Welcome to my first blog post. This is the very opening of the book, written during some ‘time out’ in 2017 when I had a chance to ponder the preceding decades. These paragraphs describe mine and Linsey’s calling to ministry, many years ago…
While the year itself is rapidly fading in the collective memory, the reverberations from 2016 ripple on. It was as an epoch defining year. It began with a number of high-profile celebrity deaths, which then just seemed to continue throughout. In the middle, the United Kingdom was stunned by the vote to leave Europe: Brexit. And by the end, the whole world was left reeling with the news that Donald Trump had been voted President elect, of the USA. Surrounded by some more plodding years, 2016 will stand out and be pawed over by experts and analysts well into the future.
In a similar vein, 1989 was a year which stands tall from the pages of history. Time Magazine described it as, ‘one of those years that the world shifted on its pivot’[1]. Amongst other things it saw the worst disaster in British sporting history when ninety six people were crushed to death at Hillsborough football stadium; pro-democracy rallies and a fatal response in Tiananmen Square, China; the Berlin Wall begin to crumble; the communist leader, Nicole Ceausecu deposed in Romania; and a growing expectation that Nelson Mandela might actually be released following twenty seven years of captivity – a hope which was eventually fulfilled early in 1990.
And while all that was taking place on the international stage, a far more humble drama was also beginning to unfold. Picture the scene: it’s April and a young couple have joined hundreds of others at the annual Christian conference, Spring Harvest[2]. God seems to have placed in them a hunger, a ‘there-must-be-more-than-this-ness’, which has led them to seek something more adventurous than the conservative and benign version of faith, which had so far been their experience. Andrew Poultney and Linsey Brown find themselves at the evening meeting in the Big Top, listening to one of many inspiring and challenging speakers. At the end of the talk there is an invitation for, ‘anyone who feels God may be calling them to serve him in full-time ministry’, to come to the front for prayer. Completely out the blue, Andrew finds himself having got out of his seat, walked to the front of the tent, and being prayed for.
After the meeting Andrew and Linsey take a walk along the sea front at Minehead, and talk and pray, and try to work out what this could possibly mean. It’s unexpected at many levels, not least because Linsey would have been the more natural one to be responding to this call, being the more extroverted of the two. This was not on Andrew or Linsey’s radar, nothing in their thinking had been anticipating this response. This was a curve ball – the bounce of which could have significant implications on their wedding, due to take place the following month.
But they agree that despite the surprise, and not knowing quite what this will mean, or where it may lead, it feels like God is speaking. And so, they will pursue it together, and follow this call together, and be committed to the God of the call together. Andrew said ‘yes’ to a call’. And Linsey said ‘yes’ to supporting him, not least in prayer, in that call.
Fast forward, and as I begin writing it’s 2017. That ‘Andrew’ was me, is me, and in one sense I feel as distant from that young man as perhaps you do in reading of him, of me, for the first time. It seems unbelievable that it’s nearly three decades since that moment of madness at Minehead, and that I have been involved in ‘full-time Christian ministry’[3] for twenty-five years. Oh my goodness, twenty-five years, that’s a quarter of a century, which sounds like such a long time…
Just recently I heard someone talking about mortgages, and was reminded that twenty-five years was once the standard length of that particular financial commitment. At the end of which, the loan should be paid off and the property fully belong to the owner. When you are first considering such a deal, twenty-five years just seems like forever, indeed, a lifetime. It caused me to think that, a) theoretically we could have paid off our mortgage in the same time I’ve been in full-time ministry (but in reality we haven’t even started – this is Christian ministry we’re talking about after all). And more importantly, b) whilst it sounds such a long time, it just goes by so very, very quickly. At one level, that moment of my first responding to God’s call does seem a lifetime ago. But on another, it feels like yesterday. It’s all but the blink of an eye.
The book is about the journey of my life between these two points. It’s not about what I’ve undertaken in terms of ministry per se. Rather, it’s about the ways in which God has called, guided and shaped me through the years. It tells the story from that moment at Spring Harvest to this present one.
My simple hope
for the book is that it will be of value to anyone who is on, or will be on, a
similar path. It is for those who are
sensing God calling them into ministry, of any sort. It’s about how you recognise God’s voice, and
what is and is not important in the character and competence of the individuals
that God might be calling. It’s especially for those wrestling with the
idea that God might be calling them to ordained[4]
ministry in the Church of England[5]. And it’s for those who are interested to know
more about what it means to pioneer, especially in an Anglican context.
[1] See www.time.com
[2] Spring Harvest is an inter-denominational evangelical conference based in the UK which began in 1979, www.springharvest.org
[3] Of course, every Christian is called to be in ‘full-time ministry’. In using this expression here I’m employing it to describe the activity one spends most of their working hours undertaking each week, and for which they are likely to receive some financial recompense, though not necessarily.
[4] In the Church of England, individuals are firstly ordained as deacon, then in most cases, as priest, and for some, as bishop. When I use the term ‘ordination’, it will most often be shorthand for, ‘ordination to the priesthood’. That is simply because in order to undertake the full breadth of ministry I outline, especially in regard to leading a local expression of church, a person must at least hold the office of priest.
[5] I will use the terms ‘Church of England’ or ‘CoE’, and ‘Anglican’ interchangeably throughout