On this day Winston Churchill gave his famous ‘Iron Curtain’ speech.

I remember well when the Berlin wall was pulled down. I was at a church ‘agape meal’ event and on my table was a German nurse who was here fro 2 years and had not heard the news. She collapsed in tears of joy and had to run off and phone home. Some of her family, who she had only seen pictures of, were on the other side of the wall and she now had great hopes for the restoration of the wider family.

It is amazing what God can do when we ask. I think sometimes we pray for big important things to happen, but don’t really believe that he will act. We kind of feel, foolishly, that God can’t really do anything because we are conditioned to see ‘nothing’ happen. We have been conditioned by the ‘we have to trust and can’t see what God is doing… we are planting seeds’ mentality. After 20 years of seed planting I am impatient.

But God has done some amazing things which we forget about. As churches we have prayed and he as acted. Some that come to mind are:
The falling of the Berlin wall
The destruction of the Soviet bloc
The end of apartheid
Massive progress in Northern Ireland
The end of genocides such as Rwanda

These are just a few I can remember praying for in my lifetime.

Sometimes I think praying for stuff in Burma, China and even for the Make Poverty History campaign are tall orders. When I see how desperate the situations really are, I find it difficult to believe we can manage a difference. In reality, prayer, is the only possible way forward.

So, looking back in history and seeing the success of past prayer campaigns really encourages me to keep going knowing that my prayers will make a difference.

Following my last post and links from other blogs I have found this article by Brother Maynard at emerging church info.

I relate to this – its very very similar to the journey I feel I am on too. Just mine is a lot slower!

… saw the birth of Prince Henry the Navigator.

I am a Star Trek fan, but this man really did ‘boldly go where no man had been before’. In short, he started the European discoveries of the African and Indian coasts. It would be fair to say that before Prince Henry started looking other Europeans were not even aware that there might be something there. His discoveries kick-started the actions of other explorers and other discoveries.

Prince Henry was a real hero. He had a hope and a dream. That hope and dream was that there was more ‘out there’ than he knew about. He wanted to find ‘more’ and to experience more and, rather than just sitting around and thinking or hoping, he took the risk and went out there looking.

I cannot imagine the amount of fear both him and his colleagues must have felt. This is a time when sailors feared sea dragons and falling off the end of the earth – and yet here they were looking .
‘What are you looking for Prince Henry?’
‘Oh, something that I hope is there but, I guess, might not be.’

How brave is that!? Or is it just plain stupidity.

Today, as church, we know there must be more out there. I believe there must be more to experiencing God than what I have experienced God so far. Many of us believe the same. Who are the heroes stepping out and just by there searching encouraging us to do the same?

I think Archbishop Rowan is one. He is an individual who is encouraging people to ‘get out there’ and see what you find. Lets hope all church gets this idea. Lets all go on a hunt and see what we can find – not only will we surprise ourselves, but we may cause others to surprise themselves too.

Westminster Cathedral are running some great lectures on a Wednesday evenings under the title of ‘Faith in Europe‘.

The Bob Geldof and Jean Vanier evenings, n particular, look like they will be worth checking out.

Sarah has seen in her 40th, the snow has been falling on and off, the phone has not rung all day and I have been able to get a fair bit done as well as reflect on the last 20 years or so – weird to think I have known Sarah for over half of my life (22 years) and yet it seems no time at all.

I hope tomorrow is just as calm, especially so I can get even more done and have a weekend not worrying about deadlines and stuff.

On this day 40 years ago Sarah, my wonderful wife was born. What a fantastic day that was, and one that I am immensely grateful for.

Happy Birthday Sarah.

You can read the story at the BBC news site. I am glad to see that common sense and fairness have prevailed but saddened to see the school not accepting, and worse, not aplogising. When they saw it on the telly, even Beth and Joe thought it was ridiculous as it was clearly racist. A case of children seeing the simple case again!

Today I left at 630 am for a meeting in Birmingham. As I left it started to snow and I considered turning back. I didn’t when, 5 miles away from my home, the snow stopped and I had a slow but clear run to Birmingham, not arriving till 1045 for an 11 meeting.

I left the meeting early as Sarah phoned to say the snow had not stopped falling and roads in Kent were being closed. As I traveled back and listened to the travel news I soon realised that there was only one route, out of a normal three, for me to get home on and so prayed for a safe journey home.

The weird thing is that the journey back was the best I have ever had and all the way back to Kent I saw no snow at all. When I reached the Dartford crossing I phoned home to say ‘ha ha very funny’ as there was still, 20 miles from home, no snow to be seen in the air or on the ground. Sarah assured me that it was still blizzardy in Gillingham.

I saw my first bit of snow 4 miles away from home, on the Gillingham side of the Medway tunnel. Sarah was right – I did need to come home as driving was then dangerous and getting difficult with iced up and blocked roads.

It was amazing that the snow had been falling since I left (by then for 11 hours) in such a localized and fairly small area. The army have even been called in to help in some areas of Kent.

On reflection of the day this makes me think about how we can sometimes view God and church. As I write at the moment I can look out into the darkness and see the snow falling and the snowman the height of Joe that we built a few hours ago. It is very clear, blindingly obvious, to me that things are happening in the atmosphere to cause loads of large snowflakes to fall. It is so dramatic that lifestyle and practice has to change.

5 miles down the road towards London, however, the scene is very different. They see nothing and are going about their normal lives as they normally do.

I think that at times we can be like this in our churches and when we look what God is doing in our locations . Some people long to see stuff happening and just don’t see that it is, only it is just round the corner!. To others it is blindingly obvious that God is at work and they get frustrated because others just do not get it!

I think my experience today reminds me that we need to look around and not become so embroield in where we are that we miss the wonderful things that are happening around us. In some ways this is the ‘older brother’ scenario where we can become so self centred in what we want, in what we need and in what we like that we do not notice, and so cannot join in the joy, of the fantastic things that God is doing around us. It is not ok to just sit around and wish this and that were happening, there is a necessity to get out and do something about it, or to get out and look for it. If we don’t, we could majorly miss out … just because we could not look around the corner.

I have been surprised recently on my travels by a comment that I hear over and over again in one form or another. Basically, the comment sounds something like this:

‘I look around and see that the Church of England is seriously trying to do things differently to reach out to the communities.’

It really does seem that, at last, the church has started to take seriously the fact that we need to try new things. I would never have dreamed only less than a year ago when I started this blog that I would write both the words ‘pioneering’ and ‘Church of England’ in the same sentence.

Interesting, I am sure there are others but the CofE is surprising everyone by trying new ‘experiments being church. I like this new culture of permission which Jonny writes well about here today.

John Wesley died on this day in 1791. He shocked the church of his day by preaching on street corners. He was so radical and outspoken that the churches of the day closed their doors to Wesley. Despite this, or maybe because of this, it is estimated he travelled 250 000 miles on horseback to preach the gospel. He said ‘I look upon the whole world as my parish’.

For a new enlightenment, a new expression of church, should we be worried about what the established church is saying. Should we be playing safe or should we be pushing the boundaries?

I want to be where people want to listen. More than that, I want to be where people desperately need to listen. Where people can hear the reality of the gospel and respond to it appropriatly, without feeling the need to take on anyone elses ideology.

I heard a scarey thing yesterday in London. Nicky Gumbel and Bono are ‘chatting’. I do not know of that is true – it’s a rumour. But I can’t help but think it would be terrible if Bono felt he had to change and became all HTB-like in his attitude. Something tells me it won’t happen – can you see him leading worship in a fixed smile with a pastel shirt? Or Gumbel in a rock band?

The church needs to remain beautiful and creative. Individuals need to come together in integrity, keeping their individuality. People need to hear and be given the freedom to explore and express in their own ways. No mono pre-packaged culture here please.

A lot of those people are out on the street corners – where are the Wesleyan heroes of 21st century Britain?