i was feeling a little trapped the other day in this churchy bubble and was thinking wouldn’t it be nice to one day go to a church meeting only to be thrown out and told to go for a walk, meet some people… engage in the world. See where God is working with the poor, hungry and the needy. See where God is at work with the kid who’s Mother has died of drug overdose.
Sometime i feel like a man trapped in a elevator desperate to get out.
i was listening to this cd of Mike frost talking about seeing people as ‘people’ not objects. I know i have heard this type of talk a million times, but boy was i convicted. Just simple everyday life i use people as objects. I went to play squash with my future wife and talked to the guy in charge about weather we could use his rackets and where the courts were in the building. He kindly showed us the courts and lent us rackets, we had a great game and at the end gave the rackets back and payed for the hire and we were on our way home when i realized i didn’t even bother to ask the guys name! I wonder how many people i ‘use’ everyday. Cashers, office staff and even my own team.
i wonder what the guys name was in this photo?
if you don’t know about hope you should because i honestly believe that it will be a great thing for our country and could change it forever. It’s about uniting the church and mobilizing it for mission in the year of 2008. From what i’ve read/heard about it even the royal family are excited about it. I’ve registered my church to do it. There is so much thats good about it, but one benefit from being registered is that our country can see that the church is still alive and this brand name gives us unity. The BBC are doing a documentary about it through out the year.
an interesting point made by cartoonchurch.com
As it says in the Bible ‘put your lamp on a lampstand’. We could read this to mean ‘make it blatantly obvious that you are a Christian’. When I was in college studying art and design God took me on a steep learning curve; you could call it ‘a lesson in evangelism’. I started at college with a fire in my belly to covert all my class so that they would know what it was like to be a Christian. But my class wasn’t the most normal class, as some artists are known to be a little bit free spirited. My friend next to me constantly talked about how he wanted to sleep with his girlfriend, whilst others some turned up drunk to lessons. I saw this as my mission field. So I went on a rampage to make sure they all knew they were doing wrong and were sinners in God’s eyes. I would TELL them ‘you shouldn’t be getting drink it’s not right’.
Not surprisingly, they didn’t listen to me one bit; I had their friendship but not there listening ear. They knew I was a Christian but didn’t want to be any part of a boring religion. So I changed my thinking and action to simply BE a Christian in my class. I wouldn’t push anything on them or preach at them. I just was fellow artist buddy we laughed together and worked together. But they soon realised that my life was different to theirs, when I didn’t swear, get drunk or sleep with my girlfriend. My class were desperate to know why. I had some of the most amazing times with my class, including my teachers, regularly asking me questions about God. The great thing about this is that anyone can do it; you don’t need a degree in how to be a evangelist to do it, simply BE a Christian and be blatantly obvious about it and let God do the rest!
sorry i haven’t been blogging for a while, i was on a mission leading a team and had to stay on a church floor for 2 weeks. It was a great/challanging mission.
I found it interesting that one of the days of the mission the team decided we would go out and pick up rubbish to love the community. So we headed out along the river side that flows through the middle of Inverness town and there was a road cone sticking out of the river so i said “does anyone want to go and get it out?” (let me make it clear that the river was so low you barely had to take your shoes off)
One of my team members took the challenge (a lad) and took his shoes of. As he was doing this one of the older members of the team came up to me and complained saying “you can’t do that you need tetnis jabs and risk assessments and forms from parents!!”
i listened and watched as my lad took his shoes of and put his feet in the water and said “it’s too late now isn’t it.”
I get so frustrated with the world policy’s sometime. I think it can stop us from being God in the community.
Don’t get me wrong these policy’s are there for our own safety but one of these days the church will just have to say no!
Sometimes to react to the worlds problems it takes a immediate action, which means not always following things by the book. If we are persecuted because of this, we are safe in the knowledge that we are doing our God given job.
bring it on!!
i went to my mum and dads church this weekend and was blown away by the fact that they are a really old church that God is breathing amazing new life into. They have 6 in there Sunday school, but have 15 people on there teaching rota! that to me says a statement they really believe that they have to look after there young!
what a week i’ve had! i have learned that in the middle of the hardest most challenging times your youthwork will ever face….. God shines bright. i Have learned that it’s the times that disaster strikes,hope is taken and the storm is unreal! that the churches engines are at its full power.
The challenge is to see the disaster face to face, and call on God to calm the storm. which is not always an easy task.
what a legend! even now his speeches makes you sit on the end of your seat.
i went to a Christian concert with 4000 people last weekend and was absolutely blown away this band called ‘leeland’ with a 18 year of lead singer. They sung a song that i think we all should here. So i’ve put the lyrics on my blog:
There are many prodigal sons
On our city streets they run
Searching for shelter
There are homes broken down
People’s hopes have fallen to the ground
From failures
This is an emergency!
There are tears from the saints
For the lost and unsaved
We’re crying for them come back home
We’re crying for them come back home
And all your children will stretch out their hands
And pick up the crippled man
Father, we will lead them home
Father, we will lead them home
There are schools full of hatred
Even churches have forsaken
Love and mercy
May we see this generation
In it’s state of desperation
For Your glory
This is an emergency!
Sinner, reach out your hands!
Children in Christ you stand!
Sinner, reach out your hands!
Children in Christ you stand!
And all Your children will stretch out their hands
And pick up the crippled man
Father, we will lead them home
Father, we will lead them home
click here to see there site and listen to some of there music.
I was at a church meeting the other day and people were saying “we need to get more people in church.” so they came up with the idea of getting a sign and putting adds in the newspaper to say ‘come to church’, they believed that people will just come.
If you ask me… i think its about building up RELATIONSHIPS that include LOVE.
Relationships is the way for us to bring people into the kingdom and flyers/signs might be the tool for the relationships.
Lets not mix them around
“If you expecting a rapture, don’t worship indoors”
this is a perfect reason to get out of our comfortable church structures and meet the world face to face. Jesus said “GO into the world” not “COME into our meeting”
Picture was taken from asbojesus
How much do we as a church need to adapt to our surroundings? and what value’s do we need to hold tighter than anything else?
A old tramp called Sam walked into church one day with a old ripped and tatty bible which Sam had found in a bin. As Sam sat down on the church pew, people began to move from the area which he was sitting in because of the fierce smell from Sam’s messy clothes. After the service finished the vicar walked up to him and said, “did you enjoy the service?” Sam replied “Yes it was Good” the vicar then said “what I want you to do is, go away and pray and ask God what sort of clothes you should wear in this church”
So Sam went away for a week and asked God what he should wear in the church.
The next Sunday Sam when to church in the same clothes and same tatty bible, and the ladies moved away again. After the service the vicar came up to him and said, “did you not ask God what you should wear in church?”
Sam said, “yes I did ask God what I should wear in this church and he said he didn’t know because he had never been in this church before.”
i saw this and thought, is this sometimes the first impression we give in church to outsiders???
click here to see the site i got it from
taken from: smallritual
what egg is your church?
taken from: http://asbojesus.wordpress.com
I don’t wana be known as the generation that showed Jesus in all our actions and forgot to tell them about Jesus!
I remember years ago the church went through a stage of banging on about “the church isn’t the building its the people” which is right. i Think maybe we have replaced the building with the ‘program’ of church and we still haven’t grasped that its you and me that is the church.
