iGod

Free webinar coming up with worship leader Tim Hughes

If you lead worship in your church small group or Sunday service or know someone else who does, I am sure you'd like to know about this webinar. I should also hasten to add that it is good for those leading churches to listen in too, as it is often in this area that little tensions can rise on a Sunday morning.

On Wednesday 15 July, 5-6.30 pm (GMT), Dan Wilt will be in discussion with UK worship leader Tim Hughes who will be talking on the subject: When servants lead: keeping your ego in check. Tim is painfully talented and is the author of beautiful songs such as Here I am to worship. He also ably heads up Worship Central, part of Alpha International (HTB).

Dan Wilt runs the inspirational The Insitute of Contemporay and Emerging Worship Studies at St Stephen's University, Canada, as well as cordinates Vineyard Music and blogs regularly. In fact, I don't know when he ever finds time to go to bed!

Anyway, this is a great opportunity to hear Tim chat with Dan. And having listened to the recent one with Irish Vineyard worship leader and pastor Kathryn Scott, I know this will be a delight.

Register here

ASD

A simple, yet practical way to count your blessings.

Some days can seem quite impossible. We can feel quite down and believe there is nothing good going on in our lives. This stuff can build up and before long we read the Old Testament book of Job and think, 'That's me!"  Time for a reality check.

Here's a little midweek outward-focused thought for you - and it will only take you five minutes (honest!):

Keep a gratitude journal. At the end of every day, or week if daily is unrealistic, list 5 things you are grateful for. They can be things that happened that day or week, things you have in your life, relationships that support you, or little things like "the beautiful weather we had today" or "the stranger who smiled at me in the street." It's a simple but effective life tool that can shift your perspective dramatically, and as I said it takes no more than 5 minutes.

ASD

20 simple outward focused ideas to help change the world - at least a little.

I don't know if you have seen the film Evans Almighty (2007), but there is a conversation in it between God (Morgan Freeman) and Evan Baxter (Steve Carell) when God asks, "How do we change the world?"

Evan replies: "One single act of random kindness at a time."

God responds by writing the letters A-R-K in the ground with a stick and says, "One Act, of Random, Kindness."

So what does it mean to be kind?

St Paul gave a definition of love as being patient and kind. Kindness is also listed as a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5). So at best we can see it as not just been a nice thought, but an essential ingredient to the Christian life. In fact, in the Jewish Talmud it says that the "deeds of kindness" are equal in weight to all the commandments.

Thankfully Jesus did not die to make us nice. Kindness is not about being just nice and smiling at each other, it has a deeper more profound meaning. Which is just as well because I don't personally find nice a very nice word. And I certainly know that, at times, I can be far from being very nice. Ask my kids when I am stuck in traffic on the M25.

Like compassion, it is helpful to see kindness as a profound human feeling prompted by the pain of others. It draws the love out of us to act. The old English word for this is charity. This personally helps me to understand Jesus' mission and his character, as it did for Mother Teresa of Calcutta who said:

"We can do no great things, only small things with great love."

As a pretty unremarkable human being who has never been awarded a bravery medal or been given an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University, I accept that I am never going to be recognised as a great person who has done great things for Queen and country. But, hey, I can live with that.

I guess what I can't live with is that there is so much loneliness and suffering in our so-called civilised and self-sufficient society. Families are broken, individuals are broken. The world is broken!

This is why our church is taken to doing 'Acts of Random Kindness' in Jesus' name. We are looking to serve our community and be a best friend to it. With the help of Dave Workman's experience, here are some 20 top ideas for serving others this Summer.

To help people make the link with us we have produced connect cards, which allow people to see it is a free gift from the church - with no strings attached. It also means they can get in touch with us to find out why we do what we do. When we did our first big giveaway at Christmas last year we saw our service more than double in attendance.

1. Pay for someone in line with you
“Hey, I’d just like to treat you to a free (coffee, lunch, movie, etc.) compliments of your local church. Let me do that for you, ok?”

2.  Drive-thru freebie
Just let the person at the pay window of a drive-thru restaurant that you’re picking up the tab for the person in line behind you. Ask how much, hand over some cash and the connect card and you’re on your way. You’ll probably get a fun reaction out of the drive-thru person taking your money as well.

3. Big Giveaway Days
Take A stall out in your local market on a Saturday and give away things like water on hot days. You can give away mince pies at Christmas. Printing your own napkins with a message always goes down well.

4.  Pay for a stranger’s meal
You can do this while you are with others out for a meal. You can also just pop into a restaurant and pay for a random table.

5.  Do a neighbour’s garden
It’s easiest to do this when your neighbour is already doing their lawn. You can show up with a rake, lawn bag, or whatever you’ve got…and join the fun.

6.  “Love Attack” a single parent
This one is fantastic. You’ll love it. Find an unsuspecting single parent and tell them that they have you for two hours. You’ll paint, fix, clean or do whatever they need around the house. You might want to warn them that you’re not a professional painter/fixer/cleaner person…but you can clean out garages, drawers or whatever else they need done, with the best of them.  This is a great one to do through your church's compassion ministry. We do this through our Storehouse ministry.

7.  £1 car wash (give them the pound)
Throw together a £1 Car Wash sign, a bucket, sponge, some soap and water and you’ve got all the makings for a car wash. When they go to give you the pound – just stop them and say, “Oh I’m sorry, you must have misinterpreted our sign. You don’t give us a pound, we give you the pound.”

8.  Sports drink giveaway
Take a cooler full of drinks to the local sports game and start handing them out.

9.  Free ice cream! Give it away
In this heat it is easy.

10.  Give nappies  to a new parent
Find a parent of a little one and you’ll have found a parent that’s buying a silly amount of nappies. Take them some nappies and you’ll bless them in a huge way.

11.  Tip your server 30% or more
…and that’s just the start. If you really want to go 40 or even 50% we won’t tell.

12.  Car Park Ticket giveaway
Car parks often have machines, so why not buy two tickets and give one of them to the next person who arrives at the machine.

13.  Take your child’s art to a nursing home
“But I don’t have a kid” “My kid is 27” “My kids’ art is pretty rough” If this is you, maybe you ought to think about taking some flowers to the nursing home. They’ll like that too.

14.  Compliment 5 people
Hebrews 3:13 tells us to do this anyway. Ask God to show you just how much He loves someone and then go start encouraging.

15.  Find out 2 things about your staff at your local Nero's, Costas or Starbucks
They’re paid to be friendly. We’re called to be friendly. Get to know the people who regularly serve you.

16.  Thank your local police
You can write a letter, put together a gift basket, or just stop by and tell them. Don’t be afraid to take this to the next level. Get creative.

17.  Volunteer 2 hours somewhere
The local school, shelter, nursing home, you name it. Bless someone with your time and energy.

18.  Write an encouraging note
Actually write something out by hand…on real paper. Remember paper?

19. Thanks your local school teachers
Buy bags of jam doughnuts and deliver them in time for morning break to local school staff rooms, along with a letter of thanks. They''ll go down better than you think.

20.  ?
There must be twentieth idea to round it up. Maybe you can think of one?

Have fun!

ASD

A good quote about religion

"People often confuse religion with God and walk away from them both."
Rob Bell, senior pastor of Mars Hill and Nooma dvds.

ASD

Ours is a "Sunday Service" - What's yours called?

I'd be interested to know what you call your own church gathering on a Sunday and why?

One of our guys whom I love very much asked me a very good question this weekend: "why do you call it a Sunday Service?"  It made me stop and think - which is always a good thing I have discovered.

After all, other Vineyards and independent churches may call theirs "celebrations". While other churches still, simply "meetings" or "gatherings".

The problem is every word, more often than not, has various connotations for different people - good and bad. At one level "Sunday service" seems mundane and functional and a little, well, religious. So I understand why other churches call theirs "celebrations", but I guarantee this would be lost on a visitor or someone outside church culture. For them a "celebration" is equated to a birthday or wedding anniversary. Is that helpful?

Here's why we call ours a "church service".

We are an outward-focussed church. We are all about thinking from a visitor's perspective. Everything we do is set up for the newcomer, not the die-hard regular. Bill Hybels calls this "seeker friendly". We try to be that sole organisation that exist for its non-members.

If someone is seeking God they might just have enough knowledge to work out that Christians go to Church on a Sunday morning, so they will scan noticeboards, newspapers and websites for "service times". There seems little point adding additional words to the vocabulary for the uninitiated when they are already scantily understood.

When we use unintentional "Christianese" we are sending out a signal that we want people to abide by our rules. It raises the bar to finding Jesus.  Now I know there are counter-arguments and I am sure that there are some very good ones, but I want our church to be that servant church in a serve-me world.

It's not a bad thing to be Jesus-servers as well as Jesus-followers. Therefore, unlike the traditional ecclesiastical model, I don't see why the senior pastor has to be the sole minister at all. Everyone can play!  We are all ministers.  After all, isn't this what the word is actually all about anyway?

My Bible says something about how Jesus came "to serve and not to be served". Like the traditional Jewish rabbi and his chosen disciples, we don't want just follow Jesus, we want to be like Him in every way. So to follow Jesus is to serve Him by serving others. Think about it, isn't this how Christ is revealed best?

So for the visitor who has not experienced his generosity and grace we want them to come and be served, which is why I like "Sunday Service". It is an outward-focussed expression of public worship and hospitality.

Of course, I am not suggesting ours is the only way, but it is a way and has significance for us. Meanwhile, if you are in a church, I'd love to know what yours is called.

ASD

A small act of random kindness in a time of great tragedy

Some weeks can be tougher that others. Last week was no exception. If you live in the UK you may remember seeing in the national news the story about a young boy aged just 6 years old who tragically drowned in our town, Sudbury in South Suffolk, while at Beaver Scouts on Tuesday night.

It is an awful thing and I cannot imagine the pain his parents are going through. It must be sheer hell!  As a father of three young girls, the youngest being 5, I feel particularly emotional about the loss.

Of course, something like this doesn't just affect the family, but all those involved. Not least the Beaver leaders who had him in their care, the police who were first on the scene and the medics. This little boy has affected many lives. I can't help but feel myself welling up as I think about this tragedy.

It is in this context, unknowingly, Stour Valley Vineyard Church had planned an outward-focussed activity on Wednesday morning. We call this one of our ARK initiatives (Acts of Random Kindness). We had arranged to give out hundreds of doughnuts to local public sector workers in our community to say thanks for all the work that they do in serving us. We wanted to recognise their contribution and make them feel that they weren't just taken for granted. This small doughy thing with jam was a small and silly way to say, 'we think you're brilliant!' It also came with God's blessing.

Amidst the different places we delivered to we went to Sudbury Police Station. Unaware of what had really just happened the day before, our guys handed the bags of doughnuts over the counter, said our thing and walked out.

Yesterday we received a letter from the police chaplain. He warmly thanked us on behalf of the force and told us how the station had been subdued that morning, as two of their officers had tried to resuscitate the boy before the arrival of the medics. Their station had just been told that the boy had died in hospital. Not their best day in the job. The chaplain said it mattered to them that someone in the community actually cared about them and recognised their 'unsung effort'. Humbling stuff!

We like to believe that we brought a little bit of God's compassion into that police station and made a very sad and heavy morning just a little bit lighter.

We had gone out on that Wednesday morning thinking we were just delivering doughnuts when actually we were bringing the presence of God' into a heavy, despairing atmosphere.

The truth is God often does more behind our backs than he ever shows to our faces. For our part, we just need to live the Jesus lifestyle of serving others with generosity, no strings attached, and let Him do the rest.

ASD

What does happiness mean to you?

This was the name of an article in yesterday night’s Evening Standard. I know I have posted on this subject a bit over the three years since I have been doing iGod, but it seems to be still firmly in the public square and probably will continue to be during this deep recession.

If I was to ask you what makes you happy you may reply:

• Watching the sun come up on a remote beach in the Caribbean

• Getting the ‘all clear’ from a medical test

• Seeing your football team walk off with all four major competition cups

• Buying clothes in Regent Street and still having enough money to get home

• Having a long lazy lunch on a Sunday afternoon with your best friends

• Eating chocolate and still somehow managing to lose weight!

The writer of the article, who also so happens to be the owner of female site TopTips.com, is launching "Campaign for Happiness" today after seeing the most searched subject on their site was “How to be happy?“

Every day the site will ask people to share ideas on what makes them happy. The company will also give a donation to Cancer Research UK with a view of celebrating with someone who gets happiness being given the all-clear.

These are all wonderful things, and nothing which I wouldn’t want for myself or others, but I am struck by the thought that a deeper, more fulfilling form of happiness may lie in doing something for others beyond a donation or lying on a sun-soaked beach drinking exotic drinks with ice. Hmm! You're not convinced, are you?.

The article gives quotes from celebrities and public figures who have some ideas about what happiness is. Among them is a surprising quote from the author behind the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, Alexander McCall Smith:

“I follow Mma Ramotswe's advice on the subject of happiness. She is quite clear on this. She says that the surest way to be happy is to cause happiness in others and then to enjoy it oneself. I think she is right.”

What a great outward-focused attitude. Not to criticise Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg who was easily pleased with ‘peanut butter and jam on toast’, but we can think that true happiness starts with indulging ourselves before helping others. The pursuit of happiness can also be a necessary distraction to all the bad things going on, not least for our beleaguered MPs!

When we do acts of random kindness in our church like giving out doughnuts to public sector workers, buying a stranger a cup of coffee or tidy and paint someone’s flat we share in their happiness and that makes us feel happy too.

This kind of happiness feels significant and unselfish. Furthermore, it is not just emotional, but something that hard wires a spiritual connectedness between us and God. It comes with a heart to serve others because that is also on His heart.

Okay - not a very popular concept in today's culture, because we are conditioned to serve our own interests before others. Nevertheless, worth thinking about when it comes to understanding a contented life in Christ, don't you think?

ASD

Why I have no faith in religion (article reproduced)

The following article appeared in June's edition of Community News, a great little magazine which goes out to our town and surrounding areas. As I am aware that a large number are out of the circulation area, here it is again...

As the pastor of Stour Valley Vineyard Church, I have a confession: I have no faith in religion. There, said it. However, I think faith is great and a lot of us are pretty good at it. You might be thinking, “isn’t that being semantic? Aren’t religion and faith the same?”

Nope!  But stick with me and I’ll try and explain.  Faith leads to hope, it helps us to live life. Faith overcomes fear. Faith is also the dividing line between us and other species.

And contrary to opinion, faith is not the property of the Church.  Everyone has faith of some sort. Faith the sun will rise; faith that if we drop an egg it will break because of Newton’s gravity; faith in other people’s advice. In short, faith is critical to life. Without it we would do nothing.

And then there is religious faith.

There is the religion of large corporations like IBM and Google and Apple. There is the religion of sport, the religion of music. Each one draws its own set of followers and requires it adheres to its set of spoken or unspoken rules.

This is why we humans invented religion: to give our faith a system to belong, grow and develop. Religion is a like a mantra that tells us that belief is okay, it will help to get us there.

I once played, by invitation, at a rather posh golf club. At one point during play my gamesmanship was called into question. Later as I left the clubhouse a member thrust a weighty rule book into my hand. I was embarrassed and humiliated to say the least. This is the problem with religion, when you don’t play by its rules it wants to correct you, whether you want it or not.  At this point you accept or reject it. I never played there again.

The problem is that religion is a hindrance for many of us; it doesn’t support our faith, merely props up the status quo.  At worse, it judges, divides and subdues us.

Now, even by me writing these things I suspect some might feel threatened. Not by the implied criticism of some long held rituals and methodology, but because it probably feels like criticism of personal faith.  Please don’t. That’s not my intention. Faith is a gift from God.

I love my own faith because of what it stands for.  I guess I wouldn’t be a pastor if I didn’t!  But I understand that not all people share my enthusiasm. This is maybe because for them being a Christian is another word for being ‘religious’ and therefore is a barrier. It would be for me.  Yet if we lose the institutional aspects of church life maybe we might find at its core something that is personal, practical and real. Something that Jesus, perhaps, meant it to be.

The truth is I don’t want people to love religion or become ‘church goers’.  Pretty sure God doesn’t either.  I simply want people to have the chance to know God personally through his son Jesus –without all the nonsense.

I am told that well over 50% of the population believe in God.  Along with other churches in our area we’d like to help turn that belief into a personal faith.  Faith that gives hope and healing.

Maybe at some stage Emma and I might see you at a service at the Town Hall, Sudbury (usually 2^nd & 4^th Sundays of the month). Whatever, you’ll be welcome to come just as you are.

We’re a normal bunch of informal, all embracing, non-critical, non-religious people.  And I promise not to put a ‘rule book’ in your hand as you leave.

Have a blessed weekend and Father's Day.

ASD

Are you a pioneer or settler?

I have been musing over something that the 18th century Scottish moral philosopher and economist Adam Smith said: to paraphrase, an established clergy is not willing to fight very hard to leave their church buildings and to go out to declare what it believes in.

It has been given as one of the reasons why we are seeing church attendance decline in this country, compared to the vibrant Christian faith that abounds elsewhere in the world.

Where Christianity has had competition it has been forced to reflect what it actually does believe and work out whether it is worth dying for. It makes a good reason why the Church of England may have a better future ultimately becoming disestablished.

Coming from the Church of England, I have seen how people like 'mild Anglicanism'.It keeps things pleasant and not too challenging. I have had conversations with people who have said to me, in so many words, ‘have a conscience by all means, but don’t put your convictions in my face please.’  And that is just fellow Christians!  

Of course, every denomination has its struggles, including my own tribe Vineyard, but it does need us to think movement, not establishment. Having said that, I recognise that 'established' is another word for rooted. And to be rooted is not such a bad thing, just along as we plant as well.

Or to use another analogy with a Western theme, we can identify that there are two types of Christian: the pioneer and the settler.

The pioneer loves to go out and do new things, they enjoy the frontier experience, the adventure, moving into uncharted territory. It’s what makes them feel alive and sharpens their faith in Jesus.

The settler, on the other hand, likes to arrive when things are established and when it feels safe enough to bring the family with them. They aren’t necessarily starters of new ministries, but they know how to manage them and are hugely important in bringing stability to church life. They can share the vision for a missional church just as much as the pioneer type.

Interestingly, I was talking to another pastor recently and we were discussing how church planters (pioneers) can often feel rootless. They have no compunction about moving around. Home is spiritual and relational, not necessarily geographical.  The only consideration for not moving more is probably the pressure of a spouse saying, ‘Hey, honey, think about the children!’

The truth is, whether we recognise ourselves as a pioneer or settler, we all have to get out and ‘fight the good fight with all of our might’.  We need to be outward-focused and allow ourselves to be continually challenged by the competition, whether it is secularism, atheism, Islam or plain and simple apathy.

However, importantly, we need to remember that our enemy is not a person, but a spiritual being.

God is love. Our weapon is not judgement, it is mercy. We are called to love all, be generous to all, but it does require us to leave our pews and come out fighting to do it.

ASD

 

God is Back

"Had he even been away!", you might quickly retort. Well, apparently, culturally, yes, says a new book by co-authors John Micklethwaite and Adrian Wooldridge.

It is a chunky book written by a couple of respected writers from the Economist magazine - and worth sticking with. It is well researched and generous in its view of faith, but doesn't pull any punches all the same.

The book shows how Christian political and business leaders have taken the gospel message and seen the link to success, i.e. power.

For instance, it is noted that some see healthy spirituality linked to wealthy living. It takes the example of the emerging Chinese business class who see America's fast economic and stable growth linked to its particular brand of Christianity. In short, a modern vibrant economy is not atheistic, Taoist or Buddhist but Christian. To be a Christian means spiritual and economic rewards are inextricably linked. On the other hand, Europe is seen living on past glory which reflects its tired form of Christianity. If its Church was stronger so would its economy, apparently.

The authors go on to say that Christianity thrives on two things: competition and choice. It works strongest when it knows what it is up against and comes out stronger. And what about choice?

"Choices can be tragic or, indeed, wonderful. But neither side of the religious divide can sneer at the fact that more people nowadays are making choices for themselves, rather than having those choices imposed upon them."

Although there are some depressing stories within its 400 odd pages there is hope - but our treasured faith must not confuse choice with earthly success. Secularists, too, must realise that the enemy is not faith but religion and power.

One last thing, secularist and atheists like Dawkins and Hitchens have unwittingly giving Christianity the competition, the ingredient it needs to thrive. It owes them a debt of gratitude, much as I know this will annoy them! It is just a pity the Church needs an opponent before it does anything! As if Jesus' words were not enough. Hm!

ASD