2010 was when....

• I had my first experiences of India (see here for more)
• I turned 40...
• Sheryl & I went to New York to mark both of us turning 40!
• The fun of 3 children at 3 different schools began to kick in
• I had the privelege of baptising an 8o year old man and 15 year old girl in the same service
• My brain and spirit were stretched by the HTB "Holy Spirit in the world today" conference
• I got a BlackBerry (!)
• Youthwork sped up the agenda at WCF, and we learnt a lot about not being able to control everything as we looked at taking on an Oasis Youthwork student
• The boiler at home nearly set the house on fire, meaning that we had to get central heating installed unexpectedly.

There was a lot more besides, but these are some headlines...here's to 2011.

Happy Christmas

Keep thinking that I ought to post a kind of review of 2010 thingy, best of bits etc; but as yet I haven't had the time and/or motivation! It might happen next week, though, you never know.

That being the case, I'll wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a great 2011....

Resolutions and readings....

As mentioned before, at the start of next year at WCF, as part of the national Biblefresh initiative, we are committing to read the Bible together. The programme we'll be using is now available online here, and there'll be plenty of ways of joining in, including thoughts and comments on this blog. You're welcome to join in with us even if you're not part of WCF!

Christmas - a great opportunity?

There's no avoiding it now, is there? Christmas really is approaching fast. I've been pondering Christmas over the last few weeks, and this often repeated assertion that Christmas represents a great evangelistic opportunity for us as churches, as people are somehow more open to think about Jesus at this time of year.

And I think my response is "yes and no". My initial response was "No", I have to say. In fact I remember saying at a joint churches' prayer meeting last month that for a lot of people their exposure to church and Jesus at Christmas is their spiritual equivalent of the annual flu jab - they'll put up with the discomfort of it then in order to avoid any more prolonged exposure for the rest of the year. But I'm beginning to wonder if that wasn't a little harsh. The fact is people are willing, for whatever reason, to go along to church services at Christmas. They may not be going with a great deal of spiritual openness or searching, but they are there. And that is an opportunity; maybe not on the whole, an opportunity to see them make commitments to Jesus, sadly. But certainly an opportunity to gently alter some of their preconceptions of what church is all about, of what Jesus' mission was all about.

So maybe, on balance, Christmas is a great opportunity, but not so much for evangelism but for pre-evangelism. Or maybe I'm just playing with words.

Matters of government...

Had a fascinating morning today. Along with 14 0r 15 other local church leaders I went to visit our local MP, Gareth Johnson, at the Houses of Parliament. Visiting Parliament was an experience in itself; so much history in the building, so many good stories. Truly it is an amazing heritage - with the twist that we don't often remember, that it all belongs to us, the British people. And we have the right to visit, to be part of it because it is our parliament.

Having said that, the heritage and the surroundings I think can be a mixed blessing, creating an illusion of significance for the UK which is maybe just not appropriate in the 21st century; and becoming a "bubble" for the politicians at Westminster, remote from everyday life in towns like Dartford.

But the point of the morning today was that our MP wanted to open lines of communication with church leaders - and that has to be a good thing. It will be interesting to see how things develop.

Keeping up....

Have just worked out that it's now nearly a year since I started this blog....and it has to be said that posting on here hasn't been very regular. Fits and starts is probably the right expression. But I've found it useful to have as a forum for random thoughts and reflections, so will keep going with it, most likely with the same (ir)regularity.

In the New Year, at WCF we are planning a whole church Bible reading programme to tie in with the Biblefresh initiative, and I've said I'll blog some thoughts on that as we go along. So that will force the issue, I guess. In the meantime, it will continue to be as and when I have a thought/get the time...

Hmm.....

Have only just seen this piece, so a bit behind I guess; but have to say it left me quite bemused! Any thoughts?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/09/insane-clown-posse-christians-god