Right, here goes. One step at a time.
Hello and welcome to what is currently called 'Sleeping Fruit'. I've already been through an embarrassing number of titles, so it may well change again...
This is a 'holding space' for me to write up reflections as I embark on a new journey to try to serve God by training for ministry in the Church of England. I should clarify: I don't think that only ministers serve God. And I don't think it's true that God calls some people to be ministers, and leaves everyone else to 'just muddle through' (thanks to Francis Dewar's "Called or Collared" for drawing attention to our problematic language around vocation). But I do think that God has given me a set of skills which haven't really been fully invoked in the world of IT Consultancy. And perhaps, yes perhaps, they could be used in some small way to serve the church of Jesus Christ.
I hope to make this blog accessible whether you're from 'inside the church' or not. If you don't feel it's accessible, comment and bug me!
Sleeping Fruit is based on 1 Corinthians 15:20:
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
I wanted something that captured the main thing I've learned about the Christian walk during my 20s - the life comes through the death, the suffering is an unglamorous but intrinsic part of the plan, and the old self has to die by any means possible. But the image of sleeping fruit also made me smile, and maybe is a helpful image to undermine the old Protestant work ethic: no matter how much effort we're putting in and how many successes or failures we're measuring, we're all fruit waiting to be raised from death, and Christ has already been there, done that. In a sense, we are the harvest waiting to be harvested. But of course, we're the harvesters too (Matthew 9:38). Thank goodness that God gives the growth.
And with that confusing pile of agricultural metaphors, I'm going to sign off. More detail next time!
Matt
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