Ordinary Man

"Please think highly of me"

2007-12-23T00:59:00.000Z

I've been meaning to write this post for a few days but somehow i've ended up doing it now at 1am when i should be packing to head to my parents first thing tomorrow (sorry in advance to the rents looks like i might be arriving later tomorrow than first planned!), my justification for being online is the need to download some tunes and sermon material for the train journeys ahead!

Anyhow... for the last few months i've been meeting up every three weeks or so with an older guy from my church. It was my feeling following Relay, that i needed someone who was going to love me well, and keep reminding me of the glorious truths of the gospel, helping me grow in my understanding of what it means to live each day in the light of the cross. We were supposed to have met on Monday afternoon, and i rolled up at his, as ever a few mins late, to find no one home. After waiting for a while, and not having his mobile number on me i left a note to say i'd been and then headed home.

I later received an email from him apologising, saying he'd had to go for some emergency dental treatment. I replied saying not to worry and thought nothing more of it. Fairly unexceptional and not really blogging material i hear you cry...

However i received a further email from him the following day. He was apologetic as he outlined how he had indeed gone for some dental treatment, but the actual reason he'd missed our appointment was that he'd simply forgotten. However not wanting to look bad in front of me, he'd hid behind the dental work and the busy traffic, rather than admit his own failing, so i wouldnt think badly of him.

Rather than judging him, it got me thinking once again of how wonderful salvation by grace alone is. I like to think i'm a pretty good guy, and yet how often do i tell 'white lies', moulding the truth a little so it doesnt look like i'd forgotten or that i was just wasting time or hiding behind other things as excuses. In actual fact not only are these things present, but i even wrongly accept them as reasonable behaviour. Such is the deeply ingrained desire within me for others to think well of me. Yet i've been liberated from such thinking the wonder of our salvation is that we dont have to prove ourselves - my value and worth are in Christ. Unfortunately i'm not going to be meeting up with him again till early in the New Year, but i cannot wait to share that time together, recognising more than ever that we are wretched sinners, wonderfully saved, by amazing grace.

CB3 Re-Wind

2007-12-18T23:49:00.000Z

Back in the summer i spent 10 days in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, as a leader on a 14-18s camp. My particular responsibility was as part of a team of six leaders, working with the student aged helpers, making sure they were kept busy assisting in the serving and washing up at meal times , and then were stretched as we had Bible Studies and Seminars together. Last weekend we had a reunion in Oxford, for all those who could make it, as a chance to catch up and share fellowship together as we heard of one anothers trials and encouragements since we'd last been together.

Was truly a joy to hear from so many, tales of encouragement. We heard testimony of God's providence of good churches and Christian friends to those who'd started uni in September; Of one lad who'd seen a bloke from his floor in the first year go from being spiritually nowhere to trusting in Jesus as his Lord and Saviour just two years later; and an eagerness from all in the room to be standing firm in their faith in the face of opposition faced.

And there along with a nod in acknowledgement to some fantastic hospitality and to an exceptional team effort of piano moving, the coverage of the weekend would have come to a conclusion...

...i however made the fatal error of saying along with Tom "has to put up with my brother 6 days a week" Wood, that i'd be willing to stay around for the Childrens Carol service, being ran by the St Ebbes Heddington congregation led by Al just round the corner. I somehow ended up doing facepainting in the corner of the room! With little time to compose myself the first willing victim (sorry, child!) came and sat in front of me and when asked which picture he'd like me to paint pointed to the donkey. I was terrified! No really i was! I've never done it before, and so many questions were streaming into my head with regards what about this or that... meanwhile the boys mother sat right next to us observing my every move. Of all the many things i've done in my nearly 23 and a half years, this is genuinely up there with the most out of my comfort zone!

The donkey design seemed little more than a dark blotch around the mouth and a dark grey around rest of the head... when i finished with him the boy looked like a bad accident... which unfortunately he was! I was hoping to be able to sub out... after all Tom was around and hadnt done anythign yet when a girl sat down asking for a clown. This i thought was my chance to redeem myself... unfortunately again it failed miserably with the girl leaving looking more like a cross between a zombie and Jack Nicholas' 'The Joker'... i've seen very few 5 year old girls look so scary!

On a positive note from the Sunday evening, the church was full of mums and dads with their little ones, the majority of whom attend the midweek toddler group but would never normally come to a church service. In the light of them having heard the good news that God is made known ultimately in the person of Jesus, and what he came to do, my earlier trials adn tribulations paled into insignificance.

Absolutely Scrabulous

2007-12-18T23:35:00.000Z

Just as i thought facebook surely couldnt takeover any more of my days, i was introduced to the Scrabulous application... all i can say at the moment is oh dear!
Its basically scrabble... i've not dusted down the old scrabble box in many a while, yet i find this online version, where a game can take half an hour to weeks to complete strangely attractive! Currently completed two games and lost two games... at this rate my guess is the novelty will where off pretty quickly!

That he died for me

2007-12-10T14:54:00.000Z

Filled with awe and wonder once again at the message of the cross last night, as Hugh Iley spoke in the evening at church. He picked up from a previous sermon that had expanded Genesis 1 and 2, where we'd seen the dignity and responsibility of humanity, leading into Genesis 3. Put in a new light the seriousness of sin, not only was our rebellion against a holy God, but it went against the disnity and responsibility which efined our humanity. An interesting point that i dont think i've heard before, with the emphasis normally solely on the offence to a holy God.
From Genesis 3, we moved to Exodus 12, seeing how in our inability to rectify the situation, God stepped in emphatically, then jumping frowards further to Luke 22, the Last Supper, where Jesus is celebrating the Passover with the disciples but pointing to himself as the one who will be the sacrifice.
Was a brilliant time of being warmed inside, at what was acheived on the cross, and one illustration stood out for me, as Hugh painted the picture of wht it would have been like there... imagine you were the eldest son in a family. That night you come downstairs and stand there slightly stunned as you see your Dad first killing a lamb, and then daubing its blood all over the door frame. Just plain weird. Dad had never done anything like this before.... but then the morning after, as word spreads around the houses, you hear shocking news on the grapevine. All the firstborn men and animals have died, except in the Israelite homes where lambs blood was shed. Suddenly the mad act of your Dad, that you thought was a sign of an oncoming midlife crisis and simply plain weird, you realise now that the death of that lamb alone as a substitute has saved your life. Categorically without it you would be dead.

...as i think of the awe and wonder of what it would have been like to be a first born Israelite on that morning, so i can look to the cross, with an increased sense of awe and wonder that Jesus died in my place. A death i deserved taken by him.

Window Shopping

2007-12-07T17:25:00.000Z

I went into town yesterday to work in Birmingham Central Library in a vain attempt to crack on with my study on Christianity for the RE correspondence course. I failed as i was sucked into Birmingham's cheap bookshops, firstly the Works and then Bookends. I then had the part pleasure/part pain of knowing that my Dad's 'obligatory Sports autobiographies, that i myself would like to read' had been purchased at a bargainous price, but that i would have to lug the hardback beasts around town for the remainder of the afternoon. My eye was then caught by what i feel is the standout book of the season... 'Nosepicking for Pleasure: A Handy Guide by Roland Flicket'.
I laughed out loud in the shop at the authors name. A quick look at the back of the book, led to the discovery of quotes including "More popular than football or even fishing, nosepicking is the sport of choice for todays man-about-town" and "Special sections for advanced pickers and expert advice for beginners who want to learn to roll their own" confirmed it was an impuilse buy suitable as a present for all ages. Pure genius.

Question now, is who to bestow such a gift upon...

What is Religious Education?

2007-12-05T15:14:00.000Z

Have spent this morning doing some mind busting exercises. This time next week i'll be sat in an interview for a place on a PGCE course to train to be an RE teacher. Following the interview there will be a written task relating to an article examining what it the Religious Education concept of 'learning from religion' actually means. This is quite fundamental for a potential RE teacher, yet the answer is far from straight forward as it might appear!

At first this was an unsettling experience; As the author of the article (who will also be interviewing me in a weeks time) laid out how he sees current ideas of Religious Education suffering from a lack of conception regarding the purpose and distictive nature of Religious education that without a claim to the subject's distinctive nature, it falls prey to integration with other humanities, or worse still extinction.
...this is not the job security news a potential RE teacher (ie Me!) wants to hear!

This comes just days after i read in my correspondence course study, Alister McGrath stating "Arguments about what religion truly is are pointless. There is no such thing as religion." There is no universal definition of religions - one cannot as many dictionaries do define religion in terms of the worship of God; What about the Buddhists? and What do we mean by God?!

Sidestepping the issue by attempting to describe rather than define Religions, Teece argues that religions do have a defining characteristic in terms of their concern with human response to that which is greater than we are, be that an all supreme being or the wellbeing of the world. He goes on to see religion's primary function and benefit in terms of human transformation or liberation, whilst continuing throughout to assert the distinctive nature of religions, that they are not all different sides of the same thing.

It is here that Teece returns to the initial focus of the article what it means to 'learn from religion'. He concludes that the relgious material with the richest potential to 'learn from religion', "is not to be found in the static features of religious life or buildings. In Christianity, for example, this is not to be found in something like the features of a church, but rather in an exploration of aspects of Christian spirituality and teachings such as forgiveness".

This excites me a lot! Having been on the receiving end of RE lessons where we merely learnt the parts of a church building and other facts to recite in exams. Teece continues this exciting front stating that "if pupils are not confronted by the transformative quality of a particular religion, they will be unlikely to develop any kind of balanced understanding".

At the very heart of Christianity is the gracious act of God sending Jesus to die, that we might be transformed into his likeness, liberated from the power of sin. This is what we want to be teaching young people today, not labeling parts of a church, an exercise which bares very little relation to how Christians live out their lives in the light of the Grace they've received.

Whilst recognising the potential postmodern pitfalls of some of Teece's analysis in drawing out application for the self, fundamentally a Religious Education curriculum that focuses on the transforming quality of that religion excites me and is a million miles from the drab, outdated and irrelevant nature of what was served up to me on a weekly basis at school.

What do you do?

2007-11-20T15:47:00.000Z

So... what do you do? In the months that have followed finishing Relay at the end of June, the question i have been asked most frequently, and the qurestion that continues to get me down is this question. What am i doing?! I blurt into a bit of waffle as if in a desperate effort to prove my worth and existence, reeling off every minute detail, including things that i've done as a one off, exaggerating some details to make my life sound more full and busy than perhaps it actually is...

Have recently been re-reading Tim Chester's Busy Christian's Guide to Busyness in the place of my quiet times at the start of each day. Chester has an accute way of identifying sinful ways of the heart which in the busyness of life we just never consider.

Whilst reading a few days ago i came across this:
"So today people find identity through work itself. We answer the question, 'What do you do?' with a job title... the pressure of time in everyday life is not primarily the result of the development or distribution of clocks and watches. More significant were changes in worldview leading to a less God-centred and grace based approach to life in favour of a more man-centred and work-justifying attitude. This creates the drive to work and work and work. Your identity depends on it." (Chester, p.80-81)

The attempt to justify our existence and prove our acceptibility through achievement and activity, Chester claims will lead to an unending cycle of grief. The reason he proposes for this unending cycle is that no achievemnet or amount of activity could ever fulfil our deep need for acceptance. Work may appear to offer identity and fulfillment but in reality it could never deliver these. True worth and identity can only be found in Jesus Christ, there we can find a certain and stable hope.

However it has struck me in recent weeks how easy it is despite having been Christian for a few years now, and having received some great teaching and read many great books, how easily i forget who i am in the light of the grace i've received so freely through Jesus' death and resurrection.
We often only realise how much we'd been trusting in something when it gets taken away, and that i realise now has been the case with me. I've always had something be it a youth worker, a student, or a Relay worker with UCCF... now when those things have been taken away do i realise how much my identity was in those things, how disorientating i feel without something to hang my hope and identity on.

...how easily i am deceived by the world. I am free from the self justification of this world and freely accepted by God - this is where i can find my meaning and value. At the most fundamental level Mark Wiggins is a justified sinner. I'm not fundamentally a son, a brother, a boyfriend, a hostel worker, a wanabee RE teacher. I am a sinner saved by grace, and all i contribute to that identity is the sin bit. Its a gift, i could never earn it ...and yet i find myself having to daily remind myself of these truths in the face of what i'm confronted by in the world. These months have been an increasingly tough time, and yet i find myself increasingly thankful for them as i'm pointed back to the cross.

Studying hard

2007-11-20T12:42:00.000Z

Currently doing my bridging course to raise my Religious Education subject knowledge, as part of my application for a place on an RE PGCE course starting Autumn 2008. As a correspondence course, i can do this whenever i want at my own speed, though at the moment im trying to set aside a few days each week for it. The course is split into 6 modules, each looking at one of the six main world religions; Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism.

Though part of the necessary conditions of my PGCE application, im seeing it as a great opportunity to dig into the beliefs and values of a number of world religions, and see how the gospel of Jesus Christ speaks into each.

Nearly halfway through the first module now, looking at Christianity by working through Christianity: An Introduction by Alister McGrath. Fantastic to see the Christ centred approach of the book so far, really encouraging to read the truths of the faith set out clearly. Highlight so far was the account of how we came to have the Bible in our own language, the figures who risked their lives that we might have it. A whole chapter on church history later in the book, and really looking forward to getting to grips with some of those characters.

Meanwhile still waiting to hear back from Birmigham Uni with regards to my PGCE application... will just have to wait and see.

Belonging

2007-11-06T17:09:00.000Z

You receive an email (actually it was a facebook message, but an email just sounds more grown up) addressed to those who were part of Relay 06/07, asking if any would be able to take a week off work to be a CU Guest for the mission week at Winchester. Clearly assuming wrongly that we were all plugged properly into society with happy full time jobs! Aware i was not one of those people and that my only work was a couple of shifts a week (if im lucky) and that as a member of the bank staff im not obliged to fulfil a number of contracted hours, i naively replied that i'd be delighted to help out in whatever way i could...

...i was pondering the foolishness of this move, on the train down from the comfort of homely Birmingham, to Winchester, a place i'd never been before, where i had one contact, aside from whom i knew nobody, i was going to be a CU guest at a CU mission, yet felt completely inadequate to explain my faith to others let alone be a model to students encouraging them in their witness to friends. Throw these thoughts in to a pot named despair, along with the batteries on my mp3 player dying and the train being over an hour and a half late and i was a very anxious soul.

How things change. I arrived in Winchester, to be whisked off almost immediatlety to a students house for lasagne and homemade carrot cake (lush!). The warm welcome continued over the coming days and very soon these faces were no longer strangers, but brothers and sisters in Christ - partners in the work of the gospel.

I expected the CU guest team for the mission to be small, but its size was even smaller than expected. Myself and two current relay workers made up the CU guest team. Others popped in and out but we were the ones there everyday. And what a blessing that was! On such a small team there was no opportunity to hide behind other more experienced and gifted individuals, when it came to getting out there to do questionnaire evangelism, we just had to go for it!

Highlights from the week were the commitment displayed by CU members, each morning at 8am, 20-30 of them joined us to pray for the campus and the outreach taking place. We met at 11, 2 hours before the lunchbar apologetic talk to do some questionnaire evangelism, a new and scary prospect for many of the CU members, yet many came along willing to have a go, and eager to engage their fellow students with the truth about Jesus. The other encouragement from the week was the time spent with Jo and Anna, the other two CU guests and current Relay workers, hearing about their walks with God, their struggles doing Relay in unfamiliar places away from where they studied, and in Anna's case her testimony of how she came to faith just a few years ago as a student at Reading university and is now serving God fulltime. Praise God for them both.

Looking back on the week, i think i appreciate much more what an awesome opportunity i had to work as a Relay worker. Not only to be doing full time gospel work but to be surrounded by people totally committed to the truths of the gospel, to equipping students to share Christ with their friends and to bringing people into a knowledge of Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

As an aside chatting with Tom Price, inspired me to work my mind over a little more (not hard i hear you cry!) but he introduced me to some fascinating philosophical concepts that im sure will aid me as i examine world religions over the coming months. Also gonna try and dig into some of CS Lewis a little more (seeing as that was who Tom quoted nine times out of ten, and because i've still not read his biography sat on my shelf)

Reintroducing...

2007-11-04T14:41:00.000Z

The last post on this blog was about 11 months ago and i intended it to be my last... how times change.
My first thoughts of recussitating it came in June whilst chatting to HughBo on a training weekend for the camp were invovled in, since Relay finished i've been upto such a diverse range of things that it seemed right to keep a record of some of what i'd done and thought, i was pushed over the edge this last week whilst helping a CU mission in Winchester and met Anna, a blogging Relay worker based in Brighton, who without realising convinced me of starting it up again.

***WARNING***
This new found interest may wane, but for the time being i'll stick with it and see where it goes!

Thought as i was starting again it'd be worth tackling a few things like what am i actually doing in general at the moment. That would be incredibly tedious to do in one go, so hopefully over the next few posts i'll summise my current happenings.

For now though as way of reintroduction, why, i hear you ask the same address but a different title?
The address was chosen whilst doing Relay, a 10 month discipleship and training scheme, as a way of keeping a log of some of the things i learnt, people i met etc. I finished Relay at the end of June, and am no longer and never will again hold the title Relay worker (Sad times i know!). However our whole lives are like a race as described in several places in the new testament, and the key elements of Relay are key elements i'd like to continue to focus on in my life, namely to Fight the Fight, Run the Race, Keep the Faith. For more info on relay see here.
However despite these grand aims i am just an ordinary man saved by God's grace... hence my new title. This title was chosen late on Saturday in a period of exhaustion following my return to Brum from Winchester, so if anyone has better suggestions i'm open to them. In the meantime i will look to put together some posts on the last week in Winchester and much much more... hopefully you wont have to wait 11 months for the next post!

The Last Laugh of the Laughter

2006-12-08T11:21:00.000Z

So a week ago i was about to head to the Biblical Evangelism Conference and in a weeks time i'll be about to finish my first term as a Relay worker. Has been a great term, though i'm really looking forward to getting some well earned rest and spending some quality time with Tor.

After some mulling over, i've decided to call an end to this blog (terminate it, sounds more exciting!), chiefly because i didnt feel it was achieving what i'd intended it to and with lots of competing time constraints, sometimes you need to kill your babies.

I will though continue to be a Relay worker until the end of June 2007, so please continue to be praying for me and i'll endeavour to communicate to you both the great works i see God doing and the wondrous truths i learn of our God.

Our God is a Great God, He Reigns!

Busy Busy

2006-11-30T12:47:00.000Z

Going to be a busy few days coming up:
Tomorrow is Midlands Relay Day in Beeston, where we'll be looking at the Doctrine of Scripture.
Will be going straight from there to Ledbury, Herefordshire for the Biblical Evangelsim Conference, returning Sunday afternoon. Will then get to see Tor for a bit on Monday as weve both got the day off - yay!

Currently trying to bash out my attempt at a ten minute evangelistic talk on John 8:31-59 for the conference this weekend. I recieved this ages ago, did a bible study on it a month or so ago, and had intended to post my thoughts on the passage in evangelistic terms. However theres been a lot of head scratching, having never written talk before, and wondering how to express amongst other bits that those who haven't trusted in Christ are "children of the devil" in a loving manner, has been frying my brain a little, so far i've got my two main points as:
Freedom that Enslaves - everyone who sins is a slave to sin (8:34) and the result of sin is death and judgement (8:24)
Slavery that Frees far from being the constraining force its made out to be Jesus came to bring true freedom (8:32,36). He is the only one able to free us as he is God himself (8:48-59)

In other stuff, last night i went to my first ever church AGM... wasnt sure what to expect and at one point i feared a potential epic developing, but it didnt go on too long and was really encouraging to get a feel for all thats going on in the church behind the scenes that you dont normally see and to look forward with enthusiasm to wht God will be doing in the future.

A different Tuesday

2006-11-28T13:18:00.000Z

Tuesdays normally means prep in the morning, being picked up by Benny around midday and whisked down to Worcester to lead a Bible Study with their smallgroup leaders, spending the afternoon in Worcester meeting up with students before attending their CU meeting in the evening, being picked up after and arriving back in Selly Oak around midnightish.

Today though is different, due to most of Worcester CU being on teaching courses, they're all on placement so there's no one to meet up with during the day, so Benny's said to stay home today... this is really frustrating as i'd love to spend some time with them as they've got lots of enthusiasm and willingness, and i'd love to be able to build on that to help them better understand the purpose and nature of CU and the gospel of grace through which they're saved.

This frustration however has been tempered by the freeing up of my schedule for this week. Often in the busyness of trying to cram stuff in can find that i dont actually reflect on what im looking at in an effort to "just get it done". In my core study today i read around the sufficiency of Scripture, something i'd always accepted, however it was great not only to see the biblical basis of this but also the impact this should have upon us, that the sufficiency of scripture is something vital to our faith and something we need to be on the alert for.
Having done my core study this morning, i'm now going to do my elective study for this week which has this term been shaped around writing an apologetic talk, today i'll be shaping what i've read previously on existentialism to tackle the attitude "Life sucks, and then you die".

Evangelism Encouragement

2006-11-26T16:51:00.000Z

UCCF is all about seeing Christian students built up further in the gospel and stepping out of their comfort zone, sharing their faith with those around them, taking the good news of Jesus Christ to those on campus (please note these are my words not those officially from UCCF!)
In the light of this it has been a great encouragement this week chatting with students at BUECU. I could chat for an age about the shortfalls of BUECU in comparison to where i'd like to see it, but its important to be encouraging the good wherever i see it, and a group of students have off their own back, started meeting on Thursday afternoons, to do first contact evangelism - BRILLIANT!!
For various reasons the Christian Union at Birmingham has struggled in recent years to mobilise its members into evangelism, and therefore its been a great encouragement seeing students eager to share the good news.
Hope this will continue, and with their CU Carol Service which last year attracted 800 students, coming up in just under 2 weeks, i hope and pray many students might hear and respond to the real message of Christmas, that God came into the world as a baby to be a Saviour to all who trust in him.

Houseparty... and Guild issues hitting the press again!

2006-11-21T17:03:00.000Z

After a very tiring weekend, my recovery is almost complete... a good nights sleep tonight will be good though. This weekend joined up with the BUECU guys for their weekend away at Quinta, nr Oswestry. As mentioned in my previous post, i was due to be leading a lads seminar with my staffworker, JB. however even the best laid plans go astray and after not having fully prepared his bits by the Thursday, JB contacted me on Friday to say he was going to the doctors, by late morning he'd decided it was best not to goto the weekend due to illness. Leaving me with a seminar to pull together and lead on my own.
In the seminar i decided to focus on our need for self control and discipline as brought out by Peter (1 Peter 1:13, 4:7, 5:8), something i think many of us as guys need challenging on, including myself. Despite the less than ideal circumstances, God was gracious and the seminar went fairly smoothly. Its smoothness left me in another totally new situation, with students coming and saying it had been really helpful, whether or not it was actually any good is another matter, but i probably need to think how to respond to compliments in such a way that points the glory to God not to myself.
So highlight of the weekend #1 would have to be the moment the seminar finished. My other top highlights would have to be,
#2 Andy Weatherleys superb talks from the book of Romans.
#3 The mission week (now called focus week) launch, the general buzz about it and being able to meet students who will be in the halls im going into.

Many of you may have seen the Christian Unions making front page news of Saturday's Times, and a double spread inside on Christian Unions and Islamic fundamentalism (visit The Times and search for Christian Union for many recent articles). The reports come in the light of Exeter CU initiating legal procedings against their students union, this is occurring whilst legal advice is being taken at Birmingham, Edinburgh and Herriot-Watt. Having been on the Birmingham committee when things kicked off there a year ago i could waffle on about the issue but the important thing is to pray about the issue. Please be praying for all those involved, particularlly the students seeking advice and making decisions, mostly only in their early twenties and trying to balance their courses.
This is most significantly an issue of freedom of speech, to make claims to truth, a great privilege which Christians have taken for granted in the past and that we hope and pray we'll continue to have the freedom to share the gospel for many years to come.

Seven Days, One Week

2006-11-16T13:07:00.000Z

A wee while since my last post... here's SEVEN things from the last SEVEN Days...

Got to see the lights of London village, and more significantly spent some quality time over the weekend with the lovely Tor.
Said goodbye to 'Victoria' at Victoria Coach station!!
After discovering a mutual love towards Damien Rice's debut album 'o', did a deal with Drew (London Arts Relay Worker, who's house i kipped at) to go and see him play live when he announces some dates.
Finished reading 'Stop Dating the Church' by Joshua Harris... have learnt so much about the church these last few months... such a genuinely exciting thing to be apart of... now finally getting round to reading 'Too Busy Not to Pray' by Bill Hybels.
Stressed about my future... as in what happens after June 30!! Did deal with Phil and Nathan to goto careers centre at uni... still not gone.
Had team day in Beeston with the Mighty Midlands... looked at Psalm 33... which i'd looked at the previous day whilst stressing. Great encouragement, God is sovereign over all other powers and his plans stand firm forever, so i can trusy him totally whatever the future holds.
Thinking about Lads seminar i'm leading at the BUECU houseparty this weekend, challenging them that the call to live radical, holy, lives is one for all of us as believers and unpacking what that will look like... the planning for which i'll go and finish now...

Gods Sovereignty & Prayer

2006-11-07T20:49:00.000Z

Today was the second Midlands Relay Day: a time for the 11 Relay workers based in the Midlands, to come together to recieve some seminar style teaching on God's Sovereignty, which included a look at Open Theism and an examination of the implications of God's Sovereignty upon how we approach prayer, evangelism, suffering and evil. Following lunch we then split in half for an hour or so to simply pray for one another as Relay workers.
All good stuff, though i didnt get as much as i could have out of the day as i felt generally "snotty" and so my head wasnt quite in the zone. I noted previously an implication of God's Sovereignty being a leading to prayer, and this was reaffirmed today. In fact a growing prayer life has perhaps been the key application of the year so far... this is great and hopefully i will be putting this into practice, however its also brought to life, how shallow my depth of understanding of prayer is, and whetted my appetite to study it perhaps as my elective next term. I missed the sermon a week ago when i went out to help in Sunday school... on prayer(!), i got it on cd, so will give that a listen soon, but if anyone has any reccomendations regarding prayer both at a basic level and more advanced please let me know...
Off tomorrow to UGCU (University of Gloucestershire Christian Union) to help for the day with their mission week, doing some first contact evangelism and attending a lunch bar (lunchtime evangelistic talk). Be great to see how their doing after going down a handful of times with Jon at the beginning of term when things were less busy. Will be great to encourage the CU there by getting alongside them as they look to reach out to their campus.

Spiritual Battling

2006-11-05T23:04:00.000Z

Almost a week has past since my last post... sorry people but unfortunately there'smore to life than blogging and sometimes time just doesnt allow. However not blogging for a week does allow me to be retrospective, to look back in an evaluative mood over the last week.
What i can say with a great degree of confidence is the great benefit i've seen of (a) getting up at a decent hour (7:30ish) giving me plenty of time to (b) have an unrushed, contemplative quiet time. Transformed some ofmy days as not only did i get more done, more whole attitude was much more glorifying of God as rather than simply playing catch up throughout the day and so falling into a mindset of simply wanting to get stuff done, i've been seeking to apply what i'm looking at to myself and i've had more time for those people around me.

Now please dont think this has been the story of the whole of my last week (it hasnt), that its easy (it takes discipline) or that i've somehow got things sorted (i most definately havent) but i'd really love to encourage those of you struggling with the concept of quiet times to persevere and let God's word shape your life. So often we fall into the trap of dwelling on how we fall short, lacking in time spent in prayer or reading our bibles and we forget how these times can be good, and please pray for me at the start of a new week that in amongst all the challenges i'll face i'll continue to strive to make time with God (particularlly pray for Tuesday morning - i've got a team day in Nottingham leaving at 8am returning at 6pm-ish and its days like that where despite being immersed in "Christian stuff" that i struggle to make time for just me and God.

On a final note... we are in a spiritual battle, and we need to think accordingly, whilst ultimately remembering the war has been won through Christ's blood and therefore we can take confidence from that.

On a final final note apologies to Jon Bennett for lack of "funny" stories or pictures in this post... i didnt feel it fitted with tone, but stay tuned for more of that later this week!

Future Suggestions??

2006-10-30T12:23:00.000Z

I last posted just prior to heading to BUECU and in my rush called their Birmingham CUs together event 'Affinity'... a deliberate mistake on my part to see if the Brum based readers were paying attention, it was of course called 'Synergy'!

Have spent this morning filling in my monthly reports for the month of October whilst listening to Mr Johnny Cash... inspiring stuff. The trepidation i held as i approached the task of filling in the various spreadsheets with my name on eased away as i realised how much i'd done over the last month, doing more reading and being exposed to more teaching than ever before i'm learning way more than i realise. Also struck me as i come towards the end of month two, i'm 1/5 of the way through Relay, not wanting to be wishing it away but its going so fast that i'm starting to think about life after Relay!! (please note i'm only starting and this like most things i do is likely to be a slow process!)

Went to the careers centre on Friday,picked up a leaflet bout teaching, got told i could book an appointment with an advisior, got scared, paniced, left the building! Not bad for a first try i felt, something to build on... in meantime if anyone has any ideas for after i finish my Relay year serious or funny, please leave a comment in the usual place - all suggstions will be considered!

Surprise Surprise!

2006-10-26T15:28:00.000+01:00

Picture the scene... you go out to your church housegroup as you do each Wednesday evening, upon your arrival you find... a hold in the front door. Yup, thats right, for those who missed it first time, i found a hole in our front door!! Student homes in the Selly Oak areaof Brum are renowned for their certain degree of quality, so perhaps i shouldnt have been surprised to find the letter box on the floor inside the house!

Housegroup itself was a chilled low-key time of prayer with the majority of the group either away due to it being half term or in one case broken down near Edgbaston Cricket Ground. Was really good though to get to know some of the group better and to siply pray for one another, so often this can be the bit we squeeze out and yet prayer is vital - even more so in the light of my recent studies looking at God's Sovereignty, where to acknowledge everything is in his hands is a spur for us to be people of prayer, as it did Paul.

Now to look over some final thoughts regarding 'Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well' (John 4:1-42) before SLOBS (the small group leaders own bible study), which tonight is to be followed by an extraordinary meeting... the normal BUECU meeting is being replaced by 'Affinity' a first joint meeting between all 4 of the Birmingham based CU's, a time to celebrate our unity in Christ and to join in prayer for the work God is doing through the CU's across Birmingham. An exciting venture and one which the students must take the credit for showing lots of initiative.

Darts... a fun family game...

2006-10-25T12:05:00.000+01:00

Last night saw the debut house darts match (minus TJ finishing his talk on penal substitution for today)... awesome to get a darts board with the house, almost makes up for the sub-zero temperatures that come with a dodgy student house and no double glazing! Towards the end of the second 'meteoric' game, Nathan broke a dart. This dart was then used to play 'Death Darts'!! It could well become a phenomenon that sweeps the nation or it might pass away... either way remember you heard it hear first! It basically involved throwing the dart minus flights that had been broken off at dartboard as hard as possible. Due to lack of flights, the dart didnt hit it sweetly so bounced off across the room back at us... leading to the name - 'Death Darts'. If anyone would be interested in expanding this new, extreme sport let me know and i'll put you in touch with my crazy housemates!!

Am now going to start putting some preliminary thoughts together on John 8:31-59. I'm going to prepare the Birmingham UCCF team bible study on it for next Wednesday morning, for us to adapt for use with the CU smallgroup leaders across the West Midlands the following week... unlike normal i was very quick to volunteer to prepare it, the reason being that its also the passage i've been given to prepare an evangelistic talk on for the Biblical Evangelism Conference (1-3 Dec). Looks like i'll be doing a lot of thinking on this passage over the coming month or so, so look out for further comments...

Transportation

2006-10-23T20:24:00.000+01:00

Was a busy, at times surreal but good weekend thats just passed. Went to the wedding of one of my good friends form uni (the first Christian i met way back when i arrived in Brummie land), and had the pleasure of seeing a little of Tor as she came up for the wedding. Was great to be able to show her my church, and Colin preached a stormer on faith. One that was totally challenging, encouraging and exciting all rolled into one. Too much for me to put here as we explored Faith as modelled by Abraham in Hebrews 11:8-16. I'll perhaps make reference to it over the coming weeks, as it just left me with a desire to be focusing on the promises God has for us in every area of my life, and so to have a greater willingness to endure estrangement and loss, and to relinquish control of every area of my life.

After a hectic weekend today has been characterised predominantly by transport problems. Firstly at Selly Oak station where tor eventually missed her train to London, as due to overcrowding we only got on the third train to stop at the platform. Later my staff worker Jon came round to work at mine whilst his car was in the garage... might be staying there for a while as the brake drums damaged, meaning i've got to catch the train to Worcester tomorrow... frustrating but on the plus side it'll mean i get to do some more reading of 'Stop dating the Church' which has been an ace read so far but i've been lacking reading time.

A typical day??

2006-10-20T17:31:00.000+01:00

Apologies for lack of "posting"... (is that the technical term?) has been a busy few days and have decided against the distraction of turning my computer on for an earlier night. However, i'm back after almost a week and i thought now would be a good opportunity to answer what seems to be quite a common question...
"So as a UCCF Relay worker, what does a typical day look like to you?"
...cue puzzled expression on my face! The reason for this panic is there is no such thing as a typical day although things are starting to settle down, with this settling down trends are starting to develop, so i thought i'd take you through a typical Thursday (Disclaimer: please note this is only a typical Thursday, there will be minor variations each week, please note also that the author does not express any favouritism towards any particular day!)

Core Study 9-1:15pm [which for the next few weeks we're looking at Gods Sovereignty, which has already been a great motivation to be trusting things into his hands more, and so to be lifting everything i do to the Lord in prayer.]
Lunch/Neighbours 1:15-2:15pm [perhaps pasta or cheese on toast, and lots of house bonding as we watch the intense plotlines and scenarios develop in everyones favourite Aussie soap.]
Slobs Prep Time 2:15-4:30 [Some time to look over and pray for this weeks study on John]
BUECU Slobs 5-6:30 [Leading the housegroup leaders bible study, going through passages in John each week, equipping them to lead the study in their respective groups the following week]
BUECU Central Meeting 7:30-9 [Weekly meeting for all students, to meet together to encourage one another and be further equipped as part of the mission team taking the good news of Jesus throughout campus at Birmingham University]
...followed by an hour or so getting around some of the students over a drink.

Good Times

2006-10-14T14:30:00.000+01:00

One way or another has been another busy week in the world of Relay life. Joined up with the other 10 Relay workers based in the Mighty Midlands on Tuesday for 'Relay Day' (imaginative title!) recieving further teaching on the Trinity accompanying our recent study and then devoting the afternoon to share and pray for one another. Has been a busy week, and felt absolutely whacked after a full on day on Thursday. However yesterday was ace, as i had my first 'proper' one 2 one as a Relay worker, drew together my study so far on the basis for apologetics, and then in the evening cooked chicken fajitas for a dozen or so of us which went down very well (honest) followed by a "screening" of Constant Gardener... a truly ace film which was enhanced massively by the introduction of the new house toy...

Tis the most amazing thing and one of the benefits living with techie people... Andrew assembled an OHP with an LCD screen, connected together with some wires (all bought off ebay!) linked it all to his laptop and hey presto suddenly we have a film being projected onto our wall, approx 4/5 foot wide!!

On a sad note i'd like to convey my condolances to Nathan Hubbard (housemate and good friend) after the sad death of Moses (his hamster). Rumours of sinister movings by McDonalds have been prolific since publishing online of this

Knowing God

2006-10-09T19:45:00.000+01:00

What is it to 'Know God'? How can we 'Know God'? These are a couple opf the questions that have been presented in the early chapters of 'Knowing God' by JI Packer, a book i read last year with my staffworker and that i'm now re-reading in preparation to use it in some one2ones with students.

Was really struck by Packer's closing statements, which flip the matter from a human centred to a God centred way of thinking...

"Knowing God is a matter of grace. It is a relationship in which the initiative throughout is with God... What matters supremely therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that i know God, but the larger fact which underlies it - the fact that he knows me... There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery can disillusion him about me, and quench his determination to bless me." (pages 44-45)

The only right response to recognising such truths is surely to be humbled, and to worship God, and i pray that that'll be my response as i read through this book and that of the guys who i meet up with as we grow to know God more.

The Word and the Church

2006-10-08T16:56:00.000+01:00

Has been a few days since my last post due to a combination of a 24 hour flu that hit me, then going down to London to see Tor. Thursday was generally a forgetable day due to feeling pretty rough all day (not nice!) and the continuing runny nose on Friday morning threatening to derail my plans for the weekend... this fortunately wasnt the case and despite feeling a little rough still on Friday evening was a great time. I wont go into time with Tor - not the time or the place, except to say it was great to see her looking a lot more settled into her new home.

Was an unexpected bonus to be able to spend some quality time with Drew (Arts Students Relay worker in London) as i stayed Friday night at his joint, we chatted bout a whole array of stuff - was a joy to experience such genuine Christian brotherhood in his warm hospitality to me, and to hear how he'd come to faith as a student at Reading University and his attempts to start reading the whole Bible - Have just started to read whole Bible in a year (or so) myself with the aid of Don Carson's 'For the Love of God' which follows the McCheyne Bible Reading Plan, i'd warmly commend you if you've never read the whole Bible, to give it a crack with me, deepening your grasp of God's Big Picture - Gods Word is living and active and therefore more than worth taking time to read. I realise looking back over recent years i've often been guilty of reading Christian books at the expense rather than in addition to time with my Bible - if reading Christian literature, however well written, brilliant and well thought through it might be, takes us away from the Bible, to seek answers there i wonder if they become a serious hinderance rather than a benefit as we seek answers in them rather than the authorative Word of God - one for me to ponder as i recieve a wide array of reading and teaching in the coming year to keep God my central focus.

Church at Monyhull this morning and John Tindall spoke for the fourth week in a row on Ephesians and the Church from God's view... so often my view of the church is clouded by worldly views of its apparent weakness, which of these looks more impressive to you, the Bullring or Monyhull Evangelical Church??? Yet the church is the hope for the whole world, realise that my understanding of the church, my view of the church and understanding of my role is fairly limited therefore having picked it up in the summer am gonna start reading Joshua Harris 'Stop Dating the Church' to try and deepen further my understanding, according to the speel "God designed us to build our lives around a local church. Bestselling Joshua Harris reveals how and why to fall in love with, and stay committed to, the church." Interesting.

Daddy, when i grow up i want to be a transformer

2006-10-04T23:00:00.000+01:00

Just back from homegroup, which is currently going through a series on Christian living, helping us think through how we can be transformers not robots in disguise, rather than conformers. Tonight we were wrestling with the issue of Consumerism, a simply massive topic which extends to every facet of our living from what we spend our money on, how we view our money, our possessions and our security to what we look for in a church.

Such an awesome challenge to not live lives that conform to the society around us but to set our sights on the Kingdom of God, taking on God's concern for the world around us and trusting our needs into God's hands (Luke 12:31)

..."Daddy, when i grow up i want to be just like...

Somehow i fear i'll try but i'll end up looking more like...

Trinity

2006-10-02T14:21:00.000+01:00

Trinity... a word that has been in my vocabulary since i was knee high (i was a very short boy - honest!) yet what does it mean to worship a God who is a Trinitarian God, one God, but three persons? This and similar related questions have been dogging me in the last few weeks as my core study has centred upon, yup you've guessed it... the Trinity. Has been an exciting time and i've still some reading upon the role of the Spirit, a Midlands Relay Day on the Trinity from a different angle and a study response in the next two weeks to think through further what i've studied.
However was buzzing after church on Sunday - the third in a series on the church form God's viewpoint, not our consumerist "what can it do for me" perspective. All three sermons have been drawn from Ephesians 1:1-14, and over the three weeks we've seen that:
The Father chose the church before creation (v4), before we could do anything and so therefore totally out of God's good grace.
The Son's blood was shed so the church could be redeemed (v7) we've been redeemed at a great cost and so not only belong to God, but having been bought at such a high price we're not going to be sold at any price - we are his.
Spirit of God lives in the Church, sealed to demonstrate God's ownership and as a guarantee of the inheritance the Church will recieve.
Tremendous seeing how the Trinity work together in unison and to get God's view on the Church, when so often we see it as weak and ineffective, yet when we look at the end of Ephesians 1 we se all power and rule has been put under Christ's feet... for the church!
In the light of Ephesians 1 i can't help but echo John Tindall's words, "God has not given us a religion, he's given himself"

On an alternative note, i was thinking of the uniqueness of the Trinity, nothing is like the Trinity but former Liverpool football manager Bill Shankly who died 25 years ago, spoke of a different kind of Trinity, he realised that fans were intrinsic to the success of any club and spoke of a "holy trinity" of manager, players and supporters... alas no eternal significance and a footballing team who get beat by Bolton Wanderers!

Prayer Support

2006-09-30T00:48:00.000+01:00

Just to inform you all, i've decided to take down the link to my prayer/support letters for the time being due to issues of privacy in the long term. If however you would like a copy of my most recent prayer support letter please don't hesitate to get in touch and i'll whizz one across to you faster than you can say "Bing Bang Wally Wally Wotsit"

2006-09-29T17:14:00.000+01:00

Currently listening to: The Flaming Lips 'The Yeah Yeah Song'
Last two days have mostly been: Faffing unconstructively (is faffing ever constructive?)

In addition to fafffing have been getting into my elective study a little more. As part of the Relay scheme, we have study, this is made up of 3-4 hours a week on core Christian doctrine and 3-4 hours on whatever we want subject to agreement of our supervising staffworker. For my elective study this term, i'm seeking to put together an apologetic talk regarding worldviews. Before i start reading around the secular material regarding views such as relativism, postmodernism or atheism have been reading various articles from the Bethinking website, regarding the nature and purpose of Apologetics, still mulling over my thoughts but will update you all in the coming weeks as to how this progresses.
I've also been helping sort BUECU's finances and am now with in touching distance of finally being able to handover the Mission Treasurer file... this may not be exciting for anyone reading this... thats if anyone is even reading it in the first place... but its very exciting for me!!

Just time for me to remind you all that entries will be closing very shortly for my caption competition for an as yet unannounced prize click the link to place your entry (Anna - you may have only just started reading my blog but im expecting a good entry from you!)

Supposed to be going out @ 6 to play footy on Selly Park... tis chucking it down outside that might give it a miss...

What's in a name?

2006-09-27T23:09:00.000+01:00

Had my supervision with my staffworker Jon Bennett this morning, where we evaluated how things were goig so far, looking ahead to the next week, and dipped into a bit of 1 Thessalonians which we're going to be reading together, looking at te first three verses. Was struck by the central importance of Faith, Hope and Love, as the outworking of our Grace and at the root of our work, labour and endurance, as we looked at how these three were repeated themes throughout Paul's letters, most famously perhaps in 1 Corinthians 13:13.

My mind also drifted as is often the tendency... and onto indie music and the band Starsailor... so often i saturate myself in music without seriously considering what the lyrics are about. Starsailor are a great band but happened to have penned a song on their third album entitled, yup you've guessed it 'Faith, Hope, Love' - never occurred to me there might be a Christian voice behind these lyrics, and though on a repeat listen would seem not, challenged me at how much i watch and listen to things without properly switching on.

On another matter, Nathan (my house mate) appeared outraged and unhappy at me being "Supervised" reminding him of Dissertation and other bad "supervision" memories - has anyone got any suggestions of what i could call my supervisions instead? All suggestions considered... the floor is open and i'm listening...

Before i shut my eyes

2006-09-27T01:07:00.000+01:00

Since i last blogged on Sunday night i have...

Done Admin (honest... this wasnt a lie in... you'd be amazed how much bits build up in a week!)
Had Lunch with Lukey Luke (real name Luke) who i lived with last year. Shared what i'd learnt about 2 Cor 4:1-6 (still my favourite passage of the mmoment) and caught up generally over Raspberry pancakes... very nice.
Had a hardcore afternoon sesh getting down to some solid study, where at the moment i'm looking at the Trinity. Sheer awesomeness (is that a word i wonder?) that can only humble me as i acknowledge the mystery of God and yet he's revealed himself to me.
Caught up with Neighbours after the weekend break... is Paul going to die? or will he be rescued against all the odds?!
Wandered along to After Sun - see previous post for explanation. Great to be enthused about the vision of the CU and to hear Chris Hobbs draw out the wonderful truths of our identity in Christ and the many blessings this brings that we so quickly seem to lose sight off.
Chatted to Tor on phone.
Tues Breakfast at selly Sausage with John Boy Wright (real name John Wright) second Raspberry pancake in two days... they're very good. As bad as the food was for my waistline, was great to hear John speak about his year abroad, to see his maturity as a Christian. Will be great to see John stepping out as he helps lead one of the hallgroups where there's a high postgrad/international student ratio.
Preterm - again see previous post for explanation. Praise God for bringing along so many freshers... i've only 10 fingers and 10 toes so rapidly lost count but a great encouragement nonetheless.
Bacon Butties @ Benny's (made even better by crusty white bread left over from Midlands Staff day the previous day.
Headed in car to Cheltenham early evening with bowl packed full of cake... thank you very much Anna, it def kept me going!
UGCU aka University of Gloucestershire Christian Union... at Cheltenham NOT at Gloucester as many might suspect.
Home 11:40 in time to cook up some pasta, watch the end of the champions league highlights (thats football in case you're wondering Jon) and post a blog before bed.

Been out all day... has Paul died? Does it matter? Do i care? Should I lay off the Raspberry pancakes? Maybe, i'm not sure. Is it time for bed? Yes.

Freshers Week... its here!

2006-09-25T11:04:00.000+01:00

Today marks the strt of freshers week, and the students are back in force... there's no parking spaces anywhere - not a massive wrench for me as i dont drive but its the thought that counts! The BUECU guys have done a great job getting flyers done and CU events publicised in halls. The two main events are After Sun tonight for returning students, an opportunity to refocus on our aims as a CU and catch up with a lot of people, followed by Pre-term during the day tomorrow, where we extend a warm welcome to the freshers, informing them of the purpose of CU, introducing them to other Christian freshers in their halls or on their courses. Please be praying for these events for the students coming along, for Chris Hobbs as he speaks tonight and Jon Bennett as he speaks from Romans 1 tomorrow... I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Love these verses as we enter a whole new academic year, that God's word is powerful - it changed my life and if it hasnt done already it could change yours.

I exchanged some emails with the Mighty Whitey himself, Adam White, he's in the position of serving Warwick CU as president, and its their freshers week too this week, so please be praying for him and the CU there as they look to encourage students to live and speak for Jesus from the very beginning of their uni lives... for the rest of their lives. If you're like me and find pictures useful, below is a picture of Adam... holding a fish (fish wont upload but check back this afternoon... anyone any ideas why it wont upload?)

Church-day

2006-09-25T00:24:00.000+01:00

Had a whole day of church today, as i went to the morning service, had lunch followed by extreme-uno at the wonderful Midwinters and back to church for the evening service, next week the BUECU students church tour comes to Monyhull, meaning lots of students to extend a warm welcome to... and Sunday lunch! Fantastic to belong to a church that nourishes me both spiritually with superb biblical teaching as well as nourishing me with warm filling food and great fellowship. Really looking forward to getting involved more in church this year.

A landmark day!

2006-09-23T12:44:00.000+01:00

Just wrote this post... then lost it... so now writing it again! Yesterday was a landmark day as i had my first contact with students as a relay worker. I accompanied my staffworker Jon to University of Gloucestershire Christian Union (UGCU) in Cheltenham. Around a dozen of us came together for some lunch, followed by footy (though the latter got washed out) for a time of getting to know people. When term properly starts i'll probably be working alongside the CU's at Birmingham and Worcester. Therefore aside from their mission week i'll probably have nothing to do with UGCU but it was great to go along partly to be encouraged seeing the raw enthusiasm of some of the individuals to grow as Christians and be witnesses for him on campus, secondly it was great just to get away from my desk, and the studying, reading and prayer letters that had filled my day prior to that.
Talking of Prayer... i sent out some prayer letters this week, of what i've been doing and what is up ahead in the immediate weeks ahead - if you would like a copy please leave a comment or email me.

I do love my sport!

2006-09-23T12:08:00.000+01:00

Despite now entering my fifth year in the Mighty Midlands, my keen eye for sports action has meant an eagle eye, on the cricketing efforts on the south coast in Sussex where i hail from. Yesterday Sussex thumped Nottinghamshire by an innings and 245 runs to complete the double, ading the county championship to the C&G Cup won earlier in the season. As i write this post Europe are compiling a nice lead in the Ryder Cup... i do love my sport!

As the Rain and Snow

2006-09-19T13:25:00.000+01:00

After a busy morning, where i've done some reading (lots more this afternoon) and started to tackle admin (which by the way i thought would be a doddle... it isnt!) thought i'd take a mo to update you on the last 5 days or so.

Thursday & Friday (14th & 15th Sept) Team Days in Nottingham
Had to days crammed full of getting to know the other staff and relay workers in the Mighty Midlands. Was great to spend some time with those guys to hear their hopes for the year ahead and share in much banter. My personal highlights were Jon Bennett turning as white as a sheet at the sight of a cricket ball (!) as me Andy Grundy and Jonny Moore knocked the ball about with some slip catching and big up and unders. My second highlight came right at the end (when i was prob at my most tired!) Linda, the Mighty Midlands team leader unpacked Isaiah 55:6-11 as a really simple (and visual) study we could use as we meet with students for the first time. Was brilliant to be reminded (again!) that the Bible is alive and kicking.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways" says the Lord... God is an almighty God who we could never reach or comprehend but God has taken the initiative to do for us what we couldnt do for ourselves, he has made himself known through his Word. Gods Word is not only a bridge but it is useful (2 Tim 3:14-17), it makes a difference bringing life and nourishment.
These truths are so fundamentally exciting, that we're left with one option - to go and read the Bible for ourselves, to let God teach us about himself, ourselves, and the world around us.

Friday evening to Monday morning - home for weekend
I headed home to Crowborough on Friday afternoon, picking up Tor on my way. Was a great to spend some time with Tor, to see my parents and have the opportunity to both encourage and be encouraged by my home church.
Saturday evening was World Mission evening, and a mini-marathon at almost 3 and a half hours; hearing from the church's mission partners ~(including myself Fi, and KT V doing a slot on the work of UCCF), being challenged of our rown personal roles in the great commission and sharing food and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Sunday evening, saw Fiona and i interviewed further and then commissioned for the year ahead. Following the service Tor and i nipped straight downstairs for TNT, ready for me to give my 10 minute talk on the work of UCCF, and the biblical conviction that the call to live for Jesus and speak for Jesus, is made to all of us who are believers.
The basic outline of my talk during on Matt 28:18-20 and 2 Cor 4 1-6 were;

Jesus commissioned believers to share good news of the gospel.
This commission applies to us today if we're believers.
We are not on our own as we do this but can be assured of Jesus' prescence as he said "surely i am with you always to the very end of the age" (Mt 28:20)
Gods Role: It is God's ministry (1), God's message ( 2) and it is God who opens the eyes of the unbeliever (6)
Our Role: We are to set forward the truth of the gospel plainly and clearly (4), we are to pray as it needs a divine act for people to recognise Jesus as their Lord and Saviour (5) and we are to have an attitude of humility and thankfulness, recognising it is only by God's grace we have been saved.

Was a great opportunity and a privilege to be able to open up God's Word with these young people, in a youthgroup where i myself became a Christian. Looking back there's so many ways i could have improved what i said, my prayer is that my year doing Relay will equip me more and more to understand God's Word better myself, to be able to apply that to my life, setting a foundation for a life centred on Christ, and that through this i may be able to clearly communicate the truths of the gospel to others.

I'm not a massive fan of speaking and so therefore this next quote was a must to put in the blog, as it may not be heard again... Tor chatting to me on our way home after TNT about her evening said... "this girl sat next to me and asked me who i was, and i said i was the speakers girlfriend... i have never felt so old in my whole life".

Was brilliant to spend time with Tor at what is a tricky time, she has now got a house which is an answer to prayer but the contract doesnt start till end of September! So frustrating having to say goodbye when there's so much uncertainty but im coming to realise that i need to trust God with these things, trusting that he is faithful and compassionate and has Tor's best interests at heart, after all she is a Child of God.

One of many highlights of the weekend came from Saturday lunchtime conversation, munching on burgers with my Mum (like all good things it came accompanied with food!)
She started telling me about the housegroup series they were about to begin at church, based around John Chapman's 'Know and Tell the Gospel'. This post has already gone on way too long but was ace to see my Mum really enthused about what was to come, and hear testimony of her sharing her faith in the past - amazing how God can use a chronic stammerer. Click here for a link to the Know and Tell the Gospel Housegroup Bible studies... they look really good!

Caption competition

2006-09-19T00:04:00.000+01:00

Having been in Nottingham for two days before beasting it south to Crowborough, picking up Tor in London Bridge station, for what felt like a whistlestop tour speaking about Relay bits and the need for us all to be sharing the good news of Jesus, will be a delight to rest my head on my pillow at home tonight. Will post my thoughts on the last few days tomorrow, however for the time being i thought i'd start the first in an occasional caption competition series... the pictures below are of Andy Weatherley and Jonathan Bennett who were the CU Staffworkers in Brum, Jon is now abley supported by Rosemary Grier, whilst Andy has left UCCF to head up a church plant in Birmingham.

As i start a year of full time Christian ministry, i wonder what lies ahead, pictures like these make me extremely nervous... i look forward to your caption suggestions.

Goodnight bloggers

Laters

2006-09-14T00:26:00.000+01:00

Just a quick one to say im temporarily leaving the Blogosphere - am heading to Nottingham tomorrow at the ungodly hour of 8am (TJ and i will be making formal written complaints!). Is going to be an overnighter focusing on getting to know the rest of the Mighty Midlands team, and should be a good one. I'm then heading straight from Nottingham to my home town of Crowborough in East Sussex for the weekend, stopping at London Bridge to be reunited with the lovely Tor. Really looking forward to it as a great opportunity to enthuse guys at home about the fantastic gospel we have to share and excited at prospect of introducing Tor to some of my good friends from home. In amongst all this i've got to mull over exactly what im going to say as i speak briefly on Saturday and Sunday night, but will hopefully have that pretty much sorted before i get home, so i cn maximise time with Tor whilst weve got the opportunity.

Check back here after the weekend to hear how it all went

Uh Oh!

2006-09-13T15:53:00.000+01:00

Just spoke to Rory (bit of a legend!) Graham, a friend of mine and youthworker at my home church, I spoke to him previously bout coming home this weekend for the church's World Mission weekend where i'm due to be speaking about what i'm doing this coming year on the Saturday night and then being commissioned on the Sunday evening. He'd asked me to speak after the service to TNT the 14-18s youthgroup.

I thought he meant speak, as in say a few words about what i'll be doing as a Relay worker.

He didnt... he meant speak, as in speak on a chosen passage!

The tell tale signs of our crossed wires came when he spoke to me earlier and opened with the line "So what passage or theme have you chosen to speak on?", queue panic on my end of phone line!!

Would love to speak to TNT, after all it was there that the foundations were laid and there that i became a Christian through the faithful ministry. However no way have i got time to faithfully prepare a full talk, so we've come to an exciting compromise. The plan is for me to lay up what i'll be doing and then lay the smack for them - Mission starts where God has placed us rather than a distant thing that other people do, its something we've all been called to do, therefore how are they reaching out to their friends?

Seems although a bit of extra work for me, things have worked out well... is it just me or do these things happen to other people too????

First Day Proper

2006-09-13T13:31:00.000+01:00

Had my first official meeting with Jonathan Bennett (JB) this morning, which was great to think back over some of the great teaching at Forum and Relay 1, and what this'll look like in practice to be people opening our Bibles on all occasions at all opportunities. Rest of the day is unstructured for me to use, in the next few weeks my timetable will probably take a bit more shape as various activities become regular items but this unstructured time is going to be a regular feature, and therefore i'd appreciate your prayers in me using my time wisely as its such a privilege to have the opportunity to do Relay but already there's less than 10 months left so i want to make the most out of it!!
Am thinking this afternoon i'll put together some thoughts for this weekend when i'm heading home to talk THREE times at my home church, All Saints about doing Relay with fellow Relay-er Fiona Davis (working in Bath) and draft a forthcoming prayer letter reflecting on what i learnt at Relay 1 and Forum and looking ahead to the coming term - stay tuned for that coming out in the next week or so. On the subject of Prayer letters, you'll have noticed the links to the support letters dont work - they need some slight modification but should be available for browsing next week sometime.

My last day off...

2006-09-12T22:35:00.000+01:00

My last day off and its been another chilled fair - lie in till 11 (my last one of them for a long time probably!). Went round to Jenny Kimber's for lunch - scrambled eggs with mushroom and ham on toast. Tasted very good and was great to catch up with one another after a manic last month or so. Following that my ventures have been limited to paying in a support cheque (can now pay my rent for a few more months at least!), buying and putting up a washing line in my garden (vital for drying damp washing). Finally this evening i met up with a couple of my old housemates and a few of their random friends at the Bristol Pear, home of many fond memories from now distant uni days.
Was good to see Brian and Luke again, to hear about their summers and share my initial thoughts about starting Relay. Seems my explanation to some of you of what i'm doing this coming year hasn't been as clear as it could be, therefore for those of you still trying to get a handle on what exactly it means to be a relay worker, i've attached a link to a brief interview with Maurice McCracken who heads up the Relay scheme and the blurb from the UCCF website. This'll hopefully help answer a few more of your questions. Hopefully gonna be meeting up with the good man Luke Jones for a bit of one2one action reading through Knowing God by JI Packer which i bought him for that exact purpose for his birthday back in April and we're yet to start!! (if you're reading this Luke, then trust me - we will get going on this and hopefully i'll be able to help point you to God himself as a real living being, as i answer your many questions!)

After recieving complaints by text from a Mr. Jonathan Bennett (My staffworker in Birmingham, who has the great privilege of supervising me over the coming year) i have now turned the comment function on, so anyone can leave a comment even if you dont own a blog yourself. So feel free to air your thoughts about, me, my blog, Relay or whatever takes your fancy.

Thats all for tonight, first day proper tomorrow, meeting up with Jon at 10am and i'm not sure what thereafter... check back here to find out!

A (Soon to be) Busy Christian's Guide to...

2006-09-11T23:30:00.000+01:00

Day 3 outta 4 days off following the mega stay at Quinta and its been a relaxed one though feel i'm still recovering from my exertions at Relay 1 and Forum, and missing my fellow relay workers, most of whom i wont see till January - gutting!
This evening i went to Monyhull to help at '116', the youth group for 11-14s. Whilst balancing Relay commitments im gonna try and get a little more involved in serving the church during the year ahead. Was a really good evening, and Nat who heads it up seems happy with my proposal of being there every other week or so on a flexible basis. During the last academic year over 100 young people came along to '116' - really exciting to think we have the great privilege of opening God's word with them, and the many lives it could impact as they go home and talk to family and friends.
Having let her know how my evening had gone, got a text just after 10 from Tor:

"I'm glad it went well and you're getting involved - just make sure you're not doing too much!!"

What can i say other than i have a girlfriend who cares for me very much and that i have a girlfriend who knows my weaknesses. I was convicted during Relay 1 on two seperate occasions that i very easily fall into trap of being too busy, leading me to ask the questions why am i doing these things? Whats important to me? I realise so often i fall into a desire to please myself or those around me, rather than a desire to please God alone. Was great to be convicted of this at the beginning of my year on Relay, and led me to purchase 'The Busy Christian's Guide to Business' by Tim Chester.
Am reading it at the mo, and so far almost halfway in and its been a fantastically challenging book as i seek to live a Christ centred life. Today i read about the need to be glorifying God all the time, when so often i fall into segmentinting and seperating Christian and non-Christian stuff, when the two should be flowing into one another. So often also i say i put God's Kingdom first (Matt 6:33), but in practice this is sadly not always the case. As Tim says "we need to make church and mission part of our very identity rather than add-on activities." Am increasingly excited about year ahead, whilst increasingly aware of my total inadequacy.
Praise God that despite my many failings as i seek to live a Christ-like life, i can boldly approach the Lord thanks to the grace we've been freely given, and that he chooses to use me of all people for his glorious purposes. Praise God!

Reflections on my 1st day in Blogs-ville

2006-09-11T00:14:00.000+01:00

Well my first day of blogging looks to have gone fairly well so far... don't expect three posts everyday though!! On reflection i can see already this blogging lark could take up a lot of my time - another potential distraction as i try to fix my eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1)

Looking back on my Sunday has been really good. Church this morning was ace, Bev and Andy were commissioned as they head off this week to Istanbul to work for IFES. Was a real buzz as Colin spoke on 1 Kings 19, Gods call on our lives and our response to it. Following on from the smack being well and truly laid at Relay 1 and Forum. I so easily segment my life into the Christian and the not-so-Christian, but God's demand on my life and yours is total - he's the creator and the saviour, we are not our own but have been bought for a price, therefore God's call is over our whole lives.

This demand to live lives of 24/7 worship & witness to God was the big takeaway from my time at Forum (CU Leaders conference 4-8th Sep), to do otherwise would be idolatry as Graham Daniels expounded (i've never heard such a hard line on idolatry-enlightening to say the least), this was backed up by Rico Tice's talks where i was encouraged to not hold back from sharing my faith, God's Word is powerful therefore get it open whenever an opportunity presents itself. Too much to say from Forum and Relay 1 in one go, but stay tuned as i'm sure there'll be references in the coming week or so... thats assuming anyones reading this!

I'll post up link for you to download the Forum talks in coming weeks when they're released for you to listen to them at your leisure.

In meantime time for my bed... if anyones reading this please let me know... also post comments for how i could improve it... htmls kinda confused me so any tips much appreciated.

Me!

2006-09-10T22:16:00.000+01:00

Well here i am, hair and all. The first "photo" is by my good friend Lamby (not his real name!), a graphic designer by trade, its a favourite of mine, presenting me as a smooth and sophisticated man of style. The second photo, taken summer 2005 shows how false this image is! The final photo gives you all a glimpse of a possible future... what would happen if the guy with the crazy afro actually let his hair grow??? Interesting! Thats all for now... will hopefully figure out this blogging lark soon... is kinda confusing me at the mo with result of a very naff looking blog!

Hello Blogs-ville!!

2006-09-10T16:04:00.000+01:00

After enjoying the fruits on offer browsing other peoples blogs, i've finally succumbed to starting my own blog! The aim of which will hopefully be to keep people informed with what i'm doing over the coming year, working with UCCF as a relay worker in Birmingham.
Anyhow, bye for now and check back here soon for the first updates.