Life at Jubilee

Some readers of this Blog will already be familiar with my story of booking for an eye test a few months ago. Following a reminder letter to do so I phoned up Specsavers and tried to fix the appointment during a lunchtime when I would be free to be away from the CCK Office. On the phone the lady asked me for the date of my birth and then said, “We would be able to see you at that time, but as we are rather busy then we’d only have an upstairs clinic to see you in - would you be able to manage the stairs?’ I’ve been exploding about that remark ever since, not least because up until and on the very last day I worked at the office at CCK in Brighton I would run up the stairs.

At Jubilee Community Church in Cape Town I am continuing the practise as a very similar flight of stairs leads to my office here. I leap up them, past the photocopier (as at CCK) and turn first left into my office - again exactly as at CCK. There are in fact a whole number of things that are very similar here in the Cape Town Church as compared to how it was at the Brighton Church, but there are of course some differences as well. For one thing on reaching my office at CCK, and I occupied the same one for about 20 years, the only view I had of the outside world was through a skylight which usually afforded no more of a view than a grey sky and a few seagulls and also risked a stiff neck. Here in Cape Town I have proper windows and, can you believe this, I  even see some of Table Mountain through them. At CCK most of the Elders had offices together on the same floor around an open square. It’s a similar arangement here in Cape Town although the open square here is occupied by some of the Church’s administrators, three really lovely single young ladies ( recommended visiting times are 9-4.30 Tuesday through Friday). This is a vast improvement on the situation at CCK where the equivalent space was occupied by Steve Horne’s smashed up bycycle, the result of a foolhardy if courageous attempt to drive it up a vertical concrete post. Again a distinct advantage here in Cape Town is that a splendid lady called Cynthia delivers direct to one’s office a coffee in the morning and a tea in the afternoon, or indeed whatever drink one happens to fancy, although I’ve been careful not to fancy anything too fancy

On Tuesdays we can have a rather more crowded morning than at CCK. We begin with staff prayers ( the same) but following on from there we can also include teaching by me on the Book of Revelation; a treat that the CCK staff never benefited from; a full staff meeting, a pastoral leaders meeting and an Elders meeting. The Elders begin by attending the Prayer meeting and continue to the end of the final gathering as during the morning various people vanish at the conclusion of the other meetings. The Elders are therefore like the finishers and survivers at the end of a marathon though as the morning progresses the excellent Cynthia appears from time to time with another drink and finally when only the Elders are left standing (sitting actually) muffins also appear!

Once a month on a Thursday the Area Leaders have a meeting together. This is equivalent to the Zone Pastors meeting at CCK. Like CCK it tends to comprise Elders plus some other senior Pastoral leaders. But here in Cape Town it includes a lunch and what a lunch. The food arrives courtesy of an amazing caterer called Bertha. Sometimes there is a fish course and a meat course and the most exotic deserts I have ever eaten in a church. As you can imagine such an offering means razor sharp minds and an intense and keen discussion.

Again, once a month on a Sunday afternoon there is a Leadership Summit which is equivalent to a Leaders Meeting ( a rather duller term) usually held during an evening at CCK. At both churches it’s an opportunity to share vision, news and do some equipping. Can Jubilee really call together all its leaders on a Sunday afternoon and expect a big turnout? Well the secret weappon is Bertha who provides a tea that rallies leaders from the length and breadth of Cape Town. I don’t think that I ever previously eaten smoked salmon sandwiches at a leaders meeting and to reflect Hebrews in another context that only foreshadows the good things that are now here.

Again, both churches hold repeat meetings on a Sunday, one in the morning and one in the evening, although of course since we moved to Cape Town CCK has added another meeting on Sunday morning. Both churches make a noise about the excellence of their refreshments after each service  in order to encourage the congregation to stay on and to help build relationships. But only last Sunday I discovered that here at Jubilee one of the choices on offer is hot chocolate. As the meeting hall in both churches is not at ground level then at Jubilee I’m not only running up the stairs to the service (which I often did at CCK) but also running down the stairs to get at the hot chocolate. Anyone want to visit?

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