All my life you have been faithful
All my life you have been so, so good.
With every breath that I am able
I will sing of the goodness of God.
Jason Ingram, Brian Johnson, Ed Cash, Ben Fielding, Jenn Johnson. Bethel Music.
When Vyv Wainwright asked me to write a short piece about myself, ministry and writing – these were the words that came to mind. As we look around at the broken world today and then look back over the last few years, it can be so easy to let our hearts incline to despair. But in it all, as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, God is with us and God is good. This has been my profound experience. God calls us to come, eat, drink, breathe and be filled. Even in times when God feels absent, when I lament and cry ‘Why?’ and ‘How long?’, the recollection of who God is and all God has done and is doing gives me the strength and hope to carry on. Times resonant with Good Friday do give way to the uncertain hope of Holy Saturday and then to the resurrection joy of Easter. It may feel like Friday – but Sunday will come.
In October 2019, after curacy I moved into a role to develop a training programme to enable people to minister in times of trauma as part of the teaching role I had at Lincoln School of Theology, while I also completed training in pastoral supervision and Ignatian Spiritual Direction. These three strands were to be a key part of the next stage of ministry God was calling me into as Covid hit and lockdown happened. Equipped with the iPad I had bought for the trauma work, connected to three wonderful female artists who were so generous with their art work – Kate Austin, Sarah Bird and Karen Herrick – and encouraged and supported by many others willing to share their gifts, poetry and art, I began a journey into what I would now call trauma-informed social media ministry. At the time I did not know this. Jesus was just saying – follow me one step at a time. One day at a time. And that is what happened. It began with the creation and daily emailing of interactive PDFs that were written to enable a space for people to come into deeper intimacy with God in worship, praise and prayer through God’s word, music, image, poetry and creative responses. Within a couple of days it became a Facebook group – Look up, Look in, Look out – that over lockdown enabled community. The group still continues in a lower key way and holds the group memory of the goodness and faithfulness of God. The learning from that time has further developed into on line and face to face workshops and retreats.
Writing is a wonderful way of crystallising thoughts and of sharing the works of God to enable mission and ministry. One of the joys I have is to be a trustee of Grove Books. Before this, I was an avid reader of Grove Books and had a yearly membership. These accessible books of about 9,000 words would come through the letterbox and in an evening I could read the latest one and be inspired, challenged and encouraged. Having done all the work on trauma and ministry before Covid, I was nudged by God about the need for a Grove Book on trauma, mission and ministry to inform and to signpost to other resources. Accompanying ministers in Pastoral Supervision and Spiritual Direction emphasised the need for us all as ministers to be aware of our primary calling – as children of God – and the need for us to respond to God’s call to live God’s unforced rhythms of grace. It was from this, and another nudge from God, that a further Grove Book resulted on rest, recovery and flourishing in ministry. In writing these books I was so aware that while I get the credit as the author – the unseen credits are immense. We journey our lives in community. Who we are, what we know, what we do and what we write is shaped not only by God but by those we journey with. This has been my lived experience over the last globally complex and difficult few years. I give thanks for those who have been part of my journey – who have encouraged and enabled spaces for me to draw close to God and celebrate where God is at work. To sing of the goodness of God.
The image below is one by Karen Herrick of Harlequin Arts which I have been using in a series of retreats looking at Seasons of the Heart. You might like to take some time to look at it. Where do you see hope in it? What is God’s invitation to you? How do you want to respond?
Rev Dr Rhona Knight
As well as authoring three Grove Books https://grovebooks.co.uk Rhona is also a co-author of the recently published Liberating Christian Learning: A handbook for leaders and facilitators. This books aims to equip those enabling learning in the church – be that one-to-one informal mentoring or more formal teaching and learning contexts.
Website: https://revrhona.wixsite.com/website
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/206372810676687
YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCG8QnO0dU5PM7hc8RuZbO_
More Precious Than Rubies by Karen Herrick https://www.harlequinarts.co.uk
