Maria led with Joly, Tracey, Ben, Dave E and Lynsey.
Did chapter 6 (Kinsman-Redeemer) from the Kay Arthur book “Lord, is it Warfare?: Teach Me to Stand : a Devotional Study on Spiritual Victory”
I managed to dig out an Alistair Begg sermon series on Ruth and played part of the sermon on the passage in the chapter from the book.
Open prayer time.
Out with Ania, Caroline, Sharn, Andrew and Rob for lunch at The Sun. Had the Chicken Tagliatelli.
Theme of this session was “The Leader as a Coach: Building an Effective Team: How to enlist and empower the right people for the task”. See details. Attended by Hilary, Tracey, Iain, Dave E, Sue and Anthony.
This latest session of the Culture Club looked at this film (details here). Attended by Eryl, Sue, Ann, Michael and Hilary. Mixed reception to the film but a good discussion.
Marilyn and Tracy led the morning meeting as part of a weekend of activities organised by John as part of his Disabled Christian Fellowship role.
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Marilyn:
John 14:12
exercised by miracles recently
“these works”: what are they?
v11 must refer to miracles”
“let me battle in your healing presence”
John: He is the source
out of our innermost being will flow everlasting water
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Tracy’s dance of faith (with all joining in: loved the sign language for “anointed”)
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Tracy’s story about a lady in church for the first time re problem with a man, became a Christian etc
Marilyn’s story re guy with Hodgkins disease, healed, every concert with miracles, electric
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Tracy read part of the book “The Supernatural Power of the Transformed Mind” . . .
story re your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Buddhist lady healed in restaurant plus family praising God
God worked because the person made themselves available
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Marilyn:
healing is a mystery, pray for us but God uses us anyway!!
Luke 11:19ff
great expectations, do you have these? for God to do mighty things through you
cf Pennie (guide dog) expectant at 6:30pm for tea
address our cynicism/unbelief, we have a wonderful God
He is here
He has made us to be, speak, do like Jesus
beware human vs spiritual eyes
Matt 13:13, seeing but do not see, hearing but do not hear/understand
cf Peter, “You are the Christ”
at the heart of the race is expectancy
God can speak to us in a moment without us praying
understairs cupboard story, full of rubbish vs clean
reach out view your projects and expect God plus new projects
more than you can dream/imagine
Acts 14:8 ff; Paul looked at man and saw something re the man’s heart
lady with bags down story plus necklace (symbol) strangling her etc
beware methods, God needs a listening heart
Went with Isaac and Hannah to see The Secret of Moonacre. Was an OK film but a bit light.
Took Isaac to Connor’s birthday party at Goals Bradford – stayed in the bar reading The Guardian.
Rachael did driving for Marilyn Baker and the team to Westfield so the kids and I had a quiet night with the TV.
Rachael and the kids looked after Marilyn Baker and her team, giving them tea at church.
Rachael and I watched Ashes to Ashes.
Great Jonathan Ross show with Spandau Ballet (reforming), Miley Cyrus, Helen Mirren and Simon Pegg.
I had been meaning to locate some of Clive Calver’s talks off the internet for some time but finally did that as soon as I got back from Spring Harvest.
Clive is one of the few preachers/teachers whose every word comes from God both in terms of content and delivery in my view.
Great to hear him again. I listen to mp3s in the car to and from work every weekday. Listened to Clive all this week.
His serrmons can be found here and all are free of charge.
I led for Maria with Joly, Tracey, Ben, Dave E, Jon and Lynsey.
Played a clip from a recent Rob Bell talk when he quoted airline passenger complaint letters.
Did chapter 5 (Mercy) from the Kay Arthur book “Lord, is it Warfare?: Teach Me to Stand : a Devotional Study on Spiritual Victory”
Ben led us in worship singing a Paul Gillingham song.
We then listened to part of a recent Clive Calver sermon that included the 1911 Sister Barbara prophecy and teaching on the Devil and nations.
Open prayer time.
As part of the pre=meeting prayer slot, I played a clip from Clive Calver from a recent sermon in which he quoted a 1911 prophecy from Sister Barbara. In the main part of the meeting we discussed future resourcing of The Edge Project as Chris goes into training for the URC ministry.
The 2nd consecutive game involving Liverpool that resulted in a 4-4 result. Not a good result for winning the Premiership.
Monday 14 April
After our now usual 4-day wait after finishing work from Good Friday to Easter Tuesday, we finally hit the road for Spring Harvest Skegness Week 3 – my 22nd consecutive year and still find it a spiritual boost each year with a personal focus on the “Equipping the church for action” tag line.
Stopped for lunch at the Half Moon Inn in Alford on the way in. Lunch with the Egans and also Barbara and Michael. I had the Half Moon Haddock and a Batemans XB (a local brew).
Checked in with minimal queues.
The Big Top has moved this year from one side of the Skyline to the other and was now near the beach and we had one of the closest chalets to Skyline and the Big Top so that was good.
Registered the kids. Hannah now has sessions available all morning and in the evening. Hers was run by Powerpack, Isaac and Isobel had X:site. Another sign that the kids are getting older.
Rachael offered to take Hannah to the All Age Celebration each night so with Isaac and Isobel at their session with Joseph, this was the first year for 10 years that I was able to go to the evening celebrations. On the first night in the Big Top it was Steve Chalke (notes to follow). Graham Kendrick led worship in the Big Top this week. Saltmine Theatre Company were also on site all week and as usual they were amazing.
Wednesday 15 April
First of the 4 each morning Big Starts in the Big Top with Dave Godfrey who has a knack of writing songs that become the song of the week. Chrissie Kelly helped to lead the prayer slot in those meetings.
Attended all the Bible Readings in the Big Top each morning which this week were delivered by Krish Kandiah of EA. He did a great job and I loved his slides (he used a Sigur Ros track over the intro slides each morning) as well as offering the ability to text him comments/questions during his talks which were picked up by Claire Pedrick. (notes to follow)
The main seminars (this year called learning zones) were streamed based on people’s learning styles. The Foggs and the Egans did the questionnaire yesterday in the Skyline cafe. I came out by some margin as a Theorist. So I started at the Theorist learning zone led by Elaine Duncan (Chief Exec, Scottish Bible Society) and Stephen Holmes (Lecturer in Systematic Theology, University of St Andrews). The study guide this year was written by Steve Chalke and is a good read.
First trip to Funsplash.
Evening session at Cafe Church, hosted by Cid Latty (brother to Geraldine Latty). A great session and good company with a couple from Lancashire as we got down to discussing the various topics on the theme of decisions.
After everyone had gone to bed, flicking through the TV channels in the chalet, I saw a lady preaching in the Big Top. I was riveted instantly in her message (e.g. the issue of church buildings and the lack of bible knowledge in the people we mix with). Her name was Juliet Kilpin (a Baptist church planter).
Thursday 16 April
Bailed out from the Theorist Learning Zone and felt much more at home with Chick Yuill and the aforementioned Juliet Kilpin in the Activist Learning Zone. Stayed in this one for 3 of the 4 morning slots.
Fairground and bowling for the Foggs and the Egans in the afternoon. Rachael won the bowling.
Steve Chalke sub-ed for a poorly guest preached in the Big Top evening celebration.
Friday 17 April
Sue and Anthony came down for the day and ended up staying 2 nights with the Egans – great to have them with us.
2nd (and last) session in the Funsplash with the Harrisons and Egans as well as 2 of Kate’s kids who we “bumped into” whilst in the pools.
Rachael did her home made pizzas for everyone which went down well. The kids took a spare one into Skyline and raised £26 for the kids charity from the X-site programme.
Went to the Alternative Celebration in the evening with the Egans and Harrisons mainly to hear Juliet preach again! Hosted by Rob and Marion White (speakers from my very first Spring Harvest 22 years ago). There was a half time drinks break and those that were there last night were encouraged to bring drinks to share. We duly helped those near us get through some wine – a great Spring Harvest moment. Sue painted and missed the wine"!
Saturday 18 April
Beach in the afternoon, the sea was the coldest I have been in.
Big Top communion in the evening with Chick speaking.
Last night session at the Egans including the corned beef hash leftovers.
Also worth a comment about our usual love of lattes from the Skyline cafe and slush puppies for the kids.
Another good year for books at Wesley Owen and managed (not difficult) to spend all of my birthday book tokens.
Sunday 19 April
Went with Rachael and Hannah to the All Age celebration as the last part of the week, Hannah had been telling me stories about all age all week so was good to go with both of them. That finished earlier than the kids programme and was good to sit in on the end of X-site.
Drive to Alford for final lunch on the way home – cottage pie and beans and more Batemans XB.
Another way-too-fast week in terms of time. The week started OK but was galvanised when I heard Juliet for the first time and going “Activist”.
Last part of the holiday was to draw up a 24 x 7 time log to continue to make more effort to spend time on the key things and to spend less time frittering my life away!
An unbelievable match but Liverpool lost and are now out of the Champions League. Isaac and I caught the back end of the match in the chalet after getting back from the evening celebrations.
Great to see Eric back . . .
For a reminder of Eric’s footballing class, see these goals . . .
Advertised in a recent Guardian Saturday Guide.
Of Time and the City is both a love song and a eulogy to Liverpool. It is also a response to memory, reflection and the experience of losing a sense of place as the skyline changes and time takes it toll.
Trailer:
Steve Clifford starts his role as the new Evangelical Alliance General Director on April 6.
He spoke as follows in a Bradford celebration event and this was his first official speaking event as General Director.
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surreal moments already today re people knowing me when I was 5, with dark curly hair
memories re school and sport
live in London and I am here with my wife, Ann
1st official engagement in my new role
celebrating Hope 08, awesome what God has done since the vision was formed in Birmingham in 2005, 500 locations was the dream re church doing the business of the church through words and action, finally came in at 1500 locations, evaluation has been done, hearing Gordon Brown in 10 Downing Street eulogising about Hope 08 and the church at the heart of their communities
personal thoughts: cathedral here has significance for the family, dad brought up close by, found faith here, met mum here, sent to train at Oak Hill, ordained here, got married here, parish of St James inner city, vicar, Steve born, brother born, when I was 5 years old dad was killed by drink driver, a different life than we expected
50 years later to the month when he died
I made no decisions on invitations till I saw the Bradford invite to the cathedral
what do we make of it?
feels to me like an encouraging sign
God’s involved in what I am doing
out of family tragedy, God draws a bigger circle
God wheeling and dealing in our lives
but that’s a little Clifford story but part of God’s bigger story
NT Wright calls it the big fat story
easy for us to get distracted
Easter Day is a day of stories
communion recalls the story
Easter as watershed of history
God has not abandoned us, the world, cosmos
salvation history starts way back with God intervening with Adam, family, tribe, nation, all nations
climax in resurrection
if He did not raise from dead, we are wasting our time
Pentecost a few weeks later, chaos in Jerusalem, people think His followers are drunk
Peter’s explanation, he tells the story
Acts 2
personal story: 17 years old, long hair like Marc Bolan, in Lancashire doing a summer job, Capernwray Hall, farm work, evening meeting, man told the Easter story simply, pain, separation from God, heard it before in RE lessons, Christian youth groups but that day the story made sense
do not be ashamed of the story or our story, we can have confidence in them
cf Alpha and other explorer groups
in the light of what we have heard, what should we do?
Hope 08, church demonstrating the story not just talking
big debate re words vs action in the church
need to do both as Jesus did, small acts of kindness
Loughborough Easter painting in the Guinness Book of Records
continuing into 09
role in EA, EA’s role is to get these stories out
so often the attitude to Christians is negative cf Bradford Media Hub, get the story out, get behind it
I am convinced that Christians uniting is good for our nation, enhances the wellbeing/ happiness of the nation, this is a responsibility
we should have passion for Bradford and the nation
what’s our response to the challenge of this story?
let’s be grateful, so much to be grateful for
let’s include ourselves in this story, let’s tell the story, let’s tell our part of the story, tell it, let it out, do not be ashamed of it (it will impact people because of its authenticity)
loving people through words and action
Dave, Hope 08 champion in Leatherhead, moved into a cul de sac, Christmas party with neighbours, heard similar stories re Dave over 2-3 years, summer BBQ, talked to us, very un-English, a different place because Dave lived there
love the story because I can do BBQs, make mulled wine
we CAN make a difference, does not need to be big, can be small
the church belongs at the centre of our community = Hope 08
and then Bradford, Britain, your workplace, neighbourhood becomes a better place
Rachael and I have been watching The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency drama series based on the novels by Alexander McCall Smith. Godo to see a TV drama set in Africa.
Jesus prays for 3 groups: Himself, disciples, us
glorifying the Father was Jesus’ sole desire
2 things for prayer to be answered: obedience to Jesus, praying in God’s will
Luke 15:11-32
called the Prodigal Son but is actually about the Father so should be called the Extravagant Father
2 main gifts he gets: ring (acceptance back) and robe (reserved for VIP)
God is looking for an army of people who know they have the robe and the ring irrespective of what is going on in their lives
A dry morning and an early start for this annual traditional service on Pit Hill in the middle of the Holmewood estate in Bradford with all the churches on the estate including Anglican, Elim, Salvation Army and URC. A good turnout.
Then back to our church for breakfast.
During the Good Friday evening service, Mark had the whole joint congregation up to stick bits of broken pottery on a cross and said that it would be transformed by Sunday. This is what he meant (it looked great!) . . .
Clive Calver’s new book “Dying to Live” came through on a Google Search Alert a couple of weeks ago. Sounds like a “must read” and “must share” to me.
Another opportunity for us all to go to the pictures with Isobel not having ballet. Went to see “Bedtime Stories” (see this blog post for film info). All enjoyed it. Lots of laughs. I love happy endings :-)
Becoming a fan of Keri Russell, from that film . . .
Lazy rest of the day. Isaac was all ready for football training but venue all locked up when we went.
Listened to the Liverpool match on Five Live.
Cooked my speciality Nigella ham yesterday afternoon and started eating it with the family while watching Robin Hood.
And the rollercoaster continues with Liverpool scoring 4 against Blackburn to take the lead again temporarily in the Premiership. 2 great goals from Torres, what a striker.
The book “An Outline of European Architecture” by Nikolaus Pevsner was mentioned by Ken Follett in his intro to The Pillars of the Earth, a novel about the building of a cathedral. I initially found a fulltext open source pdf version here and then less than half an hour later found that it is being published in a new edition later this year. Looks an interesting book.
Our church hosted the joint Holmewood Churches Good Friday service. A great turnout and good to see the church full. Caroline gave the Word with some slides of various depictions of Jesus from around the world on the theme of “the Jesus we share”. She also had us doing some origami resulting in a cross on which we were asked to write “Because of the cross we are free”. Mark had us cementing bits of colourful broken crockery onto a cross with the enigmatic comment re come back on Easter Day to see this cross transformed. Isaac and Isobel (and Joseph) read some verses out as part of the service.
From the writer of Cutting It comes an uplifting drama about family and community played out with rousing choruses, joyous harmonies and booming baselines
Great new series on BBC 1. Enjoying it and particularly the comments on how certain churches behave. Sarah Lancashire delivering another of her wonderful performances.
A disastrous result in the first leg of this Champions League quarter final. A challenge to come back from this in the second leg.
Mark asked me to facilitate part of the meeting to move us on in addressing some of the issues that we had previously identified as issues confronting the church.
Started by asking people to write down the vision of the church by way of refresher. Then a brainstorm answering the following questions:
Good discussion throughout the evening and hopefully got us all thinking more deeply about these issues.
A very long day at work with a rapid lunch but the birthday finally started with a very enjoyable birthday tea at home with the family, The usual book tokens and cash for the forthcoming holiday. Good stuff.
Trailer:
No inaugural address has so thoroughly rejected the political philosophy and legislative record of the previous administration. Jonathan Raban takes a close look at Barack Obama's speech.
An article in The Guardian earlier this year.
Also see Culture Making’s Oaths as cultural artefact.
Interesting comment in one of the blog post comments re the Gill Sans font.
Risks in doing what God wants you to do
are willing to take a risk for Jesus?
just knowing the word of God and not applying it
no rush really because Jesus said never leave you nor forsake you
God calling us to take risks in these times
James 2:14-26
for a seed to grow needs to die first
Christians first need to die
prophetess testimony: Dave at KFM, burden for Holmewood, use the giftings from before you were saved
God needs us to to be obedient, seek Him diligently, eagerly desire the spiritual gifts, know and apply the word
Paul says reward is in heaven
live the gospel
be true to the vision that God has given you, do not be knocked off course
reason is the enemy of faith
often our favourite verses in Bible do not challenge us
beware the enemy who seeks to destroy your vision, hope, faith
be crucified daily
encouraging but serious message, all will be judged in heaven re our account
need a passionate relationship with Jesus to honour Him daily
beware being hot/cold, letting emotions drive us, letting other stuff get in the way
how can the world be reached when the church does not honour Jesus
people of faith are a people of honour
1 Cor 2:4-5
honour God, be people of faith, when you honour me you honour my Word, put faith in the Lord and not what we can do, do not rely on formulas just the Holy Spirit
We all went to this special Palm Sunday praise party as part of St John’s Big Sunday programme. The Egans and Garsides went too. Great time, kids loved it and Isaac did some breakdancing.
A very last gasp winner as Liverpool clinched the 3 points after hitting the woodwork 4 times!
We all managed to go and see this film as Isobel had no ballet today. We all enjoyed it.
Trailer:
Monty Hall is a marine biologist from Bristol who upped sticks to Applecross on the west coast of Scotland to live a basic life off the land. Happy memories of many a happy holiday in that part of the world. The whole family loved watching the series. Will be back up there in the summer.
A tune I heard a while ago. Chris Lake feat. Nastala’s “If You Knew”.
Managed to see this with Isaac as the life group was cancelled. Not as good a match as Saturday’s but the 3 points were important in this World Cup qualifier.
