I’ve had a little blog holiday – but it is nice to be back! The holiday was enforced as a direct result of my poor diary management with me being in Bristol, Taunton, Luton and Cheltenham last week, leaving only Friday to catch up with paper and phonecalls.

On Thursday I was in Cheltenham to attend a Cheltenham YFC event. While there I had a wonderful time with Paul (director of CYFC)and Nia Bennett and their children. It was really nice to be with people who put ‘family’ at the centre of their priorities, but were also very heavily involved in mission. It really was a delight to be with such sorted and lovely people.

While spending the afternoon with Paul with Nia, we also had the pleasure of the company of Bishop Gavin Reid. Chatting in the afternoon and over a meal with Gavin was pure pleasure. Of all the things to speak of … we talked normal down to earth stuff, which was rather surprising as my experience of other bishops has been of quite academic and deep conversations.

All 4 of us chatted around the importance of family life and children being brought up in the church. Notably Gavin reminisces of a time when he, and most children of his era, went to Sunday School. Obviously this is no longer the case, but there is still a clear acknowledgment of God with most people (85% on the last census) calling themselves a Christian in this country.

Gavin suggested we could have this situation for the next 15 years at the most – if correct that should instill a sense of urgency into our mission.