I joined with around 100 others yesterday from across London to meet in the Booby Moore Suite at Upton Park to launch the Global Day of Prayer for London.

The plan is to fill Upton Park stadium on the afternoon of May 27th with Christians from all across London (and wider) to pray for the city and the nation. A prayer initiative for London, London Prayer Net has been established for some time, but this will raise the bar. Raising the bar always involves risk, and holding an event like this will be, and is , a risk.

We heard from the Bishop of Barking who shared his excitement for this event coming from the East End, only a few years away from when it will be staging the Olympics. Pastor Jonathan from Glory House also shared his vision of seeing the whole of Wembley filled with Christians praying for the nation – now that would be something to be part of.

The buzz present today was one of excitement and support for the vision. As well as church leaders there were a number of organisations present, united in a shared belief that God wants to transform our nation and that to bring that about we need to be praying together for our nation.

Today was an exciting day, and a day when we were challenged again on the importance of the mystery of prayer.

We need to remember the bereaved, lonely and struggling today in our prayers.

I’m not sure whether to laugh or to cry!
Click here and you will see what I mean!
Saw this first over at Matt’s.

After the events of the past few days I have started to think differently. A few weeks ago, if asked, I would have said ‘Yes, Blair needs to go as soon as possible and Gordon should take over the party!’

Reading the press and seeing the events of the last few days unfold has been interesting to say the least. I find myself asking who is engineering what, who hopes to achieve what, who will ultimately lose out, and what is going to happen.

Saturday’s Guardian tells me that half the country want Blair out, so Blair needs to resign. That’s an understandable, but interesting and not necessarily accurate, interpretation to put on that particular statistic. 50% wanting Blair to go has the obvious unspoken statistic attached. The other 50% either are not interested, not bothered, or want Blair to stay! In light of some or all of this, Blair is quite right to stay in office for the moment, as half the people dis-satisfied is, actually, not a majority against him.

I have been disappointed this week by the actions of some. My confidence in Brown as a successor has been wiped out! He has time to change that, but I look forward to casting my vote in the leadership election of the party that takes pride in ‘one member, one vote’.

I hope that over the next few weeks we will see a different display; a display of integrity, strong leadership and people uniting behind what they stand for and believe, rather than being self-protective and worrying about how others might perceive them.

Just strikes me – I’m mot sure whether than hope is expressed towards the party or to the church, or both!

A really great weekend.
A weekend of highlights.
A weekend of family and friends.
Friday evening I received an unexpected bit of praise – a highlight because it was a surprise and set the tone for the rest of the weekend.
It’s amazing how a little bit of praise in such a way can have such a good effect!
Visiting a friend in hospital was a ‘joy’ and even better to hear that he was released a little while after I left on Friday!
Saturday was a cool time. Some of my personal supporters came to a BBQ and it was just fun to catch up with everyone in a relaxed atmosphere – a real highlight which does not get repeated enough. Lots of laughing, food and wine!
The weather has been fantastic!
Gillingham won their first away match, despite being down to 10 men for more than half the match.
Weymouth are still doing well in the conference!

Today lunch in the noodle bar with Landmark – always a good occasion for food and fun!

but … by far the funniest moment of the weekend was seeing Johnny Vegas as you have never seen him before! If you missed this in the Guardian at the weekend, prepare yourself before going here! Made me laugh! I wonder what Demi thinks?!

I have just finished reading Pete Rollins ‘How (not) to Speak of God‘ in just 2 days. It’s rare for me to read a theology book in such a short space of time. True, the book is only 137 pages long but I thoroughly enjoyed this read as well as be challenged by the content in such a way that I did not wish to put the book down. The best way I can describe it is a great theology book written in the style of a thriller where you just need to read the next chapter!

After reading, in fact during, I feel my mind has been challenged to re-think how I am a Christian (or how I am becoming a Christian), and my soul has been awoken and nourished in a way it has not for a little while. Quite often my mind shouted a silent yes as I agreed with Pete’s words; such as

what is important about revelation is not that we seek to interpret it in the right way but rather that we all love it and are transformed by it.

we do not do theology, but rather are overcome and transformed by it (easy to lose sight of as a student!)

we cannot grasp God, not because God is absent, but rather because God is always given in excess of our ability to grasp.

These are but 3 gems in a treasure chest of mind blowing challenge. In case you had not guessed I love this book!

In short, this is all about ‘how’ rather than ‘what’.

I have been brought up in a wing of the church that strongly emphasises the importance of what we believe. Rollins suggests what is key is how we believe. Believing in the right way and practicing in the right way are tantalising re-interpretations of orthodox and orthopraxis. How our belief changes us, how our practice allows us to be Jesus, how we show an increasing radical love as our search for God transforms our whole being and existence.

I’m going to need to dwell and reflect more on what I have read, and what this means for me. This may mean I blog more on this at a later date. If others have read it I would be interested in your thoughts.

I heard from Chris yesterday that he and Cassie got engaged at the weekend.

This is such excellent news, very exciting and they are a top couple!

I’m really looking forward to seeing them sometime soon.

On this side of the country I will be praying for sun as we hold a BBQ for those wonderful people that are my personal supporters and support us financially.

On the other side of the country, my good friends Annie and Phil, who run CSUK will be praying for waves on the north Devon coast for the Jesus Surf Classic.

I had the pleasure of working with Phil and Annie when we worked as youth worker for Holy Trinity church in Nailsea. It’s incredibly exciting to see how they have deveoped CSUK and the fun they are having by ‘simply being on a mission’.

Phil writes:

Dear All – Its that time of year again, the Jesus Surf Classic is on this weekend. We would value your prayers for the following subjects :
For Waves
For good weather
For Safety
For relationships with the non Christian Surfers,
Press and Spectators
For Safety and good vibes in the water
For key positions to be filled
For finances to come through to help run the event
Unity amongst over 100 in the helping team

At the bottom of this note you will see the ‘Surf Forecast update’ God is bigger than a surf forecast, but once again we will be putting ‘OUR FAITH ON THE LINE’ – Please join with us and praying for a Surf miracle, as we need surf for both days all through

Thank for all your ongoing support as we enter our biggest ‘Outreach’ weekend

Currently the forecast is ‘flat’ so please pray!

Fear and worry is something that happens around the start of September. It’s been around the family home this morning as children get ready for new terms.

Recently I heard from a friend who was worried about their child starting school. I can relate to that as Joe has just left to start as a junior in the school across the road from where he was last year. Last year I was worried because Tom was starting at secondary school. Last night I could see a kind of fear, or maybe more accurately described as disorientation, on the faces of the new students at SEITE.

Parents fear is strange. I know logically that Joe will have a great time. I know logically that Joe will return from school tonight raving about all the new things he can do as a junior that he could not do as an infant. I know when I ask ‘was it ok?’, he will give that ‘are you stupid’ look with an ‘yeah, of course!’

But, that logic, that reason does not make the fear or the worry disappear. Irrational fear that things may go wrong, that he may dislike it, that he may get bullied, that he may not get on with his teacher, that he may return home in tears. It’s interesting to note that I sense a fear, or maybe an ‘ache’, not for me, but for my children.

It’s a horrible feeling of helplessness – wanting to be there for my little boy, or my little girl, to ‘protect’ and yet knowing that would be the exact wrong thing to do and that it would hinder their development. Instead of protecting, the right thing is to trust. To trust that how we have brought them up has been ‘good enough’, and for us, to trust that God cares for them as he does for us.

That’s the big thing I have noticed over the past few years. Earlier, when Sarah and I had no children responding to God’s call was fairly easy. People looked at us as if we were mad when we gave up good jobs, took 50% pay cuts, traveled to the other side of the country, walked streets on a Saturday night. We did it though because we knew God was with us and we knew we could trust ourselves to God.

Accepting that for myself has never been a problem. Accepting that for my children is. I can cope with comments about my faith, but to think that my kids could have to miss out, or have a hard time because of my faith is, I am finding, a much bigger fear to cope with, and a different faith is needed to work with it. A faith that acknowledges that God is a serving God. A God who wishes to serve and care for all, not just those who profess our, or my, style of faith. A God who demands a trust that allows me to let go.

So, I sit here and work and every now and again wonder what might be happening, offer up a little prayer, work and wonder a bit more.

I can’t seem to let go entirely, but maybe in my desire to let go, in my attempts to let go, I am actually letting go.

Well, here we are, the start of a new year!
Very strange, but even though I have not been a teacher in school for years I still view September 1st as a start of a new year. It always feels, after the slowness or ‘different-ness’of August, that coming back in September really is the start of a new year. For many YFC centres in particular it means new staff.

I thought I would be working today. In fact, I have needed to take a holiday day as Sarah needs to be in school and the children do not start until tomorrow. It’s a welcome break and in a short while I think we are off for a cycle.

Tonight sees the start of a new term at SEITE. ‘Christology and Eschatalogy in the New Testament’. I don’t relish the idea of studying again, but it will be good to see the people. I sense we learn just as much from each other in our personal discussions as we do from the lectures anyway.

This year on the youthwork front, Sarah has asked me to look into a virtual chat space for Landmark which is the 14-18 group. I think I am going to set up a room at the Habbo Hotel which Andrew put me on to years ago. Now I am going to give it a go – I’ve had a little play and it’s quite cool as you can choose your online character and buy furniture from your room, etc etc – I’ll stop there as I am starting to sound geekly!

Workwise I am looking to meet up with lot of new people in new areas and may have to visit a group of churches in Land’s End, followed by a group in Bournemouth, Brighton and Weymouth. It’s a hard life looking at centre planting along the sunny south coast!

So …roll on September – I’m ready for ya!