Prayer request

Hey folks,

this one's a prayer request.

Ongoing at the moment we have a whole interesting situation which needs large amounts of prayer. There is a grievance ongoing between the PCC (centering on yours truly) and an employee which is causing massive amounts of stress to all involved.

The employee has been off for some months now with stress elated to the incident and there are times when i'd love to follow suit!

We're going to call a day of fasting and prayer for the peaceful reconciling work of God to break in. This isn't about us moaning about anyone, there have been failings on all sides.

We'd love folks to join with us in praying for wisdom, the right outcomes and a united church.

There is so much good stuff going on as I blogged yesterday, but this sucks time and energy away from all of us.

I'm calling a (food) fast day(though you could fast anything you like) on Monday 21st September.

If you would join us in prayer wherever you are that would be fantastic.

Thank You

Ok so after a great talk on thankfulness by our student, Louise, I’ve been looking back on our first year in post:

PCC now up for radical future (organic church)

1 house church planted

2 new congregations (one for kids, one for 60+) about to be planted.

At least 2 house churches in pipe line.

3 definite new believers (a few more on the journey)

home group moving into pub to meet and be outward focused

At least 10 healings

1 transforming deliverance

Halls transformed

Living in community

Congregation experiencing Holy Spirit in new ways

Individuals in congregation transformed

New Leaders

New Worker in place

Outgoings reduced, Giving up

New members

Joy in the place

Healing on the streets/treasure hunting planned.

Toddler group begun

One enquirers course about to start

Halls to be used for shelter for homeless for a month in the new year.

And I’ve been a bit lazy, a bit distracted and under it a bit.

Thanks Dad, Thanks Jesus and Thanks Holy Spirit!

Encouraging?

Watch/listen to the video.

So what do you think…

Good to hear Mr Moyles talking up church?

That’s the spin I’ve heard from most. But I see it a little differently.

Ok, some people may have heard it and feel a little more positive about Church, that Christians aren’t boring, but the overwhelming response seems to be from the team that it’s nice that Christians are having fun, like American Christians(!)

I guess I just get frustrated with us trying to make Jesus and Church “cool.”

I was 16 when I chose to follow Jesus and that was my first aim, to convince the world it was cool to follow Jesus and then they’d all join me in church and everything would be great, well everything would be easier for me.

Possibly someone might have heard Chris Moyles (who btw is a legend) and thought… I’ll give church a go, looking for, what? entertainment? Happiness? Singing? Food?

The whole idea of lets make church fun and hope people come and find Jesus is a farce, obviously we’ve not been reading our bibles, how often does Jesus say GO, GO OUT?

How often does he challenge non-believers (give all you have to the poor, you need to eat my flesh and drink my blood, you need to be born of the spirit, you have has 6 ‘husbands’ etc.)

The truth is that few might come to the big churches who can put on a great show, and preach the gospel in word and action, BUT 99% of the churches in the Uk are not capable of this and do a poor imitation. We’re content with status quo, content with one or two saved.

When will the church stand up and get what Jesus dies for? I’m happy that Moylesy is positive about church, for his souls sake. But lets not get excited, lets do something better.