I was at church today. It was the family service, always performed on the first Sunday of the month. I've been a regular at the church for about four years now, normally attending the 8 o'clock holy communion. My wife has always been keen to take our two boys to the 9.30 a.m. family service though, so I break my routine to go along with them and sacrifice the communion of bread and wine.

Recently the ministry at our church has taken on a new curate, Nicholas. When he was first ordained, he seemed very nervous when conducting any service but now that his self confidence has visibly grown, his passion and enthusiasm for Christ shines through with every word he speaks.

For the family service there is always a certain entertainment value required to attract the children's attention. When it is Nicholas's turn to perform the service his creative bent really comes to the fore. Today he had the children gathered around a table whilst he demonstrated his cooking prowess. He mixed together his ingredients and cooked up a sumptuous ….. scrambled egg on toast. Unfortunately there wasn't enough to feed the five thousand, but the children came back to their pews with a sample of his talents, with my youngest particularly tucking in heartily. Perhaps there's room for a Celebrity Holy Chef on television. Who knows?

Nicholas apologised if people thought his approach was perhaps seen as a little irreverent, although I find it hard to see why anybody would be offended.

The point of the exercise was to emphasise the creation of something and the ingredients required for creating this something. God asks us to help create disciples; followers of God and Jesus. To do this we need some ingredients.

A faith in God, a faith we are proud of and not frightened of revealing to anybody.

Reading of the bible so that we can understand his work and deliver his word.

The need to be disciples ourselves so that we can lead by example.

A need for passion. Passion is like the heat that cooks the scrambled eggs. If the heat is low it takes a time to create the solid substance we call scrambled egg. With passion in our hearts it is far easier to deliver God's word and far more effective. Sometimes the heat goes out and the scrambled egg goes cold.

Likewise we have to review our faith and acknowledge that sometimes we have to re-ignite the heat of passion to demonstrate to others our commitment to God. Mind you I normally reheat things in the microwave oven.

Please feel free to comment and state some original ways that gods word has been relayed. Perhaps you have come across some good eggs too, just like Nicholas.

Terry Norrington

www.getselfconfident.com