A little something for the weekend

Brian from Tales of the Unexpected on Vimeo.

Agendas

I have been thinking about agendas today and came to the conclusion that everyone has them. There is nothing the matter with agendas, what I don't like is hidden agendas.

People have agendas to raise their kids well, to earn money, to become famous, to become comfortable, to travel, to promote their event, to be happy, etc.

There are many organisations that have agendas some are clear some are a more hidden, I even think that some are deliberatley a little blurry.

Religious organisations have agendas, something to promote, a way of life to suggest. Most christian organisations have agendas so do islamic groups and other religions.

It made me think about the agenda we have for the work of 24-7ibiza, what is our agenda?

Well this is what I have been thinking about all day. Primarily it is to be like Jesus and in trying to live our lives in such a way that we reflect his teachings. Thats why I like the term "Follower of Jesus" more than "Christian". The word christian has so much baggage attached to it and maybe by how we live an act here as followers of Jesus we will help to change peoples impressions of christians. That would also be on my agenda, that the people we meet in the west end and other places would view christians in a better light after they had met or been helped by us. I see a lot of what we do as taking people a step closer to understanding the christian faith, seeing that it is about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Hopefully by what we do, how we help and serve, people will see that this is how a follower of Jesus should be, maybe they would want to explore the possibility of walking down that path after they have encountered us, I'm happy with that agenda.

Of course I don't have all these wonderful qualities in abundant measure but I am trying. A few other things that I feel have to be on the christian agenda stuff that we mustn't shy away from: "Imperfection" "Weakness" "Questions" "Tolerance" and "Honesty"

We are not perfect and if we have an agenda that aims to present ourselves as perfect everyone will see through and no one will want it because it is a standard none of us can achieve.

Ride the current

"Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity,
to seize everything you ever wanted,
one moment,
would you capture it,
or just let it slip?"

Eminem: Lose Yourself

There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted all the voyages of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, Act 4 scene 3,

I get a feeling that for many people a time of decision is coming. There's got to be a point where talk becomes action. Where dreams start to be fulfilled by people who are willing to walk into them a step at a time. The thoughts and feelings that have been bouncing around at the back of our minds are moving to the fore. We need to find ways to physically articulate our dreams and desires.

There is a current flowing at the moment, a current of change and opportunity. There is a current flowing that is full of fresh dreams and adventure. There is a current that is flowing towards new communities, new locations, new expressions and new ways of being.

We must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

Prayer walking

Tonight has been very quiet, we took one guy home and talked with a few others. I was sitting on a wall when some random girl walked by and tweaked my nipples!

We also met a guy who we had taken home last week, it was great to see him in a good state. This isn't why we do what we do but it was lovely that he was so grateful and warm towards us.

We then took a walk out along the harbour wall to pray, from there we could see the whole of the bay of San Antonio. It was beautiful and peaceful and great place to pray at 4 in the morning. You walk out on this lovely wooden walkway with lights stretching the whole way along out into the darkness. I enjoyed the picture it presented me with, that sense of light piercing darkness, walking in the light yet being surrounded by darkness. The walkway is built on rocks that also just spoke to me about being on a firm foundation. Simple analogies yet when we engage with prayer in a physical way it can seem so much more alive.

I am a great believer in prayer walking, the visual stimuli inspires your prayers. Psyscologists say that many of us process things in one of three ways. we are either Audio, Visual or Kinesthetic. Audio people process through sound, you will often hear these people use phrases like "that sounds good" or "I like the sound of that". Visual people process by picturing things, they will often say "I can see how that would work" or "I am struggling to picture it", kinesthetic people will process by how something feels, they will say "this feels right" or "I have a bad feeling about this".

These are helpful tools for prayer, I am visual and probably a little kinesthetic, so I am more comfortable when I can see something and when it feels right. Also helpful when you work in a team or are in a relationship if you know how people process information it helps you deal with them better. Kinesthetic people find it harder to make an instant decision they need to feel it, which means they need time to process more than an audio or visual person.

Helpful stuff.

Walking can provide good stimuli for all three and make your prayer life a little more interesting. The walk out on the harbour felt good warm gentle breeze, the sound of the waves gently lapping the rocks was very soothing and the sights around us where very inspiring.

I need to walk and pray more.

Doing life well

Over the years I have picked up various bits and pieces about life from friends, books and personal experience, I guess we all have.

When our parents were younger they lived in an achievement orientated society, it was about achieving, bettering oneself, going further than before, earning more, moving to bigger places, having more possesions. In many ways this is still part of our culture I guess you couldn't help but watch TV and realise that we are constantly being asked by the advertisers to buy more or to improve what we already have.

At the back of my mind I don't want to work to the bone and just achieve for the sake of achievement, I want to do life well.

Doing life well is more important than achieving, I want to have time for my family, time for my wife and time to take in and enjoy this beautiful planet that we live on.

In the end it will not be how big my bank balance or house is, but how well I have done life.

I once heard a guy called Rob Parsons say "No one has ever said on their death bed, 'I wish I had spent more time at work'!!!!"

I don't want to travel through this life merely as a consumer, I want to contribute, I want to put as much in as I get out. Maybe thats why I enjoy doing what we do here in Ibiza, I feel like I am contributing.

So heres to kicking back and enjoying what we have been given. I am trying not to focus on what I don't have and instead looking at what I do have and celebrating it.

As you can tell my mood is strangely light today, I hope it stays that way.

I know that sometimes work dictates to us what we should do and how we should spend our time, occasionaly I feel driven by circumstance, like my life is slightly out of control and I can't really handle it. Maybe I can't control all that happens to me but I am determined to enjoy the ride.

Sometimes I think we want to be happy, but what is happiness? What I do doesn't always make me happy, in fact last night as I took a phone call and had to drag myself from my bed to go and take home some 120 kilo drunk I wasn't happy. But it gives me life. having life, feeling alive, is more important than happiness, happiness is a by product of having life. When someone sails across the atlantic I bet they aren't always happy yet I guess they feel alive. It gives them life.

What gives you life?

Don't always look to do what makes you happy, do what gives you life!

Hope this makes sense?

This a great picture of my friend Lisa we are flying along in 20 knot winds, it's a little bumpy and she falls asleep!

I think it reflects something deeper probably touching on my post on peace. My faith has given me an undercurrent of peace, life can be flying along very fast and it can even get a little bumpy but in the midst of it I feel I have peace.

When I was a young boy growing up in Northern Ireland we used to sing this song in Sunday school, "With Christ in the vessel We can smile at the storm" when life is tough and stormy we don't really smile at the storm and it often feels like the storm will never pass. However I get this sense of reassurance when it is stormy that at least He is in the boat with me.

Octopus

Sorry for yesterdays long post, it was something I had written a while ago.

I might do a few posts on discipleship.

Heres some photos from a walk we went on the other day, there was a guy who had been fishing for octopus and in 2 hours he had caught 15!

Tracy picked them up she's not really a wimp but they were extremely heavy.

Discipleship

The Greek word for disciple is "Mathetes" which means "one who learns instruction from another". It was used in the everyday Greek world as the word for an apprentice to a tradesman. A disciple was not only a pupil but someone who copied what their boss did, hence they were spoken of as imitators of their teachers.

A Christian disciple would be a person who is determined to follow Jesus, someone who wants to learn from Him and copy him. A Christian disciple should hopefully be an imitator of their teacher, Jesus. 

What does that look like in todays changing culture? In essence it shouldn't have changed much but it has been influenced by the style of teachers and leaders throughout the centuries. Becoming an imitator of Christ has been affected by training methods, control issues, organisational structures, church style, theology and cultural influences. None of which are wrong but we would be kidding ourselves to think that what we do now is best or what we do in the future will be any better. We just have to find a way to disciple that produces fruit in our generation.

This is challenging, I will try to unpick it in short sections over the next few days.

Thanks for the inspiration Mimou

Spiritual Superstars!!!!

I once met Prince Charles, the man had an aura and was surrounded by people who did stuff for him looked out for him and generally made sure that everything ran smoothly for him, we where running a charity stall at the time to raise some money and when we asked him to contribute a man behind him withdrew money from a purse and gave it to the prince to pay us, what a life!!! People working for you and loads of special privileges.

This is the kind of thing that irks about the whole pastor thing, that kind of superstar status that they get in their own small worlds. 

Actually I would like to suggest we've always had it, after all Jesus Christ as Andrew Lloyd Webber so kindly puts it was a superstar. Probably from Wesley, Whitefield, Spurgeon, Lloyd George etc there has arisen the aura of the spiritually gifted person. We do need leaders of a generation and the men I've mentioned are all significant leaders and pioneers who progressed the faith onwards, but there weren't many of them!! 

You don't have to look far today to see that most major streams and denominations have them most churches even have their little superstars, you know the sort of person I mean: mighty anointed platform men and women with a deep aura of spirituality hanging over their lives.

Thankfully I have had the chance to meet and get to know a few of these men and women most of them are not that spiritual and don't think of themselves as superstars. Of course you will always find the occasional church leader who is a little self important, and appears to demand more respect than your average person but they really are occasional.  Most great leaders have huge quantities of humility which is one of the reasons why God blesses them so much.

 The idea of spiritual superstars has not been created by the Spiritual Superstar but by us and our pandering to the culture that we live in. We are surrounded by stars on TV, Video, Sport, Cinema, the Internet, Newspapers, we are sold a constant diet of the great and the good. Celebrity is the in thing and it's growth this century has been phenomenal.

It's no wonder we quickly canonise and idolise people in church because most of them are good, but I just can't help feeling a little bit uncomfortable with some of the monsters we create. 

I once heard a guy say He would die if I could not preach, this is wrong. Preachers are gifted men and we need them but many would accomplish much more if they carried the ethos of "I would die if I couldn't disciple someone" and don't dare try and tell me that when you preach you are discipling loads at once that can't be true, you are inspiring, challenging, motivating and teaching but discipleship is all about relationships and relationships are not conducted with a 100 people from three feet above them, but day to day on the ground living life together.

Another reason we give  the Spiritual Superstar their status is because they have pioneered and done something big. As we have already said our culture says big is beautiful and we exalt the gifted leader because God has anointed them and shown favour to them and more often than not they have seen large numbers

Jesus would never have been viewed as the Spiritual Superstar, I can hear it now "yeah he's done a few big events but he seems to have lost his way he's really only got 12 totally committed people, I'll go find another larger ministry."

Now I am not anti growth nor am I speaking from numerical poverty, I am just trying to say we need to stop glorifying man and exalting him because he has got loads of people. This only enhances people feelings of insignificance because they feel that they are only really "cutting it" if they have great attendance at their church or pull sizeable crowds at large events.

 

In Luke chapter 1, Gabriel (a messenger who stood in the presence of God) told Mary she was highly significant "greetings you who are highly favoured" yet all she did was carry one little baby into the world. This 15 year old unmarried pregnant virgin would not have made the main platform in any of our churches or events. Yet God chose her to carry Christ into the world. Now we are all called to carry Christ into the world every single one of us.

So we need to move away from the concept of the Spiritual Superstar who is an all singing, all dancing, put a broom up my bottom and I'll sweep the floor at the same time kind of person, to the realisation that we are a collective body of individuals who are all significant in the eyes of God and that through the process of discipleship together we can do so much more than one gifted individual. 

My fear is if we continue down this road and this concept of Spiritual Superstar grows we will never see this generation empowered and doing it for themselves. In some settings we are in danger of creating a culture that is so slick and professional we cease to give people the feeling that they can do it.

 

I understand the idea of "striving for excellence" but I think it is a dangerous one. I want a generation who will try, I don't care if it's not the excellent, we want a generation who will at least be willing to give it a shot, if they fail so what! if it's not excellent so what! we want to raise up a generation who will give it a go!

 

I guess you could hardly call the early church slick, they were not Spiritual Superstars who operated with an air of professionalism. The most important thing for them was that they had God in power, not a video wall, shirt, tie over head, hermenutically annotated sermon in sight. What they did was raw but God was in it.

Just following up on my little pastor rant from the other day

Time to be Kind

In 4 weeks time 24-7 missions teams will be wandering the streets and praying with people, helping people home, cleaning people up, wandering the beaches giving out free oranges, and generally expressing the love of God to people through kindness.

When we moved to Ibiza Floyd Mclung said to us “concentrate on blessing not selling”. We really took this to heart, it felt right. It gave us the strategy for our summer mission’s teams and our life here. 

Our teams walk the streets being kind and people are confronted with kindness not some aggressive street evangelists.

This has really got under my skin, I have done all sorts of street work in the past and most of the time it filled me with dread, but here is something I feel we can all do; Be kind.

Genesis 12: 3 says, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Now if I am correct this Abrahamic blessing still applies to us today. “The earth will be blessed through you”. I feel the challenge of this verse every time I read it. People should be blessed through me, scary!

Now in my own experience I have often cried to God “bless me” there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, it’s a valid request and I use it a lot. God bless me, God bless my wife, God bless my family, and my friends etc. It’s definitely worth asking the Most High to bless you, because he does.

Yet I have started to contemplate the culture of blessing that exists in some church circles. A friend of mine Ian Nicholson said a while ago that for a number of years the church has been crying, “Come Holy Spirit” but now the Holy Spirit is crying out, “come holy people”. 

Maybe it’s a throw back from Toronto or maybe we have just absorbed to much of our own materialistic consumerist culture into our spirituality, but we can get caught up in a bless me culture?

Bless me lord! 

If you live in the western world you are blessed beyond measure. If you can afford to buy a book you are in the top 10% of the worlds rich. Nothing the matter with being blessed. We just have to increasingly learn to be a blessing to others.

So as usual at this time of year this kindness vibe is knocking around in my brain. I have to keep learning to be kind, and challenge myself to be increasingly kind.

Jeremiah 9: 24 says, “I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD.” I want to exercise kindness after all it’s the reason I am a Christian!

 Romans 2: 4 “Gods kindness leads you towards repentance” because I became aware of Gods incredible kindness I turned to Him. I was shown “the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus”.

There is a growing mandate for us to be missional and I believe this missionality will be expressed through the church becoming incredibly kind.

A mission of kindness. Blessing not selling.

There is a need for an emerging generation to recognise the missional call that it has on its life. A move away from the culture of “bless me” to an embracing of a culture that blesses others. I believe that our generation is recognising it’s call to carry Christ as a blessing into every sphere of life, no longer compartmentalizing areas but stepping out into the totality of mission.

I have always been struck by the fact that it was a donkey that carried Christ into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and that Christ is looking for donkeys, not superstars, to carry him into this world.

A humble Christ carrying people who don’t need to work for a church, be called to a mission overseas or be a doctor or nurse to carry Christ.

People have recognised this Christ carrying mandate and are outworking it in many situations. I guess this is the underlying philosophy behind why we do what we do.  

Can Christians Smoke?

I have just had a 36 hour internet nightmare, total black out thanks to the very unhelpful people at Telefonica!

Anyway, I want to answer anonymous who asked me does: enjoying a cigar make you any less of a christian? and whose daughter told her that she couldn't be a proper christian because she smoked! Sorry I am assuming gender. 

Does smoking make you any less of a christian? Well I have to say NO to that one, as I smoke. I could do a little christian lying here and say I enjoy the occasional cigar, but I don't, I have about 5 or 6 a day and if I don't have one in the morning I feel grumpy and irritable!

It's not good for me and any form of addiction isn't helpful for people in general. It doesn't make me any less of a christian but it does show that I am weak. I am a weak nicotine addicted Christian that God is gracious enough to still love and still use. 

That leads me to the other point "proper Christians" are weak and flawed, earthen vessels. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

What gets to me about the smoking issue is that it is difficult to hide, it's smelly and gets noticed. Of course the masturbating christian can hide, the bitter christian can hide, the envious christian can hide, the greedy christian can hide!

It's okay to be addicted to caffeine, which I probably am!

What about fat christians, you can't be fat and be a christian, you're killing yourself! Why do we never give an altar call "could all the obese chubbers please come forwarded to be delivered from their food addiction" it's seems acceptable to be fat and a Jesus follower! 

Do you think Jesus could have been fat? after all he spent a lot of time eating and feasting..... he probably wasn't sugar addicted.

What about the diet addicts? the people who damage their metabolism by yo yo-ing their weight.

What about the exercise addicts who get off on endorphins?

I am not trying to justify my own addiction, just frustrated that some things are acceptable and other aren't. I hate the inconsistency of it all.

Judge not lest yee be judged, there's to much judgement in certain areas of the church.

Thats what I love about my Christian faith, is that God loves me despite my weaknesses, he is totally for me and if I gave up smoking tomorrow he would still love me as much as he does today.

Of course he doesn't want me to damage my body, I'm sure he would prefer me to follow a healthier lifestyle, but he doesn't make that a condition of His Love.

“You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to you.”

What is it with models?

There are some supermodels of church out there, beautiful shiny examples of the grand and polished, full of wonderful musicians and really attractive people that sit on the front row. When you see their videos the camera man always focuses on handsome of or beautiful worshipers or even someone from a different ethnic background to give it a mixed feel! The speakers are polished and there words are profound and make lots of sense. God has blessed them.

Without wanting to detract from these churches or knock them I feel they could lead to lazy leadership.

You're leading a church or some form of ministry there are more successful forms of what you are doing out there so you decide to copy the supermodel!

You buy the books, Purpose Driven, Willow Creek or you watch the event, Hillsongs, Abundant life etc.. and decide you want to be like them!

Where does that leave us when it comes to dependancy on God, on finding a style and method that works in our own situation with our specific people group.?

I feel people go to the books and models before they go to God. I am not knocking the models that are out there they work and actually a lot of the books, CD's and DVD's have some great stuff that will help anyone. We must never be to arrogant to think that we can't learn from these people.

But what I don't like is the franchise nature of these models, they are not necessarily selling the franchise we just adopt it.

It is lazy.

I heard a guy once explain the cell model in mathematical terms it all sounded brilliant but when we introduce the complexity of humans the maths doesn't all work.

By the way I think the cell model is a very helpful tool for focusing large communities into manageable authentic communities that care for each other and reach the lost.

There will never me a super model one size fits all type of church community.

Leaders need to not feel insecure when confronted with seemingly more successful churches, learn from them but don't replicate them. The other thing about female supermodels is they are actually unusual, they are not the norm. Woman throughout the world spend hundreds of pounds trying to look like someone in a magazine but it will never happen, most women aren't 5 foot 11 inches and weigh 8 stones! Do we end up doing the same in church, trying to look like something we will never be?

I think what God is looking for is dependent leaders, people who will lock themselves away, and find out the way forward from God. Then use the books and models as tools and add ons to help them accomplish their own God given vision.

We're all beautiful, we're just not all supermodels.....

Prophetic or Pathetic

What is prophecy? my own understanding and experience of prophecy comes from the Charismatic/Pentecostal church. During an inspiring time of worship someone would get up and say they “had a word” from God, or a scripture and would normally start by saying “God wants to say this morning” or words to that affect. As a church leader I often had to be the filter of these words. Someone would come and share with me and then I would release them on to stage to share at the appropriate time! Occasionally people would say one thing and then get up and share something completely different! Occasionally they would go on for to long or even use the time as an opportunity to bang their drum or have a go about a specific part of church life, all dressed up nicely in spiritual language.

A lot of church prophecy leaves me cold, it’s always about revival imminent, every time we have heavy rain fall you get the prophets predicting…. Or often it is stating the obvious. The best prophecy I ever heard was this “we don’t need another prophecy” we just need to live in the ones we have.

Prophetic teams

We then had prophetic teams which I really liked the idea of, although at times they can become a little independent and try to drive the church forward from the rear, occasionally speaking out of their rears!

As you can tell prophetic ministry hurt me. Funny really the most damaging thing that ever happened to me in church leadership was fellow prophetic Christians. Once I was told that I was the bulldozer and the prophetic was the driver, it got under my skin. Someone else said you are the word guy and the prophetic are the spirit guys! It made me question my own spirituality and ability to hear God.

Can it be challenged?

The problem with many prophetic people is that they make it difficult for you to challenge what they have said by dressing it up in language that makes it sound like they have spoken the exact words of God. Some prophetic types needed it to sound like it came direct from Jeremiah or Elijah for it to have weight. Like all of us they don’t like being told they are wrong and make it very hard for you to do so. There can be a lack of accountability when do we ever invite them back to our church and say “you were wrong, explain yourself”?

Then you had the guys with prophetic ministries, many of whom I admire, but it was always slightly scary that they could pick people out of a crowd and give them this fantastic word that would encourage them and send them forth into greatness. It just made you feel a little second-class if you didn’t get one! I have had a few of those, and I swear a couple went to people that should have been for me!

My own gift

I get a bit weirded out by the prophetic I personally have had a number of very clear premonitions over the years, something inside me knows it is God but I can’t work it up or make it happen. I just get these impressions that then come true!!!!! We’re not just talking minor things either, I unexpectedly get impressions a lot, but I struggle with them. I see dead people. My biggest worry is being wrong so I keep quiet or that I mistake one of my paranoid worrying shadow thoughts as the voice of God and become a suspicious whacko. Or that I try to drive my own agenda by calling it a word from God.

Now days I have a much healthier view of what is prophetic and what is pathetic. I can embrace the broad spectrum of what is prophetic.

The Broader View

The prophetic is so much more than words, in fact it is much more powerfully revealed in lifestyle.

Mother Theresa was prophetic; she jarred against a culture and made others aware of Gods heart for the poor. Jackie Pullinger was prophetic; by showing that God wanted to walk amongst the crack dens of the walled city in Hong Kong. Shane Claiborne is prophetic by challenging others to embrace a radical form of Christianity. Dare I say that even Willow Creek is prophetic by challenging comfortable middle class churches to think of seekers rather than themselves? I have seen Church being prophetic by moving to slums or starting orphanages. Or communities being prophetic by moving into houses together and spending their money and time differently. Bono is prophetic. Then I see prophecy happen every week in local church communities where kind words are spoken, people are encouraged and built up by the voices of others. I know of a guy who walked around his city in chains, another who carried a cross as and act of prophetic symbolism and intercession. I have placed hyssop in ponds and poured oil on ancient stones as gestures of a desire for breakthrough from a higher power and a longing that my God would intervene in this broken world.

Prophecy calls people back to ancient biblical paths of prayer and holiness, it propels people forward into greater intimacy but should also challenge the status quo, it should make people uncomfortable, it should challenge predetermined mindsets, it should provoke, jar and inspire.

Is being prophetic more about actions than words?

I do believe in prophecy, if anyone’s got one for me I’d love to hear it…….

Worship invisible dreams.

Thanks for all the comments on the previous post, I wasn't trying to make a statement about the rights and wrongs of what I felt, just present a picture. In all honesty after only 5 hours sleep when I wrote that piece my mind was pretty blank at the time of writing.

I just want to touch on a few things that have been commented on and said:

Worship

I was talking to some friends back in the UK about worship, specifically sung worship. That 45 minute or 30 minute slot on a Sunday morning. Which I enjoy a lot. I like sing-a-longs, you'll catch me after a few beers singing "Hey Jude" with great gusto and there are many others who like a great sing a long and this is one of the appeals of Sunday morning sung worship. It seems to me that no matter how hard we try, how hard we say that worship is a life style, etc. etc. People still refer to Sunday morning sung worship as the worship service.

You then also have a group of committed people with jobs and lives who have to give up one evening a week, arrive early on a Sunday and practice for this 45 minute session. I've met a few worship guys who are getting disillusioned with this.

Increasingly people will move away from wanting to attend the worship service because their worship will be acts of service throughout the week. I see apathetic worship leaders and musicians and attendees who just can't see the validity of this type of worship. Personally I do see it's validity because I enjoy corporate singing and like the opportunity to be loud. I totally understand that if that doesn't float your boat you will find sung worship a little empty.

Invisibility

In large gatherings, and large churches anonymity and invisibility are key challenges. I know of someone who was part of a worship team in a very large northern church she had a break down and left town, no one noticed! People get lost in a crowd.

I have also observed that even sold out people in larger churches can be invisible. by that I mean you can attend a mid-week small group, help out with the children's work, have a few Christian couples around for dinner and wine at the weekends, attend on Sundays, help put the chairs out and still have a bag full of issues that no one ever notices.

I feel it is harder to hide in small communities you are confronted with your own character flaws and inadequacies in smaller more intimate communities. If you're lazy it will show, if your controlling it will show, if your grumpy it will show, if your rude it will show, if your spiritually in-disciplined it will show I believe it is a lot easier to hide these flaws in a large active church. This is a challenge, one that large active churches need to address, many do but it is always easier to hide in a large group.

Large gatherings can also appeal to nominalism.

Dreams

I have been reading a book on surrealism by a guy called Jose Perre he uses this great little line when speaking about gestures recovering there truth and talks of a world "in which action would be sister to the dream"

I love that. Action needs to be the sister of our dreams.

How do we turn our dreams into reality?

IN THE ARENA OF HUMAN LIFE THE HONORS AND REWARDS FALL TO THOSE WHO SHOW THEIR GOOD QUALITIES IN ACTION...I COUNT HIM BRAVER WHO OVERCOMES HIS DESIRES THAN HIM WHO CONQUERS HIS ENEMIES; FOR THE HARDEST VICTORY IS THE VICTORY OVER SELF." ARISTOTLE

Maybe we are the only ones stopping ourselves from walking into our dreams?

Don't let go

I’m fed up with victorious Christian living, I am victorious he has given me victory over death and sin, he has given me all sorts. But a lot of the time I don’t feel victorious I feel desperate, I struggle and am tired

I sometimes think "You shouldn’t say that Brian, you’re admitting defeat." I don’t care I’M WEAK.

I am weak, but I am not going to give up. I am going to overcome I am going to persevere, I may not feel victorious, but I am not going to let go of God. This is an attitude of mind that we need to carry throughout our whole Christian life.

There are many times when I feel dirty, fearful, hurting and desperate but I will hang on, I will overcome. I mightn’t finish standing in a three piece suit looking like some sort of superstar, I might just finish panting lying on the ground covered in dust and sweat hurting, but I will overcome.

I’m going to hang on.

I've been struck by the phrase "Don’t let go."

Here’s the deal despite my present reality, which I mustn’t ignore or pretend doesn’t exist I have to say to myself. Don’t let go.

I’m tired. Don’t let go.

I’ve been praying for years. Don’t let go.

This isn’t easy. Don’t let go.

I’m hurt. Don’t let go.

I’m a mess. Don’t let go.

I feel down. Don’t let go.

I’m weak. Don’t let go.

I can't see an end. Don't let go.

2 Corinthians 4: 7 - 18

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.



Check out my latest podcast, where I elaborate on this post, it's called: DON'T LET GO

Sin

I think for me the word sensitivity would be the best one to use in dealing with all issues of sin.

Sensitivity in general is something I like, and I guess I don't see it in Driscoll, or at least not from his platform persona. He is quite strong about some people in his book but seasons his written words much better with grace.

Sin is wrong, it's how we deal with sin that is contentious, it's also how we grade sin. Now I occasionally drink to much, which is a sin, I have been known to look at naked ladies on websites which is a sin, my thought life is sinful on a daily basis, I am a weak earthen vessel. I try not to excuse my sin, but quite often I do excuse it. Basically I am a sinner who has experienced Grace, my father in heaven graciously restores me when I mess up, he even graciously loves me when I mess up yet refuse to admit it. I am not judged but I am loved.

This is where I think it all goes wrong, no matter how gracious I try to be there is still a bit of the judge in me. I like to think I am gracious in some areas, especially towards the people I am working with, yet sometimes I not very gracious to others!

There are lots of contentious issues out there, loads of positions and sides to take. So people take them. I have often found that I don't like people who sit on the fence. Yet increasingly I feel this could be a good place to be. Now I am reading that statement and I find it hard to accept, because I am a very definite person who has an opinion on most things. What I am finding is that in the world that we are called to love our opinions will often be challenged by real life people, in real life situations and have to change.

We have to handle people with sensitivity, because after all they are all equally loved by God.

Judge

I have been thinking a lot about acceptance this week, over the last 12 months my perspective has been challenged about just how much judgment there is in this world. I have heard people say of the drunks we work with "f**k them it's their own fault"

I been shocked by own reactions I try hard to hide them but I do sometimes think: How could you do that? How could you live like that? How could you say that?

I have other moments of judgment that comes from my thoughts on the way people raise their kids, how they spend their money, and the choices they make in relationships, etc.

Who am I to Judge?

Read a great quote in Frank Skinners autobiography,(actually this was written in my first ever blog post) he is in a small catholic church in Japan standing behind a large hairy Japanese transvestite dressed in a school girls outfit! He just thinking how wrong, strange and weird it is that someone like this should be in a church service he writes:

"Then the hairy transvestite spoke. I stood, mouth slightly open, as a middle aged man in a schoolgirl uniform offered, in a voice deeper than mine, this prayer to God: 'Lord, send messengers of tenderness to the dead-end streets, the furnished or unfurnished rooms of the lonely, and the attics of the abandoned in our cities. And so we pray. My 'Lord your Kingdom come' was said with a tightening throat. I imagined him lonely in his furnished or unfurnished room, a figure of fun to most people, but embraced by this small Catholic community happy to encourage his active participation in the Mass, regardless of his bizarre appearance. I felt humbled and slightly ashamed. I suppose I had dismissed him as a freak, but he was, it seemed to me now, a brave and very honest man.

Japan is 8 hours ahead of Britain, so when you're next out, living it up, at 11 on a Saturday night, remember that in a catholic church in Osaka, there's a middle-aged man in a schoolgirl uniform and wig, listening attentively to the word of God, and offering up his prayers for the lonely and abandoned.

Phillipians 2

What I'm getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you've done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I'm separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God's energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure. Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night