A week on from our wonderful retreat at Scargill House, Simon caught up with Julie, who was announced as a new Associate of The Collective while we were there:

Simon

Hi Julie, last week at our retreat in Scargill we announced that the Collective had a new member, and you may or may know not know this, but we’ve been talking and praying about you for quite a long time. Could you tell everyone a little bit about yourself – where you live, what you’re up to, your family and what you do for fun.

Julie

Sure, I am Julie. I’m married to Stuart. We have two children who are in their 20s who live with us at the moment. They’ve been to university and come home again. They’re in the process of moving out eventually, but they’re sort of backwards and forwards a little bit. I am the Minister of West Craven Baptist Church, which is an amalgamation of three churches, one of which I grew up in. So I’m ministering in my home community, where people have known me for a long time, which is great.

It’s got some real positives that people know me through many different connections I’ve had with them, so it gives me a way in with a lot of people. But equally sometimes there’s the ‘the prophet isn’t always welcome in their hometown’ kind of vibe, but I love it and I feel like it’s the right place. We’re in the countryside, we’re on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border, close to the Pennine Way and the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, so there’s loads of great walking around and about and countryside which I love.

Simon

We’ve met before a few times and I know that you also know Roy and Dave. If I’m right, last week was the first time you knew that we were considering asking you to be part of the Collective.

Julie

Yeah.

Simon

And by the end of the week, you decided to say yes. So what did you know about the Collective coming into the week that made it easy for you to say yes?

Julie

I worked out that I’ve known Roy for 10 years and it’s about 6 years ago that I met you and Dave and you’ve all encouraged and helped me understand my calling as a Pioneer Minister. We came on the retreat just because I love Scargill. It’s a place I’ve been to quite a lot and I’ve been trying to get Stuart to come with me for ages. He’d met Roy before, and he met you briefly at Greenbelt.

I’m aware that in ministry it’s easy to not find the time to retreat and think deeply. And so that was why I wanted to come. I showed it to Stuart and he was up for giving it a go. You also mentioned to me that Roy was going to ask me to lead an awareness walk, which I led on the first day.

Was that a test? Like, ‘Is she any good?’ Or was it just a because it’s my thing? I love connecting with God outdoors, both personally and in my ministry, so it just felt like a good thing to do and I know that you as a Collective were concerned that Kate couldn’t be there, which meant it was an all male voice in the retreat, which wasn’t your original intention. I do think that’s important, that there’s a mixture in the Collective of male and female perspectives on things that Kate and I can bring. And so I led the awareness walk without thinking that it would lead to anything more – just that it was something I could do to help. So it came as a complete shock when you asked me. You’re all so intelligent and have a long experience in ministry and I’m still a Newly Accredited Minister. I’m still in what they used to call the probationary period. I feel inexperienced in ministry.

Simon

You have a spiritual ankle tag.

Julie

Exactly that: she hasn’t proved she can do it yet! So, I feel a little bit of imposter syndrome, I guess, as I consider what I can bring. When I was reading all your bios and trying to write mine, I’m like, ‘Oh, nothing really to say. I haven’t got years and years of experience in this stuff, but I feel called to Pioneer Ministry.’ So I guess the reason I said yes is because on a personal level, I can learn so much from all of you. I felt God speaking to me in the week about making time to think deeply and finding people to think deeply with. And you are people I feel I can be authentic with, think deeply with and learn from. Hopefully I can bring the female voice and using the outdoors in a way to help people connect with God.

Time management will continue to be a challenge for me as I do this, I need to keep an eye on that, but you make time for the important things, right?

Simon

You mentioned that you’ve only become a Minister with a capital M relatively recently. Still, you’ve probably been a minister for longer than most of the people that will listen to our podcast or read our blogs. Unlike Roy, Craig and I, you’ve had a life before being a Minister. Tell us a little bit about the rest of your life.

Julie

My first career was in teaching and my degree was in human biology. I’m a scientist. I loved science and I taught in secondary schools, Biology A level and Science up to GCSE. In class, I’d often hear the kids say, ‘I don’t believe in God, I believe in evolution’, which used to lead to great conversations. My husband’s a doctor, and after we had children, I took a career break to invest in the kids. We’re now understanding that women come to ministry later because they often have the caring responsibilities in the family, and that’s certainly true in my case. So when the children were born, we moved and Stuart got the GP partnership where we live now. We moved here- which was back home for me and so I was mainly raising the children, supporting them as they started school. Then the head of the primary school they attended found out I was a teacher so she got me in, originally just to do 2 weeks in a single class, which was really scary but it eventually led to me teaching science in the primary school.

At the same time I was involved in the local church back where I grew up, and because I was a teacher I was invited to do all age services and encouraged in that. Then that led to preaching, but I was always wrestling with the institution. How much of our energy is about just keeping it all going? Along with a frustration with a desire to be outward looking and make a positive difference in the community. So I guess that led to stuff like being involved in play groups, helping set up a food bank locally and do projects with churches ecumenically. Basically, to do missional/outreach stuff. So I wrestled with the call to ministry for a while.

Simon

So the theme of the retreat was the three values of the Collective, which we still go on about a lot because we have to remember them as well. Right now, which of them would you say challenges you most?

Julie

I think the thinking deeply. It’s finding the time and headspace. At the end of a busy day you can think, ‘OK, I’m gonna read a chapter of that book now’ and then you wake up and realise you’ve nodded off! So, it’s not just finding the time, it’s finding the energy and the headspace to think deeply. Coming home from the retreat, I feel like I’m back on the hamster wheel this week. So the challenge is ‘when do I step off the hamster wheel to think deeply?’ That’s not to say that I find thing listening well or living authentically easy!

I’ve never written a blog, although I’ve wondered if I could, so that might be helpful to clarify some of my own thinking on some of the issues that are important to me: What it means to be a pioneer and how helpful is that term? Meeting God outdoors. Issues around women, the Project Violet stuff is something that I’m getting involved in. I’ve got a few interests and have begun to recognise what my areas of interest and passion are within it all.

The Whole Collective Team

Welcome on board Julie. We look forward to hearing your voice and sharing the journey with you.