Shoutlouder

sunday revisited

// March 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Sunday

It was the week when the Clocks went forward so always fun to see who forgets. The funniest thing had to be a number of iPhone friends who all use it as an alarm clock and changed the time before going to bed – not realising that the iPhone automatically accounts for daylight saving and so they ended up waking 2 hours earlier instead of 1!!!

Anyhow – great Sunday morning in Leeds. This was our 5th Sunday in the building and only my 3rd time preaching on the new stage. I have to say I’m still getting used to it. It feels like the lights are only 2 feet away which makes you feel like you’re preaching in the Sahara – and we still need to work on some of the lighting and sound to make it work best for the entire room. But the experience of being in a new building has been amazing! We’ve had a few people over the weeks arrive simply because they pass the building on the bus or on the way to work in a morning… talk about location, location, location.

Been preaching for the last couple of week on ‘Keeping it Burning’. We’ve entered a great season in the life of the church. Last week one of the girls got healed right in the middle of the service without any special laying on of hands. Plus we’re seeing a couple of decisions to follow Christ every week. But one thing I want to see on everyone’s agenda is the need for us to actually REACH the people in our world and not just have a happy club on a Sunday.

Leviticus 24:1-4 is one of those little nuggets of Old Testament Gold. It talks of the instructions given to Aaron to keep the lamps burning that it up the place where God’s presence resided amongst the Israelites. God’s instructions were that the lamps must be kept burning ‘continually!’ The people of Israel were to know where their God was night and day!

Jesus passed these instructions onto us when he said “you are the light of the world…” It’s our responsibility now to ’shine’ and make known the presence of God on planet earth! And this is not some day job or hobby… but we need to keep on shining continually!

We need to tend the LIGHT OF LIFE that is within us and ensure that we are shining at all times!

the iPhone really has changed my life

// March 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Self-Development

For all you religious types don’t worry… Jesus is still the biggest agent of change in me… But I have to say having an iPhone has made a huge difference in the way I work and communicate with others. Here’s a few thoughts how:

1 Personal study: when I study the Bible and prepare for preaching I love to search through the Bible to find similar instances of words and themes. BiP (Before iPhone) I would have to do this at home on a computer using something like Bible Gateway. But now.. AiP (After iPhone) I can access and search the Bible anywhere using the YouVersion app. Which means I can now sit out in coffee shops to prepare…. (which is where I am right now!)

2 Twitter: I love to twitter. BiP again i could only do this on the computer.. But now AiP I can keep uptodate any time of the day.

3 Social Networking: I love it that I can connect with people all day and share thoughts and photos whenever! (as long as I don’t forget my family)

4 Time Management: everything is now synced so i’m not keeping multiple calendars… Which hopefully means I’m never late! Plus our media team are now using Task2Gather.com for keeping track of all the jobs we have on the table… and of course there is a nice little Task2Gather app for the iPhone!

5 iPod: I never had an iPod BiP but now AiP I have one combined in my phone which means my commuting to Sheffield every week is never short of great podcasts to listen to…

6 Blogging: I’m actually writing this blog on my iPhone thanks to a Wordpress app…

7 Looking Cool: an iPhone certainly helps the image!!!!

So there is just a few ways in which this phone is really helping make me more productive and more connected to what God is doing in my world. I just need to stay off the games (all deleted!!) and make sure when I’m home I actually talk to my kids and don’t communicate with my wife via facebook!

Make technology your slave… And not the other way around!

tough stuff

// March 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Inspiration

One of those annoying ‘facts of life’ is simply that at times things get really tough! One minute you’re having a whale of a time and then next it feels like the whale just landed on you! One minute you were driving along quite happily, enjoying the fresh breeze of the ministry and good friendships and then all of sudden you’re stuck in a traffic jam with no possible exit for miles.

The point is that at some point or other you’re going to hit a wall called ‘hard’ or ‘impossible’ and you’ll be faced with two decisions: 1) stop and camp at it’s base deciding to spend the rest of your life at that level or 2) work out how to grow a few feet taller so you can climb over it!

It might seem a bit of a no-brainer to some but the truth is we often hit these walls and it doesn’t matter what we do or how much stretching we undergo the wall remains impassable!

I’ve found myself looking up at all kinds of walls. We had it as a family when my son was born and we discovered he would need a series of operations. I had it as a Pastor when suddenly I was faced with two families at war thanks to an adulterous affair. I’ve had it as a business owner when faced with the need for new clients and a stable income and I’ve had it as the head of a household when faced with balancing the budget and working out how on earth we are going to get through the next few months without resorting to eating cardboard.

What I’ve discovered through it all is that there are some walls which are only really called ‘difficult’ and ‘need-to-try-a-bit-harder’ and can easily be climbed over if you just get off your lazy backside and put in a little effort. But there are some walls which are just simply too big to deal with and it’s our mistake to try and tackle these on our own.

Too many people try to be Spiderman but they always end up being swatted back down by the scale of the task. Instead if you want to deal with the really hard things of life then the only way to become big enough to climb the wall is to let God get bigger instead!

Whatever we face in life we don’t face it alone and too often we limit God by bringing him down to our level. You’re doing life with the Creator of the Universe and yet when we hit a hard wall of ‘provision’ or ‘insecurity’ we get so fixated on dealing with the tough that we forget that his middle name is ‘tough’.

So next time you hit a wall that’s too high to scale – instead of trying to work out how YOU can climb it why not try looking to the one who’s already perched on the top waiting for you to reach up and ask for some help. We need to keep allowing God to become bigger in our world. After all He’s able to do ‘immeasureably more’ than all we can ask or imagine… so let’s give Him some place to grow!

(If you’ve got a Tall Wall Story then let me know and share how God grew in your understanding to enable you to get over it!)

time for a fresh new look

// March 28th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Blogging

I’ve finally done one of those jobs I’ve been planning to do for ages… and that is update my blog and give it a complete makeover so I hope you like the look.

(I’m particularly liking the new Wordpress upgrade that has made the whole back office running of a blog seem so much nicer and cleaner… but most of you will just be thinking “what a geek” right now!)

The last few weeks have seen some massive changes in our lives, not least being the move into the Leeds Megacentre which has been incredible. Such a huge enthusiasm and excitement buzzing around the place as people begin to get used to their new Sunday morning home.

But eventually there comes a time when just having something is not really the end result and 4 weeks-in it’s time for us to take stock and begin to engage in what this is really all about… reaching the lost in our world.

So I feel now’s the time for a new look… and a new outlook as we begin to pursue the incredible purposes of God in Leeds.