GOD'S CREATIVE SPIRIT

							                                      Rev’d Martin Turner
                       Superintendent, Methodist Central Hall, Westminster

                                           Keynote Address
                  at the Association for Church Editors’ Awards Ceremony 2009

Welcome to the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster.
All manner of groups hold all manner of events here, and we are pleased that you too have now chosen to
visit us.

I have been minister of a number of Churches and each of those Churches has had their magazine,
some were excellent,
others less so,
but all were the end result of a great deal of hard work and commitment.

Churning out a magazine once a month or once a quarter can be very exciting,
but it can also be very hard work,
I know that because for two years I edited a magazine myself,
not a Church magazine but the magazine of the Teacher Training College I
attended,
it came out once a term so in all I edited six editions.

The problem was that the college was a day college,
most of the students were rushing home to their families each evening,
and the interest in the magazine was almost nil.
I remember one edition where I wrote the editorial,
one article under my name,
two articles under pseudonyms,
one article disagreeing with an article in the previous magazine – which in
fact I had also written,
one anonymous poem and two letters again under pseudonyms
all I can say about it is that my mother thought it was great!
However on the briefing notes I was asked to stress integrity,
my only defence is that I was just 19 at the time!

However it seems to me,
my first point,
that at the root of a good Church magazine is creativity,
in fact that is the same in any area of life,
sport,
music,
painting,
literature,
whatever it is,
the creative person is the person who thrills and the person who excels.
Now of course you and I are made in the image of God,
the God we worship is a creative God,
and because we are made in His image we human beings reflect that
creativity.

Many of you will have access to good soft-ware and design programmes which will both make your work
easier and make your magazines more lively and interesting,
but how you use these tools will still depend to a very large extent upon you
creativity,
and also, crucially, upon you offering that creativity to the living God.
Your magazine is in fact a tool of God and a tool of the gospel,
make sure that your service for God is your number one priority,
otherwise the magazine will be serving your needs rather God's,
your need for approval,
your need to get a particular viewpoint across,
or your need to fulfil your inner drive for perfection.

I think that is what the Old Testament story in Genesis chapter 11
the story of the Tower of Babel which was told to make sense to the Israelites
of all the different languages spoken across the world.
There in verse 4,
which seems to me to be the key verse,
we read,
 let us make a name for ourselves,
and in their desperate desire to make a name for themselves the Tower
grew and grew
for they wanted it to touch the heavens in order to be like God,
in other words they abused their creativity,
just as we still do today.
Writing and editing is such a joy and pleasure,
but words can also be the tool of the dictator,
and in vicious pamphlets, books and letters philosophies of oppression are set
out.

In the Arts, in painting and in film,
there can be such beauty, eroticism and work provoking thoughtful response,
but there can also be shown in these various forms such violence, cruelty,
pornography and pervasion.
Architecture creates good solid homes,
but architecture has also created those estates and high rise blocks which
cause such misery to those living on them.
Science opens up a world of wonder,
but also a world of biotechnological and nuclear horror,
the wonders of x ray and radiotherapy set alongside the still struggling
people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

You see the tremendous privileges which God has given to us as co-creators with him are so often torn and
twisted and abused and demeaned and spoilt by our broken humanity,
this world is not as God meant it to be,
for so often we human beings seek to act as God rather than to simply live
under him,
as the story of the Tower of Babel shows us we have a tremendous talent
for creativity,
but we must beware that we do not mis-use that talent for creativity for
our own ends rather than for God and for good.

Yet the liturgy of the Church year will soon carry us to Pentecost,
linked to Babel because at Pentecost those tumbled and garbled languages
become one,
a symbol at the birth of the Church that we are to be one in Christ.

On that first Pentecost there were symbols of fire to purify the Church,
of wind to rattle the shutters of religion and blow in the new way of faith,
here we see the creative power of God at work,
here we see God shaking out the cobwebs in order to usher in the new age
of love,
of peace,
of freedom from Law as grace comes flooding in,
in the coming of the creative Holy Spirit all things were indeed made new.

So we move from my first point,
that we are called to echo our God of creativity,
to my second point,
that we are called to echo our God who makes all things new.

Our problem is of course that we prefer the old,
it's familiar,
it fits us like a comfortable pair of old slippers,
so when the new comes we are wary,
when the new comes we feel uneasy,
when the new comes we too often step backwards rather than forwards.

I wonder of you heard the story of the new vicar who was full of enthusiasm,
and as a result when it came to his first Church Council meeting he was
armed with a huge number of new ideas,
every one was passed until it came to the last item,
that there should be a new chandelier in the body of the Church.
The Secretary of the meeting spoke passionately against having one and the
meeting followed him and voted against it.
After the meeting the Vicar asked the Secretary why he had been so against
the idea,
“Vicar", he said, "I've got three reasons,
 first I'm the secretary and I can't spell it,
 second who would play it?
 and third if we are going to spend money in this Church what we really
 need is some good lighting”.

Sometimes we are suspicious of new things,
we almost fear them,
but when we talk about the Holy Spirit working in our lives and in our
Churches we have no need for suspicion and fear at all.
He, or if we are true to the Greek She, is the creative one of the Trinity,
still at work in lives and situations,
the Spirit of love who longs to bring that love to bear,
the one who wants the very best for us,
so perhaps as the people who produce the Church magazine,
the broadsheet of the Church,
the avenue of news,
the window space for new vision and initiative,
you should follow the wind of the Spirit and embrace the new.

One of the world's most famous historical artefacts is the Bayeax tapestry,
there are many different little stories shown in this tapestry and the closer you
look the more you see,
but one part of the picture shows King Harold sticking a spear into the back
of a soldier and forcing him to go out into battle,
underneath is written,
"King Harold comforteth his soldiers".

As people who produce Church Magazines you don't need me to tell you of the importance of words,
but words change their meanings don't they
we think of comfort now as being a softer thing,
but I can assure you that the Spirit will prod you along to meet new
challenges,
for he never leaves us where we are,
he always leads us on towards new things.

Think of Philip,
we read of him in the Acts of the Apostles as being the admin man,
the organiser of the distribution of the food and money for the early Church,
then suddenly,
we read it in Acts,
he is told to go to the desert,
and there he sees the Ethiopian Eunuch in his chariot and the first African
is won for Christ.

Think of Paul,
he had his missionary journey all worked out,
all the tickets sorted for the boats no doubt,
but then in a dream he hears a man from Macedonia asking him to come
and help,
and a whole new area is opened up to the gospel.

Think of my own story,
I was happily settled as a teacher when against my will and at a time when I
was far from God the call came for me to enter the ministry,
thirty five years later I do not regret it.

If you want your life to stay as it is,
then be careful of the Spirit!
If you are content with your circle of friends and don't want new ones,
then be careful of the Spirit!
If your materialistic lifestyle matters a lot to you,
then be careful of the Spirit!
If you like your Church to stay as is with the hymns you like and the
people you like,
then be careful of the Spirit!
If you really quite like your rut in life and are quite content for the sides
of the rut to fold over you and bury you in a comfortable grave,
then be careful of the Spirit!


Now if this Holy Spirit is calling the Church forward to new things and
working new things in the lives of individuals and communities the Church
magazine must be there reflecting that,
thrilling the readers with new stories,
advocating new projects,
sharing new challenges,
yours is a great tool for bringing change,
don't always settle for reporting what has happened in the past weeks or is
carefully planned to happen in the next few weeks,
spend some time in prayer,
seek what God says to your heart about each edition,
ask the Leadership Team of your Church what they would like to see
happen in your Church in the next year and three years,
you can be a tool of inspiration,
use the gift and the influence you have under God and you will be part
of that creative work of God making all things new.
Then my third and last plea to you is that you echo our God of community.
I think the doctrine of the Trinity is so very precious,
that personal movement in the Godhead which means life and interaction
and personality and relationship there at the very heart of God.
A very important part of your work therefore is to allow the Holy Spirit to
use your gifts and your influence to create community.

Someone once said,
"When the Spirit of God is poured out on the Church,
it is not that we get more of Him but that He gets more of us".
You see when the Holy Spirit is poured out on the Church we become more
loving as people,
and what a power that is in the world.
When you look around most Churches you see all sorts of people,
as in the film title the good the bad and the ugly are all there,
only the Spirit of God can bind together a group of people who are so
different in type,
in affluence,
in politics,
in intelligence,
in temperament.


You see Love comes as the Spirit comes,
we can do all the right things in our churches but they will still be as dry as
dust without the Spirit,
but when the Spirit blows then we begin to see new people,
we begin to meet new challenges,
we begin to build new communities,
that is something you reflect upon in your work on the magazine or paper
but that is also something you share with God in creating,
linking the worshipping community together but also blessing the
housebound as the life of the Church is opened up to them through the
magazine pages,
and also perhaps drawing in the casual reader in the community who
wants a different sort of living from that which she or he is having at
present.

Some of you here will be receiving awards today,
that is great,
well done,
feel a real sense of achievement,
but the greatest achievement is not in the award of a trophy,
it is in the reward of serving God though what you all do,
winners or not.
Your work on the magazine is a key part of your Christian discipleship,
but remember that discipleship is always more important than the magazine!