I am going to be having a bit of a blog fast over the next few days. This is enforced upon me as I will be away from home from tomorrow morning until late Sunday afternoon.

Tomorrow I need to be in Leicester to meet with some other YFC people and will be spending the night with Mr Johnny Douglas to which I am looking forward to loads.

From Johnny’s I will be making my way to Nympsfield near Gloucester on Wednesday morning to join with the other senior managers and leadership team on our annual retreat. I’m looking forward to some time away and re-focussing, but I just have too many other thing to be doing at the moment!! I guess that is a good indication of the need to be away.

It just so happens that my next SEITE residential, this time at Aylesford Priory, is this coming weekend so I will be making my way straight from Nympsfield to Aylesford.

So … my lovely family get a break from me for a little while and I know I’m going to miss them.

In the meantime I liked this – if you are a fan of things like Stomp, so will you.

I watched Man Stroke Woman tonight – very funny!
You can catch the episodes here.

Today Laurence Gamlen from CPAS came to St mark’s to start a church audit so that we can look at what we do well and what things we could do differently.

I really hope this will help us develop, and not cause us just to look at the negative when there is so much good stuff going on.

I guess time will tell!

This morning I visited the local Roman Catholic church to see what they do. I now need to write a reflection for my SEITE course.

It was interesting to attend mass which was over in just under 40 minutes. I was confused in some places but I was interested in the ‘inclusive’ attitude that there seemed to be with some people joining in and others not, some having communion, others not – but that seemed to be ok, as did the coming and going during the service.

Chatting afterwards with some people I learned that they enjoyed the security of the mass. They did not need books because the liturgy was the same each week – maybe a good thing, I don’t know.

There was lot of symbolism this morning and a lot of ritual – but there was no application, no hearing from God, no sharing of ideas. Maybe those concerns have more to do with me than them, but it did seem to comfortable to come, do mass, and go – how was God to challenge these people? Maybe it is through the action of receiving communion itself – any other thoughts?

Last night St. Mark’s ran a great event in the local sports centre again. We took over the centre for the local community to come and have a night of fun. People played games, drank in the bar, went for a swim or sat in the jacuzzi.

It was great to see around 180 people come to the event who do not attend the church. Some of these people were parents of children who come to the holiday club, others were friends of people who attend St Mark’s and others were those that we know from the other events that we put on throughout the year.

It was great to see so may familiar faces and some new ones. A real excitement for me was meeting up and playing football with a 20 year old guy called Dave.

I knew Dave when he was 12 when I worked for Gillingham YFC. It was cool to re-new the link and catch up with what he is doing – in the main being a good partner and dad by the look of things. Eight years on and we remembered each others names and were able to continue with old conversations. In addition other people remembered Dave as well and so others were able to catch up and spend time re-establishing old acquaintance’s.

Last light loads of people felt a part of something and I hope they felt valued. Interestingly this is what seemed to be important to people; the fact that they belonged. Maybe there are loads of people that feel they do not belong to anything at all? I have no evidence for that – it’s just a hunch!

This event is part of St Mark’s vision for mission. To be out there, meeting people, interacting and getting to know people and discovering where they are at. Church in the midst of the community listening to the people – that is the sort of church I wish to be a part of.

This page could be an excellent resource to use to illustrate the passing of time.

Basically on every June 17th this family goes through a simple ritual of taking photographs of themseleves. The photos here start in 1976 and come right up to this year. It’s just fascinating to see the effect of aging over small annual times in space.

I wish I had had the idea years ago!

Have you ever asked that question?

I know I have on many occassions – it’s a weekly occurance on a Thursday of Friday in the week when I see how much I have done and how much is still left to do.

Madonna says it goes by slowly – I don’t know where she get’s tht idea from!

Our family has quite a strong weekly cycle or practice – so Friday nights often make me think ‘Is it really a week since we last did this?

Well I feel happy now – I have found the answer!

You can find the answer to if you click here.

I have spent time today in conversation with 2 vicars; one being Andy, my personal tutor, the other Bob my consultant/mentor for the next 3 years.

2 very different men, 2 men I very different ministries, but 2 men quite new to this ‘ordained lark’ with both having served their curacy in 3/4 years and one now a parish vicar and the other a SEITE tutor.

We chatted about the course and how I thought things were going, we shared frustrations and I shared where I thought my life was going and what I felt called to do.

Today has been a helpful day. A day when I realise I worry about stuff that I do not yet need a full answer to, although I would like a little more clarity so that I have some idea of where I am going. I want to know what God will have me doing in 1, 2 and 3 years time. I want to know but I don’t actually need to know.

It’s fascinating how people seem to strive for knowing what next. I have had a few conversations recently with good friends who have used similar terminology. They are in decision time and want to know what next, which road to take, which job to pursue, whether to change course. Before they feel they can do that, they need to know ‘what next’.

I’m asking if this is an impatient need to satisfy our emotions and feelings of security, or is it something deeper. Is it indicative of a person wanting to know they are in the right place and doing the right thing? It is the cry of someone craving acceptance? That’s a hard issue to contemplate when it is you asking the ‘what next’ question.

Earlier today I read Luke 3 : 22: ‘a voice from heaven said ‘You are my beloved son and I am fully pleased with you.”

The words of God to Jesus after his baptism telling him that God is ‘well pleased’ with him. As I dwelled on those words, it hit me! Rather a question hit me.

What was God fully pleased with?

Jesus had not yet done anything!
Yet God is fully pleased.
Jesus has been living in the dirt and grime of Nazareth.
Yet God is fully pleased.
Jesus has been working as a carpenter.
Yet God is fully pleased.
Jesus has been a son to Mary.
Yet God is fully pleased.
Jesus has not yet preached a sermon.
Yet God is fully pleased.
Jesus has not yet healed any sick person.
Yet God is fully pleased.
Jesus has performed no miracles.
Yet God is fully pleased.

Jesus has just been in the place where God wanted him to be.
That’s why God is very pleased.

If I could grab the reality of that pleasure, of that acceptance from my heavenly father which comes from being who I am rather than what I do I think my life would be a lot simpler!

I traveled to and from London on the train with Malcolm yesterday and we had an interesting time.

We got chatting to a guy about theology but seemed to upset a woman that was sat next to me who apologised to us and moved to another seat, stating that she wanted to read her book and our conversation was distracting her.

I could relate – there have been loads of times when I have found myself re-reading a rough chapter with my head screaming ‘WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP’to the people nattering opposite me.

In one sense I had great respect for this woman. It takes loads of courage and you open yourself in today’s world to sarcastic comments by doing such things. As I reflect on my day now I am wondering what was distracting her. Was it the fact that we were actually talking, or was it the fact that we were talking about God and she got worried because she started to get interested and did not want to be?

I’m sure it was the first – but I will never know!

Anyway – the train journeys were a great opportunity to catch up with the ‘soon to be daddy’ Malcolm and for a while it was like the good old times when we used to chat and laugh about stupid things in the office. The the train got to Gillingham, and for the next 2 days, bar 2 short 1:1 meetings I am left to my own devices in my study. I really must work out some way to con YFC into letting me have a team!

Today I met up with the YFC centres in and around London. We had our normal meeting and then each centre outlined what they did to the YFC board, with each one sharing one thing from their work that either inspired or excited them, or something that was innovative.

As I sat and listened I found myself getting excited. I knew most of what these people were saying but as each one spoke, the magnitude of what they were doing in their individual areas was massive. I then thought of what they were achieveing collectively and it’s outstanding if you stop to think.

The most amazing thing is this word ‘mission’. Often the definition here can be quite narrow, quite restrictive and quite exclusive. Today, we heard about a great variety, a great smorgasboard, of mission initiatives. Each with it’s own unique flavour and appearance.

We heard about mission through sports, through music, through drop-in cafes, through walking the streets, through running lunch time clubs in schools, through youth clubs, through teaching lessons, through running homework clubs, through inspiring churches, through giving young people opportunities, through dance, through mentoringm and more … such a great variety!

The people there were so different, not just in background, race, sex, church label, but also in their interests, their preferences, their priorities. There was so much variation that people coming in to visit might find it hard to believe that we all shared a common core and all belong to YFC. And there is the amazing thing – each one of us agree that the young people of this nation are in crisis, each one agrees that we want to present Jesus to the young people of today, each one agrees that we reach young people in our areas in certain, often innovative, ways.

No great new thing there I tell myself. But there was something unique about today and it has been troubling me because I have not been able to put my finger on it. Something I had not noticed before. Something that was good and healthy but just not obvious. It has just clicked! It’s a lack of expectation!

Today, there was a lack of expectation that people would be in competiton. There was a lack of expectation that others should think ‘my project is the best and you should learn from me’. There was a lack of expectation that we needed to out-do each other in our centres. There was a lack of expectation that we were going to be judged on what we presented.

There was an abundance, an overflow, an outpouring of mutual love, trust and respect.
No hidden agendas, just a genuine desire to serve God faithfully and with integrity.

I just find that so amazing, so incredibly fantastic and I really do feel ‘wow’ ‘aren’t theses directors and staff people excellent’. The group of people I met with today are a bunch of fantastic, dedicated and sacrificial people with God at their centre. I love them all!