Yorkshire: conflicting emotions

Tomorrow I'll drive up to the last Yorkshire Training of the year, pity the poor students as I inflict my preaching on them at their end of year service.  I have loved going up to Xscape every Thursday and trying to teach these committed young (compared to me) and old people how to teach God's word better as they lead bible studies.  It has been a real encouragement to see their passion, and their commitment.  Many of them take a day off work in order to come, relatively few are ministry trainees, but all of them are committed to teaching God's word better.  And that is a real encouragement because Yorkshire is so bleak spiritually, it is the least reached county in England, so to see 30 people committing themselves to teach the bible in different contexts is brilliant.

But in a way the drive up and back from YT is always discouraging.  For example I pass one church which is bordered up and shut, another which is up for auction, and another which is used for retail purposes.  And they are just the ones I can see from the main road.  There is another I know of which has, in the last few months, shut its doors for the last time and others which are limping along with a handful of members, but where closure looks to be just a matter of time.  It is a desperate situation, one which mixes despair with hope.

What I mustn't do in that situation is do an Elijah, he despairs of the state of the nation.  What I must do is pray to the God who is able and maybe share the need with others, whilst thanking God for those he is already stirring up to serve him.