Ilkley Baptist

Our young people's discussion meeting has limped along for a while. Last time, despite careful advertising of the meeting no one came, apart from Chris, the other leader, so it's probably sensible to draw a line under it. Discussions didn't quite work. So what do we do next? We have a Sunday Club teachers' meeting this week which will try to be creative, but I thought an idea or two might emerge here.

I'm going to try to track down a copy of Mike Yaconelli's book Contemplative Youth Ministry; I've read intriguing reviews of it and I like his book Messy Spirituality which I read in Holy Week. Joining forces with another local church is another idea. What do you think? What worked for you when you were young? What do we have that is good and attractive, and how should we share it?

I pray in the church for a list of people, mainly church members, but others too, with whom I am pastorally involved. I wonder if this might become more valuable. Once a week I could invite others to join me at prayer, and others, including those who find it difficult to get out, could join in the 'tryst' praying in their own homes. We could use a common prayer in the church and at home.

Wednesday morning might be a good time - mid week, but ahead of any hoovering!

The Baptist Union Council has nominated Jonathan Edwards as the next General Secretary of the Baptist Union. Read about him here. He is currently Regional Minister and Team Leader for the South West Association.

I wonder if you can make a distinction between choices that are made according to preference, and those which are made according to conscience. A group of people having to choose between two options may have some who choose according to preference and some who choose according to conscience. Those who prefer one option might have chosen the other. Their choice is made in freedom. Those who feel it to be a matter of conscience find themselves constrained. They are not free in this matter. Their choice is given. A classic example would be the question of meat offered to idols in 1 Corinthians. Paul sees himself as having a free choice. Others are constrained by their consciences, wrongly Paul thinks, but nevertheless he uses his freedom to make a choice which will not cause difficulties for them.

I doubt if this distinction between preference and conscience will always hold. There will be examples which are somewhere in between. It may, though, be useful in some cases.

The other night I went back to my old church, Grove Lane, Cheadle Hulme, to watch a play they were putting on. It was an utterly wonderful experience.

The play was Grove Lane's contribution to an ecumenical mission, and it was specially written for them by Michael Forster, a former Baptist minister, and a friend of Grove Lane's new minister, Jo Harding. It's in nine short scenes and is called Fool's Journey.

It tells the stories of various people meeting a fool, a character dressed like a traditional jester, with a balloon on his arm. He always says the surprising thing, asks the flummoxing question, and arrives and moves on unexpectedly. It doesn't take long to realise that this friendly fool is Jesus, and around him are people we recognise from the gospel story: Mags, an ageing goodtime girl must be Mary Magdalene; Si, the over-confident loud mouth must be Simon Peter; Matt is a commodity trader raking in a margin and a half. You get the picture.

The fool's character resembles that of a psychotherapist or counsellor (which is one of the things that Michael Forster does these days) and offers the others in the play realistic understanding salted with sharp insights. Always focused on the person in front of him he shows them their choice: to carry on as they are or to become the person they were meant to be. Each time, the person rejects the fool then, when he has gone, thinks again and chooses life.

Meanwhile some sinister masked men and women, dressed in black observe it all silently. These are the 'wise ones.' Though they have their own exuberant cheerleaders, there is nothing cheery about them. They are against all change, alarmed by the fool and the things he is doing. Their special agent Nick O'Demus investigates the fool's activities, and they mean to stop it. (I couldn't help noticing that these dark characters were the church's deacons!) So tension builds towards the climax, death and resurrection. This is a Passion Play.

I don't know how to explain how good it is (I do sincerely hope that it is put on many times by many churches). It has the lot. Plenty of humour. Parts for children. Solo songs and choruses for the audience to sing. Pace and colour. The script is superb, with witty dialogue and a profound theology, expressed with audacious simplicity, and a playful relish for the power of words and story. There are so many levels of meaning that I want to get a script and read it through slowly. As the fool says, 'That's the beauty of English, it's never plain even when it sounds it.' This play is also as good an exposition as you'll find of Paul's wonderful words in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians: The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.

Best of all, though, was the sense of rightness about it all. The play has involved more than half the members of Grove Lane, in fact nearly all of those who were available and willing. They have gone to town on lighting, sound, costume and design, transforming the church into a fully functional theatre. Rehearsals have dominated diaries for two months. They have sometimes regretted the size of the task they took on. But what else should a church do than inhabit the Easter story, and embody the ministry and life of Jesus? I'm not sure I would be at all happy with a professional company putting on this play, but as an expression of living faith it works triumphantly. I was moved and exhilarated.

I think a play such as this can have a sacramental effect. It can build community and heal hurt, and be a long remembered witness to the power and hope of the story of Jesus. So hat's off to Michael Forster; in this play a lifetime's deep theology is expressed with irresistible impishness. And Grove Lane ... well done, and thank you!