mrhedad: New Mission Statement for St John's Stone

mrhedad: New Mission Statement for St John's Stone: Sharing the love of Jesus Shaped by God’s presence Making a difference in our community We believe God’s undeserved favour and love h...

New Mission Statement for St John's Stone

Sharing the love of Jesus

Shaped by God’s presence

Making a difference in our community

We believe God’s undeserved favour and love has been poured out on us and our world; so we want to share that love with those we meet.  

We seek to see our lives shaped by God’s Spirit so that we grow in faith hope and love; so we meet regularly to share our lives with one another.

We know God cares for our neighbourhood and especially that His heart is for families, the poor, widowed, lonely and the bereaved; so our premises are here for our community not just us.

St John’s Stone is a United Church which shares the values and traditions of our parent denominations (Methodist and United Reformed Churches).

Our worship is broadly informal, often led by lay people and usually has those of all ages present.

Our Church government and organisational structures reflect those found in our parent denominations.

Mission Statement

St John’s Church Stone

26^th September 2011

mrhedad: Eccleshall 2012

mrhedad: Eccleshall 2012: Launched a consultation process at Eccleshall today asking what the future holds for us. We will be meeting every week for the next 6 initia...

Eccleshall 2012

Launched a consultation process at Eccleshall today asking what the future holds for us. We will be meeting every week for the next 6 initially to continue to listen to one another & seek God's will for us.

Was very encouraged today that 20 or so people came & everyone contributed. I got them talking about how they came to faith & how they came to attend our chapel. Setting the scene, this is where we have come from & where we are now, not oh woe is me, but Praise God for His faithfulness.

Its a long road but an exciting one too. I wonder where God is leading us?

mrhedad: 1 year on

mrhedad: 1 year on: I have been asked repeatedly lately how much weight i have lost, how i lost it & why i allowed myself to get so big. The post below answer...

1 year on

I have been asked repeatedly lately how much weight i have lost, how i lost it & why i allowed myself to get so big. The post below answer these questions. 

That horrible picture above is me & my lovely wife taken in the summer of 2009. September 2010 i was still the same size, in fact the trousers in that picture are the suit trousers i wore at a funeral almost exactly a year ago before i went off sick. They were size 48 inch waist, as are the ones in the after picture below.

I got that big & really the main reason is i like my food & ate too much. I ate lots of healthy stuff, but loved rubbish too especially chips Indian & Chinese food. The car accident 3 years ago scuppered my plans to use my sabbatical to get fitter & loose weight but really i was well on the way to being that size before then.

I was ashamed i got so big & there are very few photographs of me standing up without someone else carefully hiding me. I don't know how heavy i was because when i did try to weigh myself the scales didn't go high enough, & anyway i really didn't want to know, it was so embarrassing. 

I was very unhappy. That thing you hear about fat people being happy & jolly was never true for me & I suspect its not for lots of people. I knew my health was at risk & I was depressed about it. I wanted to do something about it, but didn't know really how to start because feeling pressure or feeling down always fed into wanting to eat & especially at my last appointment i was under more pressure than i can explain.

Last September, the 26th i think I was signed off work sick & I knew i had to do something because the back operation i was waiting for was more dangerous if i didn't lose some weight. Big problem was i didn't know how to start because i physically couldn't do anything. I started to try hard by cutting down anything that was fattening & inputting less calories as i was flat on my back almost 24 hours a day.

Watching mind-numbing daytime TV reduced my world to a very dark place & one day in October i stumbled on the USA show Biggest Loser. I had always thought it was a terrible programme & I guess thats how most people view it, but its really helped me see that i could change how i looked & felt - if they could do it why couldn't i?
I noticed that i was the same size as some of the men on their & watched everyday & saw how they exercised & ate to loose weight. Sometime in November i got up & started trying to walk slowly on the spot for 5 minutes or so at a time. It was very hard; it hurt so much I would cry, but i knew i had to try. I kept going.

After the operation on the 2nd December i decided that i would do everything in my power to get fit. If i didnt my back wouldnt recover. I had to do it.

So within 3 days i was out walking 100 metres or so in the snow - hanging on to Jane because i was scared of falling! The next day we went a bit further, then again the next day. Then the next day i went out on my own. Within not much more than a week i walked around the estate. It took so long but it felt so good.

In January i walked everyday, a total of 108 miles across the month in some bloody awful weather. I kept up the healthy eating & continued to see weight go. Biggest Loser continued to motivate me & I started to do some very light weights work & a little walking on the spot as & when i could between the long periods of rest.

These exercise periods were very hard at times - several times i walked with tears streaming because the pain relief had started to wear off while i was still miles from home; its amazing what your body can do though if you push it.

Sometime in January i started making my own soup because i thought being liquid it would fill me up & stop what were quite serious hunger pangs. I got quite good at it!

The exercise has got harder since i went back to work in May, partly because of time & partly because at the same time i was trying to stop taking so much medication. Yet I am still loosing weight even though i cant quite do so much. I am though very strict about what i eat & don't ever think i will go back to treating food in the same way again.

I am off a very large amount of the medication now & was discharged by the Consultant today.

I said to our Hannah a month or so ago that i wanted to put the horrible picture above on the fridge to remind me not to eat stuff i shouldn't & she really made me feel proud because she said 'you don't need to because you have more will power than anyone i know'.

So one year one i am down 14 inches round my waist & about 6 around my neck. I feel happier about how i look than at any point in my adult life & looking forward to life.

Saluting Policeman & respect

It seems to be normal these days when in a funeral cortage to see other drivers jump in between the hearse & the other cars, or race past dangerously; happened today & always is so infuriatingly disrespectful.

At the start of my ministry you would sometimes see older people generally stand still & bow their heads or take off their hats when a hearse went past. Cant remember the last time i saw that happen.

Seeing as we all have to one day make the same journey you would think that people would so a bit more respect.

Then today out of the blue I saw a Policeman while travelling to the crematorium stop walking, turn to face the road & salute. First time I've seen that for a very long time.

That should surely be the kind of respect we show those who have died. Shame it isnt.

Circuit Meeting

Tonight was Circuit meeting, it ran as smoothly as one would expect, with one real highlight.

It was an absolute joy to listen to the testimony & call to ministry of one of our local preachers who is candidating for the Methodist Ministry. The lady in question is a member at one of my chapels & it has been a privilege to be part of God's moving her along on this journey. I have seen her ministry & faith at close hand & am a big fan!

She spoke tonight with such passion vulnerability & heart; it was so inspiring to hear how God by His Spirit had kept gently speaking until she was ready to answer the call. It was brilliant to see that the whole meeting could sense God's Spirit working in her life & leading her on, & she was given a unanimous vote in favour.

The worst Preachers I have seen in action are those who think they know everything & can do the work in their own strength. Thank God this lady's greatest asset is that she is so aware that in her own strength she cannot do what God is calling her to, but in His power all things are possible. 

It was a joyful privilege of be at Circuit meeting tonight - now you dont get to say that very often do you!

Harvest challenge

We plough the fields with tractors,

With drills we sow the land;
But growth is still dependent
On God’s almighty hand.
Organic fertilizers
Will help the growing grain,
But for its full fruition
It needs God’s sun and rain.

All good gifts around us
Are sent from heaven above;
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord
For all his love.

To gather in the harvest
Machines now lead the way.
We reap the the fields with combines,
We bale the new mown hay;
But it is God who gives us
Inventive skills and drive;
Which lighten daily labour
And give us fuller lives!

Then why are people starving
When we have life so good?
And some in crowded cities
Search dustbins for their food;
And even some go hungry
Who farm in distant lands;
Lord, help us learn more swiftly
To share with open hands.

I do not have a Harvest Festival service to lead this year & I am quite sad about it. It is an odd feeling to be honest because until this point in my ministry I have had multiple harvest services every year, in Churches & in the community in different schools & residential homes. Next year I will have to make sure that the plan takes me back into this highlight of the Christian year!

If I did have one I would use the hymn above, an alternative version of the classic harvest hymn ‘We plough the fields & scatter’. I like it because it brings us up to date with the real world & the reality of life of so many of our neighbours who work in the field & with livestock. I like it too because it throws down a challenge to each one of us – if God has blessed us like this, what about those who are struggling?

There has been much rubbish written & spoken about the poor recently, & especially that ugly & divisive phrase the deserving poor. No one chooses to be poor & to struggle to afford the necessities of life or to live hand to mouth. At various points in my life since we entered the Ministry as a family we have struggled & had to rely on charity to help us clothe the children, send them on school trips & even buy food. Asking for help has always been humiliating & we have felt ashamed, & to this point I have never talked about it. I mention it now only because I think these attitudes to the poor need to be addressed.

The poorest in our nation are bearing the hardest burden by far in the austerity measures we now live under & things are set to get a lot worse especially if you are unfortunate enough to be at the bottom of the wealth & earnings ladder. Yet we still get lectured about the deserving & undeserving poor.

Were my family deserving or undeserving? 

Is the pensioner terrified of the winter fuel bill deserving or undeserving? 

Is the unemployed middle aged man who cannot find work & has run out of savings deserving or undeserving? 

Is the homeless teenager on the streets of our cities deserving or undeserving? 

Are the starving thousands in East Africa deserving or undeserving?

What gives us the right to stand in judgement?

I do wish the old phrase ‘there but for the grace of God’ would tumble from our lips more readily before we make comments about those at the bottom of our society.

Judgemental attitudes towards the less fortunate should not be found in the Christian especially if we are blessed by God to live in positions of comfort & security – they are attitudes that should be alien to any Disciples of Christ Jesus. 

Remember the warning to each one of us in the parable of the sheep & goats in Matthew 25? We need to make sure that this gospel warning is not ignored, God forbid that judgement would fall on us & our nation & that we would hear this kind of message from Jesus (Matthew 25:41-45):

‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,  I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

This Autumn spare a thought, a prayer & if you can some cash for those who are worst off. Write to your councillor & MP, & be one of those voices raised in warning that fairness & justice should not be lost as we cut budgets, & please let’s stop talking about the undeserving poor.

God bless you

Revd. J Neil Adams