:: laughing : dreaming : watching : waiting ::

i love trying to be creative with the words that i use. both in speaking and in typing. i’m not overly fussed on using the words ‘really’, ‘like’ and ‘nice’ too often in a conversation and so recently i’ve been desperately attempting to drop less commonly used words into my sentences.

and at the risk of sounding incredibly sad, this has been particularly helpful in our house scrabble games which have been reaching an all time high over the last couple of weeks.

here are some words i’ve been experimenting with…

buoyed
rapturous
infantecimile
decidedly
incredulouos
disfunctional
swiftly
oblivious
mindnumbingly

so…what words do you like? any other suggestions?

i’ve always loved comedy. fawlty towers is my all time favourite. only fools & horses, dad’s army, have i got news for you, they think it’s all over, mock the week, friends, peter kaye, jack dee, father ted all come close. for some reason when i laugh i feel healthier. i love laughing and these type of comedies all make me laugh out loud, even when i’m on my own!!

but recently i’ve come across a couple of folks for the first time. i’d always heard of alan partridge but through a couple of friends, and the fact that his shows have been repeated on UK Gold recently, i’ve seen much more of his stuff. it’s a true, old style british comedy – he makes me laugh a lot.

then when i was at spring harvest, a guy called Tim Vine did a stand up show every night alongside another funny guy John Archer. Tim Vine apparantly held the world record at one time for the most gags in 60 seconds. when you hear him, you’ll know why.

so i looked Tim Vine up on YouTube and here’s one of the clips i found. hope you enjoy it…

 

i know i’m biased and can only base this on the northern hemisphere…but i often reckon this land is the nicest in the world! sometimes i sway between ireland and canada but this week it’s very definitely ireland!

 

i’m a big fan of european cities and would usually gravitate more towards the hustle and bustle of city life rather than beautiful scenery but this week i spent a couple of days in Co. Donegal with a few friends. it reminded me of how much i love this land…and how much of it i still have to discover. i think a road trip around ireland should be on the cards in the next couple of years!!

 

i love donegal and have probably visited the county more than 30 times in the last 3 years, but i still managed to go to a wee place where i’d never been to before. perhaps because it’s so vast and all so beautiful, donegal is always a refreshing place to visit.

 

it was a really relaxing few days. not relaxing as in sitting around relaxing…but more in the good food, good company, fresh air, jogging, tennis relaxing that i prefer. the photo in this post is of Rossapena Beach where we had a lovely jog on thursday morning.

 

 

i’m working hard for the next 3 weeks then heading off to portugal for a week with 2 of my best mates for some more of my type of relaxing…

it’s that time of the year.

the time when i arrange a meeting for the week ahead and then dread fills my stomach as i realise that it clashes with the european championship semi final. or when i resent working late because russia are playing greece. or when i desperately try to rearrange my nights out around the final games in Group D in the vain hope that Sweden might squeeze through.

but this is no easy thing to schedule for every night in a month and so i’ve had to become incredibly creative and inventive to even get watching the games…especially when sarah comes round for the evening!

and so i’ve resorted to explaining the geo-political of Germany and Poland in order to hype up the sporting clash about to unfold later that evening. or try desperately to enthuse about the most important match in the competition so far, that unmissable clash between Austria and Croatia. even highlighting the fact that ronaldo will be playing tonight and so she can watch him in action!!

in case your worried for sarah, i promised her a meal out last wednesday night…until i realised that was Russia v. Sweden!!

in other instances its been moving the group of people in our house to the kitchen and subtely nudging the tv on so i can watch my adopted homeland for the month of June, Holland. or racing home for 11pm in order to watch the highlights, shielding myself from all sources that may reveal the score of the long awaited Italy v. Romania match. or even making sure that the restaurant we are going to will have a screen on in the corner so i can watch the new Spurs signing in action!

i’ve just arrived home from leading worship all day and i’m now about to sit down to watch the holland match which i’ve taped obliviously unaware of the score! nothing ever changes…

was in a mates church last week doing a workshop for their worship leaders and musicians. really good group with really free flowing interaction. this is the stuff that makes me feel alive. its a passion of mine to see others raised up to serve others by leading them in worship. or in whatever gift they have.

they seemed to find it fairly helpful so thought i’d just stick my notes up on the blog for anyone to read or use. that’s what they are there for…

 

Making Your Mark in Worship 

a.    Planning

• Find out what God is doing before you plough on with your own agenda.
• Develop a theme. Gives a sense of direction
• A few songs clustered around a characteristic of God. eg. The cross, God’s glory, creation, lament, celebration, God’s faithfulness…
• While planning, ask yourself questions!
  i.  What is the nature of the worship time? Celebration? Service? Youth Event? Outreach? Discipleship?
  ii.  Is it a small group or a large worship celebration?
  iii. Has there been a common theme recently?
  iv.  Is it for children, youth, adult or mixed?
  v.   What is God doing in the group?
  vi.  What can I bring today that is fresh?

• Something Fresh. Often guilty of being predictable – lazy in our preparation. Include the element of surprise? Always look for fresh ways of doing things:
  • A fresh song. Might be a really old hymn that hasn’t been used for ages, or just a single chorus of a well known song, or a brand new song
  • Change the seating pattern
  • Don’t continually have the same order of things – take the predictability out of it
  • Create something visual to go alongside things

• What mediums of worship do we have available to us? Music, multimedia, art, drama, dance, communication, videos, small groups…
• Lead in a journey – worship comes from revelation of God so bring people to a response
• Pray, pray, pray!

b. Leading

• Create a seamless flow in your worship to help the young people journey with it. Short attention spans so don’t have unnecessary distractions like leaders looking at each other and asking what’s next on the programme…etc.

• Always ask yourself why you’re doing things. Do you have to introduce every single thing that happens in the meeting? Try and find continuation.

• Be energetic – put your all into it. Don’t look disinterested!
• Don’t try to stir things up
• Sometimes you may need explain why your doing things. Why singing? What are we doing while we pray? Closing eyes etc.

c. Songs

ARE NOT:
A time filler
An icebreaker
A chance to show off some of your teams talents
To get people settled before the talk 

ARE:
An opportunity to direct peoples thoughts and shape their theology
Helps people express what is on their hearts
A line of communication 

• Don’t always be tempted to churn out the Christian hits
• Not more than 1 new song per session
• Give new songs a chance to settle in
• Don’t Kill songs – Sometimes give a popular song a rest. We often kill a song before we need to.
• Small Group Worship: Different dynamic – vulnerable and intimate. Embrace it – don’t try to recreate the big celebrations
• Balance (keys/tempo/singability)
• Song type: Revelation or Response
• Make sure the young people can see lyrics to the songs you’re going to sing.
• Fresh songs

•  
  • A new song can be a breath of fresh air but careful how many you introduce
  • Old Song – Find a new arrangement
  • Fresh Arrangement – Change the Key. Give examples.

• Songs to beware of:
  • Too High: Bring keys down (especially early in the morning!)
  • Male/Female Echo: Don’t humiliate tone deaf guys by doing lots of echo songs!
  • Too wordy: young people won’t be as free to sing if they are always worrying about the words.
• Keys that flow and links between songs

d. Musicians

• Serve
• Support your leader
• Practice individually and corporately
• Craft your gift
• Put your all into it. Your serving the Lord so don’t say anything will do – do it with excellence.
• Pray as a team
• Make sure your ministering from a full heart
• Humility – there will be others better than you and others worse but were all involved in building the Kingdom.
• Be a team and don’t try and steal the limelight. Less is more.
• Not a chance to look good but point people to Jesus
• “He must become greater, I must become less.” John 3:30

e. Thinking Creatively

Art
Prayer
Gifts
Graffiti walls
UV pens & lights
Prayer
Multimedia (Videos/Nooma)
Creative stations
Response cards/shredder
Spoken worship – rap, poetry etc.
Structure – Don’t be afraid to change things!! If worship is a response should the talk go before it occasionally?
Don’t use songs as an icebreaker
Put band behind the crowd

• Always aim for something visual. Create learning experiences
• Try new things. Always need to be pushing things and treading new ground!

 

just home from speaking at a weekend (more on that tomorrow) and heading straight out to my sarah’s 21st birthday. it’s been awesome to watch the amazing journey she’s been on over these past few years…and to be able to share in that with her…so today’s about celebrating…

bbq at her house with a load of friends coming round and the sun shining. hard to beat!

i think the world of this girl…so happy birthday sarah!!

I suppose it’s always a bit scary and daunting to step out into something brand new for the first time. A new job. A new home. A new person.

And in many ways it’s no different for the Enniskillen 360° project which I’m heading up, this coming July. As I look ahead I am desperate not to fail. I get nervous at the possibility of messing it up.

But yet amidst it all there is a genuine excitement about the potential of a 5-day mission aimed specifically at teenagers in the area.

This is a brand new mission for Scripture Union to be running this summer and we are delighted that a brilliant team of around 15 are coming together for this work. But this doesn’t mean that we are self-sufficient or have it all sussed out ourselves. In fact, we really need God to breathe His Spirit upon our dry bones.

While thinking about this project, I have been reminded of the picture painted for us in Ezekiel 37:

_____

“…he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?… 

…Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!… 

…So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone…and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army.”

Ezekiel 37:1-4, 7 & 10

_____

I don’t know about you, but I want to hear this sound in Enniskillen this summer. I would love to see young people hearing and responding to the word of the Lord. I long to gaze in amazement as a vast army come to life and take their place.

No man can do this. No team can build this. No organisation can achieve this. And so we turn to the only One who is able.

And so I wonder if you would join me in praying for Enniskillen 360°?

360logo

had a fairly full weekend so enjoying a wee bit of down time today. was leading worship at the SU Training Day on Saturday which was amazing – really inspiring. and then speaking twice yesterday – felt like a good vibe both times.

so enjoyed a game of tennis this morning…playing doubles with a couple of professionals from the czech republic actually which was great crack.

i find that things this weekend have really energised me but it’s nice to find the balance between activity and rest.

3 weeks of football heaven have begun…

…and the beauty of this competition is that there is no england to detract from it!!

who are you supporting?

i’m right behind holland as always…

tonight’s post is going to be lighter than last nights. i was still feeling rattled by my wasted 2 hours the previous night!! maybe it’s time to be more positive so i’ll tell you about something i’ve done in the last week which i’ve loved!

last saturday night i had the privilege of attending a Gala Dinner Celebration arranged by the Amalgamation of Northern Ireland Supporters Clubs at the Hilton Hotel in Belfast. it was organised for the 50 year anniversary of our wee country reaching the quarter finals of the World Cup in Sweden 1958. as well as the surviving members of the world cup squad, there were around 200 norn iron fans from loads of different supporters club. me and my mate Craig were there representing our own fairly new supporters club - The Lough Shore NISC.

the man in the picture above is Harry Gregg, the goalkeeper of the tournament from that World Cup. he is also a survivor of the Munich Air Disaster in 1958 when he played for Man United. and i had the pleasure of meeting him and chatting to him briefly on saturday.

it was a great night all round. top nosh. great banter. cracking speeches. but just makes me dream even more about one day watching my wee country play in a world cup!!