Former HTB Vicar Sandy Millar returned to speak at Home Focus last month - two years after he had used the occasion to step down from the post he had held for 20 years.

Speaking on the Sunday evening main session, he began, 'Nicky, I want to say first of all, it is absolutely lovely to be back and Annette and I are thrilled, and I can't believe that it's really two years since we were on this stage with you. 'I'm deeply conscious of what an honour it is, honestly, that you've asked me back to speak. And I'm very touched - we're very touched - indeed.
'We're loving Home Focus. We love every aspect of it. We're amazed at what you've achieved in two years, and it's just a huge blessing to us.'

Announcing to laughter that it was a new talk, he spoke on a passage in the Song of Songs: 'If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the sheep, and graze your young goats by the tents of the shepherds.' (1:8)
He explained that the passage told the story of a woman who worked so hard at caring for other people's vineyards that she neglected her own.

'It's often true,' he said, 'that the most attractive Christians are the hardest on themselves. Often it is because they are the most conscious of the dangers connected with the work that God has given you to do, whatever that is. 'Whether you are running a pastorate, helping with the children's church, leading worship or part of the band, or whether you are one of the clergy, the dangers of losing your spirituality when seeking to help others to be spiritual are very real...'

He added, 'When love grows cold, we find an occasional critical spirit that creeps in. We don't feed on the word of God as we once did. 'We taste, and we offer an opinion about books in the Bible, or verses or preachers, or whatever it is. We worry when we used to trust. We started so full of fire and life to push the Kingdom of God in front of us and to drag the world behind us, but somehow along the line, we got tired.'

He told a story of how at theological college he had been set a question on 'the quest for the historical Jesus'. His answer had been simply, 'He's here!'

He emphasised the importance of loving Jesus in all that we do and suggested two 'secrets'. Firstly, he said, 'the secret of the fulfilled spiritual life is to sit at his feet like Mary while working like Martha... in such a way, in such closeness with him, that your work is merged into him and what you are really doing is really only his working in you. Does that sound fun?'

The second secret is to 'do whatever he tells you to do... Show your love for him even while, at the moment, you may be sensing a mild frustration with your spiritual life. Do it. Anticipate it. Jesus went around doing good. There is no short cut to that.'

He told how the church he now leads at St Mark's Tollington Park is planning to plant a new service into neighbouring St Stephen's Hanley Road in September.

To listen to Sandy's talk online, click here. Or to download the talk in mp3 format, click here.