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I’ve just been involved in a great conversation on Facebook with my good friend Mr Hodges who started it off by posting a list of his top 10 movies as follows:

1 ) Lost In Translation - Sofia Coppola
2 ) One Hour Photo - Mark Romanek
3 ) The Thin Red Line - Terrence Malick
4 ) Magnolia - Paul Thomas Anderson
5 ) Road To Perdition - Sam Mendes
6 ) The Truman Show - Peter Weir
7 ) Brick - Rian Johnson
8 ) Cast Away - Robert Zemeckis
9 ) Unbreakable - M. Night Shyamalan
10 ) Meet Joe Black (such an under-rated classic) - Martin Brest

I decided to get in on the action with my ‘off the top of my head - in no particular order’ list of:

1. The Dark Knight
2. The Matrix
3. Castaway
4. The Truman Show
5. Lord of the Rings - Two Towers
6. Star Wars - Episode 4 (the original one)
7. Jurassic Park
8. Toy Story
9. Saving Private Ryan
10. the new Star Trek movie yet to be unveiled - cause you know it will turn the entire world into star trek lovers… (just seen a bootleg trailer and it looks amazing! will do for star trek what batman begins did for the batman franchise)

What’s interesting is what people think makes a good movie. Here’s an extract of our conversation so far:

Ben: these are good films but in a few years time will the dark knight really hold up?
It’s a classic fo-sho but without heath ledgers performance would there be as much too it? I dont think there would

Me: Eh? Isn’t that like saying - without Bil Murray’s performance there wouldn’t have been much to Lost in Translation… isn’t that why you think it’s such an amazing film…

Ben: A fair point to consider, there are possibly a bare handful of other actors who might have near-achieved what bill murray accomplished - and id argue that the movie is as much scarlet johansson’s as it is murrays - though lost in trans is a drama not an action movie, and so its focus is these two characters and their interaction - it lives and dies by how well these two characters interact - without any fights or car chases to support it, action movies however are about different things - if the acting is strong then thats a bonus but if the movies strength is based on the performance of one character then surely the movie as a whole isnt as strong? not to say I dont think The Dark Knight is an epic film!

Me: hmmm… I wonder if its as simple as that to seperate out the assesment of movies from different genres. I think strong acting HAS to be an essential ingredient of any great movie whether action / comedy / romance etc. To use these 2 films as illustration: Lost in Translation is actually a well crafted movie.. I just didn’t find it funny… just dark and strangely interesting… what made it watchable was the engaging characters. But the same could be said of the Dark Knight. What makes it watchable is the engaging characters of the Joker, Batman, and others. The action pretty much comes second to the quality of the actor. So surely whether you like Action, Comedy, etc. the thing that makes most films stands out is the quality of the acting.

I guess the real problem is that movie likes and dislikes is completely subjective to the viewer’s personality and their particular genre likes and dislikes. Which is why you’ll never find a chick flick in my top 10! Even if the lead role is worthy of an oscar!

I was sat watching The Matrix last night and realised how odd a movie it was to watch for the very first time. After the first 20mins we were sat there thinking “where on earth is this going?’ and yet by the end we were stunned and amazed at the brilliance of its entertainment wrapped up in a quasi-religious storyline that would supply conversation for months to follow for every Christian across the lunch table and over a coffee at church on a Sunday!

So what do you think? What makes a great movie for you? What are you looking for when you go to the cinema? What’s your top 10???

We had a great morning in our Leeds congregation yesterday. There’s just something absolutely brilliant about our meetings at the moment. It seems that everyone is so passionate about pursuing God that it fills the place with a great sense of praise, faith and expectation for God to move!

It makes such a difference when the church comes together in this kind of unity - for God responds to those who chase after him, who choose to stand on his promises and grasp hold of the inheritance he has for them.

And it’s not stopping on Sunday as I’m hearing more and more of the God-stories that are taking place during the week. The group who are so excited about the Word of God that they are now meeting together regularly to study the Bible more; the new Christian who found himself in a difficult situation at work and having found a place to cry out to God in prayer saw the whole thing turn around for good; the new opportunities for people to speak to their friends about God; new people in church every week and more importantly more people making decisions to follow Jesus than ever before!

Right now I’m doing a series from Paul’s letter to the EPHESIANS. I’m really loving just spending time in one book, slowly picking through the banquet of goodness that God has provided in his word. I could spend literally years on EPHESIANS - (I won’t - so if you’re in our Leeds congregation you don’t need to worry) - but I love how much it says about WHO WE ARE in Christ and WHAT HE HAS GIVEN us through Christ.

The greatest thing you can do in life is to discover WHO God created you to be. What has he done for you and what does that mean for you today? To discover you are created by God’s hands himself and not off some production line, to find out that you’ve been adopted to be one of his children, given the same inheritance rights as Jesus himself, seated in heavenly places, called a co-heir with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords… to know the FULL extent of God’s grace, mercy and redemption… I could go on…. but every piece of the puzzle starts to build an incredible picture of God’s love for each one of us and the incredible power and blessing he has put on our lives.

So why not try living today as the person God has created and saved you to be… start living as his child today. Imagine what you would do if you’re Dad had all the resources of heaven available at your disposal? Just imagine… then go and do!

It’s launched - the brand new site of Hope City Church!

It’s been a long wait - and a long development process but this weekend my crew of faithful and hardworking websiteers put finger to keyboard and brains into full nerd action and so at 12:30am on Sunday 2nd November the new look hopecitychurch.tv was born.

If you’ve ever been involved in the creation of a website before then you’ll understand the huge amount of thinking that has to go into something that you think should be so simple. There are so many sites telling you what makes a ‘great church website’ that if I spent time going through them all I’d still be in the planning stages of this site.

At the end of the day for us it was a necessity to build a new site as the database behind our old one had somehow got corrupt and was stoping us from effectively updating it easily. But also we did the 1st version so quickly - in fact it we built it in a marathon 36 hour non-stop nerdfest - that there were so many things we wanted to change on it that we couldn’t wait any longer.

So I hope you like the new site and it inspires you to produce something great for your own church. The best thing about this site is that it’s been completely built by guys who are part of the church. They’ve not just ‘built’ a site for the church to use - but they have a vision for it, a passion for it, a desire to see it grow and become more and more useful to the congregation and the visitors who see it. We want to still create an even better Event management system and add connectivity with social network sites like Facebook so that people can interact with it and not just pop in to check what time the meeting is on tonight.

So if you have any bright ideas on how we can connect your life to the life of the website then let me know! Or if there is something not on there that you’d find useful then post a comment. Alternatively you can leave a note to say how amazing you think it is… and I’m sure to pass on the comments to the guys who did all the hardwork and deserve the praise! (as well as pat myself on the back and sit back feeling a little pleased at a job well done!)

Enjoy!

Following on from my last post - if you are looking for inspiration on creating a great logo for you church then check out this selection on churchrelevance.com

Some of these look amazing - the nice thing is I feel quite confident that ours stands up as looking great too! (Even if I say so myself - Whoo hoo!)

This September was a momentous month for Graphic Design at Hope City Church as we actually launched a new logo that everyone - including Pastor Dave - really liked! Which is why when I read this post on “How to create the holiest logo possible”, I fell off my chair and laughed a lot with the worried thought that I may end up in hospital AGAIN!

So how holy is your church logo?

And has anyone worked out what the random circles are behind the wording on our new logo… in case you were still wondering - it’s not a crown of thorns - it’s actually 3 overlapping coffee cup stains! Three stains in one!!!

Enjoy the post!

So about 3pm on Saturday I was making my way home from looking after Gosia following her 4 day hospital stay thinking “I never want to see this place again”…. little did I know that 24 hours later I’d be in the back of an ambulance myself on the way back!

I’d just been enjoying a nice meal with our guest speaker - Pastor Tim Hall - following one of the most amazing Sunday mornings we have ever had in Leeds.

(The place was rammed and rammed with lots of new people and invited visitors too. By the end of the service we’d seen around 6 people make a decision to become a Christ-follower for the first time and the altar call was littered with people who’d fallen down under the power of the Spirit as Pastor Tim ministered healing. People we’re even getting saved during the coffee break after the service as Tim wandered around the crowds chatting with people! In the last 3 weeks we’ve seen nearly 20 decisions which is more than we’ve seen in the last 2 years put together! this is breakthrough time!)

Anyhow - I’d ordered a Sirloin steak medium rare - as all good men should order in a restaurant. The apertif’s had been enjoyable and stirred the appetite for something more. So by the time the steak arrived I was really looking forward to it, I even chomped on a few chips to let the steak sit there just beckoning to be eaten… and then finaly that moment arrived… I sliced into a piece of steak, popped it in my mouth and then…

Well.. then instead of it slithering, beautifully down my throat to be digested in good time in my stomach it decided to stop just below my voice box at the head of my gullet. In a move that was quicker than Uriah Bolt I dashed for the nearest toliet where I spent the next 15 mins trying to throw up the piece of steak that was admantly trying to stay put at all cost. And we tried everything - Colin Blois enjoyed a few minutes thumoing my back until my Youth Pastor took the opportunity to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre on me which I know he secretly enjoyed! But all to no avail!

The following couple of hours involved a Paramedic on a bike who could do nothing… as you’d expect from any emergency response that arrives by pedal power. Then an ambulance (first time for everything). then I found myself in the same waiting room as last week waiting the for the same doctors to tell me I had something stuck in my throat! They even X-Ray’d me to make sure I could still breathe after which I was very relieved to be told I could - even though by this time I’d been in the hospital 2 hours so I figured out myself that either I’m David Blane or I can actually breathe!

Finally off to Ward 91 and the lovely doctors and nurses who were able to care for me and do nothing else about the piece of steak stuck in my throat other than to inject some drug into my arm 3 times and say, “It’ll work it’s way down eventually”. And it did… sometime around 3am I guess - but I was asleep and woke to the lovely feeling of a ragged gullet and a sore throat soothed only by a good cup of English Tea!

So here I am back home thinking that was the week that was and just very glad that God is bigger than a piece of steak stuck in my throat!

The last week has certainly been an interesting one. My dear wife Gosia has been having a few breast feeding issues over the last few weeks that eventually led us to turning up to A&E on Tuesday morning to try and get some final resolution to the problem. Turned out she’d developed an abcess (not nice but quite common from the sounds of it) and so needed a small op to sort things out. Well a small op on the NHS usually means waiting until a theatre is available on a long list and so finally on Friday morning after 3 nights waiting (mostly in a hospital room) she finally got sorted.

I’m writing this from the Hospital cafe (which is frustratingly shut cause I need a decent coffee) on a Saturday morning with the hope that at some point today she may be able to come home. The odd benefit of the week however has been some quality time spent with my daughter who now finally knows who I am after spending the last few months busily working too hard. Even Gosia joked this week - “So this is what I have to do to finally get some time with you…”! Bit extreme…

The other benefit of the week has been interacting with a whole host of different people and the few conversations that have taken place that will hopefully see them move one step closer to God!

One step closer?

One step closer - that’s an odd thing in this day and age as it seems the world has locked itself into the mentality of a junk food, fast food, want it now or not at all type of thinking. It’s even worked its way into our churches and our understanding of Christian living. Christians find themselves all over the world being given the unrealistic fast food challenge to ’save’ people every week, to ‘get’ people to church in any way possible. Churches think that by posting a billboard, handing out a few flyers and starting church with a ‘contemporary item’ that people are going to fall over themselves to get saved and ‘hey presto’ we have revival.

The problem with that kind of thinking is the misconception of our role on planet earth! The key determining factors that make it possible for eternity to invade the broken heart of a person is completly beyond any of our control! After all wasn’t it God who said “I build the church - you just grow and water it“? We can encourage it, we can engage in the journey, we can add salt and seasoning to the taste of it – but for us to be able to ’save’ someone infers that we hold some divine ability to personally reconnect the eternal power supply to a broken and sin ridden life. If that was the case then wouldn’t we be doing it every week, every day, every conversation…

The truth is that we’re not called to SAVE we’re simply called to RECONCILE and they are two incredibly different things! Jesus saves - we simply set up the appointment! (2 Corinthians 5:17-20) Father God’s role for His people was never to get worked up trying to do the work of the divine - that’s all done and dusted… the chasm has been crossed, the bridge has been built, the path paved and grace lined up for every person! All that He’s waiting for now is for His people to point others towards the gate… that’s where we come in!

We’re the signpost, the appointment maker, the introducer, the match-maker, the salesman at the door, the Big-issue worker standing on corner, the announcer over the tanoy, the lighthouse pointing to safe-harbour… all we can do is attempt to connect and engage with people in our world so that THEY can make a decision to walk towards the bridge emblazoned with the word Eternity.

I’ll expand on this thought in some posts over the next couple of weeks! I hope you’ll join me in discussing what it really means to be His witnesses to the end of the earth!

I started this year with a whole bunch of goals and stuff I wanted to finally nail this year. Just personal growth markers that I really wanted to move forward in - stuff I knew wouldn’t be easy but would take some will power and discipline to sort out.

One of those areas was my weight. For the past decade it seems like I’ve added a couple of pounds a month as I’ve slowly risen from about 13stone when I met Gosia to over 18stone… Most people say I don’t look overweight cause I “carry it well..” but I really hate that thought. I don’t want to be carrying anything!

Anyhow - after seeing a couple of friends lose huge amounts of weight on the Cambridge Diet I’ve decided to put myself through it. Basically it consists of a selection of Soups / Shakes and Porridge that provide all your RDA nutrients and vitamins and some carbohydrate and protein - but effectively you only get 550 calories a day and before long your body starts to eat up the reserves. Plus on top of it all you need to drink 2.5 litres of water a day.

Well this is Day 2 of however many I need to do it for… (probably 2 months)… and it’s certainly a case for some serious will power! Especially when my office is a couple of doors away from the Conferencing Kitchen at the Sheffield Megacentre… with its trays of Conference Buffet food and… the smell… oh the smell…

The thing is it’ all about determination - I’ve determined to lose weight and now this is the final act. When I stood on the weighing scales with my ‘diet counsellor’ (oh yes - I have a diet counsellor) and I saw it flash up 18 Stone 11 Pounds… I thought flip! I really need to do this. Discipline is the fruit of determination. If discipline is bashed into you then you’re likely to rebel from it at some point. But if YOU can determine to do something then you will most likely accomplish it.

If you’re waiting for someone to show you how, sort you out, make you do what is needed etc. etc. then you’re likely to be sitting around doing nothing for quite some time. Even a personal trainer at the Gym will only help you when you DETERMINE to turn up for the sessions on a regular basis.

So I’ve determined to lose weight and that’s what’s stopping me right now from raiding the fridge and snaffling some crisps.

It’s certainly going to be an interesting few weeks - but hopefully you should see me shrink before your very eyes!

The last few weeks seem to have been absolutely rammed with work so huge apologises for not blogging. I am just about getting back into the swing of things as deadline after deadline begins to pass by - having been finally accomplished. This is indeed the life of a Pastor / Graphic Designer!

My youth pastor asked me the other day “how on earth do I manage everything?” after I’d made some comment about being run off my feet but still going. It’s an interesting thought - but I guess the answer is I don’t really think about it. Thinking about it would lead to such dead end cul-de-sacs of stupid questions (or whinges) such as “am I really coping?” - “should so much be expected of me?” - “my senior pastor doesn’t care enough for me and my family?” - “I don’t think I’m being paid enough to work so hard…?” - etc. after stupid etc.

The real answer I’ve found is to stop asking questions and get on with what you’ve been called to do! My passion is to build God’s church and so that will require me to do whatever it takes. The great thing is I have a God who cares about my family, who cares about my health, who cares about how I am doing and who cares about how much I get back from what I do… so why not leave those things in His very capable hands. That doesn’t mean I leave my brain at the door when planning my time… but it does mean that I know that for everything there is a season. Right now we’re in that pioneering and launching season till you drop… and my wife appreciates it and releases me to it - but October will soon swing round and we’ll start riding the wave of momentum that we created during the last season!

So - if you’re wondering how to cope with everything - stop wondering, stop wasting thinking time on it and just get on with it!

(If you’re married - pop into the Co-op on the way home, buy your wife some flowers, have dinner and then make sure you switch the channel to a good chick flick before you make your excuses and disappear into your office for a late night!)

Anyhow - back to work… I can’t spend all night blogging… (not just yet anyhow!)

I’ll be spending the next couple of days in Sweden thanks to an opportunity to attend Scott Wilson’s Eurolead.net conference with keynote speaker Paul Scanlon.

It’s a conference specifically aimed at senior pastors and leaders so it will be interesting to see how much time is taken up discussing the events of the past few weeks in the Christian World!

Anyhow - as I’ve decided to leave the trusty laptop at home - it’ll be good to be away from it - you can follow my trip on Twitter. I’ll be sure to post some of the best thoughts when I’m back!