42

Habits not resolutions

After proving to be a complete failure when it comes to New Year resolutions I have decided to follow what seems to work better for me.

I have been using HabitForge since August 2010 and it has been hugely helpful in getting me riding bikes more regularly (I have now ridden a bike 428 days in a row).

So I have created two new habits on  HabitForge. One is a negative and one a positive and they are both aimed at my general health/wellbeing.

The negative one is to have no late night snacks. I am appalling for scoffing lots and lots of unhealthy stuff late at night. I know I feel better when I don't (and not doing this makes the biggest single difference to my overall weight) but I still do it. This bad habit sets me up for a number of others (such as very late nights), however, simpoly knowing how bad it is doesn't help me kick it. I find New Year resolutions don't work for this type of behaviour as it only takes one miss early on and the New Year resolution is broken and loses all it's impact. The daily habit instead helps me focus on achieving long runs of days and allows me to restart immediately after any failures. Anyway to allow myself a tick in the habit achieved box it will mean nothing but water or herbal tea after we finish our evening meal.

The positive one is something that I know I should do and do manage occasionally but not with much regularity is stretching. I don't mean a simple stretch while lying in bed but a set of stretches to improve my overall mobility and flexibility (both of which are pretty poor). Again it is strange to me why I find it so difficult to do regularly something that makes such a big difference (far less back pain and so many things are just easier to do when you can bend more easily). So again I am going to try the daily habit on this. To tick the box I need to do several minutes of careful stretching (I think just after my morning shower is the best time for me).

The first target for both these habits is 21 days in a row, at this point it is claimed your body/mind adjusts and you have got them ingrained. For me to be sure it takes a lot longer than that which is why I still monitor the daily cycling habit after well over 400 days in a row.

Ordinary life,mutual submission & decisions

 

In 42: Decision making, mutual submission and God's call I responded to a question that came in a comment on my post "How to do theology?" where "Priest" wrote:

 

I'm keen to know how you work 'mutual submission' out.

The particular challenge related to decision making in response to God's call.

I am concerned though that it might be seen as a cop out situation. After all major life decisions about responding to God's call don't tend to come around everyday.

So this post is more about how we work out decisions in ordinary life.

Again the same ground rules apply.

First, the framing of the question is important, so something like:

How does decision making work in general life for a married couple who see each other as equals without fixed roles defined by gender.

Second, I am certain that every couple will have their own way of doing this. The way that Jane and I do things won't be right for everyone, what works for us comes from our personalities, particular gifts & experiences, our family backgrounds, culture etc. So this is not a set of instructions for how others should make their decisions but instead reflections on what works for us.

Third, this is inevitably neither complete nor accurate. We don't have a fixed decision making process, things have evolved over time and circumstances vary. One of the beauties for us is the flexibility that equality gives - decisions don't have to wait for the "right" person, the one with authority.

Anyway given all the caveats, how do we make decisions?

Now we get to the hard part. I have spent a good part of the evening thinking about that and in one sense I am a bit stumped.

How we approach things is generally straightforward, we talk about them and we plan them. We involve our sons in many decisions (like obvious ones such as where we go on holiday, which appointments for ministers go on the short list, choosing a car).

But when it comes to the actual decision it just isn't very clear. I think that we just reach a point where one says to the other "Ok shall we decide to do X" and the other says "ok". It is definitely not always the same person and sometimes if things are tight for time or one of us is eager we just go ahead and decide for us both (again I can think of many examples when each of us has done this). We don't really have many areas where one of us always makes the decision. Certainly we always share decisions in major areas like finance, home, education, holidays etc.

I guess when it comes down to it the whole thing hinges on the related issues of mutual submission & mutual trust. I know that both Jane and I are comfortable with the other making decisions, I know that we both trust the other completely in both making decisions but also in discussing with us. We know that the other is always looking out for us so we don't need to worry about whether we have been "consulted" or not. Does that mean the other would always make the same decision as we would - of course not, but that just isn't important to us.

I look back over 23 years of marriage and I can't think of decisions that Jane has made that I am unhappy with, I can't think of things that I wished I had been consulted on. Maybe we discuss more things than I am always interested in (I would be quite happy to abdicate from all decisions about gardening for example) but on the other hand the bonus is that I enjoy Jane's company and enjoy talking with her.

When things have gone wrong (and of course they have) there has not once been a situation where one of us has blamed the other for a decision.

We had a major financial crisis after we had been married a few years that was caused by a combination of falling house prices leaving us with lots of negative equity (our flat with a 95% mortgage nearly halved in value), at the same time Jane was made redundant and the freeholder of the block of flats invented legal costs that gave us a bill of 10's of thousands of pounds. We had lots of sleepless nights and it took us over 10 years to get things sorted out (with several job changes each on the way to achieve that), yet at no time did we have a problem with how decisions had been made or what decisions needed to be made.

Another critical factor for us is the way that one of us can step in and help the other out when their decision making is impaired. That can happen in lots of ways from simple tiredness (with Jane a morning lark and me a night owl there are plenty of times when one of us is not very awake and it is better for the other to make decisions that might affect our safety such as when driving).

However, it also works in more significant ways. When my Mum had just died and Dad was terminally ill with cancer I was suffering from depression and so Jane took over all the things I could not cope with (basically anything that involved making a decision). That meant stepping in as Managing Director of our business, it meant running the family, our finances and home while I moved in with Dad to care for him. I never had any fear that she was taking over or anything like that, she acted as a kind of safety buffer for me and did it so well that many of the people around us never even knew that I had been unable to cope and had run away from everything.

I have read many claims of the need for a final decision maker from those who believe in Male Headship, but I just don't get it. I look back on our marriage (and also my parents) and I cannot see a single instance where Male Headship would have been a better way to make decisions. However, I can see countless occasions when Male Headship would have resulted in worse decisions.

Why would I choose to have a system that would reduce the ability of my best friend, my partner and the person I love above all others to contribute all her gifts, skills and commitment to our lives?

Even more to the point why would the God who loves me so much want me to do that?

Decision making, mutual submission and God's call

In a comment on my post "How to do theology?" "Priest" wrote:

I'm keen to know how you work 'mutual submission' out.

This is a common question for people who only have experience of Male Headship (commonly marketed at Complementarianism). 

For those of us who have grown up in "egalitarian" homes and/or whose relationships are not based on hierarcrhy or headship the question can easily apppear odd. We can struggle to understand why this would be considered a problem. Our confusion is often increased by the scenarios that are suggested as examples of situations where equality and mutual submission won't work.

One of the common challenges I have heard is without a single person to make decisions how do you quickly decide how to tackle an armed burgular who had broken into your home? One of the key problems with the scenario being the assumption that tackling an armed burgular is the best option whereas getting the family out of the house (something that can be done better by two of you working together) and calling the police is likely to be a much better option.

"Priest" asked a different question and one that is more interesting:

When I got married, my wife felt God had given her a desire to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, more specifically to unreached people groups. I, on the other hand, felt God had placed the local church we were part of, on my heart. What would you advise me to do in such a way that my wife feels honoured and respected?

I think this is worth answering in some detail in the hope that others will find it useful.

First, the language of the actual question is based in a view of Male Headship that does not match my understanding of the goals of a Christian egalitarian marriage. So instead of:

What would you advise me to do in such a way that my wife feels honoured and respected?

I feel it would be better to word this differently such as:

How might we decide what God is calling us to as a married couple so that together we casn respond to God's call and grow in our faith, discipleship and relationship.

In other words I am not following a path of mutual submission so that my wife "feels honoured and respected" but we both do this so that God may be honoured and our relationship strengthened as part of our journey into life in all it's fullness.

Next, I am certain that every couple will have their own way of doing this. The way that Jane and I do things won't be right for everyone, what works for us comes from our personalities, particular gifts & experiences, our family backgrounds, culture etc.

So how do we work out what God is calling you to do? Especially when you have different understandings or are "hearing" different things?

One factor in the equation is that compared to most Complementarians we are rather more Postmodern in our understanding. That means we are less likely to frame choices as discrete, mututally exclusive options. We are also less likely to see any revelation/understanding of calling as being complete and crystall clear.

This means that we are open to taking a while to making a decsion. If you like Myers Briggs then this emphasises P rather than J on the Judging element of personality (but don't worry if you think Myres Brggs is a load of rubbish that is not a core belief or a requirement). Not all decisions can be made slowly, but where a decision affects the whole of life it seems sensible to us to take as much time as is available to make as good a decision as possible.

So with the difference in understanding of God's call that "Priest" gives we would be considering together and with family, Church & friends lots of things. For example are these callings really incompatible? Might we be called to support/challenge our local church in world mission? Might we be called to support a local church in a place where there are many unreached people? Might the unreached people actually be in our wider community? Might the timing be sequential for example to work within the local Church while undergoing missiological training before going elsewhere? Might we be called to stay in this country and Church while funding ourselves for extended mission trips each year? Who else might God be calling us to work with (Churches already doing mission around the world, other churches where we live, parachurch organisations).

We would be praying and looking for doors opening/closing. We would be talking & praying together about the possibilities, about our developing understanding of God's calling for us both. We would be doing all this in the knowledge that both of us are willing to put aside our own preferences for the growth, happiness and discipleship of the other.

We would be doing all this in the belief that when we are seeking God's will and being willing to submit to the Holy Spirit then God will take our choices and work for good in them. We will recognise that we might get things wrong and miss some of what God asks but through that God will still work for good and will honour our intentions while forgiving our mistakes.

In otherwords we understand that the decision making process is almost as important as the decision. If we model love for God and love for our neighbours in the process then the decision will allow us to love God and our neighbours. If we honour the Holy Spirit in the process then the Holy Spirit will bless the outcome.

We also operate under assumptions that God is not going to call us to break up our marriage or hurt each other. That all of us are equally loved and called by God

All of this is called Christian Discernment. Decision making about God's call on our lives is a big big issue. It is not to be taken lightly or without using all the resources that God gives. You might find it helpful to think of these in terms of the Wesleyan Quadritaleral (Scripture, Tradition, Reason & Experience) being worked out in Christian Community (at the levels of marriage, family, local Church Community & wider Church).

For us the decision about whether I was being called to leave IT and our own business to become an itinerant Methodist Minister had the biggest potential for radical change for us and in many ways was the biggest decision of our marriage. Previous decisions about job changes while difficult were easy by comparison:

• In the first few years of our marriage Jane changed jobs a couple of times for better prospects, related to training as a Civil Engineer.
• I left the United Bible Societies to work in the City of London because the work was changing, because the amount of travel I did was upsettling our children and because we were struggling with negative equity.
• We started our own business because we were approached with a wonderful opportunity of a two year contract to get us started with some security and because we wanted to work together & have more time as a family. It provided a way for Jane to return to work in a way that worked with a young family.

Training for and then becoming a Methodist Minister was much bigger with lots of questions:

• had we understood God's call correctly?
• what about all the employees in our company (over 15 at this point)? What did it mean for their futures?
• what about our children? It would mean part-time studying for 6 years for me which would take a lot of time away from the family. It would mean moving around to places we didn't choose with potential disruption to their education.
• what about my parents who were moving into retirement and had handed over their business to us? What did it mean for their dreams and relationships with people who had worked in the business for many years?
• what about Jane's parents, particularly as her Dad was being treated for cancer? What would it mean for our support for them?
• what about money? It would mean a huge pay cut (for us both) and we had a large mortgage on our home. Jane would have to start a whole new career as well.
• what would it mean personally? Jane had chosen to marry a computer programmer not a minister. I liked working with technology more than people.

In the end it meant that it took 10 years from my first call to ministry to being stationed for the first time (admittedly for the first few years we thought the call was a joke and didn't take it seriously). When we started to take it seriously (due to a sleepless week for each of us as God repeated the call time and time again) we put lots of effort in to testing it and exploring it together and with others. For us it was also important that this call was not just about us but that the Church also tested it and so the recognition of the wider Church was important not just because the call was to be a minister but because we felt that the Church needed to be part of the decision.

For me this fits with Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 7 especially verse 8. When it comes to responding to the radical calls that God makes on our lives things are different when you are married. When it comes to God's call for people who are married then the call has to be discerned in the light that you have become "one flesh" committed to each other for the rest of your lives. Fortunately, God honours our marriages and so respects the process by which we discern and respond to the call.

Our process may seem long and complicated compared to the view proposed by male headship supporters (God called me and I made the decision for our family because God appointed me as the head of the family) there is one other critical factor.

When we respond to God's call things will not always be easy. We will be attacked for the decision and we will struggle at times. However, when things are difficult the process by which you came to the decision makes a huge difference. If this is a decision you have made together as equals then our experience is that you will be far more able to support and encourage each other at these difficult than if one of you made the decision on behalf of all. Inevitably the level of commitment you each have to the decision is greater when you have been fully involved in that decision.

Simplistically, I know that the decisions that we make together are better decisions than I would make alone. Of course that is not a surprise given that I married someone far more intelligent than me :-)

Simple community event

This evening Syston Methodist Church hosted a second Wii Bowling evening. This time it was as part of Syston Churches Together and was raising money for a local project that brings kids from Chernobyl over for a holiday.

If you have not tried one of these then I recommend them as a very simple way to build community.

We ran this time with 4 Wii's (3 for Wii Sports, mainly bowling and 1 for Guitar Hero - all setup using data projectors). We also had an xbox 360 with Kinetic sports (on a good sized LCD TV).

Plus a cafe serving burgers, hot dogs, nachos & cake + tea, coffee & cold drinks.

We run the Wii Sports with 1 controller and up to 4 players at a time. We typically had around 12 people playing games at a time (3 on Guitar hero - the microphone for singing is not that popular), a max of 4 on each of 3 other Wii's and a couple playing Xbox sports.

We charge a flat rate of £1 per person per game (although we didn't tend to charge properly for Guitar hero or the xbox as goes are less well defined and they provide plenty of entertainment for everyone else). With the food as well we made £140 for the Chernobyl Kids from the games and food (after paying the costs).

We find this is popular from about age 4 upwards (everytime we have had at least one 90 year old). Quite a few just come and have some food, chat and enjoy watching the games. Unike many other social events people can pop-in just for a while rather than feeling they need to stay all evening.

The atmosphere is great, from outside it sounds like a real bowling ally (it is nothing like as good if you don't have sound on the Wii's). People mix, chat and enjoy themselves - as a Churches Together event it was good fun and people enjoyed getting to know each other better. We also find that we get at least 1/3 of people coming from the very outmost fringes of the Church communities - more than we manage for almost any other event.

As events go this is a really easy one to arrange. The only bits that take much work are

• finding enough data projectors (a badminton court sized hall is large enough for about 6, this time we only managed 4 plus a big TV).
• sorting out cable connections to get sound for the Wii's that use data projectors. The easiest is to use an iPod doc with aux input. All you need then is adaptors to convert the red and white male phono plugs from the Wii cable to a 3.5mm jack. Maplin have a variety of options.
• finding enough projector screens (our hall walls are not white which means they are not ideal without a screen).
• If like us you don't have many power sockets you are going to need plenty of power extension cables

It is much easier to configure and manage if you only use one controller for each Wii Sports (you will need at least 3 controllers for Guitar Hero). A guitar amp with a "clean" setting works really well for Guitar hero, easily filling a large hall.

Dance and racing games are also really popular (given these are family events and part of the Church I avoid all shoot'em up games).

We simply setup one half of the room as the cafe and the other with the bowling lanes. One small table for each projector, wii and speaker. Then use chairs to mark out all the bowling areas.

We generally offer prizes (chocolates) for the best scores (2 or 3 age groups) plus a better prize for the lowest score.

This is the 3rd time I have been part of one of these and they have all worked well.

A year on from Reflections on the Methodist People

A year ago we had just moved to Syston and the Leicester North Methodist Circuit. As we were getting ready to move I wrote 42: Reflections on the Methodist People.

This year in Syston has gone really quickly. We are so fortunate to be here in a fantastic Methodist Circuit with 3 Churches full of lovely people and in a great town to live in.

 

My sincere thanks to all those who have been so welcoming, loving and caring over the last year.

 

Now I am off to a special Holiday Club service at Syston Methodist Church which nicely illustrates the commitment and gifts of this Church. It was an excellent holiday club with lots of adults helping and great kids - and it all happened without the Minister even being there or doing any of the planning (and far better as a result).

 

Engendering our response to climate change: Will it ever happen?

This Engendering our response to climate change: Will it ever happen? « Tearfund's Policy Blog is an excellent post, very worth reading and reflecting on.

U.S. says bin Laden unarmed when killed

As more details emerge of the killing of Osama bin Laden things look worse and worse in terms of the morals and behaviour of the US.

U.S. says bin Laden unarmed when killed | Reuters.

So he was unarmed and they knew that but still chose to kill him after wounding a woman trying to protect him.

How does shooting an unarmed man in the head serve justice?

It seems the US had known where OBL was for months, so how come they are presenting some things as of they had no time to plan? No time to plan a live capture. No time to plan what to do with the body so they just had to drop it from the helicopter when they "discovered" they could not take him to Saudi Arabia.

It is wrong for governments to ignore the rule of law when hunting terrorists. We cannot pick and choose who obeys the law. If we want to chase terrorists as criminals then we cannot behave as criminals ourselves.

Three posts on Osama Bin Laden

I have read three well written and helpful posts on the death of Osama Bin Laden that I want to share with you:

Tim Chesterton: Which Saviour? | Faith, Folk and Charity.

Angie Shier-Jones: The Kneeler: The execution of justice. (sadly some of the comments are rather hateful)

Maggi Dawn: Love Monday

A beautiful day as a reminder

Days like this are a great reminder of why I love being a Methodist Minister so much.

It started with the last lent group of the year. We have had a men only group for the first time in Syston and it has worked really well. We have enjoyed the time together and not just because of the excellent Bacon or Sausage Cobs :-) It is something we will do again as the group definitely had a different way of working through the material and also it doubled the number of men doing the lent course this year.

After that I nipped next door into the Syston Methodist Church Spring Fayre (the date was changed because we were not consulted about the date of a certain Royal Wedding). I resisted the temptation to have another bacon roll but had some cake instead :-) Good way to meet people from the extended Church family as well as keep up-to-date with who can't be there. Always an interesting mix of very surface, social chat interspersed with much deeper conversations (for example about membership, how the lent course had changed someone & forgiveness). 

This afternoon was gorgeous weather so it made it a lovely ride into Leicester to visit someone in the Royal Infirmary. So often these visits are better for me than for the person in hospital and today was a good example :-) 

My bike took me home via Starbucks in the city centre which I thought was very kind of it. A bit sad to see a number of bikes in the racks with no wheels. Wish people would either use the Bike Park or a lock that is reasonable secure and actually lock the wheels on. Again a really lovely gentle ride home through Watermead Park.

Tonight we are watching the latest Harry Potter film which we just got on DVD and then I get to finish preparing worship for tomorrow evening and maybe make some progress on EasterLive

Days just don't get a lot better than this.

Good news, safe to invite friends :-)

I am pleased to announce that it is now much safer to invite your friends to Syston Methodist Church. While the Church has a reputation of being friendly to visitors we have rather let the welcome down with the quality of our coffee (summed up as yucky).

Well help is on hand. I have just had three big boxes delivered containing a fantastic professional filter machine and all the bits. We are going to have lovely Fairtrade filter coffee in a choice of both caffeinated and decaffeinated. To ensure top quality coffee along with flexibility and safety our coffee is made straight into big vacuum flasks with pumps for serving.

First airing in the Ally Cafe on Saturday 26th February between 7pm and 10pm for our Wii Bowling evening - all welcome (I couldn't wait til Sunday morning as I'll be in Birstall where sadly their coffee quality is lagging behind). Still last Sunday evening I was at Claremont Street which boasts the best biscuits in the Circuit :-)