Offloading burdens

Categories: spirituality

Tags: Church

Date: 24 July 2006 12:48:40

As I said yesterday, I was down south this weekend and on Sunday morning I went to my Gran's Methodist chapel. It was a family service, but I have to admit, I didn't hold great expectations for its 'family' aspect. All my life, i have attended that chapel whenever we've been visiting my Grandparents. And there have never been more than a small handful of children. If that. The congregation has always been largely made up of my Grandparents age, and there were many a service when I was the only child. (Admittedly this could have been because we were always there during the school holidays, so hence the regular children could have been away.) But yesterday, I was completely amazed. There must have been about 20 children there, and most of them had come with their parents, which lowered the average age considerably. What stunned me even more, was when my gran commented over dinner that there weren't as many children there, as they usually have! Apparently they have a new, younger minister, who has gone into the local primary school and set up a 'fish club' after school. This has proved very popular, and through it many of the children have begun to attend church.

The local preacher that took the service must have known about the vast quantity of children, because it meant the entire service was very much all age. There were numerous activities which the children took part in, and the preacher also ensured there was a clear message that would be of benefit to both adults and children. The theme was journeys and the baggage that we tend to carry around with us. She demonstrated this very nicely, by asking a couple of the children and an adult to carry a heavy bag across the front of the church. She made the point that it would be a lot easier to travel anywhere if the bag wasn't so heavy. She then opened up the bag, and took out a number of books which had been wrapped up in brightly coloured paper and had a word on the front. They each represented 'baggage' which we often carry around on our jounrey with God. Anger. Worry. Fear. Stress. She said that He will take all our baggage off our shoulders, enabling us to enjoy life and effectively do His work.

I definately found it a very useful service. It reminded me of this which Sarah wrote. Its one of those things that you know, but often you need reminding of, or presented in a different way, before you actually lay your burdens down.