Talkin' About My Regeneration

I’m a massive Doctor Who fan, as some of you may know.  Not one of those Jonny Come Lately fans who started watching in 2005 and jumped on the popularity bandwagon but a long-term hard core Whovian, having watched since the 1972 Jon Pertwee adventure ‘Day of The Daleks’.  One of the things I love most about the series is the concept of regeneration; of being changed and transformed into somebody new.

I feel that I’ve undergone something of a regeneration myself over the past year since I began my training as a Student Minister in the Methodist Church of Great Britain.  This is, of course, the whole purpose of the ministerial formation process I’m going through and, indeed, part of being a Christian; to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit into the likeness of Christ (not that I’m anywhere near that at all, yet).

When I left for College I had lots of advice from different people, mostly along the lines of, “We’ve seen a few people go off to train to be ministers and they’ve changed.  Don’t let them change you!”  Well, sorry, but they have changed me, or rather Christ working through the lives of the tutors and fellow students has changed me.  People I’ve met over the summer on at my home church have said that I’ve changed and changed for the better.

In some ways I’m still the same.  My desire to preach the undiluted word of God fearlessly and without favour has not changed and my desire to win souls for Jesus is still as strong as ever, if not stronger.  What has changed is my approach to life.  My faith has increased incredibly this past year and more and more I view the world with theological eyes; my first response to anything now is to think about what God is saying in this situation or how the scriptures apply here.  I’ve been told I’m a lot calmer, a lot more patient and generally more relaxed.  I’m still me, but a better me, a regenerated me who celebrates all that God has done in my life over the past year but realises that I still have a long way to go!

God doesn’t want to stop us being ourselves, he created us as unique individuals and he loves us just as we are, though he loves us too much to leave us as we are.  He wants to change us and make us liker Christ, but not to be clones of Christ.  He wants me to be the most Christ like Rick I can be and he wants you to be the most Christ like you that you can be!