In the last two days I have made two decisions on behalf of the church – one regarding the new sign, and the other regarding the carpet in the counselling room. Margaret wasn’t available, and Penelope wanted someone more officially from WBC to be in on the discussion.

Both decisions we will have to live with.For a while, at least.

Maybe I will have got them wrong. I used the best information available, considered the impact of each of the options, and then drew a line under it: here’s the decision.

This morning I’ve stumbled across a blog entry on failure which talks about how churches need to distinguish between good failures, which are because they tried something and maybe it didn’t go the way they wanted it to, and big bad failures, because they didn’t do anything for fear of failure.

The line that jumped out at me:

I want to set down the paradoxical assertion that it’s only when a congregation can endure a load of small failures that it has a possibility of avoiding the largest failure–death. Conversely, a congregation that spends its life avoiding as many small failures as possible will often wind up dying earlier than it might have otherwise.

Or in two words, do something.

You may find the full article interesting: http://bit.ly/uPBB5u I intend to go back and read it again – more slowly.

I wasn’t at  church this morning. It was the first Sunday of the month, and that usually means I have to miss. I think everyone’s got used to that.

Last week I missed as well because Ray’s pen friend came with his family to visit from France. It was a bit of a frantic affair to put together, but with the generous help of Tony and Dorothy, we managed to make them comfortable and have a good time.

And was I there the week before that? I can’t remember back that far without looking at my diary.

But I have been in the church. Elena and I came by one day to have a picnic lunch, and made teas for Maggie and Andrew and Bethan, who were getting the garden ready for the wedding.

And I had a meeting with Sue from Hope, and Angela from the Abbey, while Adrian and Paul climbed ladders and looked at the plaster.

And also: we used the garden for Elena’s birthday party, and invited fifteen of her friends and their parents to our church. Some of them had been there for Little Acorns. Some hadn’t.

The point is, though, it felt like church all the way along. I may have missed Sundays, but I was able to welcome people from outside into our building, and know I had the open arms of all our congregation behind me.

A friend from St Cuthbert’s (where we are on the first Sundays) was there at the party, and she commented how warm and welcoming the building was, that it felt like church even though it wasn’t a service.

The balloons and bunting may have helped with the celebration atmosphere , but I like what she said. The welcome I got from Little Acorns – the fact WBC did Little Acorns at all – was what brought me here in the first place. I’m really happy I had opportunity in the past few weeks to see again that it still feels that way to others.

Please note the new Wymondham Baptist Church phone number: 01953 606 520