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Dear Friends
One of the essential tools -for my work is my computer! I use it for my preparation and planning. Every so often I buy myself a computer magazine to help me find out what is going on in the world of computing! Quite often these magazines come with an offer of free computer programmes. Many of these programmes are of no use to me, but just occasionally l find one that l think might be worth installing. This week, I found such a one - It promised to help my computer run faster and more efficiently, so I thought it was definitely worth a try! Last week l followed the instructions and set the programme to work. As far as I can tell, it is working well!
However, one of the things that l found fascinating with this particular programme is that once it is installed on my computer, I can forget about it. It starts working every time I switch on, and it keeps working in the background whatever else I am doing. I don't need to worry about it, or take too much time to make sure it is working OK. It just gets on with the job of keeping my computer working efficiently - and I can focus on other things, Like writing this letter and preparing my sermon for tomorrow! Important work goes on in the background while l focus my attention on other matters.
I believe it is very important for us at this stage in our life as a congregation, to allow important work to go on in the background, while we focus our attention on other matters. It was on Sunday 3rd February that we elected the Nominating Committee to take on the task of looking for a new minister to work with us. I am aware of a potential danger when that process begins. It is possible that 'filling the vacancy' becomes the major focus of our attention to such an extent that other matters are pushed to the side; that we lose energy and enthusiasm for other things; because we are waiting for a new minister.
Finding a new minister is a very important task, but we have appointed 13 people between the two congregations to take that on for us. I want to suggest that we allow the Nominating Committee to get on with it's work - in the background - and that we do not lose sight of other critically important matters in the life of our congregation. It is very important, for example, that our COSY groups continue to explore the way ahead and to suggest ways in which we can develop our work of Caring, Outreach, Support and our work with children, young people and families. It is very important that we look for ways of building on our partnership with our sister congregation in Holytown - as the title of our Parish Profile suggests we are "Two Churches, One Vision" - and we need to keep working on that vision for the future. It is very important that all the ongoing life and work, witness and worship, learning and serving of our congregation continues - there is no reason whatsoever why the search for a new minister should take anything away from that at all. In fact, this is likely a time when we need to pull out all the stops to make sure that we do not flag, or that our enthusiasm and energy does not wane. After all, although we talk about 'filling a vacancy' we are talking only about one person in the life of the congregation - there is a huge team of other people in our congregation to keep the church focused and working and thriving and growing. And of course, every one of you reading this letter is a member of that team! Our church depends on EACH ONE OF US!
The Nominating Committee has a hugely important task - and our thoughts and our prayers must be constantly with them that they will find the right person, and that the right person will find us. However, that important work goes on in the background, while we focus our attention on the ongoing life and work of the church.
Every blessing
Iain
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