It's over!

As the late great Roy Orbison said it is indeed over for another six months - all the work is marked, the feedback sheets have gone back to church house and all but two of the students will be very pleased in the next couple of weeks.

I really do not like having to fail anyone as I am still near enough to to the Faith and Worship Course (having only finished in 1990) to appreciate how much hard work goes into the assignments and the study.

It seems to me both from marking and from what I read on the Facebook group for local preachers in training that the biggest difficulty for most students are the exegesis passages. On each occasion I have had to fail anyone it has been on their exegesis passage, and while I realise they are not the easiest thing to complete there is plenty of help available in the tutors handbook on the way to complete them successfully.

I suppose the really important thing is that the exegesis process is a really useful tool for preachers and some of the work I have seen in the exegesis that have been submitted would certainly form the basis of very good sermons.

I am greatly encouraged by the work that I have seen and believe it bodes well for the future of Local Preaching.

Twice in one day - this could become a habit!

I have just noticed the verse for today and was quite intrigued by the concept of becoming like wool. I am sure the writer was referring to the whiteness of wool but when I look in my wife's knitting bag I see all sorts of colours including some wool that has a number of colours in one ball and knits some very interesting patterns.
It's quite funny to me how occasionally something like this will just strike a chord and a scripture you have read many time throws up a new thought - could Isaiah have written this today given the range of different coloured wools available? Would we and do we understand what he means by this or do we get confused by our modern idea of wool?.

Normal service will be resumed shortly.

Well I hope it will! I am now nearing the end of my marking so may have a little more time to do the odd blog although of course we have the really busy time of Advent and Christmas coming up so that will no doubt take up some time.

I know I have said normal service will be resumed but I am not quite sure what that normal service is or should be - this blog seemed like a really good idea when I started it and there have been some interesting moments on here but I am wondering if it is time for a rethink and perhaps even a new direction for the blog.

I intend to give the matter some thought and while in the past I have made some cosmetic changes I just wonder if it is time to make some deeper changes.

I will share my thoughts here and hope there may be some feedback - it might be that what I am already doing here is OK and readers feed that back to me or it may be readers have some other suggestions. Whichever way I will just say watch this space!

Where have I been?

Regular visitors to this blog will have observed it has been a while since I posted again and the main reason for this is down to a lack of time - I am currently marking 17 peoples submission for section B of the Faith and Worship course as well as maintaining all the other activities I am involved in - this week is the week when I produce our bi monthly newsletter so again that is time consuming as well and of course I work full time.

I suppose a secondary reason but probably as important a reason is my disappointment with the continuing heated debate that seems to be going on across a number of blogs that I read and the tone of both the posts and comments being made.

I have always tried to recognise that other peoples views on any given topic may be different to my own and I try very hard to respect their right to hold such views. I may state my views and say that they are my views and while I respect your right to hold a different view I hope you will equally respect my right to do so.

It seems quite unfortunate to me that this is not happening within the Methodist blogosphere at the current time and having just spent some time reading posts and comments again I am very sad that the language has sunk to the type of thing I would expect to find in the playground at school and not from people I believe to be reasonably intellectual and certainly intelligent.

I have to admit that I do not feel I know enough about the situation in Israel and Palestine to comment in any depth on the issues and my reading of the blogs where these matters are being discussed has not helped me in any way to have a clearer picture.

While realising the importance of the topic being discussed I do wonder how useful it is to continue the discussion given that there seems to be little chance of an amicable resolution to the discussion where it appears that views are diametrically opposed and there seems to be no common ground where a solution may be forthcoming either in the situation in Israel or in the situation in the Methodist blogosphere.

I make no apologies for this particular post and while I realise it may attract some comment (or then again it may not) I really did think I needed to put my view on the situation and to perhaps ask for a little bit of peace and tranquility to return.

Whoops!

I think I may have put my foot in it in the closing part of my previous post and have been gently taken to task by Gerry for doing so.
I would be quite happy of course for any of my readers to pray for those people who have submitted work for marking - my comment was made to Methodists on the basis that as the folk are training to be Methodist Local Preachers it is more likely to be other Methodists who will benefit from their ministry. There was no intention to exclude other Christians and I hope all of my readers whether a member of a faith community or not will spare a thought for the folk who have submitted and will have a two month wait to receive their results.

Connexional Assessment

Well today was the day that Methodist Local Preachers in training have to submit their assignments to Church House for marking. I am expecting a parcel in the next few days with another batch of section 'B' of the Faith and Worship course.
I have been marking for a while now and always find it an interesting experience and always feel that there is a good future for the Methodist Church in respect of its preachers who are in training at the present time.
I have seen some quite excellent work and some extremely interesting services that have been prepared and used by some of the preachers. I often say I wish I had been present in the services and this is very true as there is such a breadth of material.
I would like to wish all those who have submitted every success and ask that those of my readers who are Methodists pray for the students as they wait anxiously to see how they have done.

What? No Post?

An interesting question I suppose given it has been a while since I posted anything, and I am not sure I can give a reason why other than a period blogging wise with Ezekiel in the valley of the dry bones.
There have been lots of things going on and like most of my readers the usual busyness with working full time and being active in church matters does sometimes eat into the majority of any day.
I suppose it would also be true to say there has not been anything that has really made me feel like sitting down and writing something on here - nothing that has really mad me mad or sad.
The nearest I came to putting something was about the report that came to Synod about the future of the Presidency of the Methodist Conference but having had a fairly lengthy debate at our Synod I think even that didn't excite me enough to say something.
My Methodist readers will know that next week is the date for our on trial preachers to submit their work for marking so in the next two weeks I am expecting a fairly large parcel from Church House with a number of people's work to mark.
One interesting thing on marking was we had a visiting speaker at our Synod who told us she had just become a fully accredited Local Preacher and I had marked her section B work so was quite pleased to hear she had been successful.
Thanks to David and Gerry for prompting me to post something - I will try to do better in future.