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Working from a place of rest

For me, August is a month when the diary, inbox and phone messages go strangely quiet (this is not a challenge for you to try and change that!). It is still the traditional holiday month when we take time away from normal activities before we enter ‘the silly season’: September through to Christmas. Many churches don’t have the usual meetings and activities during the school summer holidays, even the TV schedule changes. But come September everything starts up again, new TV series begin (as I write this, the final contestant of this year’s Strictly Come Dancing has just been announced!) and the autumn round of meetings happen once again. Suddenly there isn’t a free night in the diary. Perhaps your life also has cycles like that – the calm before the storm.

I believe the month of August is always an important time; it is a time given to us to prepare for the new challenges and opportunities that will arise in the coming months. Some of them I know about already – Graeme’s moving on from regional ministry to the ministry at Trowbridge BC and David’s arrival as RMTL. Conversations with ministers and churches will happen, ministerial recognition interviews will take place, local, regional and national meetings will be attended. Other things will crop up in the coming months but at present I have no inkling of them.

We all need those quieter times to help us prepare for the busier ones. Jesus certainly had them in his life and he regularly created space; to be still, to listen, to prepare and to anticipate all that was to come. I encourage you during these coming weeks to follow His example. The last quarter of 2023 will no doubt be a hive of activity for each one of us so why not take the opportunity during a quieter time to prepare for the busier one which is to come.

Our latest Thought for the Week has been written by Claire Blatchford

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash