On behalf of UCAN, please can I wish you a Happy New Year.
How many times have you received this greeting so far this year? It’s the common opener to emails and the initial sentiment to most phone calls. My 2 young boys have taken great delight in saying it to passers-by on our daily walks since 1st January. Happy New Year – But perhaps this year, more than most, you receive this with a sense of hesitation or questioning – will it be a Happy New Year?
Photo by Neroli Wesley on Unsplash
A friend of mine who leads a local church congregation has recently started posting to social media, a short video teaching series called ‘The Space Between’. He started the series in late December by recognising that we’re now in the space between Christmas and New Year, where the celebrating and busyness of Christmas has passed, but we haven’t yet reached the hopes and fears of the New Year. Often, there is a natural lull in activity, with time being devoted to eating turkey sandwiches or baking left-over pies. It’s a time of seasonal change, having passed the mid-point of winter with the days now getting a bit longer but perhaps with the coldest and most severe weather ahead. Nationally, we’re past ‘2020’ which as a term has become synonymous with the global Covid-19 pandemic, but the reality that much of 2021 will be similar is starting to dawn. We are in the space between where vaccines have been remarkably discovered and created and the ‘finish line’ where they are fully protecting the population and starting to allow a return to ‘normal’. As the government briefing charts show us, some of the most challenging days of the outbreak, may still be to come, particularly for hospital capacity.
In the world of church administration, we are also in ‘the space between’. The 2020 programme of services and events, delivered in the most challenging circumstances we’ll have come across, is now complete. The 2021 programme is just getting going. We’re in the space between where operational plans and foresight existed and a now a period of further uncertainty is before us. As soon as a plan is in place, it needs to be torn-up and reworked due to changing restrictions and government guidance! As administrators, I’m sure most of us prefer to have a plan, a high degree of certainty, knowing exactly where we’re heading. If this ‘space between’ makes you feel uncomfortable, you are not alone. Welcome to the UCAN family!
Despite the level of discomfort, it is often in this ‘space between’ (also known as ‘liminal space’) where most of our growth as individuals and churches can happen. It necessitates a greater reliance on God and provides the opportunity to prayerfully seek His will and purposes for our lives and church ministry and mission. You can google ‘Liminal Space’ to find out more about how this concept is not purely an architectural term but also something with spiritual significance, recognised through the years.
Much of the Biblical narrative exists within the ‘space between’. There was the 40 years spent in the desert, post Exodus. The nearly 1000 year period between King David’s reign over Israel (1010-970BC) and the prophetic fulfilment of the ‘son of David’ with Jesus Christ arriving as Messiah. The 70 years of exile in Babylonia. Within the New Testament we have recently been reminded of the space between immaculate conception and the birth of Jesus. There is then the space between Jesus’ birth and the start of his ministry, the space between Good Friday and Easter, Easter and Jesus’ ascension, and the ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit. What must these spaces have felt like?
So, in January 2021, in the uncomfortable ‘space between’ we find ourselves in, how do we proceed?
With one step at a time.
Painting by Charles Mackesy
I’ve never been one for New Year Resolutions. Why focus your efforts at a dreary time of year to eat better or exercise more, when ultimately eating well and taking regular exercise is a year round responsibility. There is no particular significance to the season of New Year, it’s just the month of January as arbitrarily defined on the Gregorian calendar, but instead we should question in every season, ‘What is God saying to me / my church’ and how do I obediently respond?” Therefore, please don’t receive the encouragement below as any form of New Year Resolution, but instead I hope it may inspire some of the single steps forward that can bring new life and vitality in 2021.
In the absence of certainty and finalised colour coded annual plans and calendars, be intentional to look after yourself, physically, emotionally and spiritually. By this I mean regularly prioritising time and activities to help you feel physically well (walks, exercise, time spent with Joe Wicks!), taking opportunities to do things you enjoy (hobbies, reading, watching films, playing games, socialising and relational investment, albeit virtually) and investing in yourself spiritually (Bible reading, devotional apps such as BIOY or Lectio365, personal worship times, walks with God, podcasts, fasting and silence).
By regularly and intentionally topping up our physical, emotional and spiritual buckets, we are making good use of ‘the space between’, honouring God and keeping ourselves ready for what comes next.
In a work context, this ‘space between’ will need you to walk the line between prudent planning, risk management, appropriately paced waiting and faith-fuelled activity. We will be speaking into some of these elements this term and are already looking forward to hearing from Steve Matthews from Stewardship on financial risk management, later in January. This virtual round table event is now full, but we will be sharing the recording afterwards. The balance between planning, waiting and activity is uncomfortable and might be perceived as too great a challenge, but be encouraged that this perception is limiting and foolish. The Bible tells us that if we start and continue in prayer, by the gift of the Spirit, we have ‘the mind of Christ’, 1 Corinthians 2:16. Our planning and decision making never needs to be completed alone.
Similarly, the ‘space between’ can be viewed as a season of limitation. In the context of the pandemic, it is certainly a season of physical restrictions. Uncertainty can breed in-activity, whereas perhaps it should breed activity-in Christ. In Nancy Kline’s team and management book ‘Time to Think’ Nancy talks about perceived limitations and encourages the use of incisive questions to combat the limiting assumptions that can influence or control our work lives. For example, if we assume that we have a dysfunctional working relationship with a colleague and we assume they don’t value us, that limits the potential for fruitful and positive interaction with them. If we assume that nothing positive can be achieved in this present season, this imposes a limit on what we’ll get done. If we assume, we are too busy and purely existing in survival mode, this may start to become the reality. As Nancy encourages that limiting assumption should be combatted with the use of incisive questions, as opposed to statements, let me ask you the following:
If you knew that your approach, your support, your abilities and your actions were going to directly affect the Kingdom impact your church will have in this next season, what would you do? I ask this question because it’s true. The question destroys any assumptions limiting the contribution you can make and hopefully prompts you to consider how best to maximise your impact in a positive way. Investing in your physical, emotional and spiritual buckets is an essential starting point. You need to intentionally look after yourself. You are too valued and significant not to. But you also need to look after yourself, professionally. In a previous church I was part of, my senior pastor resisted the invitation to participate in the CPAS Arrow Leadership course for year after year. When he received the promotional mailings, he was always too busy or too stressed. It was never the ‘right’ season and remained something he would get round to. This inability to invest in himself and develop in his role was detrimental to him as an individual and to our church at the time. Having then gone on the course, his leadership style was transformed, he experienced new life-giving rhythms of grace and his effectiveness increased ten-fold. It wasn’t just our church at the time that benefitted, but decades later he is still leading other churches strongly. The time to invest in yourself professionally is always now. Your ministry role is too significant not to. With this in mind, you may like to prayerfully consider whether any of UCAN’s offerings: The Work of the Church Administrator distance learning course, the ILM accredited Managing Church Well course or our Cutting Edge conference in June are for you. If you would like to discuss these further, do please be in touch.
I’ll finish where I started. Have a Happy New Year.
In this New Year, be blessed physically, emotionally, spiritually and professionally for His glory,
Andrew Bagwell
Executive Director of UCAN