Pressing On

I have a love-hate relationship with blogging.  I enjoy the more reflective approach to writing that it forces. To draft something slightly longer, and a little more considered, than the average social media post helps me to shape my thinking. I love the fact that it is less reactive as a result.  I don’t like the fact that blog posts seem to have less interaction than social media. (This is not a plea for more interaction to my personal blog but a reflection that the world seems more interested in cats playing the piano than in more thoughtful topics.)  I hate the fact that I don’t have time to blog because I’ve just spent 20 minutes watching cats play pianos … but, as a mirror, maintaining a blog is a good, if demanding, discipline. I wonder if I have anything useful to add to the many voices in a crowded market? What is the point of adding another voice? But, there is so much that is inspiring, exciting and yet unseen in life, faith and the world of missions and church...

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I am reposting some old posts as I migrate back to Blogger. One of the benefits of being in a missional fellowship with a long history is that there are people who have gone before and who have many stories of God's faithfulness and who have many insights to share. This week was no exception when I was listening to an older couple with nearly 100 years of service in Asia between them. Many lessons learnt, but still pursuing Jesus and enjoying their relationship with Him. Here is a summary of their thoughts on prayer and how to align ourselves to receive answers. If you abide in Jesus (dwelling with Him in heavenly places) If we pray in Jesus name (excercising His authority) If we pray according to His will (aligning to His plans and desires) If we stand with an unwavering faith (walking by faith and not by sight) If we are reconciled and walk in forgiveness (expressing our oneness in Christ) If we approach boldly (confident in the perfect work) Perhaps you have other things to add ...

Dylan Thomas did not live long, according to today's expectations. He wrote a poem for his dying father that, when I read it recently, triggered a thought process. It expresses a desperation to hold on to life, but I suggest it also echoes a sentiment that should challenge us to live life well, and to the full. His poem, same title as above, includes the lines ... Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. So, what is the thought it triggered? I don't want to get to the end of my life and look back to think 'what was the point of all that?' I want to get to the end, look back, and think 'That was a bit of a roller coaster ride - but I enjoyed the gift of life as fully as I could!' The challenge is that I have the capacity to make sure that I can say the latter by the degree to which I align my decisions and activities to the priorities that are important to me .....

A classic Agatha Christie title or, of more relevance to this post, why didn't we listen to Newbigin?? Hindsight is a wonderful thing though it can also be quite a frustrating thing, depending on what you are trying to do. For example, for the Church in the UK who are now seeking/needing to reach out into an increasingly multicultural society we find, on the whole, that we are not equipped to do so by and large. However, consider the following extract concerning Bishop James Edward Lesslie Newbigin (8 December 1909 – 30 January 1998) who was a British theologian,missiologist, missionary and author. He returned to England in the early 1970's from his long missionary service and travel in India. He tried to communicate the serious need for the church to once again take the Gospel to post-Christian Western culture, which he viewed not as a secular society without gods but as a pagan society with false gods. Now imagine this. Everyone listened, every Church geared itself up and pre...

In recent years I have been in the habit of following a Bible reading programme that takes through the whole bible in a year. This has been a very profitable discipline which, if nothing else strikes you in this blog, I commend to the reader! This year I have been following a schedule that goes through the bible in chronological order and recently I arrived in the new testament after about nine months of following the rise and subsequent decline of the people of Israel. It is within that context that I am beginning to read through the new testament and, as a result, I have been struck afresh at the new life of Christ that comes bursting forth in the pages of the gospels in the same way as Jesus Himself came bursting forth into His creation about 2000 years ago! The stirrings of prophetic utterance after almost 400 years of silence, the word and the Spirit issuing forth the good news of the gospel and the coming of the Kingdom .... awesome! To marvel from this fresh perspective a...

Why must I choose? Polarising can be a useful technique when writing articles, including blogs. Writing strongly from one perspective enables a pithier piece of writing which then provokes more response. However, it can also create tribes,  people who share a particular opinion, gather around them likeminded people and then draw together evidence from said people in order to strengthen their own position. Unfortunately, when things are presented in such a way they create false choices - in other words, if we reflect a little more deeply we realise that there is in reality, no choice that has to be made. It is not an either/or situation and it would be more accurately presented as both/and. An example... Qu: Is there still a need to send missionaries from the UK, supported by the UK Church, to other countries around the world? Many argue that there is, and continue to follow a traditional model of sending, others say that there is not and would argue that our resou...

This year I am celebrating my silver wedding anniversary ... Just for something to do I have begun to sketch all the houses we have lived in during that time. So here is house number #5 A rather quaint fisherman's cottage, tucked back off the main road coming out of Paignton towards Totnes/Brixham.  This was our first family home, a small two-bedroomed cottage in easy reach of the town centre, which we rented for about eighteen months. Things of significance that happened here: There was no parking, so I arranged to park my car in the car park of a nearby office. Unfortunately this meant that the car had to be removed from said car park by 7:30am every morning except Sunday. No lie-ins, however as we had two children under 2 years these were a long distant memory anyway. For the first time, we became settled in a local Church community, Living Waters AoG Church in Preston, Paignton. This fellowship has seen a lot of changes over the years, but continues to ...

Doers, Leters and Becomers ... Which are you? There are lots of different tools which can be helpful in enabling us to gain a better understanding of who we are, how we function and how we affect others of differing personalities to ourselves. Recently, I read an interesting article in which the author proposed that there are THREE basic christian viewpoints. Basically in the form of a triangle - with each viewpoint at the apex, in other words, we may find ourselves anywhere within the triangle and that would represent the balance, or mixture, that describes who we are. These three ‘types’ are: The Doers - they want to know what God desires of them, and then they do it. The Leters  - they focus on waiting en god seeking his face and letting him change us and work through us The Becomers - their focus is entering into being the kind of person God wants them to be, to be transformed inwardly in order to reflect the nature of Christ outwardly. So what? These...

This year I am celebrating my silver wedding anniversary ... Just for something to do I have begun to sketch all the houses we have lived in during that time. So here is house number #4 At the end of our year at Drayton Hall we were faced again with the question ... what next? Should we stay and engage with the ministry of Kerygma? Should we move on to new things? What was God saying?  One thing that was on our hearts at this point was schools work and seeking ways for the Church to engage with education. On top of this an opportunity to take on a role of youth leader with our sending Church in Torbay opened up ... so we moved into this. To support us in this we moved in with Mrs Bs parents for a year at the wonderful Mirador in Preston, Paignton, Devon. Initially staying there between July'94 and Oct'95, though we have returned many times since as it was the base for us whenever we returned from periods overseas right up until 2005 when we made a more permanen...

  What is Baptism? Very briefly I believe that it: identifies the believer with the Godhead - Father, Son and Holy Spirit identifies the believer with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.   is an act of obedience for the believe.   is a public testimony and an outward confession of an inward experience.   is a picture representing profound spiritual truth of new life in Christ. Who is to be baptised? I believe that the act of baptism, whether in a river, a bucket, a swimming pool or a dustbin (I have seen them all) is for those able to make a confession of faith for themselves. This may be at quite a young age, but the person being baptised needs to be in a position to understand what he or she is doing. This is different from being able to fully grasp the importance of what they are doing or the full ramifications of it, which no one of us truly ever knows! Six simple steps with huge ramifications! I was visiting a church...

This year I am celebrating my silver wedding anniversary ... Just for something to do I have begun to sketch all the houses we have lived in during that time. So here is house number #3 On our return to the UK we were faced with the question that faces all people in transition, what next? For us, we were encouraged by our friends to investigate further training and opted to spend a year with Kerygma ministries. We joined with a group of some 20 other people from various different cultures and backgrounds to join the ministry led by Dr Bob Gordon, based at Drayton Hall near Norwich. We spent one year here, between September 1993 and July 1994.   Significant events that took place here included: Suffered reverse culture shock, as I grappled with the transition from life in a mudhut in Africa to life in the UK in a Manor House! (Struggled with the amount of money being spent on a sign that was being placed outside ...

  Christian mysticism In the past year I have read a number of articles and books on the topic of Christian mysticism. (A good starting point would be the aptly entitled Christian Mysticism W R Inge, in which the author traces the history of Christian mysticism, the dangers and pitfalls of pursuing a particular line of thought too far but, most importantly, the riches that can come through exploring mystery.) What does it mean? For the purposes of this blog I will use Inge’s helpful definitions: Religious Mysticism may be defined as the attempt to realise the presence of the living God in the soul and in nature, or, more generally, as the attempt to realise, in thought and feeling, the immanence of the temporal in the eternal, and of the eternal in the temporal.   The mystic makes it his life's aim to be transformed into the likeness of Him in whose image he was created. Now, beginning with the assumption that all believers acknowledge that we could not work ...