I realised something at the weekend while my father in law was preaching in church. It was that God does move! Now that may seem a strange thing to say and I will try to explain what I mean.

WE look at the world and sometimes get quite downhearted. We see Iraq, Sudan, Beslan, poverty, violence and so on and just think ‘God please do something’. I do not know about you, but I pray that God will intervene but sometimes I think I just pray and do not really expect him too. I think too, that this is because I don’t think he does because life is just hard sometimes and these situations seem so hopeless.

On Sunday, Ernie reminded me that even in my ifetime of 40 years I have seen God intervene in some very powerful ways.

I remembered the falling of the Berlin Wall, something that at the time we would have never thought could have happened, in the midst of the Cold War.

I personally remember watching Nelson Mandela being released and later taking up office as president of South Africa and the break up of apartheid. Again, something that looked so hopeless that we never thought could possibly happen.

I look to Northern Ireland and remember as a child growing up in the 70’s and 80’s with bombs, terror and death beng reported and occuring on a daily basis. There is still a lot to do but, again, God has clearly intervened in this country.

Such amazing things, which I remember thanking God for at the time, and yet easily forgotton.

The hopeless situations of today are not hopeless at all – God is on the move, where will we see him intervene next?

Friends are so important aren’t they.

I met up with Dennis and Sharron yesterday in Rolvenden, which is in the Weald of Kent, who have come to be good friends within YFC. I’m sure when we all leave we will be friends outside of YFC too. It was great to spend some quality time with them again.

I always love chatting with friends and just listening to what is going on in their lives at the moment. It’s great to see how God is working. All too often time in our western world is focussed and targetted. We are told we have to speak to so many people, sell so many products, give out so many flyers, reach whatever target. We are even starting to see this in Christian organisations which I admit does worry me a little.

I am a personal target driven person. If I have nothing to aim to do, invariably that is what I do – nothing. At the centre, underlying and surrounding that, however, is a confident conviction that targets are very very secondary to relationships.

Relationships, for me, is where it is at. Relationships is how we get things done, it is how we find value in both ourselves and in others and it is how we will instigate change in a world that needs change.

Targets are great, but lets not forget that they are very empty and pointless without relationships.

Everybody has a story. Everybody is looking for someone to listen to their story.

Let me tell you a secret …. interested is interesting. The secret to making friends is to be interested in their stories. If you show interest in others stories they will want to hear yours as well.

(words from Dan Ackroyd playing a father in the film ‘Loser’)

We all love to be listened to. We all like to be asked what is happening in our lives. We all get a little peeved with those people that just want to talk about themselves and do not seem to be interested in other people.

Too often, though, many of us think our stories are not worth bothering about. We feel no-one will be interested. I think because of that we tend to think the same about other peoples stories; that they are not worth listening to either.

Everybody has a story that is worth listening to. In fact, everybody has a story that we must listen to. If we do not listen, if we do not show interest what hope is there for us as church to reach out and show love to those around us.

Stories are key. Jesus used them (although we use the posh term of ‘parable’ to describe them). Good teachers and speakers use them. We love them because in some way we find we are able to connect with stories that we hear.

Today I am travelling about a bit and I am going to try and listen to the stories of others. Maybe I will tell my story in a little while. If any of you want to sare yours, I would love to hear them.

Today … I wish you an interested day.

This weekend has given me one of those proud times as a father.

Recently Tom has joined the 19th Gillingham Scouts. This weekend was his first weekend away camping. After the football (if thats what you can call it this week) we all went over to the camp to see Tom invested (become a member) as a scout.

I went along thinking this was the normal thing that happened. It was not until the scout leader started to talk that I became aware that the whole idea of being invested at camp was Tom’s.

It always amazes me how Tom can come up with his own creative ways. No, thats not quite right. I am amazed that Tom has these ideas and then is creative and persuasive enough to be able to see them happen. Thats quite amazing for a 10 year old boy I think.

Children seem to see through the rubbish and just get things done. I wonder what happens as we get older because ‘things’ seem to hold us back.

As I said, today I am feeling pretty much the proud father

What a day today has been! Do you ever get those days when nothing seems to go right, or that no matter what you do things just seem to get worse?!

The day got off to a great start, though. First, I met up with Ben Hyde who sed to work at GYFC and now is the youth worker of Sittingbourne Baptist Churh. It was great t catch up with him and hear his vision and discuss his plans. I will be continuing in a kind of coach/mentor role with Ben which really excites me.

From leaving Ben, though, things have got worse. I dropped my ipaq on the floor while in the toilet. The screen broke and now it does not work. The GPS system for it has stopped working and so it needs to be sent back. To make things worse my ipaq is an old model so it will be virtually impossible to get a replacement that is compatible with everything I have. The laptop keeps crashing. I can’t get my databases to work properly and people I want to talk to are just not there.

If I did not know better …. I would be asking should I even have dreamt of considering a challenge on the concept of an all powerful God??!!

Before reading today I want to remind people that I do not speak the truth. All my writings are opinions, mostly personal. Some, like todays, are accounts of as yet incomplete thinking which I am writing to help me in my thinking processes.

I have been chatting with a number of people recently on the theme of suffering adwy bad things happen to innocent people. Much of this conversation has come from shock over Beslan. I was also chatting to Sarah and we could not agree.

I am wondering – can God be all powerful if bad stuff happens o good people?

I know some of the evangelical responses to this that I have been brought up with:

1. None of us are really good – we have all done something wrong and so are bad really!

2. Suffering is a method God uses to develop our faith in him.

3. If we did not experience hardship and sadness we would not be able to experience joy and happiness.

4. The many others which I am sure you have heard or grown up with.

I am currently challenging and investigating a lot of hat I have been taught over the years and I am not sure these responses give an adequate answer. For example, a God who uses pain to develop character does not equate with the God of love that I worship. In fact it seems quite sick and if I used ‘pain and suffering’ to develop the character of my children I am sure social services and oters would soon intervene!

The suggestion we are all bad – yes I would agree we all ‘sin’. But had the children of Beslan, or the Jews of Aushwitz, the Tutsis of Rwanda been ‘bad’ or ‘evil’ enough to deserve what happened to them. I guess most of us would agree not.

So the question holds – why does God not stop things like this happening? Why doesn’t God intervene?

I don’t know my answer yet, but could it be that God is not all powerful? Could it be that some things are even too much for God to do? Could it be that sometimes the best he can do is be there in it with us? Maybe he really wats o stop stuff, but knows that he cannot (or is it should not?). If so then the notion of an all powerful God confuses me.

As I said, I don’t know the answers and I am processing this in my mind. It certainly grates and hits at my evangeical upringing and as I write ‘not all powerful’ my imediate response is ‘of course he is’. But I am asking myself how conditoned a response that is.

Today I met with Pauline in Wandsworth. She is a great woman who has been used by God fantastically in the borough. Over coffee she talked about what she had been involved in and her vision for the future in the area and you could just see the excitement and dedication in her eyes. It was pretty contagious. This woman has been there for years, she is not paid and yet her love for the place is clear for all to see. She has not become cynical or jaded which is what you can find with people that have been in one ocation for a while. Here is a person that has a real tranformational relationship with God which I must admit to being slightly envious over.

I have known Pauline for a little while but the purpose of my visit was to suport her as she develops So_lid YFC in Wandsworth. This really is going to be a an exciting YFC centre as So_lid seeks to support, enable and resource the local churches to reach out in ther communities. Pauline is very clear that this YFC centre is not to do all the work – the vision is one of enablement and resourcing and support. It is the churches work and So_lid hopes to support them.

I find that so exciting and think that maybe this is what all Christian outreach should be about. Rather than wondering about competing and empire building, looking to suport and encourage others is I think what it should all be about.

There has been a bit of talk on leadership on other blogs recently. Abuse of leadership, leaders not understanding and so on. If all leaders took on this enablment and servant atitude then incidents like this would be far less, don’t you think?

Saw on the news today that everyone in Liverpool is being encouraged to read the same book over the next month and then talk about it with everyone they know – and even those they don’t.

This is a great idea and one which will end up in sharing of ideas, different interpretations, views, likes, dislikes and so on. It would great to know what happens.

I wonder if a church or online blog ‘community’ could do something similar? IF we did, what suggestions for books would there be?

I remember that I have not finished my posts on this pretty cool book. I finished it a while ago but then got distracted with emotional goodbyes, cars, jobs and wifi so have not finished my ‘reiew’. There is loads that could be written but I would just like to reflect on the book generally. It is one of the most thought provoking books I have rad in a while that resonates with me. Lots of books you think ‘yes … that right’. This one seems to hit home and settle probably because it says things I love to hear I guess.

With the title you can guess the thread running through the book. The church should be provacative in all that it does. I could leave it at that but I gess you may get the wrong idea.

I think Graham Tomlin is basically saying that as Christians (a group of christians=church) we spend a lot of time and effort trying to nswer quesions that people are not yet answering. We are taking too much knowledge for granted. Our methods of evangelism are therefore, not that successful as we are starting at step 6 when people are at 1.

Tomlin suggests that the church should do things to provoke the questions. ‘Why are you doing this?’ ‘Who is this God?’ ‘Who is Jesus?’ ‘Can I have the same relationship that you have?’and so on. It suggests that all we do should aim to provoke an interest or questions. This way people ask the questions they are really thinking, rather than us thinking we know the questions and answering what they are not asking! At least i hink that it was I mean.

But the book goes further and this is what I like! It states that churches should be transforming communities. The church should transform the lives of those who come into contact with it. This ens those in the community and those who would call themselves members. This means living a transformed life. If Jesus died for me I do not need to live a life of shame. It also means that everyone I meet I will treat with a dignity, love and respect as I acknowledge they have ben created by God and loved by God.

Imagine how we coud transform our little communities if we acted like that? I tend to believe that is what peope are looking for in toays society. That kind of love and acdeptance. The transforming community of the chrch is where people should find it.

In addition I believe we should be transforming Christians with no strings attached. If we are going to see transormation in our communities we need to love others and serve others with no expectation of anything in return. Yes, we want to see people come to see Jesus – but that should not be our motivation. Our motivation should be love for people unconditionally.

Jesus healed and loved many knowing only a few would come to believe in him for who he was. That knowledge, however, did not stop Jesus loving extravanagntly. And it should not stop us.

The words at the end of the book refer to Ephesians and go something like this:

It tells them to develop a completely new way of living. This is the prioity.When that begins to happen it connects with the reality experienced by God’s people.

If you want a good read then go get the book.