Richard put me on to this article which is a good and interesting read. I believe it gives a healthier viewpoint than much of what we read.

Please pray for Lebanon YFC and all peoples there.

Well, hey, my hits are just about to go through the roof due to the title of this post!

Last night I was asked to speak about emerging and fresh expressions of church in the evening service. This is because of things that I have tried in the past and because I am waiting to hear (hopefully over the next couple of days) if I am going to be designated as a future ordained pioneer person. Watch this space.

Something unusual happened for St Marks last night; after I spoke and shared ideas, deliberately provoked with the odd statement here and there, an impromptu discussion took place which caused us to shelve much of the rest of the service.

Some listening, some worry, some excitement, some questions. I was encouraged as the conversation has started, not just the emerging church conversation, but also about what St Mark’s is trying to do, how it is church and how it can be church in 21st century downtown Gillingham.

It was great to have a really chilled weekend.
Saturday afternoon, we got to get together with Terry and Jo and their wonderful children at our place. Good food, good beer and good friends is a perfect combination for a Saturday afternoon.
barbecue, beer, wine, friends, followed by healthy fruit dipped in melted chocolate is a small and all too brief taste of heaven!

Between meetings yesterday I was able to use my Tate membership to pop into the Kandinsky exhibition. Wandering around and seeing the gradual change from landscapes to his distinct style of abstract was a real mini history lesson worth doing if you are in the area.

Kandinsky is an artist I have loved for ages and being ‘up close’ to some of his classics was brilliant.

the exhibition is worth visiting just for Composition VI which you will find in room 7 and is Kandinsky’s ‘inner vision’ of th biblical flood. The piece is so engaging, so absorbing , only partly due to its size, that is so easy to sit in front of it for ages and discover more and more. The mood of chaos is obvious, but there is also a strong sense and security of feeling that out of this chaos something new is happening, something new is being re-birthed. Hard to describe, I guess you need to go and see it.

Spiritual parallel? … out of chaos of th church we are starting to see a rebirth maybe, a great new creation, something we have never seen or experienced before, something that will take us by surprise because it is outside of our (as yet current) experience. Now that is an exciting thought!

Last night we launched Peninsula YFC in Medway.

This was an exciting time and the first centre I have been involved in the launch of where I have worked with the local people with the vision from the start. The whole process from the vision of one person, to getting church leader backing, to recruiting a steering group, becoming a charity and the launch has taken just under 2 years.

Some people might ask why YFC is involved in such a rural area, and last nights launch was held in the village of Hoo. The one secondary school on the island, Hundred of Hoo, has 1800 students. This is where PYFC will spend most of their time and taking good news relevantly.

A exciting evening, a large vision, and a massive opportunity. PYFC are currently advertising for their first worker, so if you know anyone who would be up for this exciting challenge let them know and get them to apply.

The situation in Lebanon is harrowing and I can’t believe western politicians, notably Bush and Blair, have ‘progressed’ from their stance of lack of involvement to sitting back and allowing it to happen for another week by blocking all attempts for a ceasefire as reported in the Guardian’s special report.

Some quotes from today’s report:

The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources.

The Bush administration, backed by Britain, has blocked efforts for an immediate halt to the fighting initiated at the UN security council, the G8 summit in St Petersburg and the European foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.

Israeli airstrikes killed 31 yesterday, including a family of nine in Aitaroun. More than 230 civilians in Lebanon have been killed in the past week.

An Israeli man was killed by a Hizbullah rocket in Nahariya in northern Israel, bringing the total of Israeli civilian deaths to 13. The army said 50 missiles were fired yesterday at northern Israel, injuring at least 14 people.

You can read more here of what life is like in Beirut from Zena el-Khalil.

I don’t know about you, but does not this seem more than barbaric. Our country is allowing the killings of innocent civilians who have no power to do anything. Killing 230 innocent civilians is not going to bring Hizbullah to justice. It is not going to breed understanding.

But it will be successful.
It will succeed in breeding more misunderstanding.
It will succeed in breeding more hate.
It will succeed in the shedding of more tears.
It will succeed in the shedding of more blood.

Who will ask Israel to stop this slaughter?
Will anyone be brought to justice for these crimes?
Will Bush or Blair ever call for ceasefire?
Is it acceptable to sit back and watch while 230 innocent people are murdered?

And we thought we lived in a civilized country!
We thought we lived in a country that valued humans rights.
We thought we protected the innocent and created and peace.
We thought ….. we cared!

Instead…

we create orphans and widows
we create a numbness towards the sanctity of life
we create pain and suffering
we create fear in the hearts of Lebanese children as they hear the bombs
we create fear in th hearts of our children as they watch the TV in tears

Edward Burke (1729-97) was right back in the 1700’s:

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.

I had a good couple of meetings in Tunbridge Wells today.

One was with a drama teacher who runs an theatre company. We are investigating a mini tour in the south east to introduce people to YFC and how a local centre could work with them in their local mission.

I then met up with some other people to look using a band, Collective, in the south east area. After that we chatted briefly about what would need to happen for a YFC centre to develop in the area.

I always find it interesting when things come together. 3 separate meetings, 3 exciting opportunities, 3 sets of people with a similar dream, that of mission with young people of the town. This could be an exciting time for Royal Tunbridge Wells!

It would be great if these possibilities come of.
Watch this space.

I’ve just got off th phone to my tax office Merry Hill 1 in the Midlands. I have to smile, in fact I’m laughing as I can’t quite believe what I have been told.

I applied for a tax refund on June 12th and have not heard anything yet so I thought I ought to ring to see what was happening.

‘At the moment sir we have a 10 week backlog of mail and we are currently dealing with mail that arrived in May’.
On asking what I should do then, the reply was ‘wait!’

I’m still laughing as I write!

How do you get 10 weeks behind in the mail?
How can the inland revenue be so inefficient?
I spoke to the manager and she said ‘I know, it’s diabolical’
Clearly not diabolical enough to hire more people to help out.

Looks like I am going to have an advent waiting experience for my money.

Thanks to my great friend Richard I have started to re-live my youth.
This website is excellent and full of 80’s videos.

So many great memories!
So many questions – what DID happen to Dr and the Medics?

There are many many favourites here, and quite few laughs too (did we really look like that 30 years ago!!)

This is excellent – you simply have to visit!

My favourite … simply the best song of all time: Boomtown Rats ‘I don’t like Mondays’

What’s yours?

Today was a London day, and it was hot!
I tried to avoid the tube, but it was not totally possible, but (hey!) no need to visit the sauna this week after traveling from Victoria to Kings Cross!

I love my London days as the 45 minute journey from Gillingham is always great for reading and writing notes. I did some prep for a talk I am doing on Sunday evening. I also read more of Generous Orthodoxy.

I was In London for the chief exec officers meeting with NCVYS. I get to represent YFC at these meetings. It was good to network with others and to put together a joint response to the government regarding certain proposals. Today we heard about the Spending Review from the treasury for the Third Sector. Apparently our comments, especially as faith based organisations, are wanted. It’s good to hear that the work all these organisations do is being properly recognised.

All of us can make comments or suggestions via the relevant bit of the treasury website. It’s worth doing and the consultation period does not end until the end of September.

I quite like this part of my work as it helps me to re-focus on what other youth organisations are doing who are not faith based; it’s a great opportunity to learn, share, be influenced and influence – good networking!! Being with YFC and dealing with churches means it is really easy to become insular, this helps me to maintain a healthy outlook.

After the meeting I managed to grab an hour with good friend Dean Pusey who is the DYO for Southwark Diocese. We had a good chat – thanks for taking the time to meet up – much appreciated!