:: laughing : dreaming : watching : waiting ::

“whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” Jesus in matthew 16:25

can’t seem to shake this statement off my mind over the last couple of weeks. always been puzzled by it and not sure i fully grasp it yet…

but could it be that we try to play it far too safe with our lives? with our faith? with our salvation? do i try and cling to tightly to my life? my faith? am i prepared to sacrifice more?

maybe i’ve got it wrong, but this teaching from the bible hints to me that those who try and play it too safe with their lives and faith, could ultimately lose what they are trying to keep. while those who are prepared to put everything on the line to follow Jesus will actually discover and find new life…a life to the full.

what a crazy statement and amazing paradox. and i’ve been trying to earth it recently…

i’ve often falling into the trap of playing it too safe. can’t go there because it will damage my faith. shouldn’t hang out with those people as it will influence my life too much. won’t risk that as i like my life the way it is thanks very much.

but this teaching from Jesus suggests that i need to be willing to put things on the line, in order to follow Him in the things and places and people He leads me to. that there are no safe zones in living this life of faith. that salvation is far from a life of safety because of what is to come, but rather a life of risk because of what were a part of.

i’m such a bad patient. and i’m a bit of a moaner when i’m ill. been laid low a fair bit of this week with a heavy cold and chest infection. some call in man flu. i think its a bit more serious!!

think the world of full time work has hit me already! must get into a regular rhythm of rest. learning about prioritising time already!

talking of rhythms, i moved house last month to live abit closer to work. moved in with a couple of mates up in whiteabbey and its been a really positive change, bringing with it a fresh rhythm. i think the reason i struggled so much towards the end of the summer was that i was totally out of routine. no regular times of anything important in my life really.

but now there’s times of community, every monday morning off to sleep and rest, a regular rhythm of reading my bible. really enjoying it!

still sick tho…did i mention that earlier?!

just back from another weekend away. second in a row. was quality but i’m pretty tired this time around. really thankful i have tomorrow morning and wednesday off this week for a bit of time out. will be good.

have really wanted to watch more of the rugby world cup but haven’t been able to cos of these weekends speaking. so finally getting the opportunity now to go and watch the all blacks play a full match. great way of relaxing and resting for me!!

mind you, the way ireland are playing it might be better to try and forget that the world cup is actually taking place!!

there was this old bloke speaking at my church last night. he was scottish. he wore a dog collar minister style. he sang in an opera style voice at the start of the sermon. i was groaning inwardly.

he was amazing.

seriously, the stuff he was saying was brilliant. talking about how as church, we can learn from the old celts of centuries ago in how they went about things. here’s just a few of the things he said:

:: he spoke from Acts 18 and used the concept of how Paul stopped preaching to the Jews, and instead moved to spend time with the people next door – literally. he was challenging the church to stop trying to gather people into our little spaces, but go next door to where the people are at.

:: he reminded us of how monastries were originally meant as a preparation place for mission. should we stop trying to get people through our church doors but instead be preparing people to serve God within our communities? loved that one…

:: rather than standing apart as seperate communities, we need to be integrating into the various communities of our culture. church becoming part of the of culture of pubs, clubs and other places. he went further here, giving us permission to do alot of stuff basically. at the heart of it was the question, where are the gathering places in your community?

:: “we need to get rid of the vernacular.” spoke of how we need to update our language and stop using church jargon that people can’t relate to.

:: talked about standing up for justice and being the voice for the oppressed.

and this was just a small snippet of the stuff he said. i could have listened for hours. to be honest, he was managing to put words on stuff that i’ve been thinking through and wrestling with for the last 6 months. however, until last night, i wasn’t fully convinced that the way God had been leading me in my thinking and reflecting was the best way to go. now i am.

i’m off to reflect some more on that stuff. anyone got any thoughts to add to it?

next blog i’ll maybe talk to you about the most depressing week of my life as a football fan. maybe not though as i’m still fairly gutted!

we put labels on so many people. so many things.

student. consultant. immigrant. doctor. traveller. business man. minister. youth worker.

cool. boring. graduate. retired. old. young.

but these labels can be dividing, damaging and restricting. dividing when others don’t fit with that name. damaging when our identity is caught up in what we do. restricting when others can’t be part of that label.

and its the same for our churches.

reformed. charismatic. evangelical. traditional. social action. presbyterian. catholic.

if we speak in tongues were charismatic. or if we agree with calvin were reformed. if we use liturgy were traditional

but Jesus didn’t use any of these words. He asked us to make disciples of ALL nations. nothing dividing, damaging or restricting about that.

so who are you today? when you drop the labels and the titles, who are you? who has God created you to be?

and me, when i drop the identity of being a schools worker, or a worship leader, or a speaker…who am i? what is my identity founded in?…or WHO is my identity founded in?

Hearing loads about water charges these days. And how terrible this is. An injustice some have claimed. Water is a basic human right others have said. Let’s see if that’s the case…

• 1.1 billion people have inadequate access to water and 2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation
• 12% of the world’s population use 85% of its water (112.5 million)
• 1 billion people in our world live on around 50p a day
• Half the world live on £1 per day
• 800 million people in our world go hungry every day (1 in every eight)
• 2.2 billion children in the world and half of them live in poverty
• 640 million without adequate shelter

We campaign against water charges while millions in our world don’t even have some to drink.

And we complain if our coke doesn’t arrive at the table on time, or out ipod is broken, or if our food is a little bit burnt, or if the bus arrives late.

Today I feel a little bit more thankful, but God, grow my heart for the least, the last and the lost.

haven’t blogged much about spark 07 yet. suppose its for loadsa reasons. been taking time to reflect on it. been shattered. hated the sight of emails for a while. spark took alot of energy outta me so i’ve kinda let it lie for a while.

but i’ve been thinking alot about it though and one thing that has been living with me is how 2 young people who were involved as volunteers in the spark activities took decisions to follow Jesus at the end of the week. this is amazing! and i guess what i’ve been thinking about is that for these 2 young guys, ‘belonging’ came before ‘believing’. let me explain…

often we as the church place an emphasis on how people need to believe before they belong in our churches, ministries and programmes. however, for many people, they need to belong as part of a Christ-centred, Jesus-following community before they can believe for themselves. they need to see that this thing actually works before they make any sort of commitment.

so i’m thinking at the minute of how me and you can help people belong more. how can i help others belong in my church? or belong as part of a Jesus-following community? or belong in my life as a friend?

i’ve come up with some ways so far…

building relationships. fostering inclusiveness. taking an interest in their gifts, talents and hobbies. meeting people on their territory as they meet me on mine. inviting.

there’s alot of stuff on this subject of ‘belonging’ going round my head at the moment. would love some of your thoughts on this stuff. sensing that there’s more i need to tease out here…

stuff like about how judas belonged to Jesus’ group even though He knew what was around the corner. or how i can help people ’belong’ in the stuff i do, regardless of belief (more on that to come…) or how the disciples began following Jesus without actually ‘becoming’ Christians. they just kinda followed. believing seems to have come later for most of them. many of them didn’t really have a clue who Jesus was. elijah? a prophet?