Pressing On

The question mark should help you differentiate the blog title from a song title of one of my favourite prog rock bands of the seventies - if you don't know what I am talking about then just let it pass, if you do please read on, though I hope you won't be too disappointed to discover that it has no further connection with music! As is my want I am in the habit of seeking the Lord for a word at the beginning of each new year. Of course it is not the only time in the year when the Lord speaks but I have found it a healthy discipline and have, at the end of the year, been very blessed to look back and see how apt the word has been. (But then this should not surprise in the least as we know that He knows the end from the beginning...) I share these thoughts with you for two reasons: Firstly, anything based on the word of God has to be good for edifying and building people up, and I hope that this is the case for any and all who stumble upon this blog. Secondly, I trust

Tomorrow morning I will be serving with a number of other people as we embark on an Alpha course. Hopefully Alpha should need no introduction, and this is not the point of this blog, it does however provide the springboard to my thought - What needs to happen post-Alpha, or indeed however we come to faith, in order to see people getting into the habit of growing as disciples? This is not simply a ' good idea ' it is crucial if we are to fulfil the mandate given to the Church ... not only because disciples should be the outcome of our ministries, but also because disciples are needed to do the ministry in the first place. I quote Mike Breen from his sobering article  on why he feels the missional movement might fail " Sending people out to do mission is to send them out to a war zone. Discipleship is not only the boot camp to train them for the front lines, but the hospital when they get wounded and the off-duty time they need to rest and recuperate. "  My personal

Twice a year we orient new workers into ministry with WEC International during which time we try and communicate the values upon which WEC is built to a degree sufficient for new workers to understand and commit to. Now, of course, these values are aspirational, in the sense that we do not live them out perfectly all of the time ...  The four values are faith, holiness, sacrifice and fellowship ... I may turn to others values in later posts, but for this post I wanted to focus on holiness. Partly because I have just finished reading some of JC Ryle's notes, which were extremely helpful and partly because it is a topic rarely reached on today and in need of reflection - in my opinion.  The author of the book of Hebrews exhorts us with a clear word "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord." Heb 12:14 By 'see' we mean to gaze at with wide-open eyes at something (or someone) amazing . In