What will they say? Will they eat me alive? Will they throw stones at me and denounce me from pulpits?
It is quite scary, standing up and saying what you think. So much easier to just nod at whatever others say – to blend in with the crowd.
Still, I’m going to do this.
I’m not going to ask you all to be nice to me – I can’t promise I’ll always be nice myself. Sometimes we have to say stuff to one another that is not nice – sometimes we have to prod people, stick an elbow gently in their ribs and say: no, don’t go that way, there are thorns there. But we need to do it gently and lovingly – not relishing the task, not taking pleasure in it. We also need the wisdom to know when to back off, when someone is just not up to hearing us at that moment. And we need God to give us the grace to say sorry when we’ve hurt someone, and to accept each other’s apologies and forgive and move on.
Nobody said it was going to be easy, right?… well, actually I think there are some people who have that approach to evangelism, presenting the Christian life as though it was one lovely walk in a beautiful sunny park… maybe I’ll blog about that sometime.
Okay, everyone, fasten your seatbelts… (well, when I say everyone I mean me. I’ve had this site set to private whilst setting it up. Now it’s time to go change that setting and see what the ride is going to be like.)
sorting through the family laundry 
How does it start? Where is it, please?
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Bless you, Robert, it starts right here:) This is my first Church Laundry post. And now you’ve subscribed, you’ll get email notifications of future posts here. I hope you won’t be shocked too much by anything I write here – the scariest thing is not that strangers will read my blog but that people who know me may read it and think badly of me.
Because it’s so scary, I seriously considered keeping total anonymity – but decided against it in the end.
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