I thought Cambridge was flat, but I seem to have found a mountain!

What a week!!! This week I have learnt what it means to study in Cambridge. You may think we get an easy ride because we only have 8-week terms, but let me assure you, we don't! And the amount of  reading on my desk is well looking a little like Everest! But I do have some very lovely tutors who have shown me a good route to take up the mountain, so I'll get to the top (eventually)!

Right enough of the mountain climbing metaphors! Because I could go on all day, but unfortunately I do have things to do, like park cars!!

Anyway, when I was thinking about my blog earlier in the week, I thought I might talk about puddings. Not that I have any great theological revelation relating to puddings, just that the puddings we get at Westminster are fairly fantastic! But as I can't think of much else to say than the pudding are fantastic, it's not worth carrying on with this line of thought.

So I guess the only other challenge this week that is worth sharing is Life and Service. For those of you reading this who have absolutely no idea what this is, this is the 2-hour session we have each week where we specifically look at what it means to minister in the URC. Now over the past couple of weeks we have been presented with some quite hard hitting statistics, which not only represented decline in our denomination but in church attendance across all denominations. Not really anything surprising in that, but the challenge came when we looked at the accompaning statistics about those who don't go to church and their view on whether they would every go to church. For me this was scary, because in 4 years time my mission is to live out! And before you say, I know I've lived there before (and I still am), but in 4 years time people are going to expect me to know the answers!!

But actually when we see statistics like this, how do we deal with them? Do we ignore them because they don't reflect what's happening in our location (yes there are churches which are growing and thriving), do we ignore them because we really don't have a clue how to tackle what they're saying so its easier just to put our heads in the sand or do we try and gets are heads round them? I don't think we can ignore them, but Rome wasn't built in a day and we're not going to solve the issue of church decline just like that. But if I learnt nothing else yesterday, there is hope and there isn't just one answer.

Oh and don't forget to pray!