Image by Denny Muller on Unsplash
As on many days, my Lectio 365 app provided the right Bible passage for prompt, encouragement and challenge, on the specific day I needed to hear it. As I sit in a church centre café this morning (4th January 2024), starting to write my last UCAN mailing article as a Director, this passage from Isaiah 43 greeted me.
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
In a season of newness, transition and change, God is ever present, ever sovereign, and ever Good. More about this later…
My start to Christmas Day this year was slightly less encouraging. I was rota’d for the AV visuals desk at church for the morning service, and as the run-sheet included many video and quiz elements, our Rector was keen to have a proper run-through in good time. Having already managed the early morning wake-up call from excited children, their stocking-opening session, a smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and bucks-fizz breakfast, everything was on schedule for a well-timed arrival at church. However, when I got to my car, I found a flat-tyre (from a significant side-wall hole). Oh dear! Timings were about to be adjusted. My car has an emergency foam kit rather than a spare tyre which is very annoying and not remotely fit for purpose. This wasn’t going to help with a side-wall hole, and there was no chance of getting a response from the AA on Christmas morning, nor a replacement tyre from a garage. Our journey to church was under-threat, as well as the remainder of our Christmas plans to visit family. Several hours later, the situation had vastly improved. A taxi-ride to church got me to the run-through just 4 minutes late. After an enjoyable morning celebration at the service, centring around a 2m long cracker as a sermon prop, we were provided with a lift home and a loan car from another family in the church for our travels. I found myself reflecting on and celebrating being part of a church later that day. What a joy it is to be part of a church community where people go the extra mile for you, freely share their possessions, and look out for your best interests. Whereas the tyre foam was decidedly NOT ‘fit for purpose,’ the church on this occasion was certainly ‘fit for purpose.’
‘Fit for purpose’ is a phrase that increasingly monopolises my thinking. Ever since God spoke to me in late 2018 about Psalm 127:
Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labour in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.
This passage doesn’t suggest that the house falls, unless the Lord builds it. There is no reference to a collapse. Instead, it just says the builders labour in vain. The house gets built, but it may not be ‘fit for purpose.’ Worryingly, this can often be the case for churches.
This month of January 2024, marks 5 years for me serving as an Executive Director for UCAN, nearly 7 years on the board, and 9 years since John Truscott started talking with me about getting involved with the leadership of UCAN. It’s been an amazing season. We’ve published lots of new online resources, run two series of area training days around the country, launched the Spreadsheet and Prophecy book, hosted several Cutting Edge conferences (including a digital one), launched the ILM course (with 3 cohorts completed), transitioned our distance learning course to Cliff College, published two benchmarking surveys, launched the Churchworkers.net HR support service, and grown a great UCAN team involving our administrator Nicola, our Network Enablers (Verity, Maria and up to recently Jenny) and a great board of Directors. Serving as part of this team has been an amazing joy and privilege.
UCAN work aside, my own personal consultancy business has connected me directly with several churches, and it’s from within this work that I’ve recently heard the prompting of God: ‘Behold, I am doing a new thing, can you perceive it?’ Therefore, in this next season, I’ve decided to pass my UCAN responsibilities to our amazing UCAN team and focus on working directly with church staff teams. Some of this will involve developing my consultancy work further but I’m also in the process of exploring a new working relationship with a Christian Leadership development charity that shares my passion for enabling healthy and effective church leadership.
If you would like to stay in touch you can contact me directly by emailing andrew@andrewbagwell.com (as I’ll no longer be reachable via a UCAN email address).
Transitioning to something new is always a bit unsettling, and this is how January feels to me. However, I’ve been really blessed by the support of the UCAN team in this period of change, and I couldn’t be more confident in their abilities, passion and wisdom as they continue to have oversight of the areas I’ve shared in. Please continue to pray for the Board of Directors (Mark Parsons, Jules Morgan, Penny Clarke, Becky Thomas and Gavin Smith), our administrators – Nicola Islip and Maria Pavey and particularly Verity Yeates as she steps up to additional hours and responsibilities, becoming UCAN’s Operations and Communications Lead. UCAN remains in great hands.
What does January feel like for you? Is there something to behold? Is God doing a new thing? Can you perceive it? Please can I encourage you to avoid the temptation to come up with short-term, low impact resolutions, or instead filling your diaries (your own and church’s) with lots of activity. Instead prioritise some time to seek God with the simple question: ‘What are you doing Lord, and how can I be part of it?’ You can do this in confidence, that God always hears, is always present, is always sovereign and is always good. And knowing that there is no better place to explore these questions than within His church.
May your 2024 be fruitful,
With love, in His Service
Andy Bagwell
Former UCAN Executive Director