Making time, making ends meet, making love, making every effort, making sense, making history, making music, make my day………..How many phrases can you think of that include “make” or “making”. In his book, “Leaders Make the Future”, Bob Johansen talks about the “maker instinct”. We are all able to be creative, to create, build and make things. Often though, this maker instinct gets stifled, or we don’t see ourselves as makers.

Whether it is baking a cake, growing a garden, writing a blog, creating a safe space where a friend can tell you their problems, we make things in a variety of different ways. Often people channel their maker instinct into hobbies or pastimes. Sometimes, if our job is difficult or tedious, these hobbies are where we release our creative talents and feel more fulfilled.

It is this maker instinct that can help us, and the groups or organisations that we belong to, to grow and flourish. Just think for a moment of all the makers who are at work within our faith community, people who pour out their maker instinct in a way that enriches our experience of the Divine and each other. This isn’t about being “arty”, it is about creating or growing a new thing – whatever that is. When we are makers in community, our creativity blends together, so that, like in an orchestra, all the different elements of our making weave into one another and create a fabulous and beautiful whole.

Our worship theme in October is “Back to the Future”. We will celebrate all that we have achieved together through being generous with our time, talents and finances. We will also be looking forward to the future and what God is calling us to be and to do in the years ahead. In November, our theme is “Dreams and Visions”, as we listen for God’s vision for MCC Newcastle. During this process, we need to use our maker instincts to describe and capture the different elements of the vision that God is offering us. We then need to work together to grow and build this new thing, on the faithful foundations of all that MCC Newcastle has developed so far.

All of us are needed in this listening process. No-one has all the answers. Everyone has the maker instinct and can contribute. Perhaps this week, we could all notice where we use our maker instinct and what we make.

God bless

Cecilia

 This month’s worship theme “The Gospel according to Cuthbert” is fascinating. In fact, the Christian history of the North East is amazing. It is also generally a well kept secret. I have been quite taken aback by the number of folk who have lived in the NE all their lives and know very little about what is around them. 

Aidan, Cuthbert, Hilda, Bede, Wilfrid…. There is quite a list of saints whose lives strongly influenced the development of the Christian faith in this region and way beyond. The Venerable Bede, famous resident of Jarrow, did much to influence thinking about nature and science, as well as theology and history. 

What is stunning about Bede is that he barely travelled at all. He was moved between the monasteries at Jarrow and Monkwearmouth, depending on the needs of the community. He never got to Rome or to visit any of the great seats of academic learning. He was content to be where he was and do what he was called to do in that place. Bede’s World is definitely worth a visit if you would like to know more…. 

Recently, I led a workshop called ”Bible Basics”. It was aimed at those of us who don’t know our bibles well at all, and may even find scripture quite intimidating. We started the day playing “Bible Snap”, just to get our heads around the names of the many different names of the books in the Bible. 

By the end of the afternoon, people who had been nervous about the Bible at the beginning of the day were finding their way around concordances, commentaries and dictionaries to help them to understand and interpret a passage of scripture. It was fabulous! 

The famous saints of the North East, and around the world were ordinary people who did extraordinary things. None of them were born knowing all there is to know about God, or prayer, or scripture. Every single one of them had to spend time learning, studying, questioning and listening to God. 

We are no different. We are not going to go deeper in prayer, or become more knowledgeable about the Bible unless we put the time and effort in. God is always there, waiting to touch us, guide us, love us. We just need to be willing to give God some time in our lives. Bible Snap anyone? 

God bless