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I gave my life to God at the age of seventeen and slowly came to realise that this meant following Jesus. I decided that the Bible was the word of God while I was at uni. After seven years attempting to teach, I went forward for ordination into the Church of England. I learnt Hebrew and Greek while training so I could read the Bible in the original languages, and ended up with a PhD in the book of Judges. When I finally became a curate in the Church of England aged thirty-five, I was delighted.

I only lasted seven years. I left because of what happened over the rough sleepers. 

When I was put in charge of a small country church, the people and I agreed that our job was to discover the will of God and do it. It did not need to be me that had the vision, I explained - the Lord might speak to any one of us. 

After a couple of years, I had a phone call. “David, we must do stuff for the homeless.” I groaned inwardly, but managed to say, “Well done, Jane - keep telling us what God is saying about the homeless.”

We wrestled with it for eighteen months before I finally found myself saying to the people one Sunday morning that I believed God wanted us to keep the church building open for homeless people in the coming winter.

I had no takers. The six or eight people who spoke to me all had reasons against doing this. Nobody sat down with me to investigate the idea. What is the use of worshipping God on Sunday mornings, I thought, if when it comes to doing the will of God and it seems difficult we all shy away? It all seemed to be a sham.

So I left parish work, and have been teaching the piano ever since. 

There was a week of sub zero temperatures with a foot of snow on the ground that winter. Many people must have died. 

I have continued to attend church, but my input has not been wanted over these thirty years, which has given me the chance to really think about what a church should be, and compare it to what we are actually doing - hence this book. The more I exmined today’s church, the less connection I found with Jesus of Nazareth.

I have set it all out as simply as I can, and kept the book short. It’s not a rant, and I have tried to suggest helpful ways forward from where we are now. You can get it on Amazon in paperback for £4-50, or 85 pence in the Kindle version: search for The Church: Oh Dear by David Pennant. I’m happy to field questions and talk about the issues. Please contact me through my website.

Best wishes as you think about these matters.

David Pennant, Woking, UK, www.pennantpublishing.co.uk