I wonder if, like me, you grew up enjoying family holidays in the country, messing about in rivers, paddling in streams, climbing up waterfalls. I don’t think my parents have ever quite recovered from their experience of one family holiday in Snowdonia, when my sister and I went off up a river bank, saying we were going exploring, and then some while later, seeing my sister’s flip flop floating past the river bank on which they were sitting…. We did turn up a lot later, and reassured them we were fine. What they did not know (which can’t hurt them) is that she lost her flip flop whilst we were climbing up a waterfall…. Ah, the recklessness of youth (I was 15, she was 13!!).
I don’t know if anyone recognises the scene below. They are the Stepping Stones at Dovedale, in the Peak district of Derbyshire. I remember visiting them when I was about 16. Several years ago, a group of us went up to the Peak District for a weekend in March, as we were attending a friend’s wedding in Manchester on the Saturday, and fancied somewhere picturesque to stay. Well, we booked a cottage for about 14, and set off on our journey in the late afternoon sun, and eventually arrived, in dribs and drabs, fairly late in the evening, having driven across the peaks in quite thick snow. We had no idea how picturesque our location was, having arrived in the dark; we were just glad to arrive safely. On the Saturday morning, we woke to the most glorious scene of snow on the hill slopes below us. That’s by the by. A good weekend was had by all, including the wedding. And on the Monday, we travelled down to Dovedale, as it was on our way home to Essex. Several of us knew the place, and thought it would be fun amongst other things to cross the river via the stepping stones.
NB The picture above was taken in summer. It would not matter if you waded across via the water in summer, rather than stick to the stones, as the water is not icy cold. But the scene that greeted us was of a river in far fuller force, with the water lapping the top of the stones. Some of them were under water, in fact. Not even the most adventurous of us dared an icy soaking, especially as we were travelling straight on from there back home. The stepping stones were not a practical way of getting to the other side….
We have been looking in our house group at church at a book called “Beyond the Good Samaritan” by Ann Morisy over the last few weeks. A friend gave me the book, years ago, probably just after it came out in 1997, advising that it was my type of book. To my shame, I don’t think I got past the first chapter at the time. I was too comfortable in my “zone”. Maybe it is more timely for me to read now. I can't understand why it did not really grab me, back then, as it certainly is resonating with me far more now. The book explains how community ministry unites practical social responsibility and active Christian mission across all denominations, to serve the basic needs of those around us.
In the chapter we looked at last night, the author talked about creating stepping stones for those we are aiming to reach to use to come to faith, to come to Christ. And we had a very practical discussion of the activities we arrange, the issues in which we get involved, and the ways we seek to connect with our community.
At the end of the evening, we turned to prayer. And I found myself grappling with one of those "bubble up" prayers, that you just know you can’t keep down. The trouble with those I find sometimes is that I know what the first few words are but I haven’t a clue what comes next. And so it was last night. And I found myself, in prayer, reminiscing about family holidays, and paddling in rivers, etc, as described above. And I actually said out loud that I did not have a clue why I was praying this. And then, the prayer unfolded (which is better than unravelled!!). I recalled the experience of stepping onto a stone that is not firmly embedded in the water, and finding that it wobbled, which was a bit scary, or even rolled completely, which usually resulted in us getting wetter than we had bargained for. And also the recklessness of over-reaching for the stepping stone that is just too far away, and again, ending up in the water.
And I found myself praying that God would help us to put stepping stones in place which were firmly embedded in God, that would not wobble when people stepped on them, that as they explored being with Christians, as they investigated faith, that their trust and openness would not be damaged by un-thought through plans or misguided intentions.
And also, that we would put things in place that do not require people to over-reach themselves. For example, we see a lot of kids and young people come to the young people’s activities, we begin to build relationships with mums and dads as they drop off and pick up their children, we invite them to the odd social event, and then what next… invite them in to church? Well, it might work with some, but it may be a stepping stone or two too far for so many others, and we need to think about what we can put in place that is manageable for people. I even remember that as a kid, if we were trying to cross a river, and there was a large gap between stones, we might even pick up a largish rock and place it somewhere in the water, to make it less necessary to leap prodigiously across a gap. And so with people we meet in our communities. Maybe we need to pick up a few stones too. By going out into our communities more and sitting where people sit, doing and being church where they are, not expecting them to come to us.
