"I miss God"

I have been laid up for a few days with a 'flu like' virus and irritating as it has been to feel 'incapacitated'. But it has also been an opportunity to deal with a nagging sense that something is amiss in my spirit as though something is 'out of joint' with my relationship with God and the work he has called me to. If I was asked to define the nagging feeling I guess I would of said 'I miss God'. What really helped me to see what 'ailed' me was the following excerpt from one of my favourite writers on spirituality speaking about his own efforts to be that which he was called to be by the Church and to do that work God had asked him to do.

"Basically all I am doing is trying to get it straight, get straight what it means to be a pastor, and then develope a spirituality adequate to the work...I do not find the emaciated,exhausted spirituality of institutional careerism adequate. I do not find the veneered,cosmetic spirituality of personal charisma adequate. I require something Biblically spiritual - rooted and cultivated in creation and covenant, leisurely in Christ and soaked in the Spirit."

A spirituality that is "'leisurely in Christ..." and"soaked in the Spirit." that is what I aspire to and will try to 'get straight' in the days ahead.

A New Location - a continuing challenge.

We opened up the doors to Eikon's new location ( a room above an Edinburgh Community Arts Cafe called The Forest) for our first Sunday gathering this weekend.The turn out was a 60/40% mix of regulars and visitors.

What is becoming increasingly obvious to us (as it is no doubt to all city churches) is that ministering in a city brings with it a whole new set of challenges. Cities by their very nature are places where people come to do rather than to be to get rather than to give. Doing and being church in this environment brings with it the exciting challenge of being a 'good news community' in the midst of a city community that is in a constant state of flux. Edinburgh, like all cities is a place with a heady mixture of those who have chosen to make the city their home and those who are 'just passing through'. The community that make up Eikon has been a reflection of that phenomenon of 'stayers 'and 'visitors' . What has been up to now a fairly consistent flow of 'Eikon temps' have brought with them the challenge for Eikon to be a place, where regardless of how long people stay with us, they will not fail to meet with the challenge that Jesus calls all of us to and hopefully in the process find their lives changed for the better after being among us.