Thursday, July 31, 2008

Well another day... still not feeling 100%. Not sure what's really wrong. Feels like it's some sort of stomach bug. Really hope and pray that I feel better soon...

Holiday club still goes well. Reflecting on yesterdays session, I would say that I am unsure what it was that they were trying to teach - hence my very garbled talk. I also feel that they were trying to achieve too much for 5-11 year olds. That said I still do feel that it's been a really good week and one that I hope that we can buld on and advertise and plan better. It feels like the beginning of a good relationship...

Hols a week today - can't wait. Need the break...

Feeding of 5000 is Sunday's reading. I think that I will say something about Jesus working in and with the ordinary. I will work on it more thoroughly on Saturday evening. I am aware that I am doing the intercessions on Sunday too and I am going to see if there is a way of doing something creative and different with them. Need to figure that out on Saturday too...

Not sure what we will do tomorrow afternoon. Maybe swim? We'll see.

Gemma's wedding on Saturday - that will be a great occasion I am sure! I wonder who will be there and whether Jen will be there? It will be good to see her if she is!

Anyway, over and out!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Holiday club continues to go really well. I am feeling very energised by it. It is good to do some youth work again. My reflections thus far are that this joint venture can only go from strength to strength!

Not feeling very well again today. I haven't done for a coiple of days now, I think it's the heat. I have nothing on tonight and I hope that I might go to bed early! I am sure that will help!!!

Plans for the weekend of 26-28th September are now in place and I can now reveal that we are planning an event called L!ve iT. Details to be released publically on Sunday, but the details on the flyer are set out here below:

Back in 2006 Holy Trinity held an exciting week-long event called 'Fan the Flame' which enlivened the faith of many in Leverstock Green. During the weekend of Friday 26th-Sunday 28th September 2008 we are holding a weekend of fantastic fun and faith-enhancing learning together, which we hope and pray will take many of us on further. This info sheet should give you a little more detail.

The weekend will give us the opportunity to grow together in friendship and grow in faith. The heart of the weekend will be a chance for children and adults to learn more about our central act of worship – our sharing of bread and wine – known by some as Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper or the Mass. The weekend's programme looks like this:

Friday 26th September 2008
7.45pm Social Event at Leverstock Green School.

Saturday 27th September 2008
10.00 am Teaching session 1 in church
11.00 am Coffee in Trinity room
11.30 am Teaching Session 2 in church
12.30 pm Finish
Afternoon free
7.00 pm 'Teaching Eucharist' in church


Sunday 28th September 2008 'Back To Church Sunday.'
8.00 am Said Eucharist (order 2)
10.00 am A Special Eucharist for the Whole Family.

We would really like you to join us and not miss out on this opportunity. Please put the date in your diaries now and commit yourselves to coming along. Please also pray for the weekend using the following prayer, which we will use at all our main services:

God our Father,
you have invited us to share the meal
which Jesus gave to the Church:
Transform us by your Holy Spirit, through bread and wine,
so that we may we be fed by his presence,
and become a family in his love. Amen.

Monday, July 28, 2008

What a hot day!!!!

Day one of the holiday club and what a start! A good number kids, good activities, fun songs and drama and a good message. A great first day. It's not too late to come along of course - just pitch up at Adeyfield Free Church tomorrow with 50p. Should be another really good day.

Went to the Hope08 fun day at Gadebridge Park today - about 2000 people!!!! AMAZING!!!! Good job by Churches Together, and it was all free! If you missed out you missed a good one.

On another superficial note, the new Polar Bear cd arrived today. A real step forward and to hear Pete Wareham restrained is beauty incarnate. I have only heard 4 tracks from the cd, but this isthe album of the summer. Very very cool! Roll over Coltraine! Roll over Davis! Here comes a rejuvinated Polar Bear...

Anyway, off to bed...

G'night!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Great service at 10am this morning. Lots of people and the congregation felt very young. Lots of people mentioned my sermon this morning, so here is a draft below.

Also, just to say that Compline tonight is at 7pm not 8pm.

It feels like there is need for change in the air – it feels close and heavy like a brooding thunderstorm. The longed for clouds, plump with liberation must now be now ready to rain down justice on the people of Zimbabwe. And yet it feels, to this casual armchair observer, that things are just going through the motions. Yet, if things do not change, they still need to change.

Politicians weild power self-interestedly whether they are George Bush or Gordon Brown. All politicians talk about working for change and the good of all, and yet the only change that seems to come is no change! And yet I thank God that we do have a good government – cynicism aside – as this is not Zimbabwe, Tibet or Darfur.

The belief in overarching political change is challenged to say the least at the moment. Yet I know that it is not only desirable but also possible.

People in Jesus' day don't seem quite as cynical. They still hoped. Even though their nation had been occupied for hundreds of years by Persians, Greeks and Romans, they longed for freedom from political oppression, but instead of looking to the ballot box, they looked to God and the coming of his Kingdom.

We have lost not only a belief in political change but also the sense of power behind the word kingdom. Our royalty today do not have the authority tied up in the word that Jesus uses. Perhaps it might better to talk of the Governemt or Preidency of heaven - to give a sense of the worldshaping power that Jesus has in mind. In these strange little stories, Jesus is giving a sense of what things would be like if God was in control rather than the G8.

In the face of tragedy and injustice, we all shake our fists at the sky and ask God why he allowed such and such to happen. We know what we think having God in control of the world and it's people might be like. John Lennon put it so well: 'Imagine there's no countries, It isn't hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too, Imagine all the people, Living life in peace, Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man, Imagine all the people, Sharing all the world...'

The disciples thought they knew what the establishing of God's kingdom would be like. The Romans would be swept from power, and God would bring in his political regime with prosperity and dignity for all. And yet, what Jesus goes on to outline, is no political manefesto, and what he says it is like when God is in control is not – it seems – of worldshaping proportions.

God in control, Jesus says, is like a mustard seed. It starts small but grows large. When God is in control, Jesus says, there will be an organic growth in power rather than a dramatic confrontation of governing authorities.

God in control, Jesus says, it is like yeast in flour. I have been known to make bread and you know as well as I do the way that it utterly transforms the dough from the inside out.. Yeast lierally corrupts, it changes sugars into oxygen. When God is in control Jesus says, his government corrupts the current powers, pervading quietly until it's influence becomes visible.

God in control, Jesus says, is like a man selling all he has for a field with treasure in it or a pearl of great value. There is happiness in this, but it comes from being ready to give up everything in the process.

Is this the sort of God that Jesus' contemporaries, the occupants of Drfur's camps or any of us think we want? A God whose rule starts small and works secretly within? No, they want regime change and oppression to end NOW. This is not what any of us long for.

But that's the point, this is what it is like when God is in charge – not men and women. Time and again we think an overthrow of a regime will change the world for good, but remember how often people have cheered a new ruler on to find the reality cruelly different, as in the cases of Saddam Hussein and Robert Mugabe? God’s government is different, and the disciples will soon realise that. God crowns his king on a cross: a seed as small as a mustard seed winning forgiveness for our sins. The Holy Spirit pervades with the yeast of godliness. Jesus gives up everything for us, as if we are his treasure or his fine pearl, and in doing so shows God’s love to each one of us, even though good and bad is held together in our lives.

This kingdom is no superficial change of one regime with another. It’s a fundamental transformation; people being changed in hearts, attitudes and minds by the love of God, and through that, changing the world they live in. We see it in the disciples after Pentecost, and we see it today.

I was watching Big Brother the other night, wondering which housemate would be next to leave, and I realised something. Who stays in the house is about superficial things like personality or looks. God sees past our society's self-obsession,who looks good on tv, and sees us as we really are - which is both daunting and liberating. Daunting because we feel naked - someone else really knows what we are like. Liberating because someone knows what we are like - and loves us all the same. Loves us enough not to judge us, but to judge our failings and loves enough to hold our hands and lead us through to change.

It's a long process, but one I am committed to. I don't want to be a better person. I don't wanting life-coaching and goal setting. I want regime change! I hope that I might, with God's help, become the person he longs for me to be, the sort of person who clearly has God in control of my life, even with all my faults.

Here is the amazing truth, God in control can be like you or me. If we are seriously submitting ourselves to the will of God, asking to be changed by God's love for us, however that might be, I can say it's true. It begins with simple things – a baptism enquiry, a listening ear, a loving word to the grieving neighbour, I am going to this or that church event, and it's going to be good, will you come with me... but any of these can lead to an encounter with God lovingly in control. All of us can become people where God is in control, because when we do, that's the most radical change of regime the world has ever seen. And person by person, heart by heart, God's control of the world is growing, and it is changing the world.

Friday, July 25, 2008

I want to let you into a secret...

I am at Holy Trinity on Sunday! Yes that's right, I am back in my own church for the first time in weeks! HURRAH!!!

Feeling very full tonight after a lovely tea, and my new books arrived today so will spend some of this evening having a good look at those. A few on the theology of preaching which will be good to have.

So, who will leave the Big Brother house tonight? I hope that it is Bex but I fear that it will be Darnell. It's fascinating watching others in that sort of enviroment - under the microscope - but it is also very narcissistic. It becomes about who's personality we prefer. Who looks better to the camera. Who is the oddball made good. Who played the game well.

God sees past our society's self-obsession, and sees us as we really are - which is both daunting and liberating. Daunting because we feel naked - someone else really knows what we are like. Liberating because someone knows what we are like - and loves us all the same. Loves us enough not to judge us but our failings and loves enough to hold our hands and lead us through to change.

It's a long process, but one I am committed to. I don't want to be a better person. I don't wanting life-coaching and goal setting. I hope that I might, with God's help, become the person he longs for me to be, knowing that he loves me anyway.... even with all the faults.

So go on, join me watching BB9 tonight. Let's allow tonight's eviction episodes to be a mirror to look up and to see, not just the housemates, but ourselves. And as someone is ejected out of the house tonight to the braying and booing media circus, leaving those inside one step nearer to 100000 life changing pounds and fame for 15 minutes, let's invite God quietly in to our hearts and watch him transform your life for love forever.

Thursday, July 24, 2008





Hi,

Hot today!!! Been to the zoo with the family. Lost a day off last week so decided to take today as well. I enclose some photos here...

Wedding rehearsal tonight for one of the 2 on Saturday. The other couple are rehearsing tomorrow, but I have yet to figure out how to get them into the building!

Probably go swimming tomorrow. Will kinda depend how the weather is and how bad the sunburn is from today!

Had fun!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Well, here I am up late again! Oh well.

Been very excited today as I think the plans for the weekend of 26-28th September are falling into place well and I am sure that it will be a fantastic time! More info will be available during the early part of August.

Also today I, with the rest of the Marillion community, got to hear 'Whatever Is Wrong With You' and download it as an MP3. A stunning new track from the soon to be released 'Happiness is the Road.' It is a fantastic track - it is down and dirty with low slung swagger. Best Marillion single for YEARS! The track can be downloaded at www.whateveriswrongwithyou.com - go check it out!!!

Lost my day off last week - so we are off to the zoo tomorrow which will be nice, and then a wedding rehearsal in the evening.

Also, ordered some new books from the soon to be gone Mustard Seed with my book grant - thanks LGRE trustees - and I have ordered some practical theological books on preaching. I have also rejoined The College of Preachers - really wondering why I let that slip...

Anway, a good day, but need to go to bed now...

:-)

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Evening... good day. Topped off by a great service at Adeyfield Free Church tonight. Also had a good meeting earlier today about baptised children receiving communion before confirmation. Good turn out... We'll see how many pitch up at the end of September when the programme of preparation starts.

Tonight I have a headache. Tiredness and Somerset cider and dehydration. Oh well, better get some more cider!

Herewith the sermon from this morning based on Romans 8:12-25 and Matthew 13:24-30,36-43...

I received an email yesterday that swelled my ego suitably. It was from a woman that I know slightly. She wrote: “...I hadn't been christened, religion had no part in my life. Now 10 years on, my children go to church and have beliefs and even I even read your blog. A vicar who likes The Cure - fantastic. What I'm trying to say is you've made me feel the church is for everyone not just the old Fogeys.”

As I say, the email did wonders for my ego, but it also got me thinking. Our two readings tonight remind those of us who identify ourselves with Jesus that we live and work with and alongside all sorts of people – both wheat and weeds – and we are the living and breathing advert for Jesus, but there is also a note of warning – if we identify ourselves publicly with Jesus Christ then he will be the standard by which we will be measured up against by the media, others both Christian and non-Christian alike, and ultimately by Jesus himself.

Now in true, convoluted language, what Paul does is remind his hearers that if they align themselves with Jesus Christ, if we call ourselves Christians, then it must count in an obvious way. In other words, in some way Jesus' life and death must fee us into new ways of living. Something distinctive. What does that freedom mean? Well Paul's compelling answer is: life. If we call ourselves Christian then we should be living lives recognisably like that of Jesus Christ for if we are not, we are living according to 'the flesh' as Paul calls it.

Paul says we can only live true life if the Spirit of God dwells in us. And when it does God's Spirit actively directs and guides us and over time forms us into children of God.

To fully help his hearers to get their heads round this he compares the life of a slave with that of a child in a family. To be a slave is to be under oppression, owned by and directed by someone else, without freedom and living in fear.

Being a child on the other hand means becoming a heir. It means being loved no matter what. It means addressing the head of the house in the same way that the Son does – Daddy! It means God giving us equal rights in the family as his Son. And the Son does not mind as it is Jesus the Son who has gone out of his way to invite us in – offering us freedom, life and hope.

As Jesus' siblings we have a duty to be a good advert for the Christian community and for Jesus himself. We should be finding ourselves so transformed by God's Spirit, that we desire to please our father by the way we live, the things we say. Children usually look up to their parents in respect and love and long to be like them. so should we. We can each make what we believe as accessible to others as possible, we can hope to reinforce words with actions - by the way we live. As adopted children of God we can and should enjoy all that God offers – but let's not romanticize it. It's not all love, love, love. Paul reminds us that we cannot pick and choose which parts of the life of Jesus we buy into.

Just as Jesus endured suffering and scandal – so will we. Yet God's spirit in us reminds us of our true nature – in those moments when we question who we are and what we believe, when we forget who we are, when we desert who we are – God spirit says 'You are God's child, now behave like it!' If we are going to talk like the Son, we also need to act like him and until we do, the rest of the world cannot receive what's on offer.

The real problem is though, that in trying to share what we have with others, we so easily slip back into the slave mentality. Notice it is the slaves who want to uproot the weeds, not the master.

In life's field, we are planted each planted amongst much wheat and many weeds. Even the church is made up of people that we may consider desirable or less desirable. Jesus' teaching is clear - whilst we may desire, as God does, for it to be a gathering of the righteous – it is not our place to be slaves and weed out the things, attitudes and people that we may consider undesirable. If we do it too soon, we risk uprooting and damaging the crop – namely the faith of some of the community. Matthew's church, as ours today, lived in the tension of desiring to achieve purity, religious perfection and holiness with the need to forgive, accept and restore. The church has always been made up of a whole mixture of people. Despite contemporary calls for this or that strand to be weeded out – it is not our task. Beside weeds and wheat look very alike!

The task of harvesting ultimately falls to the landowner. The task of judging falls to Jesus Christ. As his siblings we are to live like him – to work for reconciliation and to forgive without limit. Oh but don't take this parable as word of comfort from Jesus, because it is not.

Friends we need to speak of our faith in everyday language, and we must show that it counts in Christ-like lives. We need to ensure that we are approachable by others but also that we do stand for something – not just the values of our world suddenly found in the pages of the scriptures. Paul reminds us for the need for distinctive living – are you a slave or a child? Wheat or weed? God knows...

When the harvest comes, wheat will be put into the storehouse and weeds will be burned. As adopted siblings of Jesus Christ, if we appear not be what we profess – we become fodder for tabloid newspapers, and when it comes to harvest time, it is the landowner who can see what is wheat and what is weed.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Had lots of fun at the Children's Centre fun morning this morning... all VVVV tired now! Had a great email from someone just now which has made my day (if you are reading!).

Here is a sermon from a couple of weeks ago based on Matthew 11:25-end (I think!)

I really wonder what people who pass our churches on Sundays without ever entering, make of us at the moment. If they even care, I wonder what they make of the very public slagging off going on over women bishops, or the questioning of the authority of the Archbishop, or the recent gathering of conservative Anglicans as the Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem, but for some of us on the inside of the church's doors it feels like these banner headlines are shrouding the message that Jesus came to share. But friends, this is nothing new - it has ever been thus. People listened to the good news of God's love for us, or they didn't. This morning's Gospel reading picks up on this age old predicament.

Jesus, the master of using the world around him, illustrates his point in this morning's Gospel reading with the equivalent of a children's playground song - we played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn. John, he says, came living a hard lifestyle – not eating or drinking, with a message of judgement, and calling people to change. I came, he said, eating and drinking and offering a life filled with notes of joy and grace, and calling people to change – and in some cases the perceptions of others meant that the central message of both John and me got summarily ignored.
Yet it seems that those who reject and those who accept seem to have missed the point. Why accept or reject either message – is one too hard on people, too judgemental? Is one too soft, too light on judgement for sin? We'll never know. Either way, Jesus goes on to infer that both accepters and rejectors make the message of the Gospel more complicated than it needs to be.


The former bishop of Sheffield was once asked to sum up the gospel message – in his bluff northern accent he replied, certainly with a smile, “go tell 'em the love of God. This it seems to me is Jesus' point – hearing and understanding God's message through John or Jesus is not down to how much you know or don't know. It is about the gracious will of God revealing his love to each of us.

The good news that God graciously reveals is very contemporary. God, in Jesus promises rest to all who come to him. Throughout the Bible, this promised rest is associated with God’s presence and living his way.

Jesus says that rest cannot come paradoxically without taking on a yoke. Yokes were used in biblical times and in traditional communities today on animals or people when working often on the land. Yoked people and animals were done so in pairs – double the work, double the efficiency. It was hard work working in a yoked pair – who had no freedom, they were sent in a particular way or route and stopped and started work when they were told. They couldn't flag as when one worked, they both did. Ho many of us find ourselves yoked in this way to lifestyles, jobs, or habits or even to the expectations of others or of society.

Jesus’ yoke couldn't be more different, as through it, he offers freedom, peace and rest. Whilst some saw John's message too much like a traditional yoke – restraining and difficult to bear, and others saw Jesus' “love is all you need” too easy, here he clarifies what God means.

The yoke that God offers us in Jesus is a light burden because we do not carry it alone. When we can't carry it's weight – he does. He helps to meet the demands of the yoke to love God with all that we are and our neighbour as ourselves. Love is a gentle yoke, not burdensome or wearying, but light, easy and pleasant. Love is a cross shaped yoke which draws in and supports another person. Love is a cross shaped yoke because it cancels out the demands of the 'I' and instead focusses on the 'we.' Through the yoke of the cross God couples himself to each of us and asks that we work in partnership with him in revealing the truth of the gospel.

It is all too easy to judge the church at the moment through banner headlines and soundbites and well argued theological principals. It is all too easy to make decisions about whether what is being said in the name of God and his church is too harsh or too lenient and light based on what we hear.

Jesus says this morning, don't judge the message until you have lived it. In living it you will discover that loving God and others is not as easy as it sounds, but the god news is, when it get's hard and it does, let's do it together. Amen.
I have decided that Jean Francois Lyotard got it wrong. His seminal work 'The Postmodern Explained to Children' has this morning has been superceeded with a far more contemporary text of such transient simulacra...

I am writing this in the kitchen with Kiss pounding out 'God gave rock n roll to ya' on the radio in here, and in the dining room a cacophanous mix of Jungle Book on the video (oh how retro!) and my children living out the dream of globalisation - Matthew: 'Would you like to fly to Tokyo sir?' Ben: 'Yes please.' Matthew (mid flight): 'Quick there is an emergency, we need to land the plane!!!' Whatever happened to the teddy bears' picnic or building with Lego... Now we are dealing with calamity on a 9/11 scale and countries that a couple of generations ago would have been talked of in fear of being bombed by or their citizens coming from Mars. Now, either my children are very cultured and globally aware, or they are speaking prophetically out of our malaise.

Maybe I am being whimsical and longing in a Baudrillardian way for a time that never existed, but... toy cars, building blocks, books...? Maybe it has always been thus...

Jesus didn't worry about mid air disasters over Tokyo skies, because there weren't mid-air collisions (unless of the angelic kind!), but he did encourage us not to worry about today or tomorrow. Instead, to trust that God is there before us and will supply all that we need.

We live is such anxious times. Jesus tells us to give over and give to God, and in return He will give us peace.

Peace is so much more than a cessation of violence but a restoration of life-giving relationship. An opportunity for each of us to find the simple pleasure of an 'Ahhh Bisto!' moment all the time. This is an offer that each one of us, even M. Lyotard on his most cynical a day could not refuse...

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Hi,

It feels like it has been a pretty manic day with one thing and another...

I met someone yesterday who is so in desperate need of God to sort their lives out... and they know it. They say they are gonna start coming to church. I really pray so...

Anywyay, down to the main reason for this post... Jane Smart's excellent address at the Eucharist yesterday morning... read and grow and be challenged!

Jesus is giving thanks to his Father, in the Gospel reading this morning. His Father God who is also the creator of the whole universe.

This is Jesus response to the return of the disciples after they had been sent out on their mission throughout Galilee. The disciples had spent some time with Jesus watching and learning how he healed people and revealed Gods love to them and they had been sent to do the same.

Jesus is thanking God that he has been able to share the gift of Gods grace and knowing Him with others.
We cannot see God on our own we need someone to reveal him to us, help us to see him as he is. That is why Jesus came to show us what God is like.
Throughout his life and ministry Jesus had learnt what being God’s son meant, he had learnt to trust his Father, giving him the unique understanding of what God is like. Equally only God knows what Jesus his son is like; he alone knows how Jesus will respond.

God understands Jesus and knows that he would go all the way to the cross, dying for us so that we will know how much God loves us and wants us to be in a relationship with him. God wants us to be his children too, he wants us to have faith in him and humbly accept, that He does love each one of us. Love is the response required from the child, that spontaneous enthusiastic trusting love, of a young child.

In our lane there is a road warning sign of the red triangular kind, with an adult holding the hand of a small child, it warns that there is no footway for 250 yards. The child in the picture displays complete trust in the adult, to lead them along in safety although there is no clearly marked footpath.

Jesus had sent the disciples out in Faith trusting his father that he would use them to preach teach and heal the people to whom they had been sent. The disciples are like infants, they are not wise or clever, yet they have been able to see God working through Jesus and have now experienced it for themselves.

So imagine Jesus’ joy when they return from their mission, he is full of praise and thanksgiving. When he hears all that they have done.


There comes a time when we have to go out and spread Gods kingdom ourselves. We have to use all that we have seen and learnt. It takes practice to see God working, the more we trust him especially in the small things, the easier it is to trust the next time when things are harder.

The road sign I mentioned earlier is a warning sign, following where God leads us is not easy he does not promise that it would be. Jesus met opposition and death on a cross, so might we. However if we have faith and trust God like the child in the sign hand in hand with the Father, on the unseen pathway, we will experience that peace which passes all understanding.


God chooses us, he loves each one of us, he knows us and he equips us for the task he has called us to do. God shares his mission with us, to change things, to make a difference to his world, the world he created so we could know him and love him as our father as his beloved children.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Good evening! Just back from PCC... normally fairly snore-creating, but tonight on the whole was really good.

Without wishing to blow my own trumpet, the centre of the meeting was the pizza and wine (thanks Gill and Beryl and Karen respectively) and the bible study on 1 Corinthians 12:12-end about the body of Christ. Went really well and helped tease out some important issues... Hopefully we will use the material again in DCCs and also at the joint away day with King's Langley in September.

On another note - a facebook friend of mine has been to a garden party at Buckingham Palace today. Beautiful weather and cucumber sandwiches... as she said quintessentially British...

I'm off to St Mary's on Sunday. Gospel is wheat and the weeds. A hard Gospel, but one that needs attending to.

Tomorrow is reasonable quiet but I need to spend the afternoon dealing with preparing for the Governors meeting tomorrow night. In the morning I am meeting with one of my Readers to discuss breathing some new life into the Wednesday eucharist...

Anyway, that's me... glass of wine and then bed.

Bon voyage!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Hey folks!

Happy Monday! Hope that you all had a good weekend. I had the pleasure of preaching at Adeyfield Free Church on Sunday morning. I thoroughly enjoyed my time and I feel like I am amongst friends when I go there now.

The holiday club is on the horizom running from JUne 28th from 10 am at AFC. Full details and info is available from Sharon Boyall at AFC or emailing her at boyall@sky.com. I am really looking forward to this venture as it brings our 2 communities together and I love holiday clubs - they are manic but so much fun!!!

Just to remind you all that the open meeting for families with children aged 7+ who are interested in allowing their baptised children the option to prepare to receive Holy Communion before Confirmation should come to the Open meeting at St Benedicts on SUnday 20th at 3.00pm to get some more information.

Feeling tired tonight again. Should get to bed some time soon... Off to a local school tomorrow to lead assembly which will be fun - will tell the story of 'Little Rabbit Foo Foo' as a way to lead into talking about respect and the Greatest Commandment.

PCC meeting in the evening - should be good. Using a bible study which I have written based on 1 Co 12... I am looking forward to it believe it or not!

Well, there's the end of the update!

Nighty night!

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Hi folks... the blog is back! I am sorry that's been a while! Since Easter, something amazing has been happening in Holy Trinity! God is doing a new thing amongst us - and I want to continue to share with you some of that great stuff!

Last night we had a really really good DCC meeting. At the heart of the meeting was an update on our priorities. This follows on from 10am services in March and June and we have discerned 7 key areas that we feel God feels we should be prioritising as achurch. These are

Worship
Community
Study/house groups
Pastoral support
Children and young people
Publicity
Welcome

Last night the DCC saw how these, and the people who have shown some interest in one of these key areas, can drive forward ideas and ministry in these key areas. It also links into a skills audit that we are doing as a church too.

All of this work is drawing in many people into ministry in and through God's church, meaning that instead of there being a few people doing lots of jobs, we end up with lots of people doing ideally one job each.

This is a biblical vision of what it means to be a christian disciple - God calls us each by name through our baptisms, and equips us for mission and service. When the disciples are sent out by Jesus, they are to a specific task, for a specific period of time. Sometimes with a specific message.

It's also true for St. Paul. He didn't wander aimlessly across central Asia, but had a clear vision of where and where he was to go - targeted and specific.

This initiative also gives us as a church the opportunity to move away from being 'spiritual children' - being fed by the ministry team or the DCC or the Deanery or the Diocese and relying on others for spiritual wellbeing and nurture, and moves us to being a church, mature in our faith, and like the adults we are, taking some responsability for the life of faith oursleves.

All very exciting!

On another note, there is a really fantastic series of events and opportunities being planned for 26-28 September 2008 in Leverstock Green. An opportunity to build friendships, have fun, learn and deepen our faith together. Put the dates in the diary so as not to miss out!!!

House groups aim to begin again in September/Ocotber with 2 studies for the Autumn - one on money and one on worship - both of which look fantastic. Look out for the sign up sheets!

Also on 28th September we are inviting people back to church for a special service for all the family. This is a great opportunity to come back and join the family of the church again. It is also a great chance to invite people personally too. Please do pray for this really important service using the following prayer:

Welcoming God, thank you for today.
Thank you for making us and loving us.
Thank you for inviting us to know you.
Please bless Back to Church Sunday and bless everyone in
our church.
Help us all to know you better.
We pray in the name of Jesus.
Amen

Great to be back in the blogsphere!

Simon