“What can miserable Christians sing? How can we pray, when most of our familiar patterns may not express how we feel when we’re in dark valleys? What about when our words fail us altogether? Is relationship with God still possible?”

It’s with these revealing words that Matt Searles introduces Tumbling Sky: Psalms Devotions for Weary Souls, a collection of thirty-four short Bible reflections that mirror his album of the same name.

Back in June 2016 I interviewed Matt about that album and he told me how he’d written it to to encourage Christians to keep engaging with God as they walk through the dark valleys of life. Born out of his own struggles with suffering and depression, he wanted to craft music that gave us permission for tears and reminded us that sorrow isn’t a sign of spiritual failure.

The distinct thing about all of Matt’s three albums (including Now and Not Yet and From the River to the Ends of the Earth) is that the lyrics are for the most part lifted straight out of the Psalms. The point is that in the Scriptures God himself has graciously given us words to pray back to him; a God-given songbook, if you like. And to have such words is all the more significant during seasons of life when our own words fail.

What makes Searles particularly interesting is that he is not a professional musician, but instead occupies the role of Director of Training for the South Central Gospel Partnership, which includes running their Ministry Training Course. Maybe it’s this pastoral heartbeat that meant Searles’ plan was always to accompany the album with a series of written devotions. Thankfully, after a popular Kickstarter campaign gave birth to an initial version, 10ofThose have now published the completed work – and in a smart, slim, hardback format.

Searles focuses on ten psalms, breaking each one into smaller portions for each of the thirty-four devotions (most psalms are spread over three or four, which means ample room for digestion). The devotional texts blend honesty and anecdote, with a perceptive attention to the psalmist’s words and the ballast of a rich biblical theology. Each one covers the best part of the small double-pages and can be read in a couple of minutes.

Like the album, Tumbling Sky opens with the brutal realism of Psalm 143, followed by the despair of Psalm 88, before Psalm 13 takes us from doubt to trust. There is a general journey from lament to praise, but it’s never glib, nor is it straight-forward, and in that sense it mirrors the complexities of life. Doubt can lead to a reflective and hope-filled faith, rather than being a one-way street to unbelief. To cite the apostle Paul, we are “sorrowful yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor 6:10). As Searles says in the introductory devotions on Psalm 30:5b:

So often as Christians we can be tempted to think that our experience must be one of either sorrow, or joy. But Scripture teaches us we are to expect both. These two coexist in the life of a Christian.

If you’re struggling to pray or read the Bible because of the season of life you’re in, then this might be the perfect way back to dwelling on God’s word. Perhaps it could be a gift for a friend who is facing upto despair or sadness. In the dark valleys of brokenness, it is all too easy to feel that our struggle or misery somehow makes us sub-spiritual, unwelcome at church and unable to bring such emotions and situations to God. Tumbling Sky is a companion for such times, ultimately helping us to trust that God of our Lord Jesus Christ is pursuing us with love through every one.

You can pick up a copy of Tumbling Sky from the publisher here.

Competition Time: If you would like to win one of three copies of Tumbling Sky: Psalm Devotions for Weary Souls, then all you need to do is share a link to this post on Twitter or Facebook, accompanied by the hashtag #tumblingsky Three entries will then be selected at random on 5pm on the 31st January 2018, and these winners will be contacted through the social network they have used.

Full disclosure: The publisher sent me a free copy of this book, but I hope this is still a fair and honest review. Especially because I put my own pennies towards the initial Kickstarter version!

How are you feeling about the year ahead?

As well as thinking about the opportunities and possibilities, most of us will probably be aware of situations we’re not looking forward to: relationships we keep at a distance, decisions we’d rather not make, areas of our lives we’d rather avoid. Dave Griffith-Jones is a church leader in East Hull and the author of the recently-published, Escaping Escapism, which is a refreshing call to face up to things we’re avoiding with our trust in God. He kindly let me ask him a few questions about how we might all escape ‘escapism’ this year – and I found his answers really stirring.

Dave, in Escaping Escapism you very much share your own journey as an ‘escapist’. Give us a snapshot of what led you to write this book?

That’s quite refreshing to hear. If I’m honest, my tendency would have been to think of escapists as being those who spend every waking-hour playing Candy Crush or burying ourselves in some fictional world through books or Netflix. And whilst that may be the case for some of us, I sense you’re saying it’s a wider problem?

Ok, so when you put it like that it’s really compelling – and yet part of me responds by deciding it’s just too uncomfortable to think about! What would your response be to someone who feels that sense of unease at doing what’s difficult?

Christians throughout history have traditionally talked about sin in two categories: sins of commission (wrong things we do) and sins of omission (good things we fail to do). In the book you pick up on this latter category and link it to our escapist tendencies, making the suggestion that this is something of a blind-spot in twenty-first century Christianity. Tell us more….

Lastly, as well as wrestling with your own escapism, as a pastor you’ll have obviously had to help other people engage with their own escapism too. Any wisdom for those in pastoral ministry on helping people deal with this?

Dave, thank you so much for your time – that’s really inspiring stuff – here’s to embracing hard things with Jesus freeing us from our fears this year…

Heard this before?

“You’ve arrived at your destination.”

Familiar words in our ear from the satnav, but for those of us in church ministry, how often are we tempted to let these words ring out in our hearts too? What is our moment of arrival? When we’ve unpacked into our new study, fresh out of theological college? When we’ve made the first transition from assistant to name-on-the-noticeboard minister? When we line-manage someone else, rather than simply being line-managed ourselves?

Arrival and Typical Ministry Pathways

The current typical ministry pathway in the UK seems to be for someone to undertake a church apprenticeship, maybe followed by a junior staff role, before embarking on two or three (or four… keen!) years at a theological college. This may then lead to a curacy or assistant pastor role for a few years, before someone then becomes a lead pastor, which in most church situations will mean being the only paid member of ministry staff.

Now, other pathways are becoming increasingly common – sometimes due to financial constraints (particularly seen in the Church of England’s desire for on-the-job training), sometimes due to less flexible life situations, sometimes due to an appreciation that not all are suited to residential training.

But if there is a danger with this typical pathway, then I imagine it is that ministers can default pretty quickly to a position of ‘arrival’. Ok, there’s a sense in which there’ll be new things to learn: pastoral situations, occasional offices, leading a team. But as the years go by maybe we can inch towards occupying a position where we think we have essentially arrived. We don’t think we’re the perfect pastor, by any stretch of the imagination. But we’re not really gunning for growth either. It’s a case of: I’ve done the training, I’ve received the call. Now, I just crack on with the job.

And that, in part at least, is why Adrian Reynolds has written this little gem, Progress. His concern is that those in set-aside ministry can lose that intentional drive to keep developing and growing, both in godliness and in gifting.

When did we last ask ourselves how we’re doing?

And although, in theory, most Anglican dioceses will have Continuing Ministerial Education budgets and most churches will write into their pastor’s contract something akin to a conference allowance, these provisions can’t ensure there is still a mindset of seeking progress. I suspect a sense of busyness is a huge part of the problem. Even conferences can all too often just become ‘being-busy-on-location’. But in this book Adrian wants to grab us by the collar and say, “Noooo! Stop! How are you doing?”

As the FIEC’s Training Director and previously the Director of Ministry at the Proclamation Trust (as well as formerly on the ministry team at East London Tabernacle and Yately Baptist Church), Adrian is well placed to write a book on on-going ministry development. You kind of expect it to be one of his mantras; after all, that’s his job! But essentially Adrian is offering an extended reflection on 1 Timothy 4:12-16, where the apostle Paul urges the following to Timothy:

¹² Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. ¹³ Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. ¹⁴ Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. 

¹⁵ Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. ¹⁶ Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. (NIV)

Practical help to Progress

These verses make up the substance of the book. Adrian draws out how the expectation from Paul is an attitude of development (4:15), and the surprise is that there is a connection between a minister’s progress in these areas and the effectiveness of the ministry God has given (4:16). Five areas of godliness are looked at in turn: speech, conduct, love, faith and purity (4:12); followed by the area of ministry gifting (4:13-14). In each short chapter, Adrian gives some theological consideration to each particular area, some really helpful diagnostic questions to aid self-evaluation, and then an extended prayer for personal response.

As I’ve written about before, it can be a bit of a gear shift to get round to asking ourselves what trajectories our ministries and personal lives are on, rather than always ‘reasoning our season’. But these verses show us just plainly how important it is. And it’s not just about us growing – after all, I can always come up with reasons why other things are more important than me simply ‘developing’. But my progress is also about the spiritual health of those in our pastoral care. That’s harder to wriggle out of.

Progress comes in the FIEC’s Ministry Journeys series, a set of bitesize paperbacks that have grown out of seminars at their annual The Hub conference. That means they’re brief, practical and engaging. For a start, it’s short enough to mean you’re actually going to give it a go. But the point isn’t to blitz through the book and just jot down a few quotes, but rather to prayerfully spend some decent time going through each chapter. Reflective reading should mean you finally have the courage to tackle some things you’ve known about for a while; you have the wisdom to spot other things that perhaps had passed you by; and you have the fresh resolve to keep growing – both in heart and in the task at hand. Perfect for a new year or an end-of-term pit-stop. Progress would also be fitting for a ministry fraternal to commit to reading and then reflecting upon together, or perhaps a staff team too.

You can pick up a copy of Progress from the publisher here, with discounts for bulk purchases.

Full disclosure: The publisher sent me a copy of the book for free, but I hope this is still a fair and honest review!