In that moment, I knew that I needed to say sorry to God. Let me explain …
If you followed the amazing ‘50 Days’ you will have read about the Family Fun Mornings that we run at Orchard Baptist Church. I am so proud of these events which enable us to engage with families in a fun way whilst exploring spiritual themes at the same time. When we don’t have enough helpers to run a Fun Morning, we show a film on the big screen instead but this it always leaves me frustrated. Significantly less people come to watch a film (in my mind this is about wanting to bless people, not necessarily get more people at an event) and there are also less opportunities to talk with the people who have come along.
At the end of a Fun Morning I can see God moments, I can see the good time that people have had and I can look back on lots of conversations either getting to know or catching up with people as relationships develop and deepen. At the end of a Film Morning I often apologize to people that we didn’t have enough volunteers to run a Fun Morning and I go home feeling frustrated at what we could have achieved.
In our Fun Mornings I expect God to be at work but in our Film Mornings I feel frustrated because it feels like we are restricting God from working.
As this mum said that they had come to church because of the Film Morning we had offered, I was left gobsmacked and surprised at the way that God had worked in a most unlikely and miraculous way.
I was reminded that God is still at work in circumstances that we might consider 2nd best or not good enough.
I was also encouraged that we don’t have to be a church that pressures people to work harder to keep projects running in order to see God work. At Orchard Baptist, we encourage people to give their best but if we don’t have enough volunteers then we simply don’t run events.
Ironically, during these Summer Holidays we will be having more Film Mornings that Fun Mornings. If we had more volunteers things would be different but instead of feeling frustrated, I’m going to be looking for what God is up to in all of the events and activities and in fact the whole of life.
Once, Jesus fed a crowd of thousands with a few loaves and fish. A young boy was willing to give what he knew was inadequate and Jesus was able to provide for everyone through this fairly pathetic offering. Do we still believe that Jesus can work miracles today or have we come to believe that we need to have all of the answers and resources before we can act?
By Graeme Ross
