I can honestly say that it has been both one of the busiest and productive periods that I can remember in my ministry. From remembering the passing of our former Queen, Elizabeth 2nd, to overseeing roof repairs at Westgate New Church (specifically the bookshop), to collating and applying for grant funding towards our hoped for lay employee, it has been pretty non-stop.
Malcolm, our Church Secretary at Whittlesey, commented to me the other day that things were going well, apart from that we seemed to be buried in paperwork! I hope he does not mind me quoting him. He is right though, in that whilst we do need planning and paperwork in the life of the church, we must never lose sight of what ‘church’ is. It is about faith, and fellowship, and finding love and fulfilment in ways that we had never anticipated.
On the other hand, I am ok with paperwork so long as it gets us somewhere. One useful phrase I have picked up over the years is, ‘Prayerful planning prevents poor performance.’ If we are to move forward as a church then we need to understand each other, engage quickly over areas where we need to make decisions, hold lightly to what is ultimately not important, and plan for the future. And for this to happen, we need paperwork. I was so grateful to know that someone in the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church had prepared paperwork and prayers/suggestions in the event of the death of our sovereign. I have also been grateful for the paperwork where the costs of our building work at Westgate New Church were agreed, and contracts signed. As we search for a solution to some of the concerns about our entrance and how it could be remodelled to provide a more welcoming accessible space, I am grateful for the paperwork that runs two and fro from our surveyor, even though we are all concerned about the costs! I am also grateful for rotas in the life of the church. Without planning and paperwork, we don’t know what we are doing. Finally, I am glad that we have the ‘paperwork’ that is the gospels and epistles; fragments of the accounts, collected together on the life, death, and resurrections of Jesus, and of the conversations that took place between churches.
So paperwork is not always a bad thing. But Malcolm is right. Amidst of all of our planning, we need to remember that we still have a church to run, and reach out to newcomers. The paperwork should inspire us, excite us, push us forward. At tomorrow’s meeting we will therefore begin by agreeing some Christmas dates and talking through how we support our children and young people, in worship, right now. We will move on to talk about the progress we have made with our hopes to employ a lay employee and improve our building – but the paperwork in this is there to serve us, to keep us informed, to add clarity – if it does this then fine. If not, well lets just say that the paperwork is best used for something else!