Warning – Church worship times are dangerous. I know it’s an old song but it does not stop God speaking to you. On Sunday we were singing “Give My All” and when we got to the rap part “The revolution starts with you in me” I found myself singing “The revolution starts in Lewington”. That was unusual, but as I sang it God was saying to me “I want you to start the revolution in Lewington”. Anyone in our church knows that Lewington was the church that everyone wants to avoid. Calling them traditional was an understatement, they are as far away from our modern church as you could get.

As a member of the leadership team at our church, I went and shared this idea with the pastor. He took one look at me and said half laughing “Jim, you can’t be serious.”

I replied that I wasn’t, but I thought God was. Dave looked at me and said he would pray for me, before really encouraging me by adding “You’re gonna need it”.

My wife Annie was even less impressed with the idea, having just got involved with the youth team. “Jim they wouldn’t know what to do with a youth if he came into the church”

I reassured her that I would only go if it really was from God and added that I would pray about it first. Annie looked even more worried!

This is it. I have decided I am going to visit them and see if the place is as bad as the rumours. I wiill visit them tomorrow. Annie has decided that the idea is so bad she won’t even come with me and is praying against it.

Need to go to bed early as it is nearly 3 hours drive to Lewington.

Well that confirms it, I misheard God, the place and people are worse than I expected. I went in quietly and sat in the wrong seat. A lady came up to me and asked me to move as I had sat in her seat. Does that really happen? I thought she was joking. Obviously not with the look she gave me.

The worship was what you might call dated. The only hint of the 20th century (21st century is not even heard of here) was the hammond organ. The hymns were played on the piano and the choruses were played on the organ. The most up to date thing they sang was from the 80s. Admittedly some of them looked like they meant it but Humphrey Appleton who was leading the meeting only opened his mouth when we sang anything from Redemption Hymnal. There seemed to be 2 groups of people, the traditionalist and the modernists, and each were only really worshipping when their type of music was being played.

The sermon was the real eye opener, it seemed to go on for over an hour. What Humphrey went on about I couldn’t tell you as it was so boring. I think he started somewhere in Leviticus, but after hearing him read 2 chapters without pausing for breath, I had lost the will to live listen.

Went to talk to him afterwards and he seemed genuinely pleased to see a new person. He asked if I was a Christian and when I said I was, he wondered what had brought me along. I said that I was thinking of moving to the area. He hoped I liked the service, so to avoid upsetting him I stated that it was different to what I was used to.

He then told me about the pastor who has just retired and had spent the last 25 years trying to modernise the church and bring in modern worship. Humphrey was worryingly proud of having stopped him bringing guitars into the worship. His point was that in the 80s they had an attendance on a Sunday of 150 which he put down to having proper worship, that is only songs from Redemption Hymnal. He blames the modern worship for why they now only have 25 people most Sundays. Think he may have missed the point.

As I had a long journey home I excused myself and left quickly, now sure this was not for me.

Now even my wife is against me. She came in and told me that she understood why I wanted to go there. She had asked the ladies at church to pray with her for her feelings about moving to Lewington and she now felt good about it, and was willing to support me.

THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANTED.

God how can you expect me to go there? I’m going to have to give up a good job in computers and look to work for a church that would probably ban computers as the work of the devil.

Dave our pastor came round to have a chat with me about the church in Lewington. He said he would support me in it, but he knew through church head ofice that at least three people had applied for it. That encouraged me as there were probably people with a more appropriate traditional background, who also had experience as a pastor. They would never pick me.

Left a message on their answering machine asking for an application form. I'm sure it will never happen.

Not sure what to make of the interview. It did not start well when Humphrey recognised me as the visitor from a few weeks ago. He informed me that it was normal to make yourself known to a church if you were thinking of applying for a job. I told him that I had never applied for a job like this before and didn’t realise. He accepted that and introduced me to the others. Bernadette Wolsey who was his  daughter as well as the church administrator, and Arnold Robins who, although no longer a member of the church, still popped back to help with major decisions and problems.

I don’t think they read my application form properly as they seemed to miss my current church and concentrate on the chapel where I was brought up. They seemed to not even hear me mention my current church, just kept asking about the chapel hymns we sang and how we kept the traditions of the founders of the chapel. All the answers I gave were accurate, and they seemed to think that was how I wanted to run this church. It was almost as if God blocked their ears when I mentioned bringing the church up to date as they immediately asked about the chapel again.

Now I am worried they will offer me the job I don’t want. If I do get it, I'm sure I'll disappoint them.

Annie came in and congratulated me on the job. I asked her if she had heard something I hadn’t. It appears she had prayed for me during the interview and had peace that I would get it.

Pastor Dave prayed for me at the end of church. He was confident I will get the job.

First my wife, now Dave.Starting to worry I might actually get the job.

I got a job offer, but not the one I was expecting. Got called into my bosses office. He was offering me promotion to project manager.

How could I refuse? £7,000 pay rise, company car (a Lexus no less).

Don’t think he was expecting the answer “I’ll think about it”

Just got off the phone to Humphrey. They’ve offered me the job. They like me because my chapel background was closer to them than the other applicants. I tried telling him I was a modernist and would update the church. Between laughter and statement of “Over my dead body” found it impossible to make it clear I was not joking.

Then came the dreaded question “When can you start?”

Did not know if I wanted the job, let alone working out a starting date. Took the easy way out and said I would pray about it.