I had a lovely night last night.

I thought I was to spend some good time with Terry and Jo, 2 very special friends, but in addition a couple of the exec of GYFC had planned to get together for a little thank you for me. It was a great idea and totally unexpected.

I had a cool night and friends were very generous with a fantastic gift of a digital camera – the result of which will be more photos on this blog …. so if I am due to visit you soon, beware!

I have found a new ‘old’ method of biblical contemplation which I think is cool. Lectio Divina is slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible, the Word of God, to become a means of union with God. This ancient practice has been kept alive in the Christian monastic tradition, and is one of the precious treasures of Benedictine monastics and oblates.

I’ve had a look at the link and do think that sometimes as we ‘progress’ in our technological world we forget and therefore leave behind some fantastic traditions. Lectio Divina may well be one of those traditions. In the quietness and stillness of something like this, I seem to more often hear from God than I do in a lively worship service.

I accept we are all very different; God made us all, and loves us all as individuals. I do seem to find, though, in churches that I visit that there is an absence of space to allow God to speak. Silence and contemplation are so rare in our 21st Century world. Even when we do have times of reflection, quite often the worship group of soundman will play some background music. Are we really scared of silence that much?

I am a late person and it has not been unknown for me to wander up to the Darland Banks and sit at 1 or 2 am and rest in the silence – just me and the stars. Even then you do not find total silence, but more so than during the day.

It is sad and concerning that we have so little time for quiet and reflection, especially for those of us who are more likely to connect with God in this way. I hope Lectio Divina will help me rediscover something of what I have been missing.

I met with the the new director of Camberley YFC yesterday, a guy named Bernie Bernie Comissiong who I know a number of yu will know.

It was cool to catch up and hear his vision for the place. He has a great plan with one adamant aim. That is that he sees himself very much as an enabler, an encourager, a strategist and not the person who will do everything. It was fantastic chatting over coffee and I came away thinking I had spent some quality time with a like minded person.

There has been a lot of talk on leadership on a few blogs over the past few weeks. Some people have been hurt by leaders who have abused their position of trust, others have been hurt by attitudes and some leaders themselves are fearful of what is coming tomorrow.

It strikes me that some seem to be losing sight of what leadership is. When we look to Jesus we see a great servant. He just wanted his disciples to learn. He was desperate for them to try things themselves. On occasions he got frustrated with them, but still he encouraged them to go out and have another try.

Leadership is all about serving and enabling, about being more permissive and less prescriptive (yes I nicked the quote from the Archbish!). When leaders in all capacity come to grips with that, we will surely see more people released to serve God, and maybe a lot less leaders burning out because of over-work.

I had a rare and real privilege today. I attended the thanksgiving service of John Roberts who was the chair of Chislehurst YFC, which is a new emerging centre.

It became clear in the service that as the family and people shared their tributes that I had known, albeit for a very short time, a real godly man of integrity. A man of God, said Roger Forster, who gave one of the tributes.

John obviously meant masses to many people – the church in Chislehurst was packed and peopl such as Roger Forster and Graham Kendrick were taking part. I do not say that to name drop – just trying to get across how special John seemed to be to so many people.

I never knew John well. In fact we had only met twice since June and had about 3 phone calls in addition to that. In that short time I realsied quite soon that he was one of a kind – a man with a vibrant, living, real faith. One not unlike that of Nouwen. As soon as I heard that he had died last Monday I desperately wanted to be at his service to pay respects and say goodbye.

This man clearly had an impact on many peoples lives when he was alive – hearing the stories I believe he is even having an effect though his death. Some stories stuck in my mind – both children and grandchildren paid tribute to the fact that John always had time for them, always loved to see them and never turned them away.

Others shared how we was supportive and encouraging he was as he lived out his faith with a particular desire to help those on the edges of society, sometimes bringing them home to his family. While he was doing this he was a top ranking civil servant in the government. In fact, I learned during the service, that he was the press attache to the PM for a year. He gave up the fame that could have brought because it took him away from his family too much, which was a bigger priority than his job and status. A man with correct priorities.

Here was a real man of God who took Jesus as his example. His family, whom our hearts go out to at the moment, know that their husband, dad or grandad was a very special man. I’m sure many would agree that here we have experienced a modern day saint, worthy of remembrance.

Today is World Peace Day and due to a very slow M25 this morning (2 hours to go 20 miles!!!),on my way to Cambridge YFC and Haverhill Schools Initiative, I had quite a lot of space to think through some stuff.

I found it interesting that the reading I follow from the Northumbria Community were today partly based around Peace. Micah chapter 5 prophesies Jesus, saying he will be the source of all our peace. Luke chpater 2 brings in the shepherds, with the angels promising peace on earth to whom all God favours.

While driving – those lands that are not experiencing peace, are they out of favour with God? My mind turned to Iraq as an obvious country of the moment. I find it hard to understand how a whole country can be out of favour with God, so am I missing something here in my interpretation, or am I refusing to accept some good hard teaching? I am not sure, and decided 2 hours in a stationary car was not long enough to think about something so deep.

Maybe the angels and Micah here were talking more about personal peace. That peace you get when you know you are following Jesus- life can be crappy, but you know God is there in it with you and you know you are in the right place and you have a peace which is virtually impossible to explain to others. I guess that is because we have an individual God who deals with individuals on an individual basis.

Sometimes, Evangelicals tell me that passages like this refer to the ultimate peace … you know, that peace we won’t find until we die and go to heaven. Well I’m kinda fed up with that kind of thinking cos I think God wants to have peace and lots of the good stuff while we are alive as well. My faith is more than hoping for stuff when I’m dead!

In the Northumbria Community year, today is also a saints day when Henri Nouwen is remembered. I have not had the privilege of reading much of his work but this was a man who explored the meaning of personal peace. I do know, however, typical themes of Nouwen’s book’s were a solitude and peace of heart towards oneself; a welcoming and undemanding hospitality towards others; and an attitude of constant prayer and devotion to God.

More than this, he did not just write about it but tried to live it out as well. He wrote from real experience rather than hearsay – when people do that, what they say just seems to be so much more powerful. I guess that is why the Celtic community at Northumbria think of him as a saint.

In living this out Nouwen moved to the L’Arche community as a helper and pastor to those with mental handicaps. He wrote this about his life:

… Moving from teaching university students to living with mentally handicapped people was, for me at least, a step towards the platform where the father embraces the kneeling [prodigal] son. It is the place of light, the place of truth, the place of love. It is the place where I so much want to be, but am so fearful of being. It is the place where I will receive all I desire, all that I ever hoped for, all that I will ever need, but it is also the place where I have to let go of all that I most want to hold on to. It is the place that confronts me with the fact that truly accepting love, forgiveness and healing is often much harder than giving it. It is the place beyond earning, deserving and rewarding. It is the place of surrender and complete trust …



I think it sounds like he found the place of peace. That’s cool – he found peace while he was still alive. That encourages me and I hope you too.

And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin, and I will give you a new obdient heart. And I will put my spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command.

Joe is 6 today.

How time flies!

I can remember him being a baby as if it was just yesterday.

Where does time go?

How come time flies by on the good stuff that you want to cherish, but crawls on the crap stuff that you just want rid of?

The good thing about celibrating with a 6 year old is you get to play with toys and go to tea at a place of his choice – so KFC it is tonight!

Yesterday he had a party at home with some friends – quite a civilised affair even with his top choice of game, which was to go lizard hunting on the banks!!! (no fears for you animal lovers – 6 boys made so much noise any lizard ran miles before we got near them!)

Tonight in church we thought about the cross.

I tried a bit of interactive teaching rather than a straight forward sermon. I thought this would be more useful to the people there than just to hear my views on the significance of the cross.

So, after a brief introduction where I asked ‘When was the last time you took time to think what the cross is all about?’, I set 4 questions on the OHP:

and then gave people the chance to interact with each other and discuss ‘the cross’ in groups.

The whole service seemed to go well, with a real atmosphere of expectation and serious enquiry, with people coming up wth some really quite interesting stuff. Some of the points made I had thought too and would have preached about if I did the straight talk. There were lots of points, though, that had not occured to me, and so would not have been shared with those there. This is why I like interactive teaching so much.

I have tried to outline some of the thoughts of the congregation below:

We all agreed that the cross was the crux of our faith and that the main reason for Jesus coming to earth was to die on the cross. The cross shows God’s tremendous love for us. Jesus needed to die, but he could have chosen a more direct method. Crucifixion was a long drawn out and painful way to die. We also wondered when Jesus realised he was going to the cross. In one sense he is God so he always knew. That gave us thought of Jesus as a young boy … how on earth did he cope with that knowledge while he was growing up?

Without the cross we could not have a relationship with God. We would be cut off.

My good friend Chris shared something I had never thought of. She helped us to remember that during the crucifixion God was there watching. What must have been going through his head knowing he could stop it, but knowing he could not if we were to have the possibility of a relationship with him. We cannot begin to imagine the pain God felt as he looked on upon the agony of Jesus on the cross. I remembered when, as a GYFC team, we went to see The Passion of Christ that some of the team were in tears and had to leave the cinema. Did God look away, or did he force himself to watch? As a father who loves his children all I know is that is must have been agonising for God to even know that his son was in pain and suffering.

There were many other ideas, and I have these on a mind map which I put together before the service and have posted below. I’m guessing it will be too small to read,but at the mo I do not know how else to post it.

So, what does all of this about the cross mean to us. What are the implications?

I think the knowledge of the cross means that it should have a dramatic effect on my life as a Christian. In 1 Peter 2 verse 21 it says ‘For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. The word used here for example is hupogrammos which refers to example in the sense of copying carefully, such as in old handwriting lessons at school.

We are to imitate the example of Jesus in living a selfless life, by putting the love of others before our own interests, by going the extra mile – not because it looks good, or because we feel we should; but because we want to out of our overwhelming love and gratitude towards God.

To go full circle … when was the last time you took time to think about the cross – reflecting on the meaning more often will surely start to transform our lives.

What does this symbol mean to you?

This is the topic of my talk on Sunday night and would be interested in the views of others…

There is now a website here that tells more about ths concept and how to opt in. Check it out.