One small step...

My brother bought me an interesting book as a Christmas gift. Moondust.

In it Andew Smith explores the extraordinary experience shared by only 12 men in the whole of human history (three of whom have subsequently died) - that of standing and then walking on the surface of the moon.

It's fascinating stuff.

And right inside the cover is a simple, striking picture of those footprints in the lunar dust. A different-planet version of the feeling that you get when stepping out on virgin snow, the first to leave your mark.

It's quite a thought! The first abiding imprint to be left upon the surface of the moon by human feet. Ever.

"One small step for a man, but a giant leap for mankind".

These guys were explorers. Pioneers. Pushing the boundaries. Farmers of the future, who ploughed the ground far out beyond the frontiers of the present time, to open up fresh fields of human growth.

A million different twists and turns to get them there. A myriad different tasks and tests and trial runs before they even got them to the launching pad. A patient and painstaking sort of process with a careful, cautious, step-by-step approach across who knows how many years.

Who knows how many little steps there must have been to get them there - and then, of course, that one small step that in the end would matter most of all.

"One small step for a man, but a giant leap for mankind".

There are moments like that in all of our lives.

I don't mean getting togged up like the Michelin man and standing on the moon - since most of us couldn't afford the outfit let alone the entrance fee.

I mean moments when that one small step you take brings with it repercussions that are absolutely huge.

And you know it as you take it. Even though you maybe can't begin to see precisely what those repercussions are.

A moment when a corner is turned and when, in some small way, a little bit of history is made. A moment when the world that you inhabit will be changed somehow forever.

We, too, are explorers, we who follow Jesus Christ.

Living in the future tense and stepping out beyond the safe parameters the present has pegged out: pioneers of promises that God himself has made: persuaded that, however good our present state may be, there's more we're meant to know and to enjoy.

And so we journey out with Jesus Christ, living in that future tense and looking for a life which lies beyond the safe and stark horizons of our present world.

And in amongst that multitude of steps we day-by-day will take, there are those steps, which in themselves quite small, are nonetheless quite massive in their long-term implications for our world.

We took a step like that this week. Just one small step in many ways: but nonetheless a giant leap. Our version of that footprint on the surface of the moon - or that first symbolic planting of the flag.

The leaders here - we made a sort of New Year resolution, I suppose. A statement of intent: a marker for the coming days. A planting of that flag which said we're going to seek God's future now.

We made a simple decision and spelt it out in black and white -

Our over-riding aim will simply be to do what God has called us all to do - to go and make disciples in our day and generation:

our starting-point in living thus will be a concentration on the gifts that people have - not posts to fill, but ministries being exercised by playing to our strengths:

our call will be to underline to every single follower of Christ it is their God-appointed privilege, each one, to be themselves the bringers of good news.

Hardly rocket-science, of course!

And because it is no more than stating basics, it is, at best, just one small, fairly simple step.

But it's in the league of those small steps which prove to be a turning point, a giant leap which changes things forever. It readjusts our compass and it sets us on a slightly different course from that we've been pursuing down the years. It means we've left the launchpad and we're reaching for the skies.

We've launched the raft - to use a different picture - and we're set to sail the seas.

It crossed my mind it's rather like that moment in the movie Castaway, when Chuck, who's been marooned upon his island for so long, heads out upon the open sea.

He's done OK on his island, of course. It isn't where the guy had planned to be, for sure: but given time to settle in, it's not that bad.

There's sun and sea and food and fire: there aren't those tiresome telephones, there aren't those daily rush hour queues: life is a beach - and the beaches are clean and you've got them all to yourself. I mean, the place has got a few things to commend it, truth be told! You could do worse, by far.

So Chuck makes do, gets by, survives all right.

That's been the sort of life that we've been living as the followers of Christ. Removed from real involvement with the big, bad world out there. Living out a rather safe, and pretty much secluded sort of faith.

And getting by. We do not bad.

But deep within our hearts we've known, like Chuck himself, that this is not the way it's meant to be. This is not our destiny. This is more existence than a life.

Chuck builds a raft. The thing is fairly basic since he doesn't have a DIY department store on hand.

He only knows the raft must be both big enough and strong enough to breach the wall of ocean waves which breaks upon the island's hidden barrier reef.

And he's been upon this island now quite long enough to recognise the subtle shifts in where the wind is coming from: he knows the wind must move: he knows the wind must blow from one precise direction if the raft which he has built is ever going to get beyond those crashing waves of water on the reef: and he knows there is a moment when the weather pattern shifts.

The man is good to go. He's living in the future tense, prepared to stake his all upon a fragile, mobile, ocean-going home.

It's full of risk. His craft doesn't come with a ten-year guarantee. He has no map, no fuel, no back-up crewe. All he can do is get out on the seas and just trust that the wind will carry him on to a future he knows must be there.

Well, I won't spoil the movie by telling you more!

But that's where we're at and that's what we've done.

We've built our raft. The wind of the Spirit has started to blow. The moment has come. And we've launched ourselves out on the seas!