Thought for the Week

I AM reading a book titled Canoeing the Mountains.

A strange title, I’m sure you will agree, but it is an interesting and challenging book.

It is a book about church leadership in the 21st century. The author claims: ‘The one quality that matters most to the fate of the church in the 21st century is adaptability.’

Basically, it states that ministers today are being trained for a world that is fast disappearing.

So, as the title implies, if we are to climb new mountains, we require skills which are different from those we needed in the past.

The Christian journey has always been one of pilgrimage. We have journeyed in faith into uncharted territory since the beginning of time.

We walk on well-worn paths where others have travelled before, but we also carve new paths for our own personal journey.

Someone who travelled that wonderful pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela said: ‘Wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking.’

The road is made by walking. I think this is a good thought for us today.

We can read books and tie our brains in knots trying to find a solution for the place of the church of tomorrow.

We can wonder how we can do things differently to make the church more relevant.

We can often despair and sometimes rejoice on our journey.

But let us remember that the road is made by walking. Let us walk the road together, the uncharted road, the unknown road, the rocky road, the road full of potholes, but the road that is ours. We are not just on any road. We are people on the way, and of the way.