Dear Friends

Quite a lot of the time, I’m a placid sort of a person until something technical which I have come to rely on breaks down, such as the car or the computer. What I don’t need at this point is an ‘expert’ who wishes to give me the fullness of their knowledge, whilst I get to feel smaller and smaller! Instead I find it more helpful if a skilled person, who appears to understand my situation, can apply their expertise to my situation and hopefully sort it out!

In the 1970s and 1980s, if a company had an internal problem it was fashionable to bring in an outside trainer or consultant to sort it out. The ‘expert’ would come in and offer their advice, which might not have been easy to apply if the workforce was resistant and the success of the outcome in the longer term might be limited.

By the time I was offering training in the church in the 1990s the approach had become much more mission-based, I am pleased to say. I would be invited into a situation maybe to act as a facilitator or a guide, to foster relationships and good practice, supporting people to work things out for themselves. It had become really important to try and empower local people to find a way forward, which they themselves could own.

Jesus never set himself up as an expert. He taught simply, often using illustrations from the world around and it seems that voluntarily crowds gathered to hear what he had to say. I imagine him to be quite a powerful and compelling speaker, someone with a natural authority. Many times he would leave people with open-ended questions to get people thinking.

We live in a time in which we are encouraged to go on thinking and learning throughout the whole of our lives. We are each encouraged to look at our own development and to take responsibility for ourselves not in a selfish way, but in a way which encourages us to seek one another’s good. For each of us to grow our skills instead of holding back and then to find the courage, if we need it, and a good way to use them. Today none of us can supply all that we each need ourselves, instead it is important to work in partnership with others especially in solving problems or bringing about change.

So often the really stimulating and challenging question can get us onto the right lines and is far more important than coming up with an answer. I wonder what questions we will reflect on this Lent?

Yours in Christ,

Ruth