Managed to catch up with Dennis yesterday from Weald YFC who has been a friend now for around 8 years when we kind of started together in YFC at around the same time.

Dennis is an excellent guy who is fantastically creative with a real passion to see young people reached with the love of God. Not only is he talented, but he is such a cool and gracious guy too. I guess that’s why I like him so much.

This guy is just so talented – as well as being a cool youth worker, he writes music, sings, can design web pages and publicity and even puts on survival weekends which, if I’m honest, I’m far too much of a wimp to try out; just the advertising comments below from his website terrify me!

So you think you know how to survive? Imagine having to build your own shelter to keep you dry! Having to win points for your team so you can eat! And when you find your food having to cook it! Its time to learn some new skills! And step out of your comfort zone. 2 nights out in the woods with your friends doing your best to survive.

I’m actually getting a chance to meet up with him again on Sunday as I pop in to look at Elevate.

Thanks Dennis for coming to Gillingham – it was a great excuse to get out in to Gillingham High Street and enjoy the new noodle bar!

Strikes me we do not catch up with friends enough. Why is that? We love spending time with friends and we dislike the grind of work (usually). But … we spend loads of time in the office and nearly no time with friends. mmmmm I must change that!

We watched the match tonight in a local sports centre with loads of young people that we normally work with – an excellent a atmosphere, so big thanks to the staff of the Black Lion Leisure Centre in Gillingham for helping us out.

It was not a great performance by any means, but surely a mark of a good team is to pull out a win even when you play like a flat pancake! Scoring 3 goals when you are not playing well is not that bad is it!

Could this year be the dream; will we see Beckham lift a cup in July?

I have been finding some excellent Christian art recently. Some really provocative stuff and fantastic creations that I kinda connect with and lose myself in. One such artist is Cory Sprockett. I first became aware of her through a link in Tribal Generation.

This is one of her pieces called worthy with the words I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it. I think that fits with what I was trying to draw from Psalm 23 earlier in the week. The fact that God promises to be with us and gives us uncountable blessings along the way means it all has to be worth it.

Two more particular favourites of Cory Sprockett’s are also Awakening and Destiny.

I found a really excellent post today on a blog that I stumbled upon as you do – Odyssey will now be appearing in my blog links.

The post gives a new take on evangelsim and the stories of Mary and Elizabeth when they meet up when they are both pregnant. To wet your appetite read this:

Charles de Foucauld, the missionary/monk who served as a witness to Jesus among the poor and largely Muslim communities on the living edge of the Saharah over 100 years ago, recently put this idea to work in my body. The visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, he says, is a model of evangelization. Mary, that wondrous host of God himself (Luke 1.31ff), enters her cousin’s household and Elizabeth and John in her own womb leap for joy (1.41). She evangelized “not by her words but by silently carrying Jesus close to them, to their dwelling.” Following her example, could we too “evangelize and sanctify the unfaithful by carrying Jesus to their midst in silence, by carrying him, our evangelical life, in our own lives which should provide an example of his.”

The rest of the post can be read here

I have added an excellent new link to this blog today. The Ooze is an excellent online magazine set up to encourage the church to engage with the emerging culture by developing relationships and resources.

Its a great area to read thoughts and make comments – in other words converse. It holds well the tension between creativity and information, theology and art, and trad and new/emerging voices.

There are loads of good writings to engage with. The lead article today is from Diana Baldwin and called when Bad things happen to good Sims. She likens playing Sims to playing a bit like God, and from that leaps to the question of Why do bad things happen to good people? She outlines some frustration and being unable to protect her Sims in a fire; even though she wanted to she was powerless to do so.

That made me laugh as we were kind of considering that question this morning at the Gillingham YFC team meeting as we looked at Psalm 23. I personally find it difficult to believe that God allows bad things to happen to people so that they learn a lesson, or so that it builds their character or strength. In fact, the comment which goes something like ‘One day you will realise why God allowed this’ really winds me up. It reminds me more of Jobs friends when he is having a tough time. Its fair to say though, that a lot of my team disagree with my thinking. That’s what is so cool about team life and something, I guess, that I may miss.

In fact Rabbi Harold Kushner has written When Bad Things Happen to Good People which sheds some interesting thoughts on this whole area. His bottom line, and I guess mine, is that sometimes God id unable to stop stuff happening due to how he has designed the world. What he does guarantee, however, is to be with us in the situation. And there we are right back at Psalm 23 again!

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

he restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of righteousness

for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk

through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD

forever.

When looking for Psalm 23 on google I found this movie that some of you may like.

See that man, all alone, looking quiet, in the twilight zone, with his flag, and his face paints, not quite knowing where to go or what to do? Feeling lost, dazed and confused! Thats how I feel right now!

How can 2 minutes change a whole set of emotions from mountain top ecstacy to dark valley depression?

Only words needed … ‘Come on England!”

I’m starting to get excited but while surfing found this patriotic pic. I so hope I am not found wandering in desolation at the end of the match!

In todays Guardian, Karen Armstrong writes interestingly about current heroes. The piece, From Buddha to Beckham, outlines how she thinks we get the heroes we deserve. She outlines how each culture has had heroes and how we look to those heroes for some form of guidance:

The fact that we call people “stars” is itself significant. A star sheds light in darkness. Travellers once used the constellations to help them to find the right path. We have always looked to exemplary human beings for guidance and inspiration. Throughout history, heroes and sages have become paradigmatic figures. They show us what humanity can be, they define our values, and fill us with profound emotion, because they touch an inchoate but powerful yearning for human excellence.

She suggests this contrtibutes to a flaw in our society today. Wheras heroes used to be people like Socrates who would expect his pupils to transform their lives for the better, todays heroes like Will Young and others are more likely to be into self-indulgent adulation. This is due partly to this cultures infatuation with fame. In the church, who are our heroes? Who do we try to emulate as we seek to connect with the world ‘out there’?

The whole article can be read at the above link and is worth the 5 mins or so to read.

Today one of Sarah’s brothers, Chris Mann, leaves for China to ascend Mustagh Ata, which is one of the highest mountains in the world, peaking at 7546 metres. This is not a straight-forward climb, but a high altitude ski and snowboarding expedition.

Basically they are going to climb up and then ski or snowboard down – how amazing is that! Doesn’t that mountain just look outstandingly beautiful! I can only begin to dream of the wonderful feeling you must have as you stand at the top of somewhere like Mustagh Ata.

Please join us in praying for the safety of these people and that all goes to plan. You can learn more and keep up to date at the Mustagh Ata 2004 website.

The new album from Faithless arrived today from cd-wow and it is simply excellent. The music is fantastic, all the songs are written in the same key (in case you think I am talented I read that off the back of the cd notes) and the lyrics exceptional. I know very little about how music works, but even I can hear how this gives a more melodic feel to the album.

You know how many people see God in creation, and still others sense or hear the call of God through nature? I have wondered for some time whether God, in a similar way, is trying to talk to the world, and maybe even his church, through art and music. Yes, maybe even art and music created by people who do not acknowledge God. God did, afterall, give all of us our creative talents whether we believe in him or not! Everyone is created in God’s image and so it follows that every person on this planet must have some creative characteristics of the creative God.

A number of lyrics have grabbed out at me on this album, although 6 lines in particular have jumped at me. I have had the album in my posession for only one day and it has been played virtually continuosly without anyone complaining in the office. The same words have grabbed me. They are taken from a track ‘I want more’:

More oneness, less categories

Open hearts, no strategies

Decision based upon faith and not fear

People who live right now and right here

I wanna wisdom than wise men revere

I want more

Could that be God talking to his church in the 21st Century? They have been going around my small brain over and over and I have come to the conclusion … I want more! Could this be what it means to find the sacred in the everyday?

There are other great, thought provoking lyrics, such as in ‘Love Lives on my Street’: Love is you, love is me, love is love is us, love is free

I am guessing you have all heard Weapons of Mass destruction. If you have not then you should buy the cd and listen to them for yourselves. You can find samples of the tracks at the Faithless website too.