Reader Training Nov 2005

Reader Training

As many of you will know I was selected for Reader training (only training, they’re very definite about that).  I’m not going to cover what a reader does here, just give you all an update on the process, and how I’m progressing.
Firstly there are a number of things that you have to get set up, some you do yourself, and others are part of the course.  You MUST have a spiritual director, and they will offer a list of names.  That finally came through this week, so I have to ring one of the two people on the list, and see if they are prepared to accept me (and I them, of course).  Then there’s the tutor group, there are four of us in the group, three are from the Chelmsford Christian studies group, so I’m already with friends.  Tutor groups meet about once a month.  My tutor is based in Thorpe Bay, and as most of the group are local to Chelmsford, we meet alternately in Billericay and Thorpe Bay.  The other person you have to meet with regularly is your incumbent, no problem there!  The there are the training days at Chelmsford, always a Saturday, and again roughly once a month.
So what do we do?  We started with a quiet day in the church at Wickham Bishops, and were given a number of different passages and ideas to reflect on.  It is always good to put aside a reasonable amount of time and dedicate it to prayer and reflection.  As you must have guessed I had a wonderful day, and came back really looking forward to getting started properly.  The first thing we have to do is prepare and present a Bible Study.  I spent four hours with no-one around, and my books spread out all over the lounge, studying a chapter of Acts, and trying to extract the theology.  I’ve done mine now, I also tried so experiments with the presentation, which didn’t work as well as I would have liked – but that’s what training is for!  I don’t know whether I passed or not, as there are still two other bible studies to go.  Then we have to prepare a hermeneutics paper, about 2000 words.  This is due in January, so I will spend most of my time in December working on it.  Later there will be Leading Worship, to practice, projects in the parish to complete and write up, and a time spent in another parish.  At the November family service I was preparing for the ‘Worship’ training day, and taking lots of notes.  It was a very good service, and there are many positives to take from it, so thankyou to the seventeen people who made it work so well.  Towards the end of the course we will have to prepare and deliver a sermon in the church in Thorpe Bay.  That will also be an interesting experience.  That’s not all, but I don’t want to bore you with too much detail now.  Lookout for updates in future Spotlights.

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