The Wonderful Everyday

Ordinand Graham Brack completes his ERMC course this summer: here he shares his thoughts with us as he steps into his future in ministry.

“About once every three or four months I take my wife to what our 5-y-o granddaughter calls “The Big Yellow Shop”. My wife runs around like a puppy while I stroll about marvelling at how cleverly made many of the items are and wondering how they can make them for that price. We load our trolley and then follow everyone else who is trying to get out of the place without going through every department first.

“Back in 2017 we were in Stockholm and found ourselves in an exhibition which described how the teenaged Ingvar Kamprad started a mail-order business and was then helping someone move a table when he realised how much easier it would be if the legs were detachable. From such small beginnings great things come.

“This marriage of elegance and function is wonderful to me. How great it must be to work in IKEA’s Department for Working Out how to put Small Things inside Big Things or be part of the Elite Collapsing Stuff Team. Even their lunches are cheap and efficient.

“The reason, I think, is the multiplicative effect of mix and match. These enormous warehouse-like stores are full of items, almost without number; and yet the company website says they stock only around 12,000 different items. Add in variations of size and colour and you get the wonderland we see. The wonder of IKEA is not that it does everything, but that it knows what it does well, and it does more of it.

“As I come to the end of my time with ERMC this seems to me to be the key lesson that I have learned and want to pass on to those who follow. None of us can do everything, nor is there only one right way. There are plenty of ordinands who are better at singing than me. There are several who move more gracefully. A lot are better than I am at extempore prayer. But God called me as I was, ready to be schooled as He wanted. Between us we add up to a lot of variations in ministry, but none of us is good at everything. And it doesn’t matter. If we stick to what we do well, we’ll be what God wants us to be.

“Sharing the Wonderful Everyday.“