Quote of the Day

Taken from Google's 'Quote for the Day'.

"You are built not to shrink down to less but to blossom into more."
(Oprah Winfrey)

I'm not a big fan of Oprah, but hey what wise words?

* Respond to God's Spirit and you will blossom into more. *

Frustration or Realisation!

Should a church play to its strengths?

The answer to this question is obviously 'yes'!

I'm part of a church that is mostly made up of believers who are retired. Each and everyone of them are great folk; folk who have been walking with the Lord for a long time. The trouble comes into my picture when I look at how we do church.

When you have a congregation that, may I say, is made up largely of older folk the way church is done is traditionally. I don't have a problem with tradition, I can even say that on some matters of the faith I'm pretty conservative and traditional; my problem comes when I look at the vision for the church and at what I feel God is calling me to do in my own relationship with Him.

As a church we want to reach out to families, we want to be a family church that can minister into the lives of all believers from all generations. With this is a desire to reach those still outside the kingdom, again from all generations.

What a great vision?

In my own life with the Lord, I feel that He wants to use me to reach young families, both those who are already believers and those that aren't.

What a great calling?

Put my churches vision together with what I believe is God's calling for me and we should have a match made in heaven!

But this isn't the case!

My church thinks its providing a place for all generations, that its family friendly - NEWS FLASH - Your not!

We have a great Sunday School ministry (although, most parents drop their children off but don't join the service), we have an evening service that is great for those without children (If you have children you are likely to be putting them to bed while the service is running) and we have a morning service that is great if you are of the older generation!

Last night at a meeting, some congratulated themselves because we are a church that pretty much always sings hymns. Two retired folk joined us last Sunday and said they would only come because we are a hymn singing church. How great it is to be a hymn singing church; we have attracted two more retired believers to our church. But how many from the younger generations have we lost because we are only a hymn singing - traditional church I ask myself?

Should we as a church play to our strengths?

Again the answer is 'yes'!

With this being the case; shouldn't my churches vision be one where they actively reach out to older folk, concentrating all their efforts on doing so?

But where does that leave the younger generations (I'm not just talking about youth, but young families and alike)?

Where does that leave me, and what I feel God is calling me to do with my life?

FRUSTRATED!

New Horizons

Jesus is calling us to join Him and scale the peaks. Its as we do that we get to share his beautiful view of creation.

Lets not just play it safe at the foot of the mountain in the visitors centre, looking at pictures of what could have been.

Where's your aim?

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in.
Aim at earth and you get neither.

C.S.Lewis quote.

Tis Christmas time!

Don't worry; the news reported that all landed safely, Santa just had a closer shave then normal!

So, its that wonderful time of the year. I love Christmas.

However, as I sit and write my Christmas blog entry I can't help thinking about friends and family afar.
Its not the easiest of Christmas' this year.
I want to remember my uncle Peter, cousins Gary and Michelle. Sadly for the family, we have recently lost my Auntie Maureen. To my uncle and family, please know that we feel deeply for you as you remember your wife and mother at this time.
Next to this I remember my Dad and his lovely wife Pat who I've grown very attached too over the years. Pat, sadly has been told that she has a cancerous tumor. This caner has been diagnosed as terminal; needless to say, such news has really knocked us all.
All this has come about so very quickly; Louise and I feel so desperately for both Pat and my dad. We want you guys to know that we love you and are lifting you both up in prayer.

Christmas can be so hard when we think about those we know and love who are suffering. Being away from large parts of my family is hard enough but to face up to such news just makes everything so much harder.

I can say that I'm not only feeling sadness at this time. I'm feeling very thankful to God for this past year that He has blessed me with.
Its a year that has seemed to have flown by but one that has been filled with great times.
I was able to fly back to the UK for a month earlier in the year where I saw loads of my family and friends; Louise and I had such a great time. It was just amazing to be able to enjoy fun times with those I love and care for so much.
But that's not all, my mum, now in her retirement, boarded a plane and spent seven weeks here in South Africa. When she rocked up in Port Elizabeth airport I was just so happy.
It was great to have her here and to be able to show her our beautiful home.
We managed to do so many fun things with her but the highlight remains a day that mum and I had all to ourselves, a day when we both road elephants; yes we both had a ride of a lifetime on the back of one of the most amazing animals God has created.

It was hard to have to say goodbye to my mum but my pain was soon replaced with a pain of a different kind. I was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack!!
Thankfully it was only a nasty stomach ulcer, but it was a massive scare to say the least.
I want to say that my new family here looked after me so well and I'm so thankful to God that I haven't only been blessed with a loving wife but also with a loving mother, father and gran-in-law (YOU GUYS ROCK).

Not all distractions are nice eh? Mum will be coming out to South Africa again, I hope for a less hard time when she has to leave!

What else can I share, well their is the exciting news about being called by my church. They have called me to be a student pastor.
This has opened the door up for be to be able to apply to the Baptist Union of South Africa to join their ministers list.
I had hoped to have had an interview by now but was told that I first had to do a module on Baptist Principles and History. I have done this and in doing so had to write the first exam I've written in some twenty five years! I passed though, YAY!!
Now, in the new year, I hope to be able to get on with having the interviews and finally get on the list.
You know, God knows what He is doing and both Louise and I continue to wait for His will to be done. In the mean time, we continue to learn, I continue to work through my studies and hope that one day soon, we will have even more opportunities to serve Him.




Christmas is often a time when people rush around trying to get that final gift. Its not quite like that here in Jeffrey's Bay. Life here tends to be a bit more chilled-out, Christmas is a little less driven by retail sales figures.
While I think about retail; we've seen some massive changes in our quite little seaside town.
We have our own shopping mall (yes, I too like shopping and spending, though these days we tend to do more window shopping!).
It is great for our town; the shopping mall is just on the fringe of Jeffrey's which means the town of Jeffrey's has still been able to keep hold of that small town feeling.
Louise and I are really enjoying the mall (we even have a McDonalds!); one of the things we enjoyed in the UK was being able to walk around places like Sutton together and having a nice cup of coffee somewhere. Such trips out have been missed by us both, but no more.

Ok, I'm conscience that this one entry is getting a little big. I've shared some of my highlights from the year, I think I will close now.

I want to close by saying a massive Merry Christmas to all who read my blog, to my friends and family both near and far; I love you all.

I can't finish without mentioning the most important part of Christmas for me; JESUS.

I recently preached a sermon at our evening service on celebrations. In my message I spoke about three different types of celebration:

1. The celebration in heaven that occurred when Jesus was born into our world.
2. The celebration of Communion.
3. The celebration that takes place in heaven when a sinner repents and turns to God.

We all love to celebrate don't we, particularly at Christmas time?

I love to celebrate and I love every part of the Christmas celebration.
But what I love most about Christmas is Jesus.

Lets celebrate this Christmas wherever we may be.

Lets celebrate Jesus coming into our world.
Lets celebrate the wonderful gift of life Jesus' death has made possible for us.
Lets celebrate the new life each and every person who enters into a relationship with God through Jesus has.

Lets celebrate and lift our praise and Joy to God who makes Christmas possible.

Happy Christmas to you all.

Celebrations

Here is a teaser as to the content of my coming sermon for this Sunday.

World "AIDS" Day

Today is world AIDS day.

Life in South Africa has been lived somewhat under the shadow of HIV/AIDS for over a decade now. Conservative statistics put us as having 5.5 million people infected with the virus, which is about 16% of the amount of people infected world-wide. As a result of the pandemic we sit with an ever rising number of orphans, currently at about 1.4 million.
Please join the many praying today concerning the following issues:

• The rate at which the virus is spreading: Pray that God will intervene here.
• The availability of medication: Less than a quarter of those infected in South Africa have adequate access to the right medication.
• Child-headed homes: As more and more parents succumb to the virus, more and more children are having to take over headship of households looking after even younger children
• Abstinence as a solution: Pray that people we see abstinence amongst the un-married as real solution and not something to be scoffed at.
• Faithfulness as a solution: Pray that married couples would be faithful to one another throughout their marriage.
• Discrimination: Pray against the terrible discrimination that some face after being diagnosed with the virus.
• The orphan crisis: Pray that God would raise up emergency parents, foster parents and even parents willing to adopt.
• Pray for our churches: Pray that the redemption they have received in Christ will flow out into acts of love and kindness towards those infected.

He finally did it!!

God's Glory

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
Quote of the day from C.S. Lewis

Fuel prices come down

I watched the news today and was pleased to hear that the fuel price is going down next week by around about one Rand.
Great I thought.
Such reductions have been something of a monthly occurrence for the past few months or so.
It really does help those of us who watched in some fear the fuel prices growing to an all time high earlier this year.

With such good news at the fuel pumps shouldn't we see this reflected in the supermarkets? After all, the food prices went up and up as the fuel became more expensive.
Sadly, to my disappointment their has been no such reduction in our day to day needs from the supermarkets, bread, milk and so on.

So, living in a country that has so many people living below the poverty line, what does a reduction in fuel costs mean to them?

Here in South Africa, we are surrounded by people who are living in shacks and earning very low salaries. A large majority of such people can't afford to run cars, so fuel costs coming down have very little impact.

So, what do you think, will pressure be put on the retail market by the powers that be to bring prices down?

Manufacturing costs have gone down for the retail market; so at present, with the continued high costs for products, someones making a nice profit!

Somewhere between the real and the not!

Do we live in a dream world?

Are we always thinking about how we would like things to be rather then living in the now?

Its easy to miss out on what is before us if we're always worrying about what isn't.

Its good to have dreams but we aren't meant to live their.

(Sorry, I'm speaking to myself)

The words we speak!

Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.
Psalm 141:3

How easy it is to tear a person down with our words?
I'm not really one for mincing my words particularly when I feel I'm in the right or that I've been wronged, but God doesn't always want me to speak out, to engage at every wronged moment.
Sometimes we are to stand up and shout, but invariably we're called to humbly wait on God.

Its not easy to decipher Gods desire in those heated moments though is it?
I guess that's why the Psalmist prayed a prayer as seen in this verse.
Maybe like me, he couldn't hold his tongue!
But God can.

The Bible Speaks Today

Why go for a modern translation?

Child-like-faith

Three Lions on the shirt!

Well done to the mighty England who went over to Germany and once again beat them.

Sadly I didn't get to see the game, it wasn't on the TV over here but I was delighted to wake up to the great news of our 1-2 win.

John Terry slotted in a late goal to win the game for us.

Keep it up ENGLAND!

Last nights sermon

So, I have good news and bad!
The good news first - I'm told that my sermon went really well last night, which I'm well pleased about. I felt the Lord placed this message on my heart and I'm excited about what may come as a result of it.
The bad news is that my church is having technical problems at the moment and my sermon couldn't be recorded. You know its only happened because I had made reference to the fact that I'm hoping to upload the audio from my sermon!!
Actually, its just one of those things. The best I can do is publish my sermon notes on Google Docs. If you want to read them you can click on the Link below:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddp84qn2_3g3rbrsg9&hl=en_GB

The published version looks big, but its spaced out as I would speak it.

I do hope to be able to upload my future sermons so that you can listen to the audio but well......be patient eh!!

Saturday morning bliss

Wow, what a change from the weeks rain.
I've woken to a beautiful day in the bay, the windows are open, the sun is shining and all is well with my world.
Saturday mornings should always be like this.
I did bombard Louise this morning with my sermon structure and content; its a hard life being a preachers wife!
I've taken from her desperate expression that its time to stop preaching and I've put on some great music.
Trevor sent me a music CD comprising of all kinds of great stuff. One piece of music I've really taken too is from a band called 'Balmorhea', they are a two piece violin and piano teaming and their music is just amazing. I've managed to get a copy of one of their albums called 'Rivers Arms'; man this is great stuff to chill out too.
So the storm has calmed, that being the rain and the preaching - long live chill out tunes!

(If you like modern classical sounds, you will love Balmorhea - Rivers Arms)

Rain, rain go away...

So, most of the days this week I've woken up and wondered whether I'm back in the UK. Instead of the delightful sound of the sea I've had the sound of driving rain on my bedroom window. Weather like this makes me think of good old English summers!!
Joking aside, the country has been soaked to its core over this past week with some very un-seasonal rain. Sat in my nice comfortable, waterproof home all is well but there are a lot of people living in tin shacks that have a complete nightmare when prolonged rains like this come. Please pray for those living in the local communities around Jeffrey's.
The forecast is for dryer weather over the weekend which will be a welcome sight for many.

This Sunday sees me back preaching in my church which is really cool. I've had a bit of a break while I've been preparing for my past exam.
For some time now I've felt God leading me to preach a sermon on how He speaks to us today. So on that bases I've put together my sermon. The passage I'm preaching from is Hebrews 1:1-3:

1 Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.
2 And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.
3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honour at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.
(NLT)

I can't say that my sermon is very exegetical more topical but the passage does start with how God speaks and I'm going on from their.
I'm hoping that it will be recorded, if it is I'll try and post a copy on YouTube or something like that and leave a link on my blog.
So watch this space, I'm hoping to be able to post all my future sermons this way so friends and family can keep up with my preaching.

Wherever you are and whatever your doing, have a great weekend

God bless ya

Dog tired!

2008 Global Leaders Summit

Here are some thoughts I was asked to put together after attending the 2008 Global Leaders Summit:

I want to start with saying that this year’s summit was great. I have been blessed with having been to both this year’s summit and last years. I found that this summit had a much more spiritual sense about it. We are leaders in God’s Church and though we can learn from the business world we must remember that our nature and function are very different to that of the business world.

Where do I start with what I felt God blessed me with from the various speakers?
In Bill Hybels first session he spoke about the need for church leaders to have to make decisions. Decisions will often affect others in either good or bad ways. In the business world one can say that we are basing those decisions on the good of the company, leaders can be firm and hard if needed under such reasoning. In the church decisions need to be made, sometimes hard decisions, but often we fear their consequences.
Bill gave us a four point plan that if applied, should help us as we seek to make wise decisions:

FRAMEWORK FOR DECISION MAKING
1. Does the bible speak about it?
2. What would smart advisers say to me concerning this decision I have to make (seek the wisdom of worthy advisers)?
3. What have I learnt from the pain of past decisions (the good ones and bad)? Try journalizing not just spiritual matters but our practicing of decision making for later reference within our future ministry.
4. What is the Holy Spirit saying to me concerning this matter?

I would actually put the point about the Spirit second but this structure, I believe could really help us as leaders.

Gary Haugen, in his session blew me away.
One point that sticks out to me is the point he made concerning the things we strive for.
“Just because I'm passionate about something's doesn't mean that God wants it for me and for those I lead”.
This links well with Bill’s points on wise decision making and made me really sit up and think. I have a number of things running around in my head about church and even my private life that will affect others, are they things that God wants or am I striving towards my will?

A theme for the conference in my eyes was “Is this doing church”?
Am I doing church by striving for the things that really only matter to me? Isn’t “doing church” actually about getting down to the things that matter to God?

I’m going to close now by giving short feedback on other sessions, hoping that if I keep it short I won’t get marked down for going over my allotted three points!!

Efrem Smith and, “Leading in new cultural realities”; what a timely word?
We are living in a multicultural world where people living with us are not only from other countries but are often people that in fact come from the same country but are very different culturally. With such a truth in mind, shouldn’t we be doing church in a way that reaches everyone regardless of colour, greed or culture?

Craig Groeschel and, “IT: How leaders can get IT and keep IT”.
“IT”, being the life and presence of the Spirit in all we do as “Church”.
We can have “IT”, we can lose “IT”, but we can get “IT” back again.
What a mind bender this paragraph is? However, what needs to be understood is the need for the Spirit to saturate every aspect of church. If we don’t have such a blessing, we need to be taking every step to get “IT”!

Bill Hybels last session on “Relentless” and his study on the life of Mother Teresa. What a way to close the conference? What an amazing lady Mother Teresa was?
I’m sure at times we’ve all felt like giving up, Mother Teresa’s life shows us someone who never did, and reminds us that we must never give up on fulfilling the will and calling God has for us.

Last words: check out John Burke’s session (on the DVD).
Messy Church! Should we make people wait until they have their life looking all together before we welcome them in to church? If they were in such a “utopia state” wouldn’t they be out of place in our churches with all of us less then perfect people?