It’s amazing the effect a football match van have on you!

I went today to Pristfield fully expecting to see Gillingham win the game.

We lost 3-1 and I must admit I am in shock!!!

The walk back to the car with Tom was a walk of silence.

It’s horrible when we lose.

All around us fans were wandering in a disbelief state, or maybe it was a ‘I refuse to believe we are going down’ state! I dunno! Whatever, the streets of Gillingham were quite subdued.

But, hey … It’s only a game!

This afternoon, great friends, Terry and Jo came around for a meal after the football and we had a great time eating, drinking and chatting. Their company put everything in a healthy perspective. It’s good how friends have that effect! If I had returned to an empty house no doubt I would have wallowed in ‘what if’ football thoughts.

And now … now I am sat in front of an open fire, logs burning steadily, with a glass of Laphroaig thinking of the week ahead. There are more important things ahead to worry about than a football match.

Really wish we had won that game though!

Today is the day for all Gills fans.

The team have had 2 weeks rest. We have a new assistant coach and some new players, and all loans have been called back.

Today is the day at 1.00 p.m. when we play Sheffield United at home and we learn if the changes have had an effect.

I am quietly optimistic … but if we lose today I may well be starting to fear the worst!

Could my feelings of 2-0 to Gillingham be …..

It’s been a busy few days with work and meetings.

I’ve been fortunate to meet fellow bloggers by either design or mistake.

On Wednesday I was able to join a group of youth workers from the Southwark Diocese and just listen in on their review of Soul in the City. It was exciting to hear how churches had worked together. It’s even more exciting to hear that those churches, and others, wish to continue to work together in their mission. As I went away from the meeting I thought what a real privilege I have of being able to meet with youth workers who are passionate about reaching and working with young people.

While there in the Diocesan Office I had the great pleasure of meeting Dean Pusey, the DYO. It was great to meet another person who is passionate about young people and the church. A further bonus too was meeting Moya who keeps her blog and was, I think, the first person ever to comment on SHP. If you have not done so yet, go buy her book which Jonny talks about here.

On Friday I spent the day in the East End. I met first with Gordon from the Salvation Army in Poplar. Again, I felt privileged to be able to spend time with a man who not only speaks about mission, but whose whole life is mission. The building is amazing and being used as a fantastic resource for the community with clubs, IT rooms, recording studio, music rooms, kitchens, … but most of all people who are part of their community who love them. There was a ‘feet on the floor’ realness and commitment from Gordon, and I went away feeling enthused and excited, which is quite an unusual feeling for a Friday afternoon!

From Poplar I drove to Walthamstow and spent the afternoon in the canteen of Waltham Forest YMCA , where I had an excellent meal and caught up on some work before I joined another meeting with church leaders (on a Friday night!!!!) who were looking at Transforming Newham.

I was there to offer YFC as a resource to churches looking at wishing to continue with mission but learned some very exciting things. Amazingly, the churches in Newham have been meeting weekly since 1979 for transformation in the borough. That is real commitment for you! 25 years or prayer, and now they think that the borough is ready for mission. They have prepared the ground and are ready to go.

I think there is a big lesson to be learned from these people. So often I come across people who want quick fix ideas, or have trendy ideas all of which I am sure come from God. When it comes to trying to earth these in prayer, however, it just does not happen. I speak for myself here as when I was Director of Gillingham YFC I attempted to instigate a regular pattern of prayer – but all to often the pattern fell apart, probably because of me.

25 years of prayer is mindblowing. 25 years of prayer is flipping hard work! 25 years of prayer is surely going to transform that borough in the east end of London. I look forward to going back soon.

At the end of these few days I can tell you I am tired. I feel at the moment that I must have one of the most exciting jobs around – to be able to meet with and learn from loads of different people involved in mission. Who said Christianity was dead in this land!!!!

It’s been a busy few days. Yesterday was a big YFC day for the south east when we met with our leadership team.

The morning started well, and differently, when we set the agenda for the session. Basically, people were asked to write on sheets of paper those things they were passionate about, then we got into the groups that interested us, discussed the issues and suggested actions.

Towards the end of the day, Roy Crowne, our National Director, shared some thoughts with us from Exodus 20 which really hit home.

Picture the scene … Moses has been away for days getting the 10 commandments. While he is there, Aaron is ‘in charge’ and the people hassle him about stuff so they make a calf out of God to worship.

Moses comes down the mountain to see all this worship going on and asks Aaron ‘What have these people done to you?’

It’s an interesting question. These people were wanting to worship God, were desperate to do something, kept hassling and Aaron kind of gives in. Maybe he gives in with a ‘just this once it won’t matter’. If he did, he realised he was wrong upon Moses’ return. I reckon, though, he drifted into the situation without realisng what was happening.

As a person passionate about Jesus, about reaching people and about churchI started to wonder if I become distracted like Aaron. I expect distractions and attacks from those outside my circle, outside YFC, outside the church. I guess we all do to a certain extent. But can it also be true that the attitudes, lifestyles and comments of those inside the church can pull us off course?

Do I, do we, expect the distractions from within those circles. I don’t think I do which worries me a little. It worries me because the distractions, in the form of good ideas, valuable projects or worthwhile causes are bound to be a lot harder to spot. To even think about looking out for the distractions within ‘church’ worries me more as this could so easily develop into the killing off of any creativity or innovation that there may be. New ideas could be viewed with skepticism and we would not progress.

I have just had a thought. Could it be that our mission is more at risk of failure because of the attitude and mindset of the majority of those in church with a faith, rather than due to those outside the church with no belief? Are we in another era where Jesus found himself up against Pharisees that were just missing the point.

Only this week I have read in the paper the pathetic names that so called ‘upstanding’ evangelicals have been calling the Archbishop of Canterbury while other vicars have been quizzing bishops on their views on sexuality before they decide whether they continue to ‘accept’ them as a bishop! How ridiculous can some become? (theist to accept tha they were God’s man for the job … are they now saying God has changed his mind? Maybe they think God actually got it wrong!)

While these people fight for ‘traditional theological truth’ I just want to scream out ‘where is the love for our fellow men and women in Christ?’ How can a priest call the archbishop of Canterbury a theological prostitute? Surely that is a big insult to God so I think these people are, in fact, missing the point. The gospel is not about what we do, how much we sin, rules we follow.

The gospel is about Jesus and what he has done for us.

It is about love and acceptance.

WE need to be aware and not let ‘people’ distract us from our central calling – to alert our communities to the fact that Jesus is there with them, wanting to be part of their lives.

What will we let these people do to us?

The Showcase was a great event. I find myself feeling proud to be part of YFC. Anyone that was there, and saw loads of young people commissioned to serve God for the next year, went away knowing that Christianity is certainly not dead.

People often ask why I am still with YFC now that I am old (I think 39 is still young myself!) – the event of the showcase answers that question in part. It shows (1)that Jesus is at the centre of our organisation and (2) we are able to enable hundreds of young people to make that centrality of Jesus a reality to young people all over our nation. It may be true that I am too old to do this myself,an there again it might not be, but I love being able to support and influence others who are out there doing it each day. Hundreds of staff in 57 centres reaching thousands of young people each week – I find that exciting!

When I arrived I met up with the Gillingham YFC team, some of which are shown in the top pic. Aren’t they a lovely looking lot! No doubt some will try to shoot me for posting the pic!

It was cool to see the creative arts and sports teams do their stuff on page, below you can see D2 performing – in my opinion the best! But maybe there is still a bit of Gillingham bias there!

I’ve been playing with the new camera and took this photograph by accident using the red filter – but by accident I like what I have created.

Symbolically it seems to say something about shining in the darkness, being radiant when all around is dull, being bright and provocative …

The Godspace is still a hit in the house. I like to use it when the house is quiet to do morning or evening prayer.

Every now and again I have been changing how it looks, with different pictures or ‘icons’ and other stuff we find. I have been trying to encourage the children to contribute to the God Space too. When we were walking along the beach Joe found a pebble with a cross of granite running through it. He thought it would be good for the God Space, and so added it to the table.

I got quite excited the other day when I was able to see Joe changing the God Space on his own initative. A few days earlier I had made a small cross out of coloured glass beads. Joe decided it needed to be far more extravagant and made a much bigger one. A couple of hours later Beth decided to add the word ‘god’ made out of glass beads too.

The pic shows Joe changing his God Space. It’s taken a while but now the children are adding and taking, which I think means they see the ‘space’ as something that belongs to them and is for them to use.

I’m kind of excited about this as I think this is allowing my children to access and connect with God in a different way than they do ‘normally’.

I sincerely believe that the evangelical part of the church has chucked out lots of good stuff through fear of falling into heresy … such things as icons, incense, candles … in fact a fair bit of symbolism altogether. The God Space is our way of trying to re-address that way of conneting with God.

Today I got to visit Oxygen, which is a YFC centre in Kingston.

I went to see Richard, the Director, who is a great friend and has loads of ideas and innovative methods. Rich is amazingly one of those guys who always seems to have time for people and yet, if you look at all the projects he is overseeing, it is hard to see where he finds that time. It is also great to see someone so full of energy and passion, still wanting to attempt new things to reach out to those who need to be reached. To use Hirsch’s terms – a guy that has his Christology, Missiology and Ecclesiology in the right order. I think many of us can learn loads from people like Richard. So, you can probably guess, spending time there today was just a complete pleasure.

Oxygen just seem to have masses of exciting things going on, from work in the Korean community, to bands nights, work in schools, drop in cafes, sports teams and more. Have a look at their website to check stuff out. It is even more amazing when you realise that all of this has been achieved by the tem in just three years. It’s amazing what can happen if you follow God’s lead and have the courage to step out and take that risk.

It was great today to be able to meet some of the team who were all clearly committed to taking the gospel to young people. They were full of life and enthusiasm. That’s one of the things I love about YFC, the fact that we are able to work with young people who give their time and take the risk of being involved in mission. Even now, after over 15 years in youth ministry, I still get excited when I see young people putting themselves on the line for their faith. I guess it’s one of the reasons I work with YFC!

Anyway friends in Kingston … thanks for a great afternoon. There is a little gift for you Oxygen boys here !

Football has not featured a lot on this website recently – there has been nothing newsworthy to report from the mighty Gills.

Today, however, I hear we have appointed John Gorman, of Hoddle and England fame, to be our coach. This does not fill me with mega excitement, but it is undoubetdly some good news which I am now praying will bring in some results; badly needed now as we have only won 1 point out of a possible 18 in our last 6 games!

I actually think any new ideas and inspiration to get the boys going has got to help. C’mon you Gills!

Each year in October YFC commissions its workers at a big event in the Midlands.

On Saturday it is in Kidderminster and followed in the evening with a youth event.

If you are one of those people in the area who are wondering what YFC is all about, then the showcase day gives a very good outline of all the stuff that YFC do.

(there … I feel like I have done a credible sales pitch now!)