[Friday's Devotional] - Edward the Settler Engine

Well actually his name was Edward the Blue Engine, but I will explain more in a bit. So we have reached Friday and it is time for a trip to the island of Sodor.  Generations of children have enjoyed the stories of Rev. Awdry, and later those written by his son.  When I was a child they were postcard sized, hardback books and I used to love reading them and the story of Edward in particular.  Edward was a much nicer character than Thomas the Silly Engine or Gordon the Smug Engine. Edward was an engine worth reading about.  Not only did Edward save a traction engine from the scrap man, but he also gave a friendly welcome to Duck the Great Western engine when he was sent into exile by the Fat Controller for a crime he had not committed.  Edward made Duck welcome and didn’t hold the slander that Duck was accused of against him.  Edward is a pure ‘settler’ of an engine.  He is a pastor with a heart for people.  Is that you?  Today I want to look at Settler Ministries.

Pastors have a heart for caring for God’s people; seeking their wellbeing and building them up so that they can reach their full stature in Christ and live life in all of its fullness.

The ministry of the teacher is coupled with that of the Pastor.  In the original Greek, Paul links the two ministries together.  Caring for God’s people is inextricably coupled with teaching them to build them up.

So, do you see yourself now?  Now that we have looked at all five, which of the ministries is your main one?  Remember that you will be called into other ministries from time to time.

Now here is the end of the week health warning.  What would a church be like that was full of settlers?  What would a church be like that was only Pioneers?  The ministries that we have outlined over the last two days are the ministries that make up the body of Christ, the church.  The body needs all of its parts.  The church needs all of its ministries.  The church needs you.

John Martin-Jones

[Thursday's Devotional] - Rocket the Pioneer Engine

“Rocket” was the creation of the North Eastern engineer George Stephenson.  In 1830 he used it to successfully win the trials for the Liverpool to Manchester Railway.  It was from this engine and a similar machine called Sans Pareil that the future of steam locomotives took its shape.  Rocket was a true pioneer.  Rocket pushed the frontier of steam locomotives westwards!

I recently preached a sermon on Ephesians 4.  In this chapter, Paul is exhorting the church in Ephesus to remain united.  He talks about the different ministries in the body of Christ and their mutual interdependence.  Paul talks about the ministries of the Apostle, the Prophet, the Evangelist, the Pastor and the Teacher.  Briefly these five ministries can be sorted into two groups: pioneers and settlers.

Pioneers	Settlers
Apostles	Pastor
Evangelists	Teachers
Prophets

I want to look briefly at Pioneers today.

The Apostle is one who is sent out by Christ to plant churches and minister to those new Christian communities.  Paul is clearly identified as an apostle to the New Testament church.

An Evangelist is someone who has a ministry of sharing the good news about King Jesus with others and bringing them into the church community.

A Prophet is someone who hears from God and is able to speak God’s word into situations.  The ministry of prophecy is not so much about foretelling as telling forth: saying what God thinks and working out the outcome to the situation based on knowing God’s character.

So the question for this morning is simply, which one of these are you?  Perhaps you recognise your calling among these ministries very clearly.  Perhaps you don’t really.  Well that’s ok, because we will look at settler ministries tomorrow.  But before you write this list off and decide that you are a settler and can wait until tomorrow to find out more, look at the list again.  You see, both pioneers and settlers will have a main ministry, but will also be involved in other sorts of ministry as the Lord calls.  So look again.  Recognise when God has used you in the pioneer ministries and thank God for those times. Commit yourself anew to pioneer ministries whether it is your main calling or not.

John Martin-Jones

[Wednesday's Devotional] - Deltic: All Hail the King?

The early 1960s was an interesting time in railway history.  Diesel was taking the place of steam and there was a variety of different types of diesel engine.  Some were more successful than others.  My absolute favourite though is the Deltic.  Often referred to as the King of the Diesels, these class ‘55’ locos replaced the aging A4s as the crack express locos on the east coast main line.  They were the first diesels that were designed to haul an express passenger train at a steady 100mph.  They were the most powerful diesel units of their day anywhere in the world.  They were powered by two huge diesel engines with a triangularly opposed cylinder arrangement (making a D shape, hence the name ‘Deltic’).   These powered electrical generators which drove the wheels’ motors.  Trust me, they were just amazing beasts.  Happily several members of the class are in preservation and still run at 100mph pulling special trains on the main line.

                               

The legendary North Eastern guitarist and prolific song writer Chris Rea even wrote a song in their honour.  I attach the link below. By the way, my uncle used to manufacture ice cream and supply it to Chris Rea’s father’s café!

But before I get too carried away, I have to remember something.  I have to remember who the real creator is.  I have to remember who the wonderful Deltic points me towards.  A prayer I learnt as a small boy helps me to do that:

‘Then let us praise the Father, who shows us, of his grace,

The secret paths of science, the mastery of space,

The magic of the radio, the thunder of the trains,

For men made these, but God made man,

And God gave man his brains.’

What a responsibility we have.

Chris Rea ‘Deltics’

John Martin-Jones

[Tuesday's Devotional] - Mallard: hard after it

On a pre-war summer Sunday in July 1938 a train hauled by a state-of-the-art, A4 class, locomotive called ‘Mallard’ shot along a stretch of track between Grantham and Peterborough at 126 mph.  Among the coaches she was pulling was a ‘dynamometer’ car (a coach with a speedometer) so the passengers knew just how fast they were going in their wooden-sided coaches.  Apparently, they were quite excited.  This was an age when 90 mph was something special.  It was a glamorous age, and the record for the fastest steam-hauled train had ping-ponged between two railway companies during the mid to late 1930s.  The outbreak of WWII in 1939 put an end to such record attempts and it was to be another forty years before diesel- hauled ‘high speed’ trains were to regularly run at the speed set by Mallard on that golden afternoon.

On his retirement in 1944, Mallard’s driver was interviewed by the BBC.  The radio programme was called ‘The World Goes By’.  Hands up if you remember it!  Driver Duddington gave an enthusiastic and full account of the record-breaking run.  He was clearly reliving it as he spoke, and he was full of pride as he spoke of his wonderful engine, its designer and his employers.  However, there was a certain tone of regret in the way he spoke.  He commented that if “I had of tried a bit more, we could have got 130”.  The results of trying that might have been disastrous.  We will never know, but I do like his spirit.

The church would be a different place if we all approached living out our faith, determined not to be like Driver Duddington.  You see, with God there is always more to come and we never, in this life, finish getting to know him or growing close to him.  But do you want to end your life thinking that you could have been closer to him if you had tried more?  Too often we settle in our Christian lives for quite good or lukewarm.  The consequences of which could be more disastrous than derailing a steam train could ever be (Revelation 3v14-21).  If we chased God and his will with the same passion that those railwaymen chased speed records, if we had the same love for our church as Duddington had for the London and North Eastern Railway, what would the world look like?  

Here is a short clip of one of Mallard’s surviving sister engines.  Take a look and listen to the whistle.  A4s don’t whistle like most steam engines. They have deep whistles that shout their presence.  You can’t fail to notice a steam loco like one of these.  Ask God to give you even more passion for his kingdom than Duddington had for his lovely loco. Then go and paint your face blue and chase God’s will.

Wooaaahhhhhhh!

John Martin-Jones

[Monday's Devotional] - Fit for Your Essential Purpose

I like trains. If you are one of my facebook friends you will be used to me posting pictures of engines that I come across.  Most of my friends realise that I am just a witty, charming and incredibly good looking guy who just happens to have railways among his list of interests.  However, there are some less enlightened people who believe that I am a nerdy train spotter.  So, to prove that liking locos is a fascinating, vigorous and manly pursuit, I am going to base this weeks Devotionals on different locomotives and the parallels between their attributes and living the Christian life.

The above loco is a Midland railway 2F (freight).  They were small locos and none of them had names, except those unofficial ones given by loving drivers and firemen.  The best sort of name to have I guess.  They had unglamorous lives, mainly hauling coal trains around the Midlands.  They dated from the late nineteenth century and by the 1930s were already very old fashioned engines. However, they survived right up until the end of steam in the 1960s.  So why were these basic, utility locos in service for seventy years or so?  Well, basically, they were just great at what they were designed to do.  They were reliable and simple to maintain, but their small size also prolonged their lives as they were, by the mid twentieth century, basically the only engines left able to fit through the small aperture of the one mile long Glenfield tunnel.  So, without the simple, unassuming, slow, 2F loco, no coal trains could have gone from Coalville to Leicester.  Simple as that.

Now I don’t go in much for anthropomorphism (putting human characteristics on a non human) just ask my motorbike, but I reckon if the old 2Fs could have spoken, they would have asked for bigger boilers, more power, fancy names and express passenger duty.  Oh yes and no more runs through the smoky dark tunnel at Glenfield.  Have you ever felt that way?  Ever wished that you were made differently?  Have you ever wished that you had been cut out for more glamorous things?  Well don’t.

God made you the way that he did for a reason.  Whatever you are like, whatever your characteristics, be grateful to God that he made you the way that he did.  Not only that, give yourself to God in service.  Thank God that he made you tall and caring or enthusiastic and friendly, solid and wise or small and dynamic; give it back to God in service.  Like the old 2F at Glenfield, God has a tunnel that only you will fit in, one that you were made to measure for, if only you will give yourself, who and what you are, back to God in service.

John Martin-Jones