Category Archives: church

I spoke at the Needle of Kent

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Last night I had the privilege of talking to the mens group of St Michael and All Angels as a speaker to chat about what I do. Hugh, a great friend from Greenwich YFC, also asked me to lead an ‘alt worship’ type activity to conclude our time together reflecting something of what we may do in the gathering.

As it is the start of a new year I thought ‘the journey’ was a good thing to do again and the men seemed to interact and engage with God in a meaningful way.

I enjoyed this evening as the people were genuinely interested in what I was doing and what I was trying to achieve. They seemed to all ‘get it’ as a group and understand, and for me to find so many people who just seem to ‘get’ what I am about is quite a unique experience. In 1:1 conversations after it was exciting to hear the passion of these men for the gospel. The care, concern and commitment of these men is, I think, a great example of what is good and should be cherished with inherited church. As I said it was a real privilege to spend time with this group of people – thanks for the invite!

words matter more than what we do … really?

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I have been subscribed to the Nomad podcasts for quite a while now. I love the way they get a great variety of people involved in a massive spectrum of mission to share their thoughts and ideas.

I have just caught up with the Christmas special (podcast 23) and found myself getting quite annoyed with the words of the guy being interviewed, Billy Wordsworth. He was talking about the importance of words and suggested that words are more important than actions, which I find quite ‘interesting’ in the light of the words of James.

The podcast takes a bizarre turn, in my opinion, however, when Billy starts to talk about new words that he is using. Rather than talking about ‘being church’ he suggests that we should talking about ‘churching’. Instead of ‘being real’ or ‘being ourselves’ he talks about ‘realing’ and outlines a time when we was talking with a shopkeeper about normal everyday stuff and so he was ‘realing with the girl behind the counter’. Is it just me that sees a problem with that vocabulary!?

Finally, (and again only in my opinion) most worringly, Billy talks about evangelisticristy (I’m not sure how you spell such a word!). He defines this as being secret about our evangelism. He suggests we keep quiet about our faith, even going as far to say that if people ask if we are Christians to stay quiet and not tell them! Tim, the interviewer, challenges this but I think he asks the wrong question. Tim raises concern that if we adopted this then the gospel message would not be spread. There is a much much larger issue of integrity here. Secret mission, secret evangelism, lying about our faith – all things that I would want to stay completely away from! Integrity and honesty are surely fundamental gospel values.

As you can guess, I did not agree much with the content of this podcast … but go listen and maybe tell me what I am missing here!

Harare joy

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Yesterday I had the privilege of having lunch and then spending some time chatting with Farai, who is the Dean of Harare Cathedral in Zimbabwe. Farai was invited for the Bishops service on Saturday as the Diocese of Rochester has a strong link with the Diocese of Harare. We had a great time talking about pioneering work and sharing stories of mission in our very different circumstances.
If you are a reader here who prays … please hold the church of Zimbabwe in your prayers … if you need help in knowing what to pray, the Church of England website has prayers you can use specifically.
A little while ago the Church Times printed an article from Bishop Brian who visited.
My time with Farai has caused me to think more about what is important. Farai is a man of great joy who is full of Christ filled enthusiasm. Sometimes I wonder whether we in thew west have allowed ourselves to lose that joy and enthusiasm as we get embroiled in unimportant pettiness.

welcome +James

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The cathedral has been buzzing over the last two days and the building has been made ready for the service of inauguration and enthronement of Bishop James as the 107th Bishop of Rochester.

The service starts today at 11.30 in the cathedral and I have been watching from the sidelines as draft after draft has been put together. many would not believe the amount of massive hard work that people, particularly Neil, our precentor, and the vergers will have put into this to ensure that everything runs smoothly and to time.

in addition people like Darren have been working hard at installing large screens so people can see what is happening from different part of the cathedral. It really is a massive operation!

As a curate I am excited and intrigued as we welcome our new bishop. It will be exciting to see how the diocese changes and where Bishop James feels we should be heading as a diocese. On a personal note, I will be interested to hear his views on fresh expressions and pioneer ministry. But all that is for conversation over the next few months.

Today we celebrate with him and welcome him to Rochester ….

we are all guests

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Yesterday I attended a day’s training out on be the diocese and The Weddings Project. The purpose of the day was to help us to make sure our weddings were as good for the couple as they possibly good be and that we, as churches, give a clear message that marriage is a good thing and that we want to help those who are considering this big step. The weddings projects has identified some particular good ways where we can help and work with the couple …. but I’m not going to go into them as you can read them on the weddings project website if you want to.

The day started with the video that I have posted above. We were asked to watch the video and chat about why this has been seen by nearly 59 million people and how we would feel, and how our church would feel, if we held a wedding like this. As the video progressed a tear was brought to my eye – just for the sheer joy this couple and their guests were expressing – it was amazing to see.

When we got to the discussion I think a majority of people were enthusiastic but there were a significant number of worried voices – people concerned with how it would make them look, people concerned that if we ‘allowed’ this then people would just be taking the mickey out of the seriousness of the ceremony. These people seemed to be trying to ‘protect’ something … but their concern worried me because I think they were in danger of falling into the trap of thinking that our ministry is all about us. It’s easy to think we have control and this, I think, is one of the reasons why church weddings are in decline.

As church, as Christians, we need to realise we are called to serve, to make a difference, to welcome. We are not called to maintain a status quo, we are called to exist for the benefit of others.

The Archbishop of York reminded us in his amazing poignant way yesterday via a video clip that we do not own the church:

‘We are guests, not hosts. As guests we bring gifts – our building, our faith, our truth. Christ is the host and we are invited a long’

We are all guests in Christ’s church. Christ loves it when we come and Christ loves it when others come. As guests we are asked to invite other guests …. but we can’t tell them how they should come, or how they should behave, or what they should do ….. we are not hosts …. we are guests. The host is Jesus and, as we now, Jesus is accepting of everyone … no matter how they look, sound, behave or what they believe.

During this Advent time of waiting I have been thinking, with little success, of some aspect of my faith to contemplate futher. I wonder whether I have had little success and have had to start late, or wait, this Advent because yesterday God shared with me something I need to re-learn, remember and re-contemplate ….

I am a guest in Christ’s church, not a host.

Giant Advent Calendar

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I love this idea that my good friend Leesa of Central Baptist Church in Chelmsford  is involved in.

The church are preparing for Christmas during Advent by creating a big Advent Calendar in its doorway with a giant image on show each day of Advent for an hour. This is an amazing idea and must be an enormous amount of work. The church have invited different people around the town to interpret carols on a big scale – a big gamble but pretty exciting!

The Big Advent calendar has a facebook page where you can see the image for each day if you live too far away to vist daily (as most of us!)

dickens spirituality?

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So … another Dickens weekend has gone by!

This year things were not so busy as I think the mass of snow that we had put off a number of people. We still had a lot of people, however, who were coming into the cathedral and ‘searching’ for something.

I have spoken to a number of people over the last couple of days. I have massaged a few feet (although not as many as Rebecca!) and a few hands, done loads of Jesus Deck readings, prayed for (and seen) healing of people and generally just listened to people and talked about angels. Through all of these experiences a theme of a common search for some meaning seems to have been coming through.

This weekend I have been inspired by listening to the life stories of people and I have been amazed, yet again, to see how God chooses to work amongst normal everyday people. I find that beautifully exciting.

I ended the weekend with a massive sense of privilege. Privilege for the great team I had to work with and be part of, but even more so a sense of privilege for the things that people have chosen to share with us over the weekend. There have been many special moments which have included both laughter and tears.

I guess if I take anything away from the weekend it is something I seem to forget quite easily. Many people do not expect to see spirituality in the church. To me that seems bizarre … but it is clear that if people want healing or wish to investigate ‘spiritual things’ the last place many seem to think of going to help in that quest is a church. To me that is sadly bizarre:
– bizarre because Christianity is all about spirituality …. our God is a spiritual God who wishes to engage with people, all of whom are created and loved by God
– sad because these people have come to understand the church as a place of rules which hinder, rather than a place of loving acceptance which releases and enables.

I guess my question is, looking at the character of Jesus ….. how have we come to this?

Don’t be ordinary (iate!) …

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Love this post from Nick Page … so much I am copying and pasting in its entirity … but if you want to comment go to Nick’s original post to do so. (I particularly like rule number 4!)

Don’t be ordinary ….

Are you bored with being boring? 
Want to be part of a church that is interesting? 
Do you want a life less ordinariate?
Then join the Extraordinariate.
You might have heard of the Ordinariate – being set up for the masses of Anglican clergy who want to ‘defect’ to Rome (around 50 last count.) But who in their right mind wants to join something called the ‘Ordinariate’? That’s why I’m setting up the Extraordinariate’. This is for all members of the Anglican church – or anyone else for that matter – who wants to be extraordinary as a Christian. I think we should give people something to aim for, after all.
The basic rule for signing up is that you want to be out of the ordinary. I would particularly like it if I could sign more than 50 Anglican Clergy. Then I feel we’ll warrant column inches in the Telegraph and Church Times.
I haven’t thought much about the rules yet. But here are a few suggested ‘Articles’ to start with:
1. No titles. Jesus said not to call anyone ‘Father or  ‘But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant’ (Matt 23.8–12) Well, we could use ‘deacon’ which comes from the Greek word diakonos. But according to BDAG, diakonos means ‘one who is busy with something in a manner that is of assistance to someone.’ So I suggest we have one title: doers. (Apart from me, obviously. It’s my movement and clearly I need to make some money out of this and get a big posh car. However, in the spirit of Jesus’ teaching on leadership, I propose to take the title, ‘Lowest of the Low’.)
2. Should we  have a choir, all choir members will have to wear hats from the selection ofultimate choir hats on Dave Walker’s blog.
3. We are certainly not anti-intellectual. But any academic who joins will have to explain one one side of A4 why what they’re doing matters. And any ‘Rev Dr.’ who wishes to transfer will have to  who joins will have to explain the argument of their thesis in the form of a limerick.
4. All churches will have bouncy castles. Cathedrals will have trampolines.
5. No sermon will be allowed unless it is accompanied by some form of visual stimulus, Allowable stimuli include: PowerPoint, OHP, a clown costume, flannelgraph.
6. The organ is allowed if played well. Otherwise ocarinas will be the chosen instrument. Or possibly bassoons.
7. Communion will have PROPER BREAD AND PROPER WINE. I do not think that the tradition handed onto Paul in 1 Corinthians was ‘For as often as you eat this  indigestible edible cardboard/tiny morsel of bread roll, and drink this grape juice cut with a dash of British cooking sherry, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.’ (1 Cor 11.26 NIV (Nick’s Invented version))
That’s enough rules to start with. I’d like to shoot for 40 articles. 39 is a silly number.
So there we go. The Extraordinariate. It’s for those who want to stay in the Anglican Church but in a much more exciting and fun way.
And the basic rule for joining up is that you have to show people the extraordinary love of Jesus. If you’re up for that, you’re in.
I wanna be in!

Sunday pt 2 partaaay to party

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When I do the 8am service on a Sunday, rather than rush home I wander to Wetherspoons and have breakfast before then wandering back for Matins or the Eucharist service. Yesterday morning, there was a group of people in fancy dress at 9am who had started their halloween celebrations quite early. They were quite possibly half cut by the time I got there which means they were drinking before they arrived. As I sat I reflected on how far removed we can be as church from the reality of the lives of those I am seeking to connect with.

What relevance do we have as a faith to connect with those that enjoy partying at 9am in the morning with alcohol? How do we even start to get alongside people in these situations to simply start to understand where they are coming from. I love drinking – but I could not start partying that early. I don’t criticise those that do, I simply want to try and understand how they can manage it and why they do. I guess that a challenge of the whole church as we slowly but surely drift away from the everyday reality of the cultures around us.

In the evening another extremity yet again as I welcomed Churches Together in Medway to the cathedral for the saints Alive service which is essentially a praise party alternative to Halloween and this year we commissioned 13 Street Pastors who will be working in the Rochester High Street areas on a Friday and Saturday night. These are amazing people who deserve your prayers – and they always need more people to get involved  so why not get in touch about the next training course! (that’s my recruitment bit as a’member of t’committee!’)

The evening was a good evening. The worship was lively and the songs were well known to the evangelical world. Peter Marchand gave a great talk on unity and challenged the local churches on the reality of having a genuine ‘one church’ outlook which meant not only working together but trusting each other and still working together when we don’t agree on stuff. I could hear some fidgeting as his words were hitting raw nerves of some of those present. I think Peter is a brave man and what he said last night was excellent!

I guess our prayer now is that this sure word from God will filter into the hearts fo the local churches so that we see something happen …. I hope this becomes so!

It was great as well to catch up with some old friends at the end of the service which brought my day of extremities to a good close.

chaplain day

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I spent a day with chaplains and those interested in chaplaincy at a training day put on by Kent Workplace Mission at Aylesford Priory.

As I think I have said before I am not a chaplain but I do carry out a chaplaincy type role in some of the places I hand out in. My role is different to that of a chaplain, however, in that as a pioneer I am also seeking out those people that are interested in developing their faith and creating a new way of being church.

Today was interesting and I learnt stuff by chatting with other people. I was encouraged and resonated a lot with what Elaine Hutchinson shared who has started a chaplaincy in Birmingham from scratch. It seems she has started a s a chaplain in Birmingham in a very similar way to how I have started as a pioneer in Rochester.

I also met a woman over lunch who is exploring Fresh Expressions with older people. I was excited by her story as she told of running holiday clubs in retirement homes, which sounded very similar to childrens holiday clubs such as Sarah is running at the moment. I loved the idea and could sense the joy of these people as stories were shared.

It was not a bad day and it has given me some stuff to think about.