Swings and roundabouts

1st July 2013

One of the biggest differences (so far) between being at Fairview and being back in Swindon is the way of working. Here my study is very much an office and is at the church. In fact it is pretty much just inside the front door of the complex or at least the part of the church complex where the offices and meeting rooms are.

It takes a bit of getting used to as people are in and out all day. But it is good as I am getting to meet people all the time and getting to know people I’ve already met better. For example today one man stuck his head round the door to say hello and we ended up having an interesting conversation about being green. (His son spent some time at university in Sweden and came back to the USA very environmentally aware.)

And today people were still buzzing after the service yesterday. It was the topic of conversation on many people’s lips. And several said to me “You did a great a job David” or “You preached a good message.” And it seems as if it is not just me and the people of Fairview who were blown away by the service. The choir were too. I was copied in to an email from the choir director which includes these humbling words:

“The words to the famous hymn, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” are perfect to describe our visit to your church on yesterday. “What a fellowship, and what a joy divine”, are expressions of how we felt after worshipping with your congregation. From the eloquent and moving words delivered by Rev. David Gray, to the great Children’s moment, the service was a great time for all. The hospitality and love shown to the Men’s Choir of the St. Paul Baptist Church and its disciples will forever be cherished. We hope that our coming together will lead to a continued relationship between our churches.”

I hope Fairview keep in touch with St Pauls. There is chemistry between the two churches I feel.

Amongst the people dropping in I had a couple of meetings booked with people from the church. And these were informative. From the one meeting I got a feel for the finance and vision of the church. From the next meeting I was able to provide a wish list of people I’d like to meet e.g. the local police chief and also people it would be useful for me to meet.

I can’t share the vision here. But it is exciting and I can see that it could really work.

One thing I twigged this morning was the size of the site the church sits in. But I also realised that the significance of some of the things on site. For example, on site is well kitted out children’s play area. This is near a tree covered area which has picnic tables.

It turns out that the church purposely provided this so that it would be a resource for the children of the area. Families regularly come and use it – free of charge – for birthday parties. And apparently it is not uncommon for school buses taking children on a field trip to stop at the playground to allow children to have lunch and stretch their legs before they carry on their journey.

The play area has never been vandalised and people always take their rubbish home. The lady telling me all about this was convinced this was because people respect the area as it is owned and maintained by the church and respect the idea that the church has provided for the community to use.

The lady telling me said that she knew of some families who had started to come to church off the back of using the play area – though that had not been the purpose of setting it up.

The church budgets for the upkeep of the playground and carries out regular checks to make sure the playground is safe and clean.

What wonderful idea. Of course I couldn’t help but think that back in the UK the idea would never get off the ground (even if a church wanted to do so) as Health & Safety and Insurance considerations would be too difficult an obstacle to overcome. But straight away I can think of at least two churches in Swindon which have the grounds to do this if the vision was there.

By the way. Talking of roundabouts, there is one in Mooresville about a mile from the parsonage. The magic roundabout it isn’t.