Any England fan feels pretty sick at the moment after being knocked out of Euro 2004 in the way we were … again! How can history repeat itself so accurately again. Well, we are out and I want to ask is there any spiritual significance in all the hype we have seen of the past few months?

Yesterday, in the places I went, people seemed unusualy quiet and disappointed. Could this be all down to the football? Well, maybe, but I wonder if the feelings just go a little deeper than that.

While I was watching the game on Thursday, a group of teenagers walked past my window on their way to ‘the banks’. They were all kitted out in England shirts and the girls had ‘Rooney’ written on their backs … but they were not watching the game! They had their drinks and were off to do what teenagers do. They did not seem interested in the match, but they had bought into the hype and had all the gear. Like wise I have seen people driving cars around with England flags who I know well and previously have shown no interest in football at all.

What is that all about? Have we experienced something weird going on in England over these last few weeks?

I find myself wondering if the people of this country want to believe in something or someone so much that what we have experienced is a kind of Messiah type thing. Rooney was portrayed as the person that was going to save our reputations, our football team, give us a ‘feel good’ experience, put us all back on the world map again, but at the end of it all, people have had to admit the unthinkable; he is another fallible human like the rest of us.

Could it be that this is an expression of the great spiritual need that there is in this country at the moment? I guess people would not admit it, but I think this could be an indication of a real personal desire to believe in something or someone that is real.

The day surpassed all my expectations – I knew it was going to be good when we bumped into Bishop Graham Cray (who is an ex curate of St Marks Gillingham) on the tube who then led us, though the rain, to St Barnabas, Kensington. Could he have been sent as a guide from above!? Graham chaired the group which produced the report ‘Mission Shaped Church’ that this conference was based around. Buy the report (I did yesterday and its hard to put down). You can read the first chpter here.

I met up with friends again – Jonny Baker, Jean Kerr, Sue Barter and Leesa Barton from Epping Forrest YFC, who I was able to go for coffee with afterwards and discuss the world issues and put them right. She is a cool friend that’s into Star Wars but sadly is leaving YFC at the end of July to make that leap into church leadership as Director of Mission. She is going to be so cool in this role and I look forward to more coffee discussions in the future. (Thanks Leesa for the chat!)

The day was exciting as I had hoped, but maybe not for the reasons I had thought they might be. Essentially, what was being said from the front and in groups was not very different from what some, in emerging church, YFC and others, have been saying or suggesting for a little while. In the context of the 10th Anglican church planting conference, however, these comments take on fresh significance.

I was mesmorised by what Archbishop Rowan had to say – his style of delivery was spot on and if anyone in the CofE has any doubt whatsoever about this man’s faith then they need to go hear him speak. The centrality of the gospel to this man’s life was obvious just by his presence.

Some things that I would like to pull out from what he actually said that got a resounding YES from me included: (I could write pages here but I have been very disciplined)

We need to be asking harder what church actually is. What was distinctive in those early beginnings when the people who were developing ‘church’ did not know what ‘church’ was.

Church is what happens when the living Jesus is there. It is an event, a place or a network where Jesus is being encountered in a fresh way.

Church is not an institution or a program, it starts with relationship.

We need to look at our structures and ask, ‘do they allow this fresh encounter with Jesus to happen, and keep happening?’

There is a need for graciousness so that we listen to each other, so that we gain a larger picture of who God is and allow him to master more of us.

It is about accepting what is already happening and new expressions as equal. It is not either/or but both – one size, or expression, does not fit all.

He then ended by saying we need to be more permissive and less prescriptive about how we do things.

As I said, none of that will be new to some of you. But this is exciting … these were not words from a YFC conference, these are not words from network discussion lists, these are not words from a group of friends in the pub … these are words from the Archbishop of Canterbury. That excites me because that gives permission for churches to experiment, to look to what they can do to connect with their communities and so be incarnational rather than feel the need to stick to programs.

This is one of the Archbishops priorities and we need to be praying for him so that red tape and other stuff does not deflect him from this task that he sees as vital.

Two final things that excited me particularly this day:

Graham Cray closed by saying ‘In my 34 years of Christian ministry, I am having to run to keep up with what God is doing in the church of England.’ Let the weight of that comment settle a while and then tell me God is not at work in this country!

Cindy Daul from Ignite in Harrow told us of a powerful dance ministry that she has developed. When talking at the start of the Day, however, she said ‘I’m not in this just to convert; I’m in it to be community.’ I wanted to jump up then and say ‘AMEN! YES! SPOT ON!’ But, hey, I am an Anglican at heart after all!

Tomorrow I am up to the city again, and this time to go to a conference with the above exciting title which is being held in St Barnabas church in Kensington. I am traveling up with John and Judith, who is the vicar of St Marks Gillingham and the in-laws, who are also excellent people.

I am currently experiencing a ‘trinity of excitement’ due to:

1. the actual title of the day

2. Archbishop Rowan Williams is the key note speaker

3. I am interested to see what friends, both new and old, I’m going to see there.

The church I have grown up in, the Church of England holding a conference on fresh expressions of church – how exciting is that!

I met up with Nick Shepherd today who is a great friend who used to be Director of Greenwich YFC. He is now working on a PhD at Kings to look at how we can best disciple new Christian young people.

As part of that research we have the pleasure of being able to see Nick each Monday at GYFC as he observes our young people and gets to know them and learn from them what ‘being discipled’ is like from their side.

I love chatting to Nick, he is an incredibly academic person, who has great ideas with the ability to be able to do something with them.

Congratulations to Nick and Bridget on the birth of Evie – thankfully the pictures show she looks more like Bridget than Nick!!

We did it! England are through to the next round and we keep getting better each game we play. I feel elated to have watched a good performance and to know that at the moment we are the team who have scored the most goals. Excellent! Sorry if you are not into football … but it is ‘The Lord’s game’.

I found this great link on the BBC website where you can make yourself look like the stars. Go on be a hero and download a a mask for Thursday night. I particularly relate to the Collina one myself.

I have pasted some new links … in the link section of my blog funnily enough … that I have found useful over the years.

Labyrinth is excellent and well worth a visit. I have visited here many times and chilled with God when I have needed to. This was developed by Jonny Baker when he was with YFC, and I know members of my team have used it with great personal effect over the years.

The other sites; Mike Riddell: if you have never read any of his stuff then you really have an unfulfilled life, so go check him out.

The ReJesus site is just excellent as well with loads of little ‘nooks and crannies’ to lose yourself with God!

Well I am off now to get ready to watch England cruise through to the quarter finals … mmmm…..err hopefully!

I had the pleasure of spending time at Elevate tonight, Weald YFC’s youth worship event which I mentioned earlier in the week.

It was really refreshing being part of a youth worship experience that was not full of froth, noise and bubble. Instead it was kept simple and basic and God was clearly working in peoples lives in a real and tangible way.

Dennis has set up the room with 4 coloured rolls of carpet with bean bags placed around the edge in a circle. In the centre was a sign got from a local garden centre with the word ‘Revolution’.

The meeting started with a time of quiet to still ourselves before God, we then listened to a track, I spoke on being real and alive for Christ in such a way that we have an impact on people just be being there (pregnant with Jesus!), we then prayed, shared and went home.

What I found so refreshing was that the young people were there simply because they wanted to hear from God, not because of the style of worship,or some ‘fluffy’ experience. These young people had a passion to hear what God wants from them and were willing to hear it without the thrills and stuff that we might usually associate with youth worship. (I want to say though, in case anyone reads more into this comment, that I am not dissing anyone else’s youth events which I also enjoy!)

Thank you Dennis and Sharon for inviting me to speak, and please thank your young people for being so honest, open and encouraging. Blessings to you all!

I woke up this morning to 3 excited and lovely children all keen to give me their cards and pressies for fathers day. As always I was very blessed with the gifts and happy to see that my children know me so well with gifts of DVD, real ales and candles!

Fathers day, however, is one of those interesting days for me and I guess for many others, who may find the day difficult. For me it’s one of those mixture days where I am glad to be a dad, but also wish I had one to wish happy fathers day to. It is amazing on my travels how many people I come across who have a poor relationship with their dad. Some, like myself, live life knowing that their dad does not want to know them, while others struggle with the way their dad treats or has treated them. I guess you can read the same for parents generally.

Now here, as a good evangelical, I am supposed to say that it is alright, though, because my true father, God, makes up for it all. I’d like to say that’s true, and it really is to an extent. It doesn’t, however, take the pain away and I guess we are back at Psalm 23 again with God just being there in the pain.

It makes me think today, though, what a great responsibility it is to be a father, or a mother. We have the ability to shape a life for good or bad – and I am going to leave you with that incredibly scary thought!

Had a great night last night when some good friends came round for a BBQ. Again, I always feel afterwards, ‘Why don’t we do this more often?’ We ended the night by putting incense on the barbie and offering a prayer.

Some of us got a little carried away, though, and at one stage the incense smoke was so thick that I thought I’d lost my friends as all I could see around me was a thick sweet smelling fog. (I wish I had a digital camera so that I could have taken a pic to post here).I wonder if that was what Israelite sacrifices were like? I wonder if that will be what heaven is like? I wonder if I should shut up!

I went into my local newsagents today to buy the local paper. Gillingham is such a centre of the universe type place that we only get a paper twice a week! Anyway while I was there I noticed the following headline on the front of the Guardian,Williams twice agreed to appoint gay bishop, and so bought a copy to read.

I was both shocked and saddened by what I read. So sad with rage and exasperation, in fact, that I was close to tears after reading the story on the front page of the paper and Canon Fodder which is written in G2 (the inside bit of the Guardian for those that don’t know) by Stephen Bates, the paper’s religious correspondant. It is actually a piece from his book which is soon to be published called ‘The Church at War’.

I think that book title probably sums up why I felt so sad and exasperated by the way the church is at each others throats and, particularly, how Canon Jeffrey John and Bishop Harries has been treated by some of our own church leaders.

Some quotes from the two to give you an idea:

“Hate mail addressed to the bishop, including dog excrement, was now arriving. Eventually, Harries’ office would receive more than 3,000 communications about the appointment – two-thirds of them, in fact, supportive. Among the correspondence was a letter from the wife of John Staples, the vicar of Pangbourne, near the bishop of Reading’s residence. She wrote to John saying that, unlike his predecessors, he would not be welcome to park his car in the vicarage drive when catching the train to London from the village station.

“Yes, well,” she said indignantly, when I rang her up to ask about this, “That’s not the sort of person one wants to meet in one’s drive in the morning, is it? It was nothing personal – after he stood down, I wrote again and invited him to dinner. And, do you know, he’s never replied.”

I wonder if that lady has any idea why he may not have replied?

Even as I type I feel myself getting emotional over how we, as Christians, are able to treat other people. Surely, whether we agree with others or not, we still maintain dignity and love in the way that Jesus does with us.

I can only wonder what those outside the church think about followers of Christ when they see and hear this sort of stuff going on. In the UK there has been uproar at how people have treated each other in Big Brother – is there any difference here?

As God says (in my opinion) through The Black Eyed Peas – ‘Where is the love?’