Eternal Echoes

letting go of the need to suceed...

I am preparing for Church Council meetings, it is an ongoing thing, and I guess I should not be surprised that the same questions of what we are going to do and where our future lies are once again raising their heads...

The trouble is I think we ask both too much and too little of ourselves at the same time! Let me explain, when questions of survival are raised it is easy for us to focus inward, to draw up lists of our faults, failings and inadequacies. When we do that and we become our own focus it is easy to make anyone who suggests the terrible "C" (change) word the enemy, we ask to little of ourselves because we feel that we are simply unable to do everything. Of course the truth is that we are unable to do everything and the key is to unwrap the gift of that and to see it for what it is. Conversley it is easy to ask too much of ourselves, to make ourselves the architects of "our future" and to run ourselves ragged in trying to push what often seems like a weighty boulder uphill, once again, those who don't want to be moved uphill become our enemies. The result of both is that we isolate ourselves from the communities that we are placed in/ called to and we fail to be the salt and light that Jesus calls us to be.

I know that I am back on my "old soap box" if you want to see that see here, and here, and here; and yes I am rolling out the same quote because for me it is fundamentally important to our ability to engage with a sense of mission, vision and calling: Sarah Savage and Eloene Boyde-McMillan in their book "The Human Face of Church", citing Max Weber they say:

  “Weber argued that any great vision require a human process to carry it through time, sometimes in the form of “a man, a mission, a movement, or a monument”. Even with the Body of Christ, the life giving charism has to be embodied in a routine – in some form of human organisation. Yet, life giving visions do not fit easily into neat boxes. So the very process that gives the vision continuing life also begins to kill it. When the maintenance of the institution (which protects the charism) becomes the institutions primary purpose, the death of the charism is on the horizon. Only spiritual revival or reform will re-ignite the gift.” (Savage and Boyd-McMillan 2007. p4)

Too often our desire to either return to a golden age ( which I doubt in truth existed) or to simply mnaintain and protect what we have, causes us to draw up the sides of our neat boxes and repell all boarders whilst worrying , yes still worrying about how to keep that box afloat in a storm.

A recent report comissioned by one of the churches that I serve from an outside party has pointed out that the church is running around circles, it seems that we have adopted the "what do we do now syndrome", I know very well that it was in this mode before I came, and I pray that together we might find the strength to stop running.

More and more I am convinced that this is the answer, the Body of Christ seems to be in crisis, and as I ponder this I ponder the fact that so often we are blinded by our need to succeed, we fear failure above all else and our fear in turn blinds us to the deep and abiding love of God. More and more when faced the question of what shall we do I find myself answering longing to answer, " lets, stop, let's  let go, let's love the people in front of us and take things step by step until a wider and greater vision emerges.

Now I know that, that probably sounds like a cop out, but I really don't think it is, because with the stopping will come an intentional letting go and a deep listening. I wonder if while we may think we have been listening we have been too busy running and repeating the same old question so often that we don't realise we are asking it. Letting go calls us to see our emptiness, our inabilities and our lack of vision and to offer them to God, I suspect that maybe it is only then that the blessing will begin to emerge. Maybe being at the end of our own rope will turn out to be a deep blessing:

 “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule." ( Matthew 5:3 The Message)

or to quote Richard Rho on the beatitudesr:

Each of these invitations, for that is what they are, are concerned about vulnerable and outpouring relationship, which is necessary for the second half of life, in the same way that the Ten Commandments serve for ego-identity in the first half of life. The Beatitudes are descriptions of a mature human person much more than prescriptions for other-worldly salvation. They offer something astoundingly new to human consciousness, which is a lifestyle based on vulnerability, mutuality, service--and thus a willingness to be usable for God, history, healing, and one another.

So maybe it is time to let go of our fears and need to suceed and see what emerges organically through us:

 “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples. (John 15: The Message)

walking a mile in another's shoes...

Today I have felt angry, sad, helpless and hopeless, I have been given a rare chance to truly spend a few hours in somebody else's shoes and it was heartbreaking. Yesterday I met a young man who has recently been released from prison, he came to Blackpool using his travel warrant, and with a bit of money in his pocket. He had been in prison for 7 years and was very disorientated, his money quickly gone he came to us for help, and I have been trying to help him to get onto the benefits system, to find somewhere to live.

He does have family but they have disowned him, he has no address, no money, no shelter, nothing but the red holdall that contains a spare shirt, a sleeping bag and a few out of date forms and contact numbers. 

He had been to the housing team at Blackpool Council, but they are so overwhelmed that they could do nothing straight away, he went to the two homeless hostels in the town but they were both full. With no address he is unable to claim benefits, with no phone or  computer he has not got an easy way to apply for them, the library who do have computers turned him away because he has no address, so as we have done before we have allowed him to use the church as his home address, then we got onto the phone to call the Job Centre Plus, I made the initial call because he was so overwhelmed. Six different phone numbers, a lot of button pushing and sets of canned instructions telling me it would be easier to apply on -line later we finally got through to a human being. I handed him the phone.

You'd have thought that being able to speak to a real human being that the saga might have been over, but no, I sat with him as he repeated his details not once, not twice but eight different times and still he was not able to access the system. We will tray again this evening as I am taking my laptop to church, hopefully things will be easier on line!

I can see now with fresh eyes why people simply give up and walk away, why people feel hopeless and helpless and rail against the system, after an hour of listening to canned responses, after repeating the same information over and over again, after that sense that you are not a person with a name and needs and feelings but a number, a statistic to be crunched by a faceless bureaucracy!

Now I know that the Job Centre Staff and Local Councils are overwhelmed but I weep for the lack of humanity in the system and I am grateful that we can offer a listening ear, a bit of company and plenty of tea. I am also grateful for ourlovely volunteers many of whom have been in and through the system and are able to give us an understanding of it. I am grateful for the way that they reach out in generosity giving so often from the little that they have. I am grateful also today for the swift response of our local MP Paul Maynard who truly does care about the people he serves.

Having said all of that I am left feeling sad, overwhelmed and not a little helpless and hopeless, I am rarely reduced to tears but today I was, mostly because the young man is so much more than a statistic, he is not a problem to be solved, he is a human being with needs and feelings, and more than anything he needs other human beings to notice that he is a human being, to see his worth and to count him as worthy of love and care. Today I walked a mile in his shoes and I have been humbled by the experience, he was so grateful for the little that we did. 

My prayer is that we will not become so overwhelmed by the need that surrounds us that we are unable to respond, that we won't become hardened by the constant flood of need that we fail to see the humanity in the folk who come to us, that we might like Mother Theresa be able to see Christ, the image and revelation of God in  we share with those we are called to serve. Today this young man drew me from my self and I am grateful.

Heaven touching earth: photo mine

 

compelled by love ( all this for you)

Before I start I will state that while I am a Methodist Minister ( Presbyter) the views in this blog post are my own views and while I hope that they will in some way reflect the views and mission of the Methodist Church, they remain simply my views.

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I am responding to Quentin Lett's Radio 4's Programme "What's the point of...?" broadcast this morning at 9am, and to be broadcast again this evening at 9:30pm. Today he was asking "What's the point of Methodism?"

I am not going to  enter into a long critique of the programme which raised some interesting points about our history and origins, and spoke of both scriptural holiness and social justice in a positive way. I am not even going to touch the possible ensuing conversation about whether we should of shouldn't join with the Church of England, but rather I want to speak of what I felt was missing because it is because of what I felt was missing that I find myself in the Methodist Church today often slipping on my "dog-collar" and wondering " how did that happen...!"

I know the answer to my own often voiced rhetorical question, it happened because of the love and grace of God, it happened because I found in Methodism a way to Christ that I had not found elsewhere, and it is the love and grace that I find rooted in the Arminian theology of Prevenient Grace that has set me free to stand in a place where I can begin to say that I am here because Christs love compells me.

Let me say now that I am a "convert," I do not have a history of Sunday School or a good solid Methodist upbringing or a good solid anything upbringing for that matter, I came to faith by discovering the power of prayer at a difficult time in the life of my then young family. Through prayer I discovered a God who was very real and very present, but my journey into faith was not so easy; I struggled with the sense that I was not acceptable and tried to obey all sorts of rules to make myself acceptable. For some reason I could not accept that God loved me for me.  The more I tried to make myself acceptable the more I invented God as a monster in my own eyes failing to see the true revelation of his love in the person of Jesus. It was only when I began working for the Methodist Church as an outreach worker and was fortunate enough to begin studying at the same time that another theological window, another way of thinking about God, and thinking about how God might think about me opened up.

What if the God that Jesus revealed really identified with the poor, reached out to the oucast, healed the untouchable, and included the unclean, the foreigner and the sinner; anyone who could that could be labled "other" by those trying to create an exclusive community? What if God loved us first and calls forth love from us? What if God is bigger and more inclusive than I could possibly imagine?

As I began to follow and worship this God, not the angry monster God I found that I could begin to love and accept myself, it was the revelation and the still unfolding revelation of this love that drew me into ministry, that drew me beyond my own small confines and boundaries to love " the other", discovering that they are not other at all but that we share a common humanity.

Some of the most powerful words in the Methodist Worship book ( for me) are written in the Baptism Liturgy, those words; "All this for you" are preceded by the declaration of God's revelation in the person of Jesus, including "for you he lived and showed Gods love".  

It is this revelation that set a flame burning within my heart, it is this revelation that stirs my soul, it is here that "God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who  we really are. ( Romans 8:16). Precious, beloved children of God, made in Gods own image. Surely if I am a precious, beloved child of God then so is my neighbour, and more challengingly the one I call "other" for any reason, in fact the other is who I am particularly called to love, for it was to the other that Jesus came! The truth then is that not only can I be drawn beyond my own boundaries, but to declare that there are none, there can be none! As a friend of mine says " there is nothing secular except for sin", and all sin is is that thing that seperates us from God. So with boundaries and barriers gone we can live out our theology, and all are ( now) welcome at the table!

All of this is hugely challenging for the Methodist Church, because as the Radio show revealed Methodism appears to be built on certain standards and values, traditionally calling people to sobriety and a morally upright way of life, to social action and to have a passion for justice, but what it missed is that the source of these lies in the move of God.  John Wesley's own journal contains the telling declaration ;

"I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.."

It was this assurance, this experience that compelled him, this experience, this assurance that compelled many of those who were touched by his preaching and the movement that followed Methodism is primarily born of the Spirit, an experienced encounter with God, and while this is not unique perhaps its expression in concern for the poor and a desire for social justice is a mark of that move and a particular gift. Yes we sing our theology, but there is a reason that the Methodist Hymnody is important, music made the message acessible and memorable and is well known to touch the heart and the spirit in ways that words alone cannot. Yes many Methodists are passionate about Social Justice and politics but these all have their roots in the move of the Spirit that Welsey experienced as his heart was strangley warmed.

Our problem? I want to suggest that it is the phenomena known as " convert and lift"- that is to say that as people took on the moral values and aspirations and possibilities of living differently that we lost our roots, Methodism became middle class and lost the Spirit. Oddly I came from a middle class background and the Spirit found me! That said I know many passionate and committed people called Methodist, people who serve, people who love, people who light up a room with the love of God that flows from them, people who are passionate not only for God but through God for their neighbours both local and global.

Will we die out? Not if we dare to follow the way of Christ and dare to give ourselves away, not if we allow the Spirit to inspire and equip and guide us, not if we fan into flame the gift within us and recognise afresh that we are a movement and not an institution. More than anything  we need a fresh fire to fill our hearts and that fire must be of God not of our own striving, and it must be a fire of grace, a desire to include rather than exclude, to accept the other, to include the other, to identify with the outcast, to become as Christ...

I leave you with a story from last night at our Drop in here in Blackpool " The Comfort Zone", one of our community members bounced in full of energy and love carrying a bunch of flowers, her gift to us for no particular reason, and expression of love and joy, she blessed us all. It was another members birthday, touched by his story we bought him a card and a cake, he was really pleased, but when it came to cutting and sharing his cake he refused, he wanted to take it home and to keep it for himself. At the end of the evening we gathered around the table to share in prayer and communion, and neither were excluded, such is the love and grace of God with us, and that should bring us all to our knees! Love is stronger than death....

All this for you!

Maybe what we need is a rebranding exercise, as the programme mentioned we were also once called Enthusiasts! A discipleship movement shaped for mission! Called to life in Christ, living out a calling to love, to justice, to holiness and compassion. Maybe what we need to rediscover is that flame that so set Wesleys' heart ablaze, the Spirit of God calling us to live out our inner experience in Spirit and in truth.

Let us take up the cross 
till we the crown obtain, 
and gladly reckon all things loss 
so we may Jesus gain.

Image: Canvas 1 of Waves of Grace - mine ( a comission for a church in Blackburn)

 

 

All this...

I have just posted some photos to Facebook, they are photos of our preparations for this evening when we meet together at North Shore Methodist Church in Blackpool. We will be celebrating Pentecost. We will meet to eat, share stories, talk, pray and worship together. Here are those pictures:

We love symbols, candles, water and oil will all be present this evening. The Icon and the rosaries are also important to us, to add to these we have prayer blankets and paper and pens will also be available for those wishing to write prayers or blessings and leave them in the basket. Interestingly we write more prayers for others and blessings are often prayed for friends and family. I say interestingly because when we meet as a community tonight I will be reminded once again how amazingly priviledged I am, many who I will meet with are struggling to make ends meet, many have been victims of government sanctions, some are desperate, and some are homeless. I will hear stories of the 20p Hilton ( read public toilets) and from a couple who are living in a tent, packing it up every morning and walking the streets of Blackpool with it until the pitch it again in the evening. Everything they own is contained in a suitcase.

This evening we will celebrate with cake, we will share bread and wine and prayers will be said, we know God's presence with us, last week we were overwhelmed by the love and power of God at work among us. We were made aware of a love that knows no barriers of gender, race or status, we are all loved, all valued, all important.

How can it be then that these are a good idea?

How can it be possible that a community might value others so little that they treat the other as vermin, a mere nuiscance to be disuaded from shelter?

How can it be possible in the 21st Century in a so called civilised country for us to have a definite "under-class", a forgotten, hidden ( we wish), marginalised group of people? How can this be? It makes me angry, and week by week as I meet with my friends I am driven to my knees in weeping for the plight of so many, and there are many, and for many it is a small thing that has pushed them over the edge into spiralling poverty. 

You can find the story behind the studs here, please read it and let it challenge you, the question it brings to us, "who is my neighbour?" is one that we sorely need to hear, and not I suspect only in this context. Yesterday at Church we welcomed a lovely family and their friends, a father and son were baptised, after the baptism and during a hymn I offered a blessing for any that might choose to receive on, we ran out of hymn as the queue of people coming forward grew, not just the baptism family but the regular congregation too, some of whom will gather with us this evening, all of whom were responding to the love of God.

There are times when I wonder how on earth I became caught up in the wonder of all that God is doing among us at North Shore, people are hungry for God, there are some who have church backgrounds and those who don't, people who have been hurt, confused and even ignored by church and some for whom it is all a new adventure. It is not helpful to categorise folk because " it risks turning people into ecclesiastical 'widgets' or commodities. Categorising or defining people in a way that allows them to be quantified is helpful for particular pieces of analysis but risks depersonalising human beings made in the image of God. It also feels very institutional"1 , and this move of God is not about the institution, not about the survival or otherwise of a particular church in a particular setting but about how people are being wooed by a God who loves them, in this we are simply his co-workers or channels, and I often find that my task is to stand around looking amazed and wonder what on earth will hapen next.

God is with us, this I do know, and as we gather to tell his story, the wonder of creation, incarnation , and spirit power become real in us, as we take and break bread we are nourished by him, as we pour and drink wine we are cleansed, as we bless one another with symbol of water and oil we are healed, and as we light candles our prayers ascend to heaven. We find ourselves enveloped by grace, none is excluded, no humanbeing made in the image of God should be marginalised, there is Good News for the poor, sight for the blind, healing and hope for the outcast, and freedom for the prisoners.

As I baptised baby Oscar and his Dad yesterday I used the wonderful words "All this for you", Jesus shows us clearly with outstretched bleeding hands "all this for all"

1. http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/views/unchurched : Andrew Roberts 

trust and frailty ( a prayer at the beginning of a new venture)

our frailty lies before our eyes

our vulnerability

internal and external,

we are at the end of ourselves, and

even at the beginning of the road

 we have no strength,

no hope but you...

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our frailty lies before our eyes

and you say "feed my sheep,

come follow me",

but our hands are almost empty...

and you say "only offer

what you have..."

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still our frailty lies before our eyes,

our doubts rise as surely as the tides,

and you say

"leave your boat, come walk

across the water,

release your fears,

 follow me..."

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still our frailty lies before our eyes... but

to whom else could we go?

and so we come,

only help us

with strength to follow ...

 

Grace...

Today I came face to face with grace, it came as a surprise and with the powerful sense of the presence of God. God making space for grace, God opening hearts to grace, and God working to heal and to restore. It was so powerful that I had to go for a walk this evening to begin to make sense of it, to pray and to reflect and to ponder anew the depths of the love God offers.

Today I was challenged to offer forgiveness, and reminded that it is something I too need to receive, I was reminded that it is easy for me to hide from myself, and to hide myself from others. I am rarely confronted with the full truth about myself, and that even a partial revelation would bring me to my knees in proper fear and awe of the love I am offered by the one who knows me inside out and loves me more than I can begin to understand. 

Today I was reminded that forgiveness is costly, costly not only for the one who offers it but also for the one who receives. The one who offers lets go of any desire for recompense or revenge, the one who receives must be open hearted and willing to own their dark-side and allow it to be seen.

This is grace, grace offered to me by the God whose ultimate letting go was letting go of life upon the cross, today I was asked to let go, and found that by the grace of God I could. In the letting go there was a blessing, in the fact that grace was received the love of God was revealed.

I could go on, but don't have the words for the cartwheels my heart is performing right now, enough to say that God is at work in us his purpose to perform...

God makes everything come out right;
    he puts victims back on their feet.
He showed Moses how he went about his work,
    opened up his plans to all Israel.
God is sheer mercy and grace;
    not easily angered, he’s rich in love.
He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold,
    nor hold grudges forever.
He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve,
    nor pay us back in full for our wrongs.
As high as heaven is over the earth,
    so strong is his love to those who fear him.
And as far as sunrise is from sunset,
    he has separated us from our sins.

(From Psalm 103 The Message)

Holy Saturday- Hope ; resurrection and Rev.

I had no idea what to expect from the final episode of Rev in series 3, it could have been nothing, it could have been a cliched triumphal nothing, instead, like resurrection it left us with questions, wonderful profound questions and images of the new beginning of hope. 

I found it to be real, raw and gritty, and full of hope. It is rare that Holy Saturday is dealt with in telling the story of the Passion and Easter, but in confusion and in depression this episode did that brilliantly in my eyes. We witnessed the growth of hope as each of the characters turned to prayer and Adam wrestled with God from under his duvet, his slow reciting of the beatitudes was powerful.

The episode ended with the long awaited baptism of Katie, a sense of a new beginning and a knowledge that this is not the end, Adam 's simple acknowledgemet is not a triumphal shout but a gentle acknowledgement; " I seem to be in a cassock again Lord, it seems that you won't let me go..."

For me perhaps the most powerful image was the image of breaking into the church, turning on its head the notion that the sealed church offered us the image of the sealed tomb, and showing that somehow with the closing of the doors and the sealing off of the building in the centre of the community the source of life has been removed from all, and all had entered the tomb even without knowing it. 

This was not a happy-ending story, it was a this has not ended story, what we thought was the tomb became the womb of re-birth, there are new possibilities here, nothing has changed, yet everything has changed... 

We are left with the sense that there is more to come, we have no idea what that more is, and for me that speaks so well into a life of faith, for so often it is a step by step day by day process, and sometimes like Adam we need a friend to come along and haul us out of bed!  The precious thing has been kept alive, it now needs nurture and care...

Perhaps the most poignant words were spoken by Adam to Katie after her baptism, " that was horrible wasn't it..." 

Yes it was, it was horrible, painful, testing and exhasuting, but life has triumphed, the candle is lit, the waters of baptism have been entered, and life goes on.  If we wanted a simple, happy, triumphant ending to the series we will have been dissapointed. I was not dissapointed, for as I have been reflecting resurrection dawns slowly, and new life begins in the dark...

I find I cannot agree with some of the criticism brought against the series, this from Alison Graham of the Radio Times insists that Adam remains comfortable and nice;

The Rev-lovers of my acquaintance and I feel it lost its way when Adam kissed Ellie in episode three, an episode that was written by Tom Hollander. Oh dear, I wish actors wouldn’t do this; I wish they would act and leave the writing to others. Remember when actor Alan Alda became far too involved behind the cameras in the mighty M*A*S*H and it became a drearily humourless anti-war polemic, stripped of its delicate subversion?

Actors are of course close to the parts they play, but they might want different things from a character – maybe the chance to show off their acting abilities. (Hollander doesn’t need to do this, he’s great, his hapless, tender Adam is the reason why I watch.) But this is an irrelevance to anyone watching. We know Adam and he would never have kissed Ellie. He might have been temp- ted, as he once was at a vicars and tarts party, but he would never have given in. He just wouldn’t.

Still, it happened and the train of events gathered momentum to the point where Adam is ruined, degraded and humiliated, rejected by nearly everyone who once professed to love him. NO! Rev devotees don’t want this; we watch Rev because of its kindness and its imperfect view of an imperfect world. We don’t watch to feel despair and helplessness. It might be trying to be grittily realistic but real life is too realistic for most of us and we welcomed our half-hour escape into a different, gentler world. But that’s all gone now.

I applaud Tom Hollander for not being comfortable and nice, and instead entering into a deeper and darker place, but kindness has not gone, and hope has been restored....

Roll on series 4!

 

Related articles

Holy Saturday... ( holy waiting)

A Holy Saturday kind-of Easter (on doubting the Resurrection)

in the shadow of resurrection...

God is with us- resurrection- Rev and real life....

Rev, the brilliant TV comedy that undermines the church | James Mumford

Living the resurrection...

God with us...

Sometimes I question where God is, other times things happen that open my eyes to see that to name something a coincidence is to fail to see that we are not existing by pure chance but that God IS with us. This week has been one of those weeks.

It all began with prayers for a Comfort Zone Community member who has died recently, we thought that his funeral had taken place, but a well placed encounter with the Community Police team and we knew that this was not the case. Peter will now get a good send off in place of a paupers funeral. 

That conversation led to another one, and the Police Officer met in the cafe oposite  one church building discovered that the other church I serve is  situated right in the town centre and has a coffee shop open every day. The following day when the Officer needed somewhere to bring a young couple she brought them in to the coffee lounge. 

Coincidence, maybe, but there is more to the story, the young couple revealed that they were homeless and shared their story with us. I was in the coffee lounge but only because while I wanted to go home something told me I should stay, the Spirit at work; as events unfolded this became clearer and clearer...

Having heard the couples story  I placed a call to one of our volunteers who is amazing at finding flats for folk, she told me that she had called a landlord that morning on the off chance, but it was more than an off chance, she found his phone number on a crumpled piece of paper in the recycling box. He had a one bed room flat available. I took the young couple to see it...

The landlord was happy with them, and partly because of our good relationship with the landlords in Blackpool offered them the flat without a bond, and is happy to wait for housing benefit to come through! This afternoon I dropped them off at the flat to to sign the papers and to collect their key. They were delighted, they have been homeless for 3 months and were fleeing from violence in another town. They have an address at last, and life is beginning to look up...

Gos IS with us, and when we question that we need to remember that we see stories like this unfolding among us, and we need to hang onto a more expansive truth than we already know! 

Today we had reason to celebrate...

 

(Picture; 1; Beauty from brokenness. Picture 2: Our lovely community)

Speaking out...

When I speak

may my words be laced with grace,

seasoned with wisdom,

infused by love,

may my words be healing words,

challenging, lifegiving, wholesome,

may they surprise even me,

because their source is rooted

deep in you, 

may they flow

as living water,

easing the soul,

calling forth active

(w)holiness...

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save me from my own

rash and harsh words,

my foolish ill thought out

promises, promises I cannot keep...

and help me to forgive the

words of my past,

words I long to take back but cannot,

words that have made me never want to

speak again....

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so give me boldness

to speak,

stir me and create in my heart a passion

that refuses to hold back,

speak in me,

speak to me,

speak through me...

wisdom, grace, peace, love...

and challenge

at the right time.

Picture: Silver lining. mine

 

 

prayer, vulnerability and the power of God....

Over the last few weeks I have noticed something significant about ministry in the town centre of Blackpool, New Central Church has a Coffee Bar and many folk come in, some are local, others tourists, some of those tourists are Methodists seeking out a Methodist Church ( we do that!). Others though are folk seeking a bit of peace away from the hustle and bustle of the shopping centre and promenade, I've adopted a stance of lurking in the coffee bar with intent and chatting to people, many of those people happily share some of their life story with me, and many of them welcome the offer of prayer or a blessing. I am not surprised by this, partly because those who come in know they are coming in to a church coffee bar, but also because I firmly believe that many people are open to a touch from God.

What has surprised me however is the effect that all of this has had upon me, I find my faith strengthened, and I can genuinely point to answered prayer from a young man who wanted prayer for his driving test to someone who wanted prayer for healing. Earlier this week I had the privilege of praying for a church member, we prayed for his healing, and as we did so we experienced the presence and love of God in a powerful way.

This has been echoed for me in North Shore Church a little way along the coast from New Central, again opportunities to share in the lives and stories of others have opened up naturally and powerfully. Yet in both of these places, maybe particularly North Shore there is a vulnerability, the vulnerability of being called by God but not being sure that we have the strength to step into that calling, and through this God is working, and that is wonderful...

Lord have mercy upon us... 

Be the strength in our weakness, help us to hear your voice, help us to follow you...