Letter from the Manse

I have a home full of books. There are bookshelves in every room. I suppose there must be around four thousand books in the house altogether. Some of them are general books – books of poetry, novels, history books. But most of them are, in some sense, “Christian”. They are books about the Bible (lots of commentaries), books about Christian doctrine, books about how to live as a Christian, books about church history – and lots more.

Sometimes …

Prices are soaring.   Gas and electricity prices are up.  Petrol is up.  Food is up.  And many people are feeling the pinch.  No-one knows how bad things might get.  Some experts are predicting the biggest economic crisis for many years.  Mass bankruptcies and repossessions;  widespread unemployment;  runaway inflation;  the collapse of many industries; a state unable to pay for its hospitals, police-force or schools or to maintain social security benefits: many observers see all these things on the horizon.  They may be right, they may be wrong.  But already …

In a few weeks time, a group of youngsters from the church, loaded up with rucksacks, sleeping bags and Bibles will be heading off to camp. It’s thirty-four years since I first set off from home carrying more or less the same equipment. My first Christian camp was at Pendine on the South Wales coast. It was run by an eccentric school-teacher with a passion for evangelism. That camp changed my life.

I was already a believer, but I had had little opportunity to mix with other Christian teenagers. …

I’m hoping that during these weeks while I’m freed up from preaching, we’ll manage some family outings. Some time back I drew up a list of places around Manchester and the North-West that have some special historical interest for us as evangelical Christians. Some of them I’ve been to already, others I hope we’ll have the opportunity to visit either during my ‘paternity leave’ or later in the summer.

Let me tell you about one place that I know well, and then some others that I’d like to find …

Let me start by saying thank you to everyone who worked so hard preparing for our thanksgiving services. At some point I ought to write a Nehemiah-style list of all the folk who worked to get the building into a fit state for us to welcome our guests. But I’ll leave that until everything is finished; we’ve still a few jobs left before we can say that our building work is done. For the moment I’ll simply record our gratitude to all who have played a …