My first cache

This week I finally managed to ‘set a cache’ of my own – what a saga. The rules of geocaching include no solicitation for trade and no religious enticement (or something along those lines). So I based my cache on our church building, picking up on the fact that it had been bombed in WWII and had then become resurrected. Unfortunately, another rule is about how far apart caches have to be from one another, and our building is too close to another cache, so I had to use our building as a spot for further clues to a final destination – as I write I think how similar this is to our Christian life! Setting all that up in ‘virtual web-land’ took over a week!

I was well chuffed to find someone outside the building looking for clues this Sunday morning, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to stop and chat as I was busy sorting out a Love Feast that was occurring inside at the same time (now if I’d been a real people person, instead of the leader organising, then I’d have made time and invited them in …). I told the geocacher I’d set the cache and pointed her in the right direction, but being in ‘uniform’ seemed to put her off wanting to chat – can’t imagine why.

I’ve also sorted out a few possible hides for the Half Term venture, but have yet to hear if anyone will sign up and brave the cold – it’s been biting cold up here, with the inevitable forecasts of snow.

I see one of my colleagues has written about ‘Attractional v. Incarnational’ (perhaps in response to mine), citing Stuart Murray, and I agree that both are helpful/desirable; equipping people to incarnate the gospel in all areas of society is very important. I don’t think we’ll get away from a mixed economy of church very quickly; in fact, I’m not sure that we will ever want to get away from both. What concerns me, though, is how infrequently I hear members of my congregation seeing God in their everyday lives and talking about it, or seeing the possibility of spiritualising everyday things and being able to talk about them in a spiritual way. I don’t think they don’t know God, it just doesn’t seem to be something they talk about a lot. And if we can’t talk about it, how are we ever going to expose others to Him? Maybe they’re just naturally people who ‘incarnate’ rather than storytellers?

Most likely I’m just deaf or don’t listen …