… more points for the Gills

and England still on for the Grand Slam

<img src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41322000/jpg/_41322082_ch_pa.jpg&quot;

I love it when the young people of St. Mark’s lead a service. There is always something bare bones about it. They cut through the pomp and stuff and get right down to engaging with God. If you forgive the analogy (and no desire here to be offensive) but sometimes I feel that people leading worship feel that adults need worship ‘foreplay’ before they can connect with God. I wonder if that’s because as adults we find ourselves compartmentalising worship, life, work and so on.

The young people we work with don’t seem to do that. To think of ‘warming people up’ for worship is bizarre to them – they lead you straight into it with a 2 minute introduction. It’s clear, refreshing and excellent. We are, however, incredibly blessed as I do think the young people of St Marks Landmark are an excellent, creative and very talented bunch of young people.

Tonight zones were set up.There were chill zones, art zones, chat zones, meditation zones, to receive prayer zones, to pray zones and of course the cafe.

Tonight people were free to be able to connect with God in an appropriate way for them. Afterwards I brought the boys home in the car and tears came to my eyes as Tom said that God told him in the service that ‘God loves me massively’ and Joe said ‘God told me he will never leave me’. Beth came home later with Sarah wide eyed and knowing that God loves her.

Those 3 reactions mean more to me as a dad than words can ever express.

Today was a Noodle Sunday. We have an excellent Noodle Bar just around the corner from the church and we joined Landmark (the youth group at St. Mark’s) for lunch there before they set up for tonight’s zone service.

It’s amazing that you can eat so well for around £4 per head – but it does have a negative effect on my waistline as I am do seem to have met a lot of people there recently!

That aside though I always think what amazing events these are. How often do young people, or my children, get to eat with a group of 20 or so people. There’s something special about meals like this and God is certainly at the centre of them.

That’s the thought I had as I left St Columba’s yesterday. The thought to stay dusty. To stay so close to my rabbi that I am constantly covered in the dust he kicks up from the road.

I think I have posted on that saying before. ‘May you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi’ is a blessing. It meant may you be so so close to what he does, that you really do end up being like him.

Yesterday I left the CTIE youth workers group quite excited.

I must admit when I turned up I was a little down-hearted. I had given up a day to come, but there was a small select gathering. I needn’t have worried – the small select gathering were an excellent bunch of people.

We had the pleasure of being led by David Coffey throughout the day and chatting over how we can be relevant and real church today to those that are outside the church, and particularly young people.

The fact that there were a few of us meant we were able to chat things in quite a bit of detail, really think and listen, and churn things over. Quite often in big groups, people come with agendas and the conversations flit from one thing to another. One thing I liked about yesterday wag people came with one agenda which seemed to be to hear and learn from each other.

David Coffey got us thinking about Fresh Expressions and looking particularly at Acts 11. David did not say anything that would be particularly new to youth workers and emerging church missioners that have been around for a while, but to hear those thoughts coming from a representative of ‘the establishment’ is incredibly encouraging.

Over the last 18 or so months we have seen Archbishops Rowan and John speak about new ways of being church, and yesterday I was excited to hear David talking about similar. There seems to be an acknowledgement that it is ok to have a ‘both and’ mentality when it comes to authentic expressions of church. New ideas being welcomed, no indeed encouraged means, I think, that we are in quite unique times.

David helpfully shared some thoughts. He mentioned that often fresh expressions are a headache for the establishment as they do not know how to treat them. This is whey we looked at Acts 11 – which looks at how the early church dealt with major issues such as did the Romans need to be circumcised.

We need to remember here that this was a serious issue. Circumcision was the mark of the covenant. This was commanded by God. To not have the mark meant you were not accepted into the covenant according to the Scriptural tradition. So – pretty major, and yet these new Christians who were not circumcised were experiencing God. God was working in and through the,. They were Spirit filled!

David helpfully drew out 5 steps from Acts 11 to consider when looking at fresh expressions:
1. Ask critical questions: verses 1-3: find out the whole story, what has been happening. What is the issue.
2. Tell/listen the story: verse 5
3. Theological reflection: verses 16,17
4. Careful listening verse 18
5. Thoughtful conclusions verse 18

This seemed to be the pattern employed here. The Christians asked Peter what had been going on. Peter told them the whole story. He remembered and brought up what Jesus had said. The people listened carefully to his stories and then made common sense conclusions – that’s my take on it anyway. The common sense being ‘God is clearly blessing them and using them, who are we to say this must change or you must do it like that. Great God, fantastic – as for you lot keep doing what you are doing!’

WE then looked at what is needed today – and I really think David was spot on here:

We need to know how to recognise God’s hand in times of change and upheaval. Mission has always been about crossing boundaries, right from the early missionary trips to different countries and cultures from Jerusalem. We need to look to see what God is doing and realise it is him.

We need gifts of spiritual discernment. In Acts Barnabas is sent to see what is happening. He sees through all the new practices and saw ‘proof of God’s favour’.One obvious way to discern is by looking at the fruit in the lives of the people involved. Are they loving, caring, do they display the fruits of the spirit – if they do then it could suggest the expression is of God.

I think this is so key today. It is very easy to be creative for the sake of creativity, or to do something new because it suits personalities. What we do need, however, is for these things to be immersed in prayer and for their to be real discernment. In what I have seen I think there is loads of evidence of such discernment, but we should not become complacent. It’s easy to be tricked!

David also suggested two last things – we need to develop culturally relevant Bible study, and we need to be open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit (which I think means sticking close to your Rabbi and enjoying the dust)

I thought the day was thoughtful and it was totally not what I was expecting. I was not expecting to be looking at fresh expressions of church. I was not expecting to make new friends. I was not expecting to meet potential bloggers!(As a side development I think I convinced a few people over lunch that they could start a blog – I hope they do as I will be interested in reading what they have to say).

I’d be interested in those thoughts above. I think they have answered a few things in my head – and is helpful as on Sunday I am meeting up with Paul, the Rochester Diocese DDO, to chat about Pioneer Minister stuff. Sometimes God surprises you!

It was a great day – thanks to all of you who were there for making it so!

Today has been a day of contemplation. I spent the day with the Co-ordinating Group for Youth Work of Churches Together in England today (more of that in the next post tomorrow) in Woking. For a change, and because I felt it was ‘right’, I drove to Woking without the radio on and in silence, just to hear God’s perspective on a lot of things rushing around my brain at the moment.

The day today started with worship led excellently by Louise Kenyon from the Church of the Nazarene Theological college. It just so happened that Louise used the Rob Bell/Nooma DVD called silence, which caused me to smile.

I became aware in this short time that I had, like Elijah, been looking for God in all the wrong places. In the storm, in the clouds, in the activity and busyness of my everyday life. I have been looking for God in the community, searching for where he is working in peoples lives, trying to gain clues about what he is doing, so that ‘I can join in’.

This is ok to do, but it struck me today that in my searching questions of ‘God what next?’, ‘God, what do you think of this?’, ‘God should I be here?’, ‘God should I continue with this?’, ‘God how can I make a difference here?’, ‘God, what is good news to these people?’, ‘God, how we can bring transformation here?’ and many other similar queries, that I had forgotten to just be still, be silent, and listen.

I feel daft as I know this. I have been here before many times. So often I have found that I cannot hear God in the busyness of this or that; to really hear him, and by that I mean to hear his thoughts, receive his guidance, glean something of his take on a situation -if I really REALLY want to hear that – then I have to still myself and be silent before God.

Rob Bell asks the question ‘why is silence so difficult?’I don’t know, some would say other distractions are sent to keep us away from silence and God, others would say it was our own fear of not honestly wanting to hear. I think I go along with that. Sometimes I really don’t want to know what God thinks, because I know it will mean me having to do something, to change something, maybe even to move again.

But still the fact seems to be – we hear God in the still small voice. To hear again, we need to re-engage, re-tune our minds, tune out noise, and tune in to God.

I did that today for 75 minutes in the car on the way to Woking. I was surprised how easy, once you get through the 15 minute barrier how easy it was. I think I heard some of God’s thoughts today and I think some things I had been thinking have been confirmed in other things today following that, which is exciting. Other things have been shelved, which is painful but probably necessary. Only time will tell.

Today – silence really was golden.

That was the title of an email I received recently from a friend. It had no bearing on the content if the email, but it did get me thinking. It is a very valid question and is an indication of the bizarre world we live in.

One thing that strikes me as bizarre at the moment. The church is getting closer to having women bishops we hear from Synod. About flipping time – in 1975 the church agreed there was no theological reason why women should not be ordained! 30 years and still we do not see equality in the church. We see see people complaining, moaning and asking for alternative this and that!

Why is the house of bishops made up of an artificial all male representation of the church, when the church is made of real men and women?

I can’t help but think how bizarre the rest of the country must think this discussion is.

Why are we even discussing this when the church is decline, people are crying out for meaning to life, and we have so many opportunities to help people connect with their God?

Is it just me, or are we allowing ourselves to be distracted from our true calling by non essential issues? I fear that things are just going to get worse.

Jesus came to break barriers. That is a fact that many of us can agree on. Jesus came to bring liberation and freedom. Again, something on which we can agree. Jesus loves and wants relationship with all. Another point of agreement. Jesus loves all without condition …. I could go on!

It exasperates me to see my church arguing over women bishops, homosexual priests, crumbling church buildings, falling pensions while people in our own communities are starving, while children are being abused, while people are in need of a real tangible love and acceptance! We need to stop, re-focus on our calling, and move on!

Back to basics is a strap line of embarrassment for many,and a term that I dislike due to horrible Tory ideals that still cause me to shiver; but I do feel the church needs to return to its basics.

Let’s be the church that we were meant to be – to bring transformational flavouring to the community, rather than providing lots of nice smelly froth with a nasty after taste!

Does anyone fancy being part of a Lent Blog with the idea of posting and reflecting as we prepare for Easter?

If there were around 10 of us it could be interesting.

If so, get in touch or leave a comment.

I signed up for this today in the hope that we can make a little difference to the price of fuel. Thanks Roy for the tip off.

I have been finding some great resource pages recently.
Tribal Generation is excellent and a great load of free downloads. A particular favourite of mine is Indescribable which I hve used in churches a couple of times. Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream‘ is also cool.

I have stumbled upon Holyspace as well. Some interesting and thoughtful stuff here, particularly Gethsemane.

If you have not taken time to journey through the online labyrinth, then find a spare hour and give this a go. I have found it to be one of my ‘sustainers’ over the last few years.

This conference looks like an interesting day.
John Sentamu is also President of BYFC and is always a profound and entertaining speaker.
I think it looks a bargain for £15.
Anyone fancy going?