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Does it match? (1 June)

Our Thought for the Week comes from Andrew Openshaw, minister at Homelands Free Church and Trustee on the EBA Council.

Does it match?

Over the last few weeks, we have been hosting a British Sign Language (BSL) at church.

As someone who enjoys learning new languages, it has been fascinating to see how this visual language is constructed, as well as appreciating how much we need to do to make our services and events more accessible to those who are deaf and hard of hearing.

In the first few weeks, we have learned to finger spell our names and to have simple conversations using the signs made by our hands.

However, there is one aspect about BSL that I had never properly realised – that facial expressions and body language are as much a part of the communication as the signs made by the hands. As beginners it is easy to become focussed, fixated almost, on the hands and forget to match facial expressions – the hands can’t be signing “happy” with the face scowling!

This lead me to think about our life as Christians and the gathered church. How often are our hands doing one thing (our actions) when our faces (our words) are saying something else.

The theologian would say, how does our espoused theology match up to our operant theology?

For example, if we profess to believe in inclusive church, wanting to show God’s love to everyone, but our actions (accidentally or deliberately) exclude and marginalise; what do we actually believe to be true?

As our BSL course continues I am going to try and keep my head and my hands saying the same thing, and with God’s help I am going try and make sure my Christian life does likewise – I pray that you and our churches may do the same.