What makes a good leader?

One thought on this one is honesty. 


People want honesty not holiness. Holiness is over rated, not as a spiritual concept but as a leadership characteristic. 


There has been a line of thought in the past that a leader can never appear weak or flawed that he has to stand out as an example of holiness. 


Now I know we can quote various verses on the subject. 


But a brief glimpse at any leadership in the bible reveals flawed weak leaders, in fact I am not sure how many senior leadership teams would have elected David to be on their team, or Moses! 


Murderers, cowards, adulterers.

Standing between the living and the dead

Intimacy and involvement is a much used phrase within 24-7 prayer, it's the phrase that gives real life to our movement. I believe this is a really exciting time. God is still looking for a people who are both intimate with him and involved with the world. 

There is a call upon each one of our lives to be an intimate prayerful people, who touch the Father’s heart and experience the transforming power of his presence. There is also a call upon each of our lives to be an involved people, who prayerfully take the Fathers heart to the world and introduce others to Jesus and allow them to experience the transforming power of His presence in their lives. Thats what I love. 


24-7prayer then by default is not a tabernacle model of prayer, it's an incarnational model.
We must be careful that we don’t try to spread the gospel without the back up of prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit and the transforming power of having been in His presence. Likewise we must be very careful that we don’t pray, experience the Holy Spirit and become transformed by His presence without ever being compelled to fulfil the biblical mandate of spreading the gospel.

We need to be a people who do both, it would be completely wrong to say “I pray, others reach out” or “I reach out, others pray” a Christians life needs both intimacy and involvement. I think even the phrase prayer missionary leaves a little bit to be desired.

My faith is two pronged and I don’t think we can choose to go for just one prong! Read Matthew 22: 37 -40 we are called to do both,"love the Lord your God with all your heart and Love your neighbours as yourself." 

We can’t just be presence seekers; we also need to be presence bringers. We need to be striving to do both together at all times.

I heard a guy called Bill Wilson speak once he talked from Exodus 16: 42 – 50. in which a deadly plague is spreading throughout the children of Israel, they are literally dropping like flies in front of Moses and Aaron, Aaron runs to the Altar, the place that represents the presence of God, he gets some incense and fire from the Altar and runs into the middle of the people and stands with the incense and the plague stops. It says that he took the fire and “stood between the living and the dead”.


We must be a people who get fire from the presence of God and then stand in the middle of a dying world and bring life. We are called to stand between the living and the dead but we can only do this if we have got the fire from His presence.Aaron carried something that he had got from the presence of God into the middle of a very dark and desperate situation and the plague stopped. One man ran into the presence and then ran into the dying world around him and made a difference. The fact that he ran suggests urgency, lives depended on his speed, on his commitment and his awareness of how dreadful the situation was.

My prayer is that I become like Aaron, that I am filled with a desire to run to the presence of God and that I am also filled with enough compassion for the lost and dying to run with His presence into the world.

Intimacy and involvement. Prayer and action. Faith and deeds. They kind of all go together.

1000th Curious blog post!

So here we have my 1000th blog post!!!! I never thought I would write this many. I came up with the title after a friend of mine chatted about being curious and how it is a really healthy attitude to have when meeting people. Therefore Curious in Ibiza was born along with the help of Tim Hewitt who encouraged me to go for it and helped me set the original blog up. I also just like the sound of the word "curious"


So am I still curious? well I would like to think so:
I am curious about people, I find them interesting, complex, funny, inspiring and annoying all at the same time. For this reason I am curious as to how anyone can put another human in a box and try to define them, I think this is impossible.

I am still curious about Ibiza, this place has captured my heart I am curious as to why! The people, the beaches, the weather, the craziness, the mix of cultures, the administrative disorganisation, the lack of health and safety, the messiness, the west end, the driving, the noise levels, the inability to form a queue, the whole thing is frustrating, beautiful, charming and attractive.

I am curious as to why women, when told they are looking tired and pale, don't just say "I am having my period"

I am curious as to how the message of Jesus doesn't have more impact, probably the fault of the messengers not Jesus.

I am curious as to why anyone would want to wear fake tan.

I am curious about men who wear thongs, I tried Tracy's once and it hurt.

I am also curious about the Arab world, Ibiza was moorish for 500 years, I would like to explore it more, I thought Dubai was beautiful and loved the desert. I would love to be a desert nomad for a year.

I am curious about dogs, whats going on in there? Why are you so loyal? Why would I like to own another one?

I am curious about the ear hair that has started to grow out of my ears, what's that all about? If I cut it will it grow back and get bushy? Why is it grey? Will it get worse? 

I am curious about my ego, I know I have one, why do I feel the need to continually feed it? I am sure that self awareness is the key to growth which makes me curious about myself and how I tick!!

I am curious about how I will dress when I am old? When do you start choosing things just for comfort? Am I already old? 

I am curious about why on earth I would want to own a Rolex, but I do.

I am curious about God, you never seem to fully understand Him. He's a mystery.

I am curious as to why I still find Britney Spears attractive? I follow her on twitter.....



Thank you for sticking with me and reading  all my randomness.

God loves lap dancers

We have a friend who works as a dancer in a lap dancing bar in the west end. 


Two of our team became great friends with her this summer, she posted this on her facebook status a few days ago: 


"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance,but the Lord looks at the heart!!!!"


This is so exciting for us, it feels like we are getting our message across, that God is at work and that he is touching her heart and affecting her identity.


We feel very grateful for this piece of encouragment. We also feel very strongly that we should definitely pursue the implementation of Strip Club Chaplains for next year.


We need to work into this area of injustice where women have been reduced to objects of lust we need to communicate the father heart of God to these girls, for them to know that He sees their hearts. That they are more than the role that they perform.