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Editorial

By Paul Beasley-Murray.

As a result of damaging my wrist by falling off the top of a ladder and not having power-assisted steering, I have been walking most days to my church this past week. It has been an interesting experience, for on my way I pass Chelmsford railway station, apparently the busiest commuter station in the South-East. As I walk down to church early in the morning I see hundreds of half-asleep commuters, and hundreds more of stressed-out commuters as I walk past the station in the early evening. The very sight of these 'half-dead' specimens of humanity reminds me of the privilege we have as ministers not to be commuters. Yes, most of us work long hours: every evening this week I have been out, and on most of those evenings I have had two if not three appointments. But at least we are doing something positive with those hours, rather than just commuting. In our area it is not unusual for some commuters to spend three or more hours a day commuting - multiply that by five, and it amounts up to a significant amount of time.

Commuting, too, affects the mid-week programme of the church. Although we offer a meal, we have found that we cannot run an Alpha course before seven o'clock, simply because people are not able to get back any earlier, and we always have some who do not arrive until 7.30pm. Other evening meetings in our church normally begin at 8 pm, but even then we have to ensure we end relatively early, because many of our commuters will be on the station platform not much after 6am (so-called 'early morning' prayer meetings at 7 a.m. are too late to catch most of our commuters).

But should we expect our commuters to attend our mid-week meetings? Are we really being fair to them? Furthermore, the problem becomes more acute when both husband and wife are commuting: it means that when they get home there is no meal on the table. By the time they have made a simple meal, collapsed on the settee to watch a few minutes of television, they are ready to go to bed. As one of my members once said to me, "I get so screwed up during the week, you are lucky to see me on a Sunday morning". I believe we ministers need to be more understanding of the stresses faced by our people, and tailor our church programmes accordingly.  

The only alternative would be to challenge our members to adopt a simpler life-style by giving up jobs which require commuting. But what right have we as comfortable non-commuters to make such a challenge? And do we seriously want sections of our society to become 'Christian-free' zones?

What do you think?   Why not post up your response on our Ministry Today web-site!

As to this current edition of Ministry Today, we need to apologise on two counts. First, there's a bit less content than we would prefer, but the previous edition was rather a bumper one, so we hope you'll forgive us on this occasion.

Second, it's a bit late hitting the Web on this occasion, partly because of the illness of our editor, Alun Brookfield (nothing too serious - just a chest infection which slowed his usual workrate); partly because we were waiting for one or two late articles to arrive; and partly because our webmaster, Charles Brewster, was abroad on a business trip as the editorial process was being completed..

Never mind - it's here now and contains some fascinating articles, including two relating to something which we ministers have to do a lot of - funerals. What do you allow or disallow?

There is also an article by Terry Hinks outlining the early results of a very useful piece of sabbatical study, exploring an issue dear to the heart of Ministry Today, namely the support of ministers throughout, in some cases, very long ministries.

There's a reflection on the 40 Days of Purpose programme, which has been a huge blessing to some churches in the UK; Alun Brookfield reports on a couple of initiatives he and his parish have been undertaking in an effort to reconnect the spiritually disenfranchised generations in the area to the Christian gospel; and Susan Stevenson reflects on the challenges and rewards of leading a multi-cultural Baptist congregation.

And don't forget the book reviews. There are fewer than usual, but some of them are reporting on books which will fascinate readers and strengthen our ministry.