Thursday November 28 2013

Looking Back: A Ministry Begins

An article from 1938 extolling Church Extension Ministry

ONE misses many familiar things on the pathway to a Church Extension Ministry. There is no impressive scattering of important individuals through the congregation and the consequent fluttering and speculation. One misses perhaps a little that questing journey when, as sole, nominee, preaching is hardly the joyous thing it can be. There are no crowded impressions such as one gathers then to give one assurance that here is a real job and a people whom one might love and gladly serve. There is nothing comparable with the joy of the moment when there comes to one’s hand the confirmation of these impressions, the single voice of a people presenting a unanimous call.

It is all so different. A letter comes from a Presbytery. Disturbing and searching it is, but hardly so impressive as a deputation, important and trying to appear invisible. A committee meets and recommends. A sub-committee interviews, and all that one has ever been or done or achieved or thought is laid bare and confessed. A recommendation is passed and a full committee meets. A minute arrives of appointment. A post card comes to intimate an Induction date, and one is on the way to become first minister of a Church Extension Charge.

One misses many things, but not for long, not much longer than the night of Induction, for then begin the glad surprises and amazing compensations of a Church Extension Ministry. One shares the pride of a very new church officer in halls of splendid possibilities and church of simple beauty. One listens with growing hopefulness to accounts of first contacts in the area. A fortnight working and scarcely a home visited but is telling its joy that at last a church has been built. A month moving amongst the people and easily understood, because shared, is the confession of a fellow Church Extender, spoken with face afire and heart aflame:

“I’ll admit it’s hard work and stiff going sometimes, but I’ve never found anything so worth while.” There is romance in one’s rapidly mounting Church roll. From Carlisle and Coldstream, from Inverness and Wick, from village church and stately cathedral they have come, grateful for the opportunity of worship, happy to be in fellowship again. They tell me a lot about their old church, and how things were done there, and they long to build it again in this new place.

He would be dull of heart who did not feel thrill of joy at the opportunity, no farther away than the church door; and better than names on a unanimous call are these first-fruits gathered in. We are but putting on our armour and nerving us for the tasks that lie ahead. We cannot therefore say very much, but we can say that while on the way there are some things that one misses, inside there are such splendidly worth-while things as make one proudly happy to be Church Extending.

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