Wednesday, 20 December 2006

It's been one of those mornings this mornings where if something can distract you, it will distract you! I just recieved an e-mail from a friend refering me to a web site (i pointed hom to last year!) with crazy Christmas lights. And it got me thinking how many more people are there out there that takes Christmas decoration to the nth degree?

So here's a selection of some of the best i found, or variations of the same houses!

More Crazy Christmas Lights


Watch Video
Christmas Lights 2


Watch Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w311cIwHkpY

http://media.putfile.com/Beethovens-5th-2005

What a night, what a game!!

Last night was a quality night, heading down to The Valley with over 4000 others from Wycombe to support the Wanderers as they took on Chalton in the Carling Cup. It was a great game, Wycombe on top from the word go, I know they are having a rough season but it was as if Chalton didn't turn up in the first half, Wycombe could have happily been two or three a head at half time. We had to settle for one, a fine 25 yard strike from Jermaine Easter on 35 min. Charton did turn up for the second half, but couldn't muster anything. Their best (and most comical) chance falling to their goalkeeper Scott Carson, in injury time, only for Jimmy-Floyd to get his head in the way, and then scream at Carson for putting him off! There is a full report of the game here, and reaction.

The game was quality, but to be honest, what was going on, on the pitch was only half of it. I don't think I've ever been to a game with such a great atmosphere. The Wycombe fans didn't cease singing and drumming the whole game. These big premiership clubs might have a massive fans base, but it is the true, loyal supporters of football that make it a game worth watching; fans who are committed to clubs not in the top flight. There were many fair weather fans there last night (i was one of them) singing and shouting as well, but it was very impressive to see the active commitment, love and enthusiasm that the obvious core committed fans had for the club.

Why can't we show God that a bit more?

Saturday, 9 December 2006

Funny, spent this morning with a group of people from church (about 30 of us) carol singing in Wycombe town centre. Apart from it being extremely cold, it was really good fun. We were able to share together and join with one another praising God and hopefully bring something of true Christmas cheer to the shoppers.

Singing some of the carols was a real encouragement, some of the words must be some of the most powerful words of truth put to music, "Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth." What a phrase, what an awesome statement, what a song! But at the same time, why are some of the carols some of the wettest words we sing all year, what the heck is Ding dong! Merrily on high all about, I mean i-o, i-o, i-o, - sounds more like Old MacDonald than a way to worship God! And In the bleak mid-winter, where frosty wind made moan or See amid the winter's snow; your telling me Israel had a freak snow storm that year are you? Why at times do we Christians sing such rubbish and no one complain?

I love Christmas and I love a good carol, but lets actually celebrate the Lord's birth with truth and not fiction.

Saturday, 2 December 2006

Yesterday was a definite day of contrast:

I realise that worship, as they would say at OASIS is "all of life and not just the singing", and that in everything we do we can worship God, but yesterday was very interesting reflection on worship. I spent most of the day on a retreat day, with other local youthworkers seeking God's face and will on a joined up project we are working on, and planning some of the work. The thing that really struck me was the use of silence as a way to worship, being that I was there with two Anglicans; we had a long period of silence to worship God. It was a communal, but yet very solitary space and time of worship, to be honest I felt that it focused more on me and God than it did the group seeking God's face about the project. We were four individuals worshiping God rather than a community standing together, worshipping him.

Then last night I went with a group from church to YFriday's Universal Tour gig in Maidenhead. It was billed as a gig, yet taking a step back and although performance focused, those attending still seemed to be worshipping God (you can worship God in everything and therefore even when others are performing - or so I came to realise). However the thing that struck me most, was that although they were standing together, singing together, their worship still seemed to be an isolated individual thing. People had their eyes closed, hands in the air, and shouting loudly, but yet it again had that 'me and God' feel.

so i was thinking; how can we enable true community in worship whether loud or quite? How when standing with others do we stop interacting with God on a one to one level and start interacting as one worshipping body?

Thursday, 30 November 2006

Just woken up after having about 17 hours sleep in the last 24! I got home from the RSC yesterday, and was totally exhausted, it was a really intense process about 8 hours of interviews in the two days, and the rest of the time (free time) was spent socialising with the selectors so it was all rather intense. It was a really interesting experience though and even if I don't get through, it was great from a networking point of view. Jon and I spent some time getting to know one another dreaming dreams for the young people in the Central Baptist Association, which is all rather cool. His thoughts about the RSC and a explanation of what it is (for those who don't know) can be found here.

Anyway one of the interviews at the RSC got me thinking, is it possible to learn in more than one way? And do Church Leaders have to be academic? The interview in question concentrated on candidates theological knowledge and our ability to learn. I will happily put my hands up and say that I struggle with reading, I find it hard, and have to discipline myself to do so, but does this mean that I have a lower ability to learn, or do I just learn in a different way?

Of the three books we had to read for the RSC I only managed two, and had to work quite hard to get through them, two books was quite an achievement for me. The one I didn't manage was "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places" by Eugene H. Peterson, a tough acedmeic, theological text. I relise that as a leaders we need to be constantly stretching ourselves and growing in our own learning and our own faith, but is reading the only way to stretch yourself and grow in your faith as a leader? A few years ago, in college we did the Honey and Mumford learning styles questionnaire and I came out as an activist - and theorist was my lowest, therefore does this mean on these grounds I'm not a academic enough to be a leader?

Interestingly enough the three books that they had asked us to read where looking at God and theology through quite post-modern eyes, however I found this interview to be from a very modern perspective, and not engaging with new ways to learn and stretch yourself, for instance the Internet was rejected as a source to engage with. It's funny isn't it, how on the one hand the church can appear to be culturally relevant and engaging with new ways of thinking and yet on the other hand can still be as stuck in its ways as ever?

Sunday, 26 November 2006

I realised today that for the last month I've done the classic middle lane thing; well now it's time to get in the drivers seat and pull out into the outside lane.

November seems to have been crazy, conferences, reunions, study weeks as well as the usual general meetings means that i haven't really updated the musings. Well that all needs to change! Off on a conference at the beginning of this week, but following that it's time to start blogging once more. Although busy there have been some real high points to November; seeing everyone from Israel has to be one of them, and the Mission Exec meeting on 16th was pretty cool - hopefully more will come of that, Wasps victory over bath was quality, and winning the quiz-night was great.

There have also been some heard parts too - reading this last week being one of them, why is it so hard to focus on a book, and actually take in what your reading? Oh well i guess I'll find out how much i retain next week - RSC oh the fun!

Friday, 3 November 2006

It's been a funny old week this one...many challenges, many excitements, and many thoughtful moments!

For some reason the week seems to have revolved around the topic of passion! Poor Claire my housemate got the full brunt of my thinking on Wednesday evening as I got home from Build - "Why do we insist not playing at youthministry?" was my main gripe.

It's not that Build had been a bad evening, in fact it had been great, one of the young people led the group I was in with, for the first time ever, and did really well, he was great. So why did I come away feeling that, the evening had only half achieved what it should have or could have? The problem is, (I think) that the Church in the West has become content with satisfactory, what we do is alright, maybe good at times, but should youthministry ever be good? Or should it be great, amazing, awesome, and inspirational? Shouldn't we as leaders and youthworkers be so passionate about the privileged that it is to serve Jesus by working with young people, that the work we produce is never satisfactory, but always amazing?

We sometimes wonder why the Bible Study or the prayer meeting is poorly attended, or has very little impact on the lives of either the young people or ourselves. But how can we expect these things to have any impact on their lives if we haven’t got the drive and the passion to actually make them inspiring, to help them, to understand and to become passionate themselves?

We shouldn't count bums on seats I agree, but I would love in a year’s time to be having difficulty fitting the number of young people that want to attend our activities, into our buildings. I'm not saying I want young people to attend for the sake of attending and making me look good. But if we look at the church of Acts2:24-27 we see that the Lord was adding to their number daily, why was that? It was because what was going on was attractive - and what was it that was attractive? It was the apostle’s lifestyle, their love for each other and God, and their passion was inspirational! If you don’t believe me, just read some of Peter’s speeches!


So if all we do is continue to play at youthministry, and continue to ask God to bless the thing we have planed and organised, then do we really expect to see more and more people being saved? What we need to do is seek God, get passionate about the things he can do and does do, expect miracles, and you never know, we might even see a few! We need to stop being content, and start getting passionate, stop being content with satisfactory, and instead glorify God with inspirational.

Wednesday, 25 October 2006

Mind blowing! That's the only way to describe God and the last 18 hours!

First I met up with a friend to 'get honest' before God, talking life through, sharing together and praying for one another. Its great how God brings people around you, people who can support and encourage you, and help you to grow in your relationship with him. It was great to speak to God honestly, talk to him and know that although they may take time to work through the things discussed can be left at the foot of the cross and are his and not ours any longer.

I then got a phone call from the local Uni CU, their speaker had pulled out on them with half an hours notice - could I step in and help them out? Not begin at all prepared I wandered over there with a collection of old Bible studies under my arm, praying that one would be suitable. As the praise time was going on I sat at the side contemplating and praying through which I should use, or if I should do something totally new, flicking through my Bible I came to Luke 11 - the Lord's Prayer...

Prayer is something that I've been thinking about a lot lately, not least because its something that easily gets pushed out of my life, crammed into 5 min, or when I do commit the time; it becomes a routinely said few sentences; no imagination, passion or creativity. But I know that it is vital, I know how important it is, it should be the root of all I do, and through it, it should give me the inspiration to go on and do more. It helps to pull us in line with God, allows us to hear his vision and understand the things he is doing that we either don't see or choose not to.

So we looked together at the passage - God inspiring me to lead, discovering the points of the verses a few min before he enabled us all to discover them together. How awesome is the Lord's prayer! These are just a few of the things we discovered last night:
Father = God wants to be addressed as our dad, he wants an intimate relationship with each of us, as a father has with his children, a true and loving relationship.
Our Father = He is not just my dad, but communally he is our father, the relationship we have with him is not an individual thing.
Your kingdom come = God rules, he is the King of all creation and one day everyone will recognise this, so lets pray that people recognise it now, not at judgment.
Give us each day our daily bread = God provides
Forgive us our sins = God is our saviour, and by his grace will forgive us
For we also forgive everyone who sins against us = in the context of Matt 6 (where the passage is also found) forgiveness isn't cheap, it cost Jesus his life and it costs us too; as we learn to go through the pain of forgiveness. Scary point was that we have to learn to forgive or we have no right to be forgiven ourselves!
And lead us not into temptation = this was 2 fold, firstly, that God wont lead us into temptation, but secondly that Jesus guarantees our salvation! - We will only be forgiven if we forgive others, but here Jesus tells us to pray not to be lead into the temptation of unforgivness and therefore promises to help us to forgive so that we can be forgiven - HOW COOL!
We then realised where this passage lies in the context of Luke, following immediately on from the story of Mary and Martha - a story teaching us how we should make time for God, and then Jesus reveals to us what we should do in that time we have dedicated to him - pray like this!

And no this morning...I've just returned from a meeting with Alan, from one of the other local churches. Again God has been revealing more and more of the plans he has. I came away from the meeting with tears of joy and excitement in my eyes - I was literally crying! To think that God has brought me here to Wycombe, where he is clearly doing some amazing things, and has some awesome plans. That he has planned I will be a part of it, is truly humbling. The meeting was just great, yet again ideas were spilling over about how we can move the youth (and childrens!) ministry forward in the town. God is just so so great, there is so much going on in Wycombe I can't wait for it all to get started.

But the thing I feel I am really being taught at the moment is to take time out and pray. If we don't pray these things through, then there is no point. We need God to be running these things not men, we need God to be sat in the driving seat. It's all greatly exciting, but first and foremost we need to commit every idea to Christ. I need to learn to pray, and to be patient with it!

Monday, 23 October 2006

Isn't God Great? It's just amazing how he works without us realising anything and then wham! he hits you right between the eyes. I was sat in a meeting earlier on today with Paul from WYFC talking about the future of youthministy in Wycombe, we were dreaming dreams discussing how we'd like to see churches working together, working in schools and being committed to joint projects when wham!

Paul mentions a little dream he's got, one he's been thinking formulating and mulling over in his mind. One which is very similar to a dream that I been thinking through the practicalities of, in recent weeks. This conversation some might say is a coincidence; "great so two people are thinking along the same lines," but when you consider that I met with both Sarah and Stella last week, and amazingly they too had been thinking big, dreaming dreams - and thir dreams tied in with the things that we were discussing as well, you have to celebrate, you can only exclaim that God is great!

So what now....do we suddernly think that this is right go ahead get the keys to a double decker bus and start ploughing forward without a second thought? As ouir excitment levels wamnt us too. No, the sensible thing to do is to realise that God is the one in charge of this, and it's his plans that are being revealed to us rather, than our own that we are simply coming up with. There is no harm in getting excited about what God has in store for the young people of Wycombe, but it would only be foolish to run ahead and try implementing things. What we need to do is return to the source, to spend time seeking God, spend time praying and humbly coming before him expectantly, waiting for him to act and empower others.

All too often in youthministry we get excited by God, so we run off trying to do ourselves what we think he wants us to do (or at least I do) and then ask him to bless it all 10 min before the event actually starts. But lets start to become people of prayer, lets start to allow God to include us in his plan, rather than asking him to bless our own, lets become the servants that he calls us to be, seeking him in everything we do.

Let's learn to pray!

Wednesday, 18 October 2006

Comments were made the other evening (at the Vision Night) that it was possibly a good idea, to start a blog, keep people up to date with my thinking and all that. Supposedly help with communication as well. Now whether this is the case or not i don't know - be interested to hear your thoughts!

Now it may be that this becomes one of those pages that never gets updated and just takes up space on the super info highway, driving in the middle lane at about 20 mph winding up every other driver on the road, but then on the other hand it may well be that it becomes an amazing tool, both for keeping in touch with people and for youthministry - who knows? And to be honest if i don't try then i never will!

So here i am, writing the ramblings of my brain onto a computer screen - is it a crazy thing to be doing? Allowing other people to see that little bit more inside your brain? Well hang on, cause if i do fall in love with writing random things on here, its gonna be a ride and a half - i don't know where we'll go, but it wont be were your expecting!!

So happy reading, feel free to comment

And hopefully we can glorify God together in shearing in this way.