A great wedding, a great way to end the week in my hometown of Weymouth – and I have a new lovely sister-in-law.

While on my jolly in the west country I was able to catch up with some exciting stuff with meetings in Bristol, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Weston super Mare, Nailsea, Weymouth and Teignmouth.

My job is so great- although the timetable sounds hard work, it is just so great to meet with varieties of people that have a passion for God, a love for young people, and great innovative ideas of combining the two to reach out to a lost generation.

One exciting evening was spent in Gloucester, where over 40 people turned out on a wet cold night to hear what a Gloucester YFC might look like. Michel, who clearly loves the city of Gloucester and it’s young people has been working in the area for a little while. Due to circumstances, she would like her project to develop and become a YFC centre.

It’s clear that the support is there and the church leaders are backing her. Currently she is pulling together a group of trustees, and will then need both finance and other volunteers, so if you are in the Gloucester area, get in touch!

It was also exciting to see how YFC initiatives are expanding all across the south west. Centres are being called to work in other towns by churches and councils; while one school last year that had 12 organisations working in it decided the only one they wanted back was the local YFC centre – great testimony to the integrity of YFC in that area.

incredibly exciting, and a real privilege all rolled into one.

and I feel like …

although it was great to meet up with loads of people and stay for the night in Cheltenham with Paul, Nia, Jessica and Timothy; and then later in Nailsea with Dave and Kath.

It’s always strange staying with people away from home, and as I get older I seem to miss the family in more obvious ways, but these 2 sets of wonderful people have a real gift of hospitality and it was incredibly easy to feel at home.

Thanks – you made the 4 days much more enjoyable.

I read this every month in Daily Office.

The quote is from Rowan Wilimams:

The Cry to God as ‘Father’
in the New Testament
is not a calm acknowledgemment
of a universal truth about
God’s abstract fatherhood.
It is the child’s cry
out of a nightmare.

It is the cry of outrage,
fear, shrinking away,
when faced with the horror
of the ‘world’
– yet not simple or exclusively
protest, but trust as well.

I’m off to the south west. While there for the rest of this week, I will get to meet people in Weston super Mare, Gloucester, Bristol, Teignmouth, Nailsea, Swindon, Taunton as well as pop into my brothers wedding in Weymouth on Friday afternoon.

It’s going to be a bit of a whistle stop tour and I feel a bit guilty being away again so soon after the SEITE weekend.

If you are into prayer, please remember my family and my concentration levels on the roads.

Normal bloggin service resumed at the weekend.

This is going to be excellent!

If you have not done so yet, book online for Youthwork the conference 2005 *
11-13 November in Southport and 18-20 November in Eastbourne. – giving you the space to think, talk, worship and reflect on why do we do what we do.

Book here.

Prayer Rally in Hyde Park

An estimated 5,000 Christians came together in Hyde Park on Saturday to unite in their opposition to the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. With the Lords due to debate the Second Reading of the bill on Tuesday, Christians from hundreds of churches across all denominations gathered together to pray. Christians have been stirred into such vocal action by the behaviour of the Government in bringing forward this law without paying any attention to the substantial objections. If the Bill is passed it is likely to have the opposite effect to that intended by setting one faith community against another and providing legal ammunition for one community against another in court. In contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights Christians believe the Bill would seriously fetter their freedom of speech, freedom to preach the Gospel and to critique seriously other religions. The mass turnout at this rally shows the unified and concerted opposition by Christians against these proposals, which will restrict freedom to share the message of the Gospel.

This issue is so important and has stirred the heart of so many Christians that on Tuesday, when the Religious Hatred Bill goes to the House of Lords, there will be a peaceful demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. The rally will take place in the afternoon commencing at 1pm and finishing at 4pm. A petition will be presented to the Prime Minister and Her Majesty’s Government on behalf of the Christian Community against the Proposed Racial and Religious Hatred Bill.

Photographs of the rally can be found here.

I had a great and interesting experience over the weekend. Before the residential started, Jeremy (a friend on the course from Southwark) went on a hunt for a pub in which we could watch the football on Saturday afternoon.

We found the Royal Oak. This is a real old fashioned pub, boisterous but friendly locals with a need for a firm landlord and bouncers on the door on a Saturday night.

Jeremy and I had a ‘swift half’ at about 630 before rushing back to Herne Bay Court for dinner at 7. After lectures we returned with a few more colleagues. The place was alive and kicking. People shouting at each other, seemingly mis-treating each other, but also a clear and honest love and respect for each other. ‘Come over here you fat ****’ was a term of endearment, as it would be in many Gillingham pubs! A big question hit the group we were there with.

How can we be church, how can we be missional, amongst real people in places like the Royal Oak. People who were obviously incredibly different to those on the course? There is a massive gap on the training course – and the level of ‘uncomfortableness’ of our middle class group sitting in a rowdy, boozey, swearing and blinding, smokey, noisy pub was clear and evident for all to see.

For many this was an uncomfortable experience. I don’t think many will return. (In fact 3 of us did the next day to watch the football and we had a great time in an even rowdier environment than the night before. The reality of the situation is that we felt fairly , although not entirely, comfortable in the place – and that is not a judgment statement against others as we are called to minister in different environments. God calls us all to work in situations and locations where our gifts are best suited. He has ordained the situations for us to work within.

I have a problem with this. Where are the people who are called to work in the hard gritty pubs of our nation. Where are the these missioners being trained? Why is there a lack of them? Are they deaf to the call of God? Do they try but get knocked back because they do not fit and make us feel uncomfortable?

It seems to me that if the church of England wishes to do what is says it wishes to do, to be a missional church in the 21st century, then it really needs to start with some practical stuff and look at how it trains, who it trains, and why it trains, when it trains, if it should train ….

I don’t know any of the answers. I am speaking from complete naivety; I merely see the gap and long for the gaps to start to be addressed.

This weekend I have been on another SEITE residential at Herne Bay Court.

We look at persons in relation and formation. We looked at identity and difference, how we are dependent on relationships, and the view that it is actually our relationships that identify us as being unique. My identity with God makes me unique in who I am, but does my relationships with other people add to that uniqueness. For me the jury is still out on that while I ponder the question.

We also looked at what the whole area of ‘made in the image of God’ was all about. In particular,something I had never thought about was that in some way we must reflect the tri-une nature of God. If God is trinity, then the human image of God, it follows, should reflect that trinity in some way.

Is this correct? If it is correct, then should humanity also reflect God’s omnipresence and all powerfulness in some way too? As I reflect, I suppose humans can be in more than one place at once in some ways. For example, wherever you are reading this, in a (very poor) sense I am there with you; whether you are reading in Gillingham, East London,Canada, America – hey I am there with you! Scary thought!

In other ways too humans are powerful. We have the ability to change our environments, which is something other ‘creatures’ cannot do readily.

We are created in the image of God – I guess it does not have to be a great image, and in some cases we are not!

I am mulling this stuff over – I do not know what I think or what my opinion is yet – how do we start to understand what particular characteristics of God are reflected in our humanity? How far is this a helpful reality, and how far is this a created concept attempting to give meaning to something that may not be explainable? What are the realities and implications of ‘being created in the image of God’?

London … not Jamaica! I wish!

After Thirst, I managed to meet up with a couple of great people.

First I caught up with Richard from Oxygen to hear more exciting stuff on what they are doing. Under Richard’s guidance, Oxygen, has just exploded I the projects it supports! He has a real kingdom, rather than empire, vision and I think those who come into contact with him easily see this. Because of this, people want to work in partnership with Oxygen.

Richard has also made a great comment here on ‘Who is your neighbour’ which is well worth reading.

After spending some good quality time with Richard I was able to catch up with Jade in pizza hut. Jade was one of the first young people who became a Christian while I was Director of Gillingham YFC. After an Activate gig in a school she turned up to a follow up event the next day on Saturday for lunch. While talking with her, I learned that she had phoned her work for that day to say should not make it, and losing £25 or so in the process. When I asked her why the answer from this 17 year old amazed me:

“well, if what you people were all saying last night is true …Thenn I need to check this out properly as it’s worth a lot more than £25!”

That sums up, pretty much, the level of maturity of Jade. For the next few months Bex and myself met with Jade and the rest is history. Jade took her time to examine the claims of Jesus and how they related to her, and has a strong and real faith now which is so exciting to see. Connecting with church, on the other hand, has not, and is not, easy – an example of churchlessss faith?!

It was really encouraging to see how Jade is loving life as a drama/theatre student – a great and encouraging end to a cool day! Good excuse for a pizza too!

On reflection, meeting with Jade yesterday has reinforced the fact that my SEITE training is worth it. We need people out there who can work in communities, work with people who are dying to connect with God, be free to think through what ‘good news’ means to the millions of people that would never set foot in a church – and maybe one day I will know what I am talking about!