FAMILY - A new life

I'm a grandpa for the third time! Debbie and Steve have a baby girl. Aidan (aged two) is slightly confused, he thinks he has two new sisters, one at home and another at the hospital. My other daughter, Beth, also has a two-year-old so the next generation is well under way.

It was amazing to see this little person for the first time, so tiny, utterly dependent on her carers, not aware of the difficulties and dangers of life, primed to feed and grow and also to learn and learn and learn. She can only achieve her full potential if she is nurtured carefully; she needs to be fed, kept warm, and given all the contact and love she can absorb. Then she will grow in size and in ability until she becomes an adult and can leave home to begin an independent life of her own. But those days lie far, far ahead.

Meanwhile she is a precious gift to her family, a constant source of amazement, and a constant cause of work. Not that she will make demands - yet! But she has needs of which she is unaware although her family notice them daily, hourly, minute by minute. She will keep them busy even in her unawareness, and later when she can see and think and speak she will keep them busy with explicit demands and requests.

They won't let her down, they'll be there when she needs them. Mum, Dad, brother Aidan, grandparents too, aunts and uncles and cousins - all of them will help when necessary. Little Sara has landed on her feet even though she doesn't know it yet. There is nothing better or more needed than family. There can be no adequate substitute. Where there is family there is security, comfort, and above all love. For family love is the motivation that supplies all the rest.

(There are more photos online.)

Just do it!

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We're in the early stages of planning for a youth camp for St Neots in 2009. We didn't decide to do this, it is just happening to us - and it's great! Why is the church sometimes so sluggish in getting things done? We'll come back to that question later, but first you should hear a little news.

Last Monday (1st September) we had a meeting to pray, discuss, and think about young people in St Neots. Jim, Sean and I were joined by Ben and Pete. After introductions, Pete told us about his background and explained about the camps he runs for young people in the Bedford area. By the end of the evening we had the beginnings of a plan, Pete had been proactive and booked space for a hundred young people next summer. We were astonished and encouraged. 'Just do it' is an effective way forward!

So, back to our question, 'Why is the church sometimes so sluggish in getting things done?'

It all comes down to an inability to 'just do it'. What prevents us? The answer to this lies deep in our understanding of what church is. The New Testament writers often refer to the church in a particular place, sometimes it's a city or town, sometimes it's a house, but significantly it's rarely anything between these two extremes.

Paul could write to the church in Corinth or Ephesus, but if he was writing today and addressed a letter to the 'Church in St Neots' or the 'Church in Cambridge' who would read the letter? Would it be delivered to the largest Anglican Church in town? Or would it go first to the Catholics, or the Baptists, or the United Reformed Church? Middle sized organisations of that kind were unknown in Paul's day, when he wrote to the church in a city he was writing to a single entity consisting of all the believers in that place.

But when he mentions the church that meets in Nympha's house or the church that meets in Priscilla and Aquila's house he knows exactly what he means. Not a gathering of 200 or 300 believers meeting in one place, but a small group meeting in an ordinary home. Clearly, a number of these small groups cooperated as the church in the city.

When we meet in large groups of several hundred we need a system of management and we need committees or a hierarchy to make decisions. Proposals have to be approved, resources must be made available, and discussions held to agree the details. This may take significant amounts of time. When we meet in a home decisions can be made there and then as we pray and share our thoughts and receive guidance through the Spirit.

Yahshua did not spend a lot of time planning. Instead he reacted to whatever he saw or heard. He always reacted in love towards the Father or towards the people he met, or both. Sometimes he reacted in anger, usually his reaction came in the form of teaching, questions, or action of some sort, but kindness and grace were present in everything he did - always. Everything he did was for the Father's glory, he healed the sick, he revealed the truth, he comforted the distressed and the broken-hearted. Not only did he bring good news, he was good news. Indeed he is The Good News. The good news is the news that the Messiah has come and brings healing and reconciliation.

What he did we are called to do too. If we plan less but begin to react to whatever we see and hear he will work in us and through us to glorify the Father. Acts of heavenly kindness and grace will replace acts of earthly mind and will. This is a hard lesson to learn because it runs counter to intuition and common sense, but it's a lesson we must learn if we're to become more fully fruitful and effective in the Kingdom.

This is not to say that larger organisations cannot react quickly or spontaneously in response to specific issues, just that they find it much harder than small groups.

We need to learn to be like the Master, to be good news wherever and whenever possible. Not merely to speak the good news, but to live it individually by responding right away in love and grace.

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Little Paxton - Prayer walking

We met at Jim and Pam's for coffee and an initial chat, then headed to Eynesbury to prayer walk the area. It was useful to spend some time there, to notice the grassy areas that would be suitable for a small tent, or a bouncy castle, or a band to play. It was dark while we were there and we could see plenty of potential for groups of young people to gather and cause trouble. We even saw a broken house window.

After walking for a time we stopped and stood in a group to discuss and pray together. It was a time of prayerful conversation, or very informal prayer, and it was good.

During this time Chris mentioned how helpful it would be if there was a home here on the estate where we could meet. Jim pointed out that there must be Christian people living here, maybe within yards of where we were standing; several of us remembered people we knew who did indeed live nearby.

Just as we finished this thread of conversation, a woman crossed the street and called out, 'What are you doing?' Perhaps it seemed odd to find a group of five adults talking here after dark (Sean, Ben, Tash, Jim, and Chris). As soon as she came close, the woman recognised Jim and then Sean as well! 'What are you doing here?', she asked.

Jim introduced us to Paula and we explained about the plan for a youth camp, but we didn't mention the idea of a house on the estate that we could use for prayer. She immediately said, 'Why don't you come over to my house for a cup of tea?' We were actually quite reluctant at first, but she insisted so we followed her across the street to her home - just a few yards.

We sat and chatted over hot mugs of tea, we met Paula's son and her husband, and then we went back to Jim's before each heading home again.

Isn't the Lord good? isn't he amazing!!

Great Doddington - Playgrounds and a flag

During this evening's meeting, Rachael saw two playgrounds, they were typical children's playgrounds with all the usual equipment. One of then had a notice that read, 'If you want to play, you have to pay', and it was full of children. The other playground had a similar sign but it read, 'This playground is free'. But there were only a few children playing there. And then she saw that there was a small gate between the two playgrounds and some people were moving from the paid playground to the free one.

Jody saw a flagpole with a huge flag fluttering in the wind. As she looked it changed into a myriad different colours, as if all the flags of the world were mixed up but coming to the fore one by one.

Rachael received the single word 'unravelling'. She understood that the Lord is unravelling us as we live our lives. He moves us forward in his plan, sometimes it may not be a comfortable process, but in the end we need to be unravelled so that we can be remade in the image of the Son.

Jody spoke about judging ourselves, and then Chris shared a picture of ice floating on the ocean. The ice was massively jammed and because it was so tightly packed none of it was able to move. As he watched, he saw that the ice was melting. Yahshua is melting us and we will become free to move!

Eaton Ford - Talking about youth

This evening we met with a specific agenda and several extra people. Jim, Sean and Chris were here as normal, but we also welcomed Ben and Pete who both have a particular interest in youth work. Ben runs a young people's group in Little Paxton, Pete runs youth camps every summer.

We spent a lot of time talking, and a number of very interesting ideas and thoughts were shared. Pete told us about his background and how he came to be involved in youth work. Chris explained about the problems in St Neots that had started him thinking and praying, Ben explained his plans for a tent meeting in St Neots.

The amazing bombshell of the evening was provided by Pete who, in faith, had already reserved 100 places for St Neots young people for a camp at the end of July 2009. This is awesome news and had us all smiling and rejoicing. It's going to take some planning and effort, but it seems that Pete will handle the camp details and management, our role will be to find the people who will fill those 100 places.

This was an unusual meeting in every way!

FAMILY - Dan and Kerry's Wedding

My nephew Dan married Kerry yesterday, what a wonderful event. It turned out to be a real family reunion. They threw a party for friends and family in delightful surroundings. They'd booked the village hall in Crondall, there was a hog roast, and a village cricket match was in progress in the field at the side. The weather was lovely, everyone was happy, and The Rooters provided some excellent music. A great day!

It's lovely when families and friends get together - for any reason. So good to renew contact with those we love but rarely see.

The journey was a bit of a nightmare with serious traffic jams on the way down and again on the return trip. British roads at their worst (and believe me, that's bad). It took more than three hours to get home, it would have taken only two if the roads had been clear.

There's a lesson there, don't you think? Sometimes in life the journey is hard. It's good to know what the destination is and grand to know there's a party or a home at the end of the trip.

The party was a family occasion in more ways than one. My brother-in-law, Neil, plays lead guitar with The Rooters, Kerry had decorated her own cake, and I was just one of many family photographers there to catch the scene for posterity.

Just to add to the family atmosphere one of my sisters couldn't make it. Why? Because her daughter gave birth to a son! More rejoicing and congratulations.

So, in conclusion - Dan and Kerry we wish you wonderful years together and much happiness - little Will, we wish you a wonderful life too. Abundant blessings for all of you! You are in our thoughts and prayers.

Making the most of blogs

It's really good to know you're here, reading the Scilla Blog - thanks for dropping by. Maybe you read many blogs, maybe you read only a few or even just this one. But however many you read, there are useful ways of coping more effectively with the 'blogosphere' - the rich world of blogging. It's a very rich world - if you know how to mine it for gold.

Today we'll take a look at finding specific information using a tool called Technorati. Surfing around from blog to blog at random is interesting for a while, but suppose you want to check out what bloggers are writing about fire ants, or your home town, or a famous author, or a place you intend to visit on holiday? Many of you will use Technorati and other tools already, but if not - read on.

Technorati is a website providing search functions tailored specifically for blogs. It's easy to use and it's very flexible. As an example, check this search result for posts on organic church. There are several things to note about this.

The search looks complicated ("house church" OR "organic church") NOT China NOT Chinese NOT cell. It's not as hard as it appears, we'll unravel it in a moment but for now notice that it's made up of several search terms joined together. Now look at the results, hopefully all of them will be about house church. Each item is a blog post. They come from many different blogs, and are posted by a host of different people. They're presented with the latest posts at the top.

You can scroll down and read any that catch your eye.

Understanding the search - Lets look at this search in more detail. We'll start at the beginning.

"house church" - This is in double quotes which simply tells Technorati to treat it as a phrase, not two separate words. If we searched for house church we'd find all the posts that mentioned 'house' and all those that mentioned 'church', try it in Technorati and see for yourself! "organic church" works the same way, we're looking for the phrase, not the separate words.

OR - This is an operator, when Technorati sees it is acts on it in a particular way. OR finds blog posts that contain either this or that, in our example posts will be included if they contain the phrase 'house church' or the phrase 'organic church' (or both). I've added brackets to make it clear this part of the search belongs together, both for our benefit and for Technorati's.

NOT China - This tells Technorati to leave out any hits containing the word 'China'. Why are we doing this? It's because, in China, 'house church' doesn't mean church in a home, it mainly refers to churches that are not government approved. We've done the same with 'Chinese' and 'cell' as these terms remove some more posts we didn't want to include.

Creating a search - The next step is to understand how to create our own search. Maybe we want to know about Siamese cats in California. Who's posted about that recently?

Try a search for 'cat' - over 340 000 hits when I tried it.

Now search for "Siamese cat". - just 900 or so results this time. That's better.

And finally, try a search for "Siamese cat" AND California - now we're only seeing 29 hits.

You should be getting the idea now. Decide what you want to read about and build yourself a search to find relevant blogs. Happy reading!

Read more on searching Technorati from About.com.

Little Paxton - Relying on Jesus

As we met, talked and prayed we came to realise how deeply we rely on the Lord's strength, not our own.

We thought about the Christian women who have been imprisoned in Indonesia for running a Sunday School.

2 Cor 1:3-5 shows us that the Almighty Father is also our comfort.

Great Doddington - Travelling or building?

Rosie joined us this evening, it was great to have her with us. Thanks for coming Rosie, come again soon!

For a long time we talked, sharing so much that had happened in our lives since we last met.
Later, the Lord showed us that our lives are like journeys. Although we need to stop sometimes, we are not meant to camp for a very long time at any particular point. And it's quite impossible to build anything when on a journey. If we're not to camp for very long, we are certainly not meant to build anything.

But isn't that exactly what we tend to do? Building something is not what the Almighty has in mind for us. He builds his church; that is enough for us.

How many times?

How many times can you repeatedly fold a sheet of paper in half? It's widely accepted that about six or seven times is the maximum possible, and a quick experiment with a piece of writing paper, a sheet of newspaper, or any normal paper you can find around the home will prove that this is correct. Or will it? What does 'correct' mean? What does 'proof' mean?

A mathematician will tell you that however many times you do the experiment and find you can't fold the paper a seventh time, that is not proof. You cannot prove something to be impossible, only that something is possible. Folding a piece of paper six times and failing to fold it seven proves that six is possible, but not that seven is impossible.

Remarkably, someone has managed to fold a piece of paper twelve times! Was there something special about this piece of paper? Yes and no.

The paper was a long roll of toilet paper. The relevant attribute of this paper was not that it was especially thin (try folding a single sheet of toilet paper yourself) but that it was especially long.

Britney Gallivan, a high-school student from California, was not prepared to take 'no' for an answer. She began by developing some mathematics for paper folding, and this showed her that a piece of paper that is long enough can be folded many more times along its width than a shorter piece. Armed with this knowledge she did the experiment - and managed to fold it twelve times.

There are several lessons to be learned from this.

What seems to be impossible may, in fact, be perfectly possible if we go about it in the right way. Technology has shown this to be true over and over again. Here are a few things that were once thought to be completely impossible - travelling to the moon, ships made of iron, building a flying machine, sailing round the world, the earth moving, continents moving, orbiting a satellite.

Common sense often lets us down. It would be a wonderful thing to learn the value of not making assumptions or jumping to conclusions. But we are designed to assume and conclude, this serves us well most of the time and enables us to deal relatively simply with a very complex world.

Britney Gallivan's paper folding achievements are described online. I encourage everyone to read them, if mathematics is not your forte you can skip that part, but please understand that it was the mathematics that led her to a simple, elegant, but entirely unexpected conclusion. With hindsight it seems obvious, but nobody had thought of it before Britney. Clever young lady!

How's church in the UK?

A friend in Florida just asked me this in an email; I thought I'd answer the question for everyone. In context, the question means, 'How is church life going on for you personally', not, 'How is the church doing in the UK as a whole'. So this post answers the first, personal question, not the second, general one.

The fact is, things are going well, very well.

Am I happy with the state of affairs? Yes I am, I have a sense of peace about it all, like the peace in the scene in this post. Can I see where it's all heading? No, not really. Does that mean I lack a vision for the way forward? No, not in the least!

Let's unwrap that a bit.

It all depends on your point of view.

Let's start with the premise that church growth depends on running the church efficiently day to day, planning for the future, building up numbers, bringing in the necessary funding, putting up buildings, and growing people in maturity through teaching and discipling. That is the standard institutional model that most of us work by. In that case church growth can be measured in the same way that success in business can be measured. Set some targets, aim at them, and then measure success as achievement against those targets.

But there is a problem with that approach. Nowhere in the Bible do we find anything that looks remotely like the 'standard business model'!

If we begin with the premise that church growth depends on Jesus living in his people and guiding them individually and together, we get a very different definition of success. Success must now be measured in terms of the quality of relationship we have with Jesus and with one another. If we are rightly built into the body we'll see that Jesus does indeed build his church. Paul understood this when he wrote Romans 12:1-13. We are to work together in a new way, a totally unexpected way, and it's assuredly not the way of the world or of business.

Paul writes several times and at some length about life in the body and how we should expect to be built as a natural outworking of love. This 'building through loving' requires Jesus' love towards us, our love towards him, and finally our love towards one another. It couldn't be simpler. Does Paul ever (even once) write in terms of setting targets or having goals for building the church? No he does not.

So, in the light of all that, how's church been going for me recently?

Well, I've met some new people in the last few weeks and it seems to me we're likely to be keeping in touch and meeting together as and when we have the opportunity. I suspect we're going to find ourselves built and encouraged in unexpected ways.

At the same time we have a friend who was ill, had no reason (medically) to expect to survive, yet has been told he seems, remarkably, to be in the all clear.

Then there's the difficulty explained in an earlier post. I haven't had a reply yet, so I'm continuing in prayer and will keep thinking about the various issues involved. What I can say is that through some of my new friends I'm now aware of a man who is seriously interested in contacting the young people involved, and has the faith, the personality, and the experience to engage their interest. And I also know other friends on the edge of town who might be keen to help with that.

All of this is encouraging and exciting, so I think the answer to the original question is, 'Oh yes, things are going along very nicely thank you. Jesus is in control, and I have no specific targets because I have no idea what he will do next. But it will be good!

My personal targets are to get to know Yahshua better day by day, and to grow increasingly in relationship with my brothers and sisters.

Memories of Horsecastle

Horsecastle Chapel is a free evangelical fellowship in Yatton, North Somerset, England. It has its own building, a modern, purpose-built structure.

View Larger Map

But before the new building was constructed, Horsecastle Chapel occupied an older building on the corner of Horsecastle Road (now Horsecastle Close) and Wemberham Crescent. The image shows that original building, now in alternative use.

When Judy and I first joined the group of Christians meeting there, the old Brethren origins were still evident. Something we loved right away were the 'Open Meetings' held once a month on Sunday mornings.

We would gather in the large, square meeting room, the raised platform at the front was unoccupied, there was no invited speaker, nobody presided over events. We arrived, said 'Good morning' to one another, sat down in our seats, and quieted our minds. After a while someone would pray or read from the Bible, someone else would say, 'Let's sing hymn number 128', someone else would teach from a Bible passage.

These meetings were always orderly and respectful. There were no prophecies, no tongues, such things were unheard of in these circles and the accepted view was that they had passed away for good after the Bible was completed.

But in every other way the old 'Open Meetings' allowed the Holy Spirit free access to prompt any man to share (eyebrows would have been raised, I think, if a woman had presumed to speak in the meeting). Nonetheless the Holy Spirit was present and active and we had such amazing times, knowing in our hearts that things were moving along the right lines even if they were not quite as 'open' as we would have liked.

Sadly, we arrived at a time when these meetings were already dwindling away. After a year or two of this wonderful first taste of organic, participatory meeting, the decision was made to close them down completely and invite preachers from other assemblies to come and speak instead.

We recognised even then that these meetings were wholesome. We sensed that the freedom, even though incomplete, was all the Spirit needed to deal directly with us. We also knew that his active participation in the body was missing when an invited speaker brought a prepared message and a list of hymns to be sung. It wasn't that the Spirit was absent from the preparation or delivery of the message, nor from the singing of the hymns, just that he wasn't leading that sort of meeting because we were leading it. A meeting cannot have two leaders - either we do it, or he does it.

And today, the truth remains the same. Men and women were not made to be head of the church, nor head of a church meeting. That is the Messiah's place and his alone. If we want to run the meetings he won't prevent us, but he will not be fully present either - not because he chooses not to be, but because we don't let him.

It remains as true now as it was in the '70s. When we choose to give him the freedom to do what he wants we will experience his awesome and glorious presence. It's true of our individual lives, it's true of our lives shared in community. The choice is ours - do we want him to make the decisions or do we prefer to make them ourselves? I choose him - how about you?

Additional note - Brethren assemblies had many things right, if you are part of the current move towards organic church you will find this interesting. There's little in this world that is truly new.

Living in fear in St Neots

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I've just read a distressing news report about a local family that are having their lives ruined by thoughtless, cruel, young people throwing stones at their home, calling out abusive remarks, and even breaking windows. The news report is online, take a look for yourself.

Let's list out a few basic facts about the situation and about me. After all, I live in St Neots, I am involved whether I wish to be or not, I'm part of this community.

• The young people doing this are probably bored, perhaps they have nothing useful to keep them occupied. They probably get swept along in the moment, they each want to outdo the others. It's cool to do this stuff. There may be one amongst them who leads them into stuff they wouldn't otherwise do.


• The police are only able to respond to crimes that are committed, they don't have the remit or the people to deal with any underlying problem.


• The church will feel sorry that this has happened, but will think, 'What can we do?'


• The people being victimised can do little to help themselves.


• The neighbours will feel, 'I'm not getting involved otherwise I'll be next.'


• I'm thinking hard about what I should do...
  

Mallard Lane is not the most prosperous part of town, hardship is a reality for some and local people are struggling with issues which include vandalism. Here's a map of the area (you can also view a larger map). The pin in the map just marks the street, not the position of the household under attack.

So what can I do? What can anyone do?

Here's what I propose, I will begin by praying.

I'll share this story with the friends I meet with on Thursdays, we can pray together.

If you're reading this and would like to pray too that would be great. The main things I'm asking as a start are

• That I'll be shown clearly what, if anything, I am to do.


• That the trouble will stop and the pressure be lifted.


• That the woman in the story will be healed.

That's a start. But in practical terms here's what I'm thinking.

• Make contact with the people who are being victimised.


• Invite them round for a BBQ some time soon.


• Send letters to the local church explaining the background and asking for prayer and any practical input they feel led to offer.


• Consider encouraging a meeting to include the victims, the police, young people from the area (if possible), the church, neighbours, other organisations that might be able to offer support, help, or advice.

So far I have little idea where the Lord will lead me in this, but I know it would be wrong to 'just forget'. I'll post to the blog again to let you know what happens next.

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Reimagining Church

I've just finished the preface and introduction of Frank Viola's book 'Reimagining Church'.

It's a good start so I'm much looking forward to reading the rest of the book. Here in the summerhouse at the end of the garden it's shady and cool and conducive to reading but there are other things waiting to be done - maybe one more chapter then I must put the bookmark in.

So why am I excited to be reading this book?

There are several reasons.

1 - It's the sequel to 'Pagan Christianity' that Frank wrote with George Barna (a book I could hardly put down). This examined the origins and history of the church and describes how things changed until what we think of as church today is barely recognisable as a descendant of what Christ started almost 2000 years ago. The source of the rituals, buildings, emblems, practices, structure, management - it's all there.

'Reimagining Church' picks up where 'Pagan Christianity' left off and considers where (and how) we might move on from here.

2 - This has been my own journey for more than thirty years, much that Frank writes in the early pages of the book ring true in my own experience. He provides quotes from others whose experiences are also much the same. Take this short extract as an example...

As we loved Christ together our hearts were knit with each other. True change was being made in our lives as we were learning of the Lord's eternal purpose. I saw that the church really is Christ's body, and He is the Head. Only as we allow Him to have His rightful place will we experience His life as we were meant to. Church life in this way is the Christian's natural habitat where we grow and flourish, being nourished by all the riches of Christ. I could go on and on because there is so much more!

Wow! Yes! This is absolutely what I feel myself.

3 - It has the loud and persistent ring of truth about it. More than that (here comes some Christian jargon, please excuse me), the Spirit of Christ witnesses with my spirit that truth is being shared. These are things that nobody could invent. They are things that have always been revealed to a few, but now they are opening up in the hearts and minds of many. This is exciting!

4 - It's a practical help and an encouragement to those who are already meeting simply and organically as well as to those who feel something is missing or awry in institutional church.

And finally...

5 - It might open the eyes of some who haven't yet realised there is an alternative to institutional church.