Christian leadership is often associated with church-based roles. However, there are many individuals who, like me, live out their Christian faith in leadership roles beyond the stained-glass windows of our church buildings. I enjoy opportunities when I can openly combine my faith in Jesus Christ as my Saviour and my day to day work, so I jumped at the chance of delivering this year’s Germinate Lecture, Salt, Light and Feet of Clay: Celebrating the ministry of lay people.

Everyone thinks their community is unique – and they are right! No two rural communities are the same. The Highlands of Scotland, the west coast of Wales and the uplands of Cumbria and Teesdale are as different from the Fens, the Somerset Levels or the coast of Fife, as feta cheese is from cheddar cheese. The ingredients are similar but the look, taste and experience of the finished product are very different.

The creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2 are endlessly fascinating. The language of God’s creation is at once both breathtakingly beautiful, and mysterious and strange. We hear God talking, speaking thought and intention into the cosmos, which coalesces into reality. All the things we know and encounter have their origin in the breath of God, God’s creative Spirit, bringing all things into existence from nothing. And from these first things all else unfolds in the course of God’s good time, from cosmic black holes to new species of creatures on our planet. We are still discovering the miracles of God’s creation.

In February 2017, ‘Whitby Men Doing their Stuff’, an article featuring SAMS Men’s Shed near Whitby, appeared in Country Way. This Men’s Shed was the first in North Yorkshire and used the old schoolroom behind Littlebeck Methodist Chapel, deep in the picturesque moors on Wainwright’s Coast to Coast walk (whitbysheds.co.uk). It was an unlikely place for a Men’s Shed; now in its fourth year, is SAMS still doing its stuff?