There are many questions ‘out there’ that make for an interesting discussion. They are not important, they are not central to my faith, but they do interest me all the same. Questions like ‘Was Jesus married?’ ‘What was Paul’s thorn in the flesh?’ ‘Did Jesus visit England?’, or, the one I’ve been thinking about recently; ‘How did Joseph feel?’

We are able to read quite a lot about Mary. She shared excitedly with Elizabeth, she had the sensation of the child growing inside her, the shock of seeing Gabriel, the actual birth and the fact that ‘she stored all this memories in her heart’.

Joseph, on the other hand, we hear very little about. Clearly he did not believe the story that Mary told him. ‘I’m pregnant but I’m still a virgin. It’s a gift from God’. mmmmm, you have to admit that yeah but no but yeah but no but yeah it could be a typical story spun by Vicki Pollard!

I am a dad. A three times dad. I was there at each of the births and can remember each one clearly as if it were yesterday. Each one was different. I clearly recall the hours we waited in Bristol Royal Infirmary as Sarah was in labour and we wandered around corridors to try and speed Tom up. Contrast this with the stress created by the rush back from a wildlife park and the midwife turning up at home only 10 minutes before Beth was born. Contrast that again with the relaxed and calm birth of Joe in our home with 2 midwifes calmly floating around the house.

I remember the different first words I said to each of my children as I held them in my arms for the very first time. Each time I felt a rush of joy, of amazement at the beautiful gift God had given us and complete thankfulness that Sarah and the baby were both fine.

I remember my big fears. Will I be able to love this child? Will the child like me? Will Sarah and the child be ok? How will we cope? And then the questions: what will they be like? How will they grow up? How can I help them best? Will they believe? Those questions never go.

Not once did I think, ‘been there done that!’ Each birth was a unique event in itself.

As a father I try to relate to Joseph in this story. But, of course, he is not the father. At best he is a step father. A stand in for someone else who could not bring up the child.

I wonder f Joseph ever believed what Mary said. Certainly the bible passage could be read as saying that after he had the dream from God he just did as he was told. He was a man of God and recognised the voice of God. He did it, but it does not mean he liked it!

He must have experienced great joy and excitement – a birth can leave you with nothing else. Along with this though, he must have had great doubts. Doubts about who the father was. Doubts about the honesty of his wife – maybe she was the next Gomer? Doubts about how others would treat him – others would know, working out the maths would not be that difficult!

With all this, I tend to think that Joseph deserves, and in fact his character deserves, our respect. In the face of all that should have made him run away, he decided to trust and stay. He decided to stick by Mary and support her. He decided to make a home for our Lord.

Seems like he put the needs of everybody else before himself and I wonder if Jesus learned that bit of his character from his step dad.

The Celtic Meditaion for Day 21:

Seven times a day, as I work upon this hungry farm,I say to Thee,

‘Lord, why am I here?

What is there here to stir my gifts to growth?

What great thing can I do for others – I who am captive to this dreary toil?’

And seven times a day Thou answerest,

‘I cannot do without thee.

Once did My Son live thy life,

and by His faithfulness did show My mind,

My kindness, and My truth to men.

But now He is come to My side, and thou must take His place.’

From Hebridean Altars

… maybe tomorrow?

(keep watching the picture …aww!)

Bishop John Sentamu was a great character. I do not think I have seen anyone cause Roy Crowne to be lost for words in the 15 years that I have known him. Bishop John did!

In his devotion he ran us through the letter of Philippians. His whole theme was entitled ‘Celebrating our oneness in Christ’. He reminded us that this meant that we were to have Christ at the centre of everything we do.

Christ at the centre of our living (1:21)

Christ at the centre of our thinking (2:5)

Christ at the centre of our planning and motivation (3:14)

Christ at the centre of our rejoicing and thanksgiving (4:4-5)

Christ as the centre of all I do, of all I am, of all I think, of all I desire, of all my hope.

I left the house this morning at 5.30 to meet Sharon, a fellow fantastic YFC worker, in Maidstone. From there Sharon drove to Chawn Christian Centre in Stourbridge, where we had our team meeting.

The drive along the M25, and up the M40 were very different. I noticed the natural beauty of our landscape as the sun slowly rose. It was amazing. Usually when I drive I notice just the road and the cars in front and behind, for obvious reasons, so to see the beauty around was quite amazing.

The whole journey reminded me again that, if we allow ourelves to look, the beauty and presence of God in our world is so flipping obvious! I looked and wondered how on earth I had ever forgot or not noticed how amazing God’s creation is.

At this time of year, we think about God entering his creation and the sacrifice that must have been. After today I must admit I have started to wonder whether our intuitive God was actually dying (literally?!) to experience his fantastic creation for himself as it was intended – for man.

I’ve got an early start (530) in the morning to get to Stourbridge for a YFC team meeting and our Christmas lunch afterwards. Despite this I am quite looking forward to the day.

We have the pleasure of Bishop John Sentamu (our President and Bishop of Birmingham) leading the devotions at the start of the day. I am looking forward to see how he leads us, and to hear afterwards on how we are progressing with the new YFC facility in Tipton.

I do hope though, that if it does snow, that it does not start until we are home!

Sarah and others organised this years Christmas ‘event’ at church using ‘The Peace Child’. This was a production using various members f the church and, basically was about 2 tribes who hated each other. The leader of one tribe could not have children and the leaders of the other were just about to have one.

In a dream the father to be was told that he needed to give his child as a ‘peace child’ so that war would not happen and so peace could prevail. So, the dad gave up his son so that peace was available for all. I guess the Christmas story parallels are obvious.

This afternoon was amazing. The church was packed and after the Peace Child everyone stayed for food, games and just to chat. I say amazing as the majority of the people there were on the fringe of church life and not those who you would see on a weekly, or even on a monthly basis. They were there to see a ‘performance’ and they were there for ‘food’ and I think they were also there because, slowly, we are learning as a church that mission is all about relationship. Many of these people were at the sports centre a few weeks ago, and it was like meeting with friends when seeing them again.

It would seem that if we put on different events that seem relevant then people will come, which as I have started to honestly believe that attractional models of church (Hirsch) are outdated I find quite intriguing.

Could it be that the attractional model can still work in the right environment where there is trust, relationship and no expectation placed on people as to how they should behave, dress or sound? I guess the answer to that will come in time, and I do wonder if we can not, albeit undeliberately, place expectations.

At the moment, however, we seem to have been given quite a large group of people to befriend and love, everything else is quite secondary to that.

This weekend the children had to say ‘goodbye’ to a family pet and ‘Frosty the Snowman’. No doubt you will pick up from previous posts that the fact the Frosty stopped working and the garden centre had no replacements brought some Christmas cheer to my mind! We no longer have a tacky poor looking skiing snowman outside our house!

The second goodbye was somewhat sadder, especially for Joe.

Batman, the ‘more adventurous’ partner of his Batman and Robin duo of gerbils died. I returned home on Friday to be told that Batman had escaped. I looked at the cage and thought way’ and decided to have a look around in the peat of the tank when all children were away from the probable discovery I would make.

Joe was very upset. These were his first real pets. I am always, however, struck by the depth of Joe’s faith and understanding for a 6 year old. He asked if we could bury Batman in the back garden. I dug the hole and Joe placed the carefully wrapped (albeit in newspaper!) dead body of his little friend in the hole n then lovingly covered the hole with the dug out soil. He then found two small pieces of wood to make a cross to mark the grave.

We then stood in silence for a little while. When I asked ‘What do you want to do now?’ he asked to go inside and get on with life! As I said, a simplistic and uncluttered view of life and faith. Yet another example of what it is to be ‘as little children’.

This seems to be hitting the Christian press quite a bit. I find this article by Jayne very interesting, and maybe even prophetic!

I have just returned from an excellent time in Newham. I don’t know what it is about the East End of London but the three times I have visited I have returned full of enthusiasm and a desire to see YFC working in partnership with the local church to reach the thousands of young people that are outside the touch of any of the churches.

I while ago I blogged about Transform Newham and the way that the church leaders had been praying for transformation of the borough for 20 years. That still strikes me as amazing. It would seem that a lot of groundwork has been done through this prayer and I think it’s a good idea of what Kester Brewin means when he talks of waiting on advent rather than rushing into things.

Today I went to the River Church which is an amalgamation and used to be the Mayflower Centre which was set up by David Shepherd many years ago and the Elim Way Fellowship. I even know people in Medway in their 50’s who talk fondly of David Shepherd and the Mayflower centre as a place they used to regularly go when they lived their as kids.

I met with Mercedes who is an incredibly enthusiastic but switched on youth worker in the borough. She sees the need for some partnership work to reach out to the kids of the area. As in many inner city areas the kids have been let down by successive workers (apparently the average post expectancy of church workers has been 12 months!) leaving as she has a desire to both stay and see some rooting of good quality long term youth mission outreach.

One of the church leaders has called together a meeting of youth workers in the borough sometime in January when we can talk about dreams and possibilities of what stuff might be able to happen.

I’m really quite excited. I think this has been my best week yet in this new role. In one week I have spent 2 days in London and we are at least TALKING about how churches can ‘do mission’ with young people. I really hope this one in Newham takes off as the needs are so obviously there – as I drove into the estate I could sense the desire for love in kids faces. These are the sorts of areas that I want to be working and where YFC and the local church could develop innovative forms of mission that see young people being saved!

When I left Newham I was able to pop in on my good friend Nick Shepherd and have a chat. Such a cool guy and great to spend time with him chatting about the issue of YFC and London, and pulling him away for a little while from his PhD writup. He may even have given be a workable idea for inner city boroughs which, if it comes off, will be fully attributed to its ‘birther’!