A little talk

I had the privilege of sharing at Trinity Church in Cheltenham last night. Here's my talk.

What next

Just reading some internet stuff about stepping out, hope I am not coming across like a Nike commercial with a kind of "Just do it" feel!!

I like the occasional pithy saying it helps me keep motivated...

I like these 3 statements, they resonated with me

1. If you do not go after what you want you will never have it.

2. If you never ask the answer will always be No

3. If you do not step forward you will always be in the same place

As Martin Luther King said it is also helpful:

“You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid…. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer…. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot at you or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand.

Well, you may go on and live until you are 90, but you’re just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.”

Maybe I should have popped a few bible verses in as well......

Yes but how?

I have a friend who tells me the best thought to have in mind when preparing a talk is "Yes but how?" I use this a lot when preparing a preach.

I guess when I start with this whole, life on the edge, scaring ourselves type vibe I want to ask the same question "Yes but how?"

I have words not sure I can fully verbalise them, abandonment, surrender, sacrifice, obedience

Visually the idea would be the early celtic monks getting in their small coracles and pushing themselves out to sea without actually knowing where they would end up or even if they would live.

Increasingly I think that the pattern of our world here in the UK is risk averse. Have we been conformed to this pattern. In a world of risk assessment and health and safety have we allowed that to creep into our faith. Our we becoming conformed to this pattern of the world?

When we left for Ibiza, we had two sons who were in school, people thought it was unwise to mess with their education, we didn't have a salary people thought it was unwise to move without having the full amount, we couldn't speak Spanish and we were moving to Spain that seemed unwise. We had very real fears about all of this. You know that the people who helped fuel these fears were predominantly christians!

What made us do it? I guess we had a sense that it was right but we also thought "God responds to movement" Look at various biblical encounters and you soon realise that sometimes you have to get out of the boat, move, for God to respond!

We also had a few other little thoughts like "whats the worst that could happen?". You then also need to confront the fact that you may be wrong, you may come back with your tail between your legs having failed!

In the end you have to accept this reality, deal with your own pride and ego and realise "Yes it could go wrong, but am I going to let this stop me?"

Keepers of a gentle flame

I have just been to a wonderful event at HTB in London. For those of you who don't know HTB is the birthplace of Alpha a course for those wishing to explore christianity. So far nearly 20 million people worldwide have been on this course. At the birthplace of alpha they have just launched a permanent 24-7-365 prayer room. The Bishop of London opened it, and I was blessed to be a part of the morning.

I have been thinking about some stuff recently and felt it was time to start putting my thoughts back out there. My blogging has become a little tame and a bit sporadic. Probably due to recovering from what was the most challenging year we have ever lived through.

Anyway I keep thinking about the church on it's knees...

Why does the church need to spend more time on it's knees?

Because we can't do it on our own, we can't organise, plan and administer the growth of Gods kingdom, we can only call out with faith and fall to our knees in acknowledgement of our absolute and utter dependancy on him. 

Yes we have plans, initiatives and resources but if these are not fuelled by prayer they will be shallow expressions of a deeper reality. 

All the fires we seek to light must start with a spark of prayer, must be sustained by the fuel of prayer and when they spread they must ignite more prayer. 

The spirit of God is unpredictable wildfire yet I wonder if have we become keepers of a gentle flame?

As the church in the UK I believe we have got good at we do, we know how to connect, we know how to run an alpha course, to run good youth work, to engage with our communities, to be agents for social change and regeneration, we are in faith for more money, we apply for grants and create budgets, we ask the church for more. 

We make our stuff sexier, more attractive, slicker and if I'm honest it all kind of works, which is good and definitely an answer to our prayers. 

I can't help but feel there is another dimension that we need to access, another place. 

For me that place would be the edge! 

The edge of what? 

The edge between what we can physically do and what we can't, the edge for me is faith. The point where we have to take ourselves and our communities, the place where if it all goes wrong we'll look stupid and our elders will tell us they saw it coming. The place where we will be embarrassed if it doesn't work. We have to start scaring ourselves again. 

This is the place of prayer, it takes us to the edge, it leads us out in faith. This is Noah building a boat, Abraham on the mountain, Moses crossing the sea, Peter walking on water, or Stephen before the Sanhedrin. For me this is the edge.

I want to get on my knees because, although what we are doing is great and blessed, it is not enough.

What do we have faith for? What do we need faith for?

Just thoughts......

I want to get out on the scary edge again.

Prayer for Peace in Belfast

On the 15th December 2012, at 8.30am, a call to prayer for peace will ring out at Belfast City Hall.

People from every background and community in Northern Ireland will circle the City Hall building in a response to the trouble and the distressing scenes witnessed across our land over the past weeks.

This call to prayer is free from any political, social, organisational or denominational agenda. It is free from any motivation other than the fact that we believe in the power of God and the power of prayer to change our circumstances. We believe that God is alive and able to heal our land if we humble ourselves and pray.

It is not a protest. It is not a protest against protests. In a spirit of unity, this is an expression of prayer and blessing for our city, our politicians, our police, our society, our shopkeepers and hard pressed businesses.

We want to hold on to the Northern Ireland Tourist Board slogan that this is 'Our Place, Our Time' and pray simply and boldly for the peace and prosperity of Belfast and Northern Ireland in this season of goodwill and thanksgiving.

- We want to pray for peace to reign
- We want to pray for the return of hope

This is an open invitation to prayer and so, at this time, we have no idea as to the number of people who will turn up but we expect representatives from all branches of Christianity across Northern Ireland to take part. We have been in contact and have complied with the advice of the police by gathering at a time that will cause least disruption to local businesses and thereby cause no negative impact on this city which we love. Furthermore, we will be encouraging all those who gather to tangibly bless the city centre traders who have lost so much business over the last 10 days.

This time of prayer will be short, private, silent and reflective. It is avowedly non-political.

Please try and arrive between 8.15 and 8.20 on all sides of the city hall where stewards will help organise people into a line. At 8.30 you will hear a whistle to commence the prayer and 8.35 a whistle to end it.

Prayer in the high street

I guess upon my return the biggest question that I have is "How do we take what we learnt in Ibiza and transfer some of the principles to the UK?"

Over the last years I feel that I have been on an intensive prayer and mission training school. Trying to live a life that is both intimately involved with God and actively involved with the world. We have tried hard to breath God in and breath God out, to have out hearts aligned with His and from this form a place of prayer that connects with the world.

Prayer rooms in the right places are a big one for me, I believe we need to see an increase of spaces where people can connect with God on a regular basis. For me that would mean seeing an increasing amount of permanent prayer spaces in situations were the general public can feel able to drop in and reflect on their maker! Shop front prayer rooms would be a great start with this. Creative spaces that give people the chance to pop in be it for a few minutes or a few hours and connect in a tranquil environment with God.

The UK's high streets are littered with empty shops, I would love to see a move within the church of hiring these shops and making them connecting points with the community.

"we need to position ourselves amongst need"

If shopping is the new religion we need to be there in the midst of it all, blessing the community by giving them the opportunity to sample a different way of being and have a connection point with God.

I have just spent an hour in the a prayer room in the town where I live, in that time had the opportunity to pray with a depressed guy who is living in a hostel and chat and pray with another guy who is working through some issues. It was life giving not just for them but also for me. The place of the church in the high street will inevitably lend itself to connection with broken and damaged humanity. We need more of this.

I want to develop a network of prayer rooms and spaces that are present in the high street and accessible to all.

I am curious as to whether this could work?

Peace

I took this shot at a graveyard yesterday, it was a really simple cross with the word peace inscribed on it.

I find peace in the cross, the redemptive work of Christ has brought me peace. Although right now my inner self has felt turmoil, at a deeper level I do know peace. Many years ago I was in a prison cell and felt tremendous unease and just couldn't sleep. I remember praying and asking God for peace and at that moment I felt peace. It permeated through the prison walls and made it's way into my heart, I slept like a baby. My circumstances didn't change but peace helped me deal with the the internal disruption and it's that same peace I feel today.

Sometimes we can't change our situation we just have to learn how to 'Be' in the situation. It may not pass quickly but we do have a hope, a hope that He will remain with us in the storm.

Peace to you.