A Cambridge God Adventure* 46) Elephant in the room

Every prayer time continued to mention the need for wisdom about redeveloping our premises.  Work with the architect stretched on through many months until we reached the point when a design (and its costings) were clear enough to present to the church.  The critical date to receive the report was set for November 15th. 1983.

I wrote to every church member urging them to be present.  As the church governing body it was essential that we discerned God's will together.  The scheme was an ambitious one to maximize the site and meet all the hopes in our brief.  It envisaged a small commercial property at the front to provide ongoing rental income to sustain the whole project.  However this highlighted two distinct ways to proceed.  The safest involved going into a commercial partnership which involved giving over a major share of the land to make it all worth their while. The unsafe, audacious option was to commit to a church financed scheme where we would seek to find all the costs ourselves.

So the architect's drawings were one key element as we pictured the possibilities.  But the elephant in the room was ensuring how it would be paid for. And, true enough, this was now costed to be at least £300,000.

As we listened and asked questions and, most importantly prayed, it was clear that the scheme met our hopes and dreams. There was mounting excitement at the imaginative design but the huge matter of its cost loomed over us. We knew that we needed to take further time out for prayer and thought before taking a decision at the December Church Meeting.  This delay for a month was really tough.  I remember conversations and rightly cautious members urging great caution.  As one person said: 'We'll be trapping our grandchildren with debt if we try to do it ourselves.'  What was going to happen?

A Cambridge God Adventure* 45) In praise of small groups

(*please skip if you have not been following this story). A most strategic development for building church community reached fulfilment in May 1983 when we launched Sector Groups (which some complained sounded rather militaristic!  It does!)  On a large map every member was located and then, like spokes on a bicycle wheel, a number of sectors were drawn to include them all.  This meant that those (often older) who lived in the city were linked with those who lived a little further out in a desire to mix up ages and experience.  And we placed everyone in a group.  Experts claim that no more than 60% of a congregation will actually join in small groups but we needed everyone to know where they belonged for mutual care. From then on, new members were expected to share in the church on Sundays and mid-week.

Later these morphed into Pastoral Care Groups as the church grew further.  Organizing these groups providing oversight to the leaders, training and weekly resources proved to be a huge task.  Indeed, it rated as one of the most time-consuming (and often delicate) responsibilities that I shared with leaders through ensuing years.   But these groups proved to be the bedrock for church life, growth and prayer.  I cannot overstate their importance and in ministry ever since I have championed the role of small groups...though (and this is sometimes overlooked) they need immense care in selecting, appointing and nurturing group leaders.   Like parenting you never grow past responsibilities for continuing care.

By these groups we learned fellowship and discipleship.  Difficult issues - like music in worship - could be talked over prayerfully with respect. Actually, music in worship as many traditional worshipers found the advent of contemporary music so difficult, proved to be one of the litmus paper tests of members of the congregation able to listen to each other.  And all the time the future use of our premises occupied a key place in our prayers. Oh, the value of small groups.

A Cambridge God Adventure* 44) Buzzing church life with a beat

(*please skip if you have not been following this story).   While these twin timetables of building and assistant minister marked out the months through into 1983, general church life bubbled along with both large and small answers to prayer.  Manna House ministered to passers-by and the lonely sometimes leading to remarkable stories. Gift groups continued their work with projects like a World Development Teach-In Day organized by the world development group, and house-to-house visitation by the evangelism group.  Baptismal services were highlights with new friends coming to faith.  Student work thrived.  And wider concerns about the Cambridgeshire Baptist Association of Churches and overseas missions occupied a key place in thoughts and prayers.

One of our musicians Geoff Warren wrote a full musical called 'Footsteps' which led to immense fun as well as lively witness as a large choir practiced (with mixed talent!)  The outcome was a thrilling act of worship.  Also a songbook containing more contemporary music was printed in order to supplement our standard hymn book.  Details of needs, bereavements, special events, personal requests pepper our prayers at this time.   And, always, the twin timetables sounded out an underlying beat!

Reading through the prayer diary I am amazed at the variety and richness of church life through these months.  All the names and all the events. But I also remember my longing for Martyn to join me in full-time ministry as numbers grew and kingdom possibilities expanded.  When he arrived in the summer of 1983 I felt the joy and wonder of belonging within a team which God was going to use greatly.

A Cambridge God Adventure* 43) The eleventh hour

(*please skip if you have not been following this story). Yet within a very few days of that despairing meeting something happened to transform the situation.  Miss Winifred Nutter (aged 99 years) died and we learned to our immense surprise that she had left her home for the singular purpose that it be used as a residence for the minister.  A large house, set in an even larger garden in a lovely residential area near the main hospital.....we couldn't believe the timing in our hour of need.

Miss Nutter had become a member in 1909 and at least of ten of her close relatives had served as deacons in the church.  She was a great character belonging to a significant Cambridge family.  On my first visit she mistook me for the man who was going to measure for new curtains and she was clearly irritated when I sat down expecting to share in conversation.  Her generosity in leaving her house to us was extraordinary in its appropriateness and timing.   We marvelled at this God-incidence....we had come so close to despair yet had kept praying.  And at the eleventh hour!

I wrote in the church magazine: 'Could there be more dramatic 'signs following' confirming the rightness of a second minister than the gift of this house at this exact moment in our church life'.   The prayer diary (May 3) records thanks for 'GREAT ANSWERS in the house provided for future ministry of Martyn.'  Oh, yes! Martyn and Margaret had somewhere to live and this became a key centre of hospitality and ministry for many years.  Sometimes it was called the 'Nutter House' which occasionally seemed highly appropriate!

A Cambridge God Adventure* 42) The joy of Martyn and Margaret

(*please skip if you have not been following this story).  More about that new minister!  I talked with the Principal of the college in Oxford where I trained and asked if there were possible candidates entering their final year in 1982 who might begin with us in 1983.  He mentioned two students.  One of them turned out to be a miracle for me. I know that Martyn Travers should tell this story from his side. A law graduate, married to Margaret, he was willing to consider visiting us. Joyfully I recall that from the very first I felt an instant bond with Martyn, and longed for him to visit and preach so that the church could meet and hear him.  Our prayer diary record marks the date of Nov 7th 1982 as the date Martyn and Margaret first visited with a triumphant follow-up note in December about the unanimous call to him which he accepted.

Of course he had to finish his degree and could not join us until Summer 1983 but along the way we were to experience another miracle.  Among many practical details was the sticky issue of providing adequate accommodation.  Sticky because Cambridge was growing to be a difficult and expensive city to find a house.  Various attempts in the next few months to find affordable accommodation all came to naught.  In April 1983 the church meeting received another despairing report that no property had yet been found.  One member stood up and told us that this failure to find accommodation was a serious sign that God was not supporting the whole idea!  "If God wanted us to have another minister surely he could have made it plain by showing us confirmation in signs following. How can we possibly think of welcoming a new minister and his young wife to this church when we don't have anywhere for them to live?"  It was a good point.

So much did seem irresponsible and naive - especially since Martyn and Margaret were expecting their first child.

Welcome, glorious Easter!

On this celebration day I reread Evelyn Underhill:

So many Christians are like deaf people at a concert. They study the programme carefully, believe every statement made in it, speak respectfully of the quality of the music, but only really hear a phrase now and again. So they have no notion at all of the mighty symphony which fills the universe, to which our lives are destined to make their tiny contribution, and which is the self-expression of the Eternal God.

Today, I am keeping my ears open to the sound of Easter glory which has changed our lives forever.  A Happy Easter to you all. 

A Cambridge God Adventure* 41) Twin timetables set going.

(*please skip if you have not been following this story).  In 1982, twin timetables were set in motion. The slowest concerned the building project. Talking was easy but what would it all coast? A couple of professionals on the committee reckoned that it would cost at least of £300,000 (this is in 1982 when a pound was a pound!)  We realized no further progress could be made without appointing an architect and getting serious.  Really serious.

It had taken twenty-four Use of Premises Committee meetings before we brought the name forward of Saunders Boston as our architects in July 1982!  So many meetings but at last the timetable was set to go. Any reader who has been through a building project will know how high excitement at the beginning begins to dribble away as practical implications ram home.  Vitally, everyone in the church fellowship needed to share with free imagination about what might be - what spaces we might need for what mission purposes - in order to draft a basic working brief for the architects.  Actually it took sixteen months before the architects could next report.

The timetable for an assistant minister was faster.  Again a brief was needed.  What would we expect this person to focus on?   Where were the weakest areas of church life? And, of course, there were many practical details such as how would we best find another minister?  Early we agreed to seek to call a leaving student from one of our theological colleges.  And the church saw a prime need to focus on people in their twenties and thirties.  The continuing rapid growth in the size of the fellowship and its commitments needed a gifted all-round pastor too. I was concerned also for someone to complement me in preaching at one morning and two evening services each month as well as leading worship.  Actually, I wanted them to take a key part in leadership - baptizing, marrying, burying, teaching, and above all loving.  Right in the thick of it.

Commonly churches seeking a new minister have an ambitious wish-list!  I realize we did too...and the outcome as we kept praying surpassed expectations.