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.

We live in an age when our children are being sexualised at a very young age, with plans now to give out condoms to children as young as 13. So it was refreshing to read of a scheme in Doncaster encouraging teenagers not to have sex on their prom night:
http://www.christian.org.uk/news/doncaster-teens-encouraged-to-show-love-without-sex/

Whilst not based on Christian principles it at least flies in the face of societies normal pressuring of young people.

Lessons to be learnt from Doncaster abuse cases

I was saddened to listen to the news yesterday and hear about the 7 tragic cases of deaths of children in Doncaster which are now being investigated to see if there were failures by social services. It is heart rending when any child dies but especially tragic when someone who should care for a child instead abuses them.

Inevitably already the question is being asked what lessons can be learnt. No doubt there are things that will be done, Doncaster Social workers will be extra vigilant, extra training and systems will be put in place. But eventually the same thing will happen again, because better systems aren't the answer.

The bigger question these cases raise is why do people abuse children. The only adequate answer is that given by the Bible - sin. We live in a broken world and we are broken people. The world is broken, we are broken and our relationships are broken. Putting new monitoring systems in place may help, training social workers may help but it will not solve the problem. the only solution is the good news of Jesus Christ that deals with sinners and changes them one life at a time.

We need to pray for all those involved in such cases, we need to pray for our society, we need to share the gospel with people and allow the radical life changing message of a crucified risen saviour to change people.