i saw you far away...

The Big Day Out was a hit for young people that came from across the county for much fun and laughter on Saturday. The day was filled with various challenges, around a theme of ‘finding our way’. In the morning I encouraged everyone to say yes to Jesus’ invitation to ‘come follow me’, and we set out to embarrass ourselves by challenges including: putting as many members of the public in telephone boxes, getting photo taken in the back of police cars and randomly directing tourists to the nearest toilets, to name but a few.

Even though I was a leader, I got heartily stuck in to Lazer Tag and became strangely competitive. Made it to 3rd on one game, whereas Steve Bullock remained the champion at 1st for all three games – that guy is a legend!

I’ve just ordered a large poster of the return of the prodigal son. I love this painting of Rembrandt's, and I love it all the more because of Henri Nouwen’s book ‘the return of the prodigal son – a story of homecoming’. The challenge that both the younger and elder son are both lost, and the Father goes out to both of them, welcoming them back home. And that we too are meant to become like the Father 'to only do what we see him doing'... Incredible...

If it comes through in time, we’ll hopefully whack it up on a wall for our next 24hrs of prayer coming up this weekend. It’s funny how pictures can speak of God profoundly. A lot more so than words sometimes. Using different and creative ways to communicate is an interesting exploration, especially when putting together prayer rooms.

I’m reminded of Punk Monk’s chapter on ‘creativity’, about how being creative is worship because it is a response to the Creator. He created out of nothing, yet we can only be creative out of created things. Awesome.

There’s that joke too – the one with the scientists who claim they can do what God has achieved. God puts them to the test and challenges them to create Man. They get straight to work, going and finding some soil and bringing it back to the lab. God interrupts. “eh hem, you find your own soil”…!

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recent prayer...

Great to start the day prayer walking with Chris.

This week is speeding by with lots to do and lots of meetings. Had an awesome time in the lake district on holiday last week. That place is beyond what words can describe at times. Breath-taking. Climbed Helvellyn, 3rd highest mountain in England - awesome!

Before going away we hosted our first ‘proper’ 24hrs of prayer in the ‘living room’. It was brilliant. And not long enough. But an exciting and somewhat intriguing start to something that we’re hoping to do every month or so from now on. if you’re in the area and want to pray, get in touch and I’ll give you some upcoming dates.

Also, the next Saturday we played a small part in the ‘Linden Park Gig’. I’ve written about these events before, but we haven’t been able to take part as a community yet, and since it was local, we thought we’d give it a go as a kinda missional public prayer thing.

So, we bought a big bed sheet and laid it on the ground. Hoisted a trestle table to its feet and squirted lots of brightly coloured paints into trays. We wrote on a piece of paper in big writing ‘GOD LOVES LINDEN’, then invited as many people as we could to paint their hand and make their mark on the sheet…

We’d prepared the sheet with loads of masking tape linked together to make a map of the area, and people laid hands on the areas where they lived, or where they went to school, or just on an empty space. Our message was that everyone is unique, God thinks you’re special. No one else has the same hand print as you, and that without you Linden wouldn’t be the place it is. I think it went down well. At the end, we peeled off the masking tape leaving us with this crazy piece of artwork, but an interesting map of our area too.

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i am not, but i know i am...

I like this from asbojesus:

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branding...

I was thinking, does God want a church with a new brand, or does he want an expression of church that is brand new?

By brand new church I don’t necessarily mean a church plant. What I mean is the process of transformation instigated by God that makes the people new. A new, or renewed community of believers.

I think a problem arises immediately with the idea of the word ‘brand’. The church ‘with’ a new brand. The brand of the church is always attached to the people; they stand with, or alongside the brand. It is not, and does not become an intrinsic part of who the people are. Though it may flow throughout all areas of the community, it is more like an administrative badge. At best it is worn like clothes, but rarely becomes part of the key identity of the believers in the community; it rather provides an identity for them to embrace.

The brand becomes a signpost of how to follow Christ. From the brand come the objectives, the mission statement, the values, the style of worship, the method of evangelism. The brand defines the community.

From the church with a new brand, three groups of people emerge…those who own the brand like a possession; they are passionate for its cause and use it to pursue their goals. Those who are attached to the brand, it comforts them and reminds them they belong to something. And finally, there are those who are under the brand and feel squashed by it, they are reminded that they can only express their faith within the confines of the brand.

However, an expression of church that is brand new somehow embodies its vision at its conception. The vision is usually simple, it is usually (or should be) centred on Jesus.

Its mission and purpose, its identity are intrinsically a part of the community and it’s life. It does not have a brand to conform to, but gives birth to its own style, mode, its own way of life as it follows Christ. Its values are worn in the hearts of those who are part of the community. The values are worked out within the relationships and lives of those in the community, through prayer, day in day out. The members have a sense of belonging because they know they belong to each other. They are free to explore because they trust each other.

The brand new expression of church is brand neutral. Whilst labels and language are helpful, they do not define the community, but rather describe the community.

So, what do you think? Any comments welcome.

More on language and labels - visit this interesting post by Steve Hollinghurst here.

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prayer works...

Plans to put a large 'sex club' in Gloucester, hosting all kinds of immoral stuff have been miraculously rejected by the council yesterday!!!

Praise the Lord!!

We heard about this a while ago, and I'd sent round lots of emails around the churches and people were praying, some were acting. I was shocked to hear last week though that they had received only 3 objections!! It was hard because they couldn't receive objections that were based on moral grounds, which is pretty wrong in my opinion.

Anyway, that was the state of play. During our prayer walks we had walked round this place and prayed, but it was looking more likely that it could go ahead - especially when the head of planning voiced his support of it in the local press.

We tried again, emails were sent, people were praying - I set up a facebook group and we found the link where people could object online. And, incredibly, they received 42 late objections, tipping the opinions of some and the proposals were eventually rejected 6 votes to 5 !!!

A close one, but isn't that amazing!!! When it looked so certain that we had lost this one, God turned it around and I'm sure his will was done!! So, so incredible! What an awesome God!

And I've just heard, Chris was interviewed on the street yesterday and they played his soundbite on the radio this morning! Of all the people to choose, they chose someone who'd be prayer walking the streets of Gloucester for the past two weeks, seeking God for His will to be done, and His kingdom to come wherever we placed our feet. Prayer works! What a glorious day!

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pray, and keep praying...

Two articles in the bbc news caught my attention today.

One reveals 'a third of young teenage girls suffer sexual abuse from their boyfriends and a quarter suffer violent abuse.'

A completely unrelated article states teenage girls in the UK are 'more likely to get drunk than anywhere else in the industrial world'...

Is there a link?

Whether there is or there isn't - this is not right. This has to change.

This has especially caught my interest today, as I've been planning some of the ideas and next steps with our prayer rooms in schools stuff.. lots of exciting stuff to come. amazing, and scary. But the need is great...

We have to pray, and pray and pray some more.

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