John 10:10 - Living life to the full (touch) #2

The word touch implies gentleness

X always the case

The woman's touch might have been a desperate grab

Touch also includes unwanted contact

Sadly sometimes people are subject to unwanted touch

Need to be assertive

J talked about what to do if someone hit you

X passive

Often people can't be - esp. children

Tragically often in church

We understand the dangers of unwanted touch

We train each other - we invest in safeguarding officers - we have procedures

And we take care

And responsibility

All aspects of their safety. Physical, emotional, spiritual, sexual

Try to understand and practice healthy touch

Rev Peter Powers always held a cross when he preached

Kept him in touch with the values he was preaching about.

All children having a cross - all team to have one

X hold all the time - inappropriate if doing a craft (or putting up JJ sign)

To have and to hold

We hope it'll be another way to help the team bond (bind/superglue)

Sports teams scrummage together to cement their binding together. Its very physical

We can't do that (many wouldn't want to anyway)

Risk Assessment - no sharing of the peace - not everyone would want to (avoiding the peace)

But the need to touch, to hug is deep - and wholesome - and right. (Daisy - results didn't matter)

But for now we'll elbow bump

as a sign of our brotherly and sisterly love for each other

Confident that love is much more contagious than Covid 10 , more infectious than a pandemic , more transmittable than the coronavirus even without touch

And for the children

Very touching

includes the punch