vibrant health and contagious faith.

But also as I reflect on this story I recognize that it was pushing the church outside its comfort zone.  Dorothy's healing opened up possibilities of God working beyond our control, of the trans-rational dimension where ordinary people experience the beyond-our-control power of  God. Too often church life can be entirely explicable - everything that happens has human explanation and stays firmly under human control.  As a church we were being encountered by God who acts beyond human control, uncomfortably and gloriously, doing things among us and within us. A spiritual hand grenade had exploded spiritually!

Having said that I must emphasize that as we developed future healing services we were going to make some big mistakes, especially when we opened up to the public with far too little preparation which allowed unhealthy expectations and major disappointments.  Yet, through the next years the positives mightily outweighed all the rest.  Without a doubt this was an important growth spurt in our understanding and experience of what God might do if we let him.   

A Cambridge God Adventure* 28) In her own words

(*please skip if you have not been following this story). The following Sunday morning I shared the news of Dorothy's healing with the whole congregation.  Enthusiastic thanksgiving came from some while others were muted and even downright suspicious.  One or two rounded on Dorothy questioning whether it was not 'mind over matter'.  Nothing trans-rational here!  I think many traditional congregations would have exactly the same range of responses.

Dorothy wrote her story for the May church magazine:

Praise God I have never needed to put my collar on again. The pain in my back and foot has completely gone as have my joint pains. At a recent checkup my blood pressure was found to be normal even though I have stopped all medication. I kept my appointment at the hospital when I should have told the doctor whether I'd decided to have the spinal operation or continue on pain- killers.  When I told him of my healing he said: 'That's great - I'm so glad for you.'

Why did God heal me directly and immediately?  I had prayed most earnestly for healing in order that I might continue to serve God and take a full part in the exciting and ongoing work of our church at this time of spiritual growth.  I am praising Him that he is enabling me to do this.  I feel sure that this healing was not for me only but that the faith of all of us may be built up, that God's power and love is demonstrably at work today.  To God be all praise and glory.

Vitally we gave thanks at a follow-up meeting at Dorothy's house. (Giving thanks is essential - remember the nine lepers who failed to do this (Luke 17:19)? I invited Tony to join us again but with wisdom he encouraged us to trust God ourselves for the unfolding future healing ministry. Her room was packed (with Holly of course). Earlier group were now  joined by others. What thanksgiving was shared as new requests were heard! Looking back to the quality of that meeting with its balance of joy yet temerity about expecting further acts of faith, I could see Dorothy's conviction that her healing had much wider implications was beginning to come true.

A Cambridge God Adventure 27) *No more collar

(*please skip if you have not been following this story).  Early in the evening, twelve of us gathered, rather cramped in Dorothy's living room (with her collar visible under her chair). We heard scratching at the door. Her friendly little Spaniel called Holly had been shut in the kitchen and was whining to be let in.  With wagging tail she dropped quietly at her mistress's feet.  The whole scene seemed both normal and yet extraordinary as we began with Scripture, prayer and heard Dorothy retell her story.  She described the illness and expressed complete openness to God's will with a serene trust evident to us all.  At the same time there was high expectation of God's power in the room. Tony and I with another church member then joined in anointing Dorothy with oil and laying hands upon her.

Dorothy later told us that she was aware of deep peace and God's love in the laying on of hands, and as we stood to say the Grace together she knew with absolute certainty that she had been healed.  She immediately stood up without putting on her collar - we all noticed that!  And then she began organizing coffee and biscuits for us all with an apparent complete freedom of movement. Her transformation reminded me of Peter's mother-in-law and her serving immediately after Jesus' healing (Mark 1:29-31).

There was still time for Dorothy to cycle to her small group meeting that same night.  She swept into the group meeting and without a word of explanation said: 'Right let's get on with it'!  Every group member goggled with wide-eyed amazement at the evidence before their eyes. Dorothy was without her ever-present collar.  Some had only been Christians for four weeks.  Dumbfounded they asked her what on earth had happened.  Back came her even more dumbfounding reply: 'I have just been to a healing service and I know that God has healed me. I won't be wearing the collar again.'