Shoutlouder

fullness of christ…

// April 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Media, Music

Our media guys have just released the latest music video from the album Devoted – it’s called Fullness of Christ! (I’ll try not to be too proud of the fact it’s written by Leed’s very own Mr Dave Adam and it’s filmed on the 3rd floor of our amazing Megacentre!!) Check it out and make sure you leave loads of encouraging comments for the Media guys in Sheffield who are amazing! (it’s best viewed when viewing this post in it’s own page – ie. click on the blog post title first so you get the full widescreen!)

sunday revisted

// April 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Sunday, wisdom

I loved speaking about Marriage on Sunday. The whole thing came about simply through the prompting of the Spirit… and to be honest it didn’t take a lot of prompting to realise that around church there are a lot of single guys eyeing up the single girls… so it seemed more than apt to bring up the subject of love and marriage. But more than that I believe that’s part of the role of a Pastor is to bring wisdom to the big subjects that can often rule our lives!

So I really enjoyed speaking on Marriage as it gave me a chance to dig deep into a subject and bring out some clear wisdom from the Word of God. And as it turned out it also gave everyone a great opportiunity to laugh at all the fopah’s that a preacher is bound to make when talking about Sex and Marriage with his wife sitting on the front row! Anyhow – I think I managed to get away with not too many embarassing revelations…

My key thought was to look at what God Intended for us in the first place. You just need to look at the first couple of chapters of Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve to see that God intended man and woman to be in marriage from the moment He created us. Marriage didn’t happen after a few weeks when God saw how good Adam & Eve looked together! He didn’t warm up to Adam and say.. have you thought about asking Eve out? No marriage was the form in which God created them both.

God also intended from the begining that we’d have someone suitable - that He has someone in mind for you who is the right person, so we need to stop pursuing any and every good looking chick or hunk when we should be pursuing God’s purpose for our life.

God intended for us to become ONE in marriage - an expression of His own ONEness and the ONEness we find in our relationship with Christ. How amazing is that – and that’s why sex is for marriage alone!

Finally God intended that we walk in the garden with Him. Adam was ashamed after eatin the apple and hid – he missed walking in the Garden with his Lord. But praise God that Jesus came and died for the sin that we have so that once again we can walk in the Garden with our Lord. Don’t worry what’s in your past or how badly you’ve done relationships / marriage. You can start afresh under His grace!

Love to hear any testimonies of lives changed though – make sure if you were there that you leave a comment and let me know how God has impacted your life! That’s what it’s all about after all.

I was left almost in tears on Sunday night as a young girl testified to how a prophetic word I’d given literally saved her from going through with suicidal thinking. I found the whole experience incredibly humbling and left me in awe of the incredible work that God can do through us when we allow Him the liberty to move!

So I’m believing for marriages and relationships to thrive in Hope City Church because of the foundations we began reinforcing on Sunday.

how things have changed… or tw'anged

// April 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Blogging, Social Network, Twitter

I wrote this post last August before Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry brought Twitter to the forefront of British social media… (yes by then I’d be tweeting for quite some time!)…  just thought a few of you may appreciate it’s thoughts now more so than back then! Be nice to hear what you think too!

Check it out: Surely I have better things to do than blog!

focusing on a new season

// April 24th, 2009 // No Comments » // Self-Development

We’ve had a great Easter in church – exciting to see so many new faces around. One of the best things has been hearing about people who have literally walked in off the street because they have seen the huge billboard / sign that is hung up over the front of our building. One of the benefits of having a front that faces directly onto a busy dual carriageway!

The Big Getaway was fantastic as usual… even more so this year as everything just felt a little bit easier and more familiar at good old Cliff College. It probably also had something to do with the fact that we were sleeping in one of the Conference dorms near to the Conference Centre and I didn’t have to trek up the huge hill 10 times a day to the Main College complex. Not only that but all the memories of spending 2 years of my life in the college… kind of scrambles your brain. So this year I didn’t go anywhere near the College part and it felt like I was somewhere else completely!

But Easter is over for another year and now I’m looking towards the new season in the run up to our summer. There’s plenty to pack in from new Connect groups to relaunching our Friday night Youth at the Megacentre. Plus there’s the bLink Summit coming up, a special tour with Steve Kennedy from Australia and finally as we hit the summer – Summerfest is back!

If you’re not careful you can blink and miss plenty of stuff that is happening – which is why I’m really hoping to take some time this next week to get my head round everything and make sure that I’m fully focused and covering all the bases. That can be hard sometimes in leadership because there is SO much to consider as well as SO much needing to be done – but I guess the key to it all is MAKING the time to think and plan. It can’t just always be do, do, do – work isn’t just about being able to say you sat at the computer all day, or managed to paint the loos (which need doing when I think about it!). Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is actually to stop… and take stock. Make some plans, write some to-do lists, make a few phone calls and get everything clear and in order – and then get on with the do-ing!

What do you need to stop and take careful consideration of today? What’s crying out for some thinking time? Don’t put it off as often these things are the most important things to be considered!

Take time to think! Take time to focus on the new season!

bye bye mac book pro… hello mac book pro

// April 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // General

So a really annoying thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago – my mac book pro got nicked! I won’t call it my ‘laptop’ as mac’s are WAY above such a common designation as ‘laptops’ but nonetheless it dissapeared thanks to the coinciding of a passing thief and a moment of opportunity.

Hence the reason I’ve been quiet on the blogging for the last couple of weeks. Plus on top of all that we’ve had Easter, the Big Getaway and plenty of design work to keep me busy as usual.

Thankfully, (as I force myself to write this on the PC) tomorrow (hopefully) a courier will drop a brand new Mac Book Pro off at my house and the journey may continue. It’s at this moment in this post I also have to Praise Almighty God and probably show some appreciation to Steve Jobs as well for Time Machine (the clever Mac backup facility) which has a complete record of my hard drive just waiting to be reinstalled onto the new Mac Book.

So my dear wife is looking forward to seeing her husband dissapear into the office as I endeavour to work out how to reinstall all the rubbish I’d put on the last mac back onto the new one. Which means hopefully I’ll be typing the next post out on something that doesn’t resemble a spare part from the tardis or makes a sound like an aeroplane landing whilst it attempts to keep itself cool.

sunday revisited

// April 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // Sunday

So the best thing about Sunday – to be really honest – was the dedication of my little girl Ania. I know… I love church and we saw some people make decisions to follow Christ – which is REALLY REALLY AWESOME – but I have to say my real highlight was the dedication and a chance to place my little girl’s future into the hands of her amazing God.

Some people might think a dedication is just a nice ceremony that people do when they have kids – for some it might be a christening… but I believe EVERYTHING we do in the sight of God is significant. Whether you’re stood in an altar call, reading out marriage vows, going under the water in Baptism and the other many ceremonial practices we have around church… you can either take them as just something you do – or you can see that behind the natural there is a supernatural world at work and what we do and declare over our lives are not just words but powerful statements that resound across eternity! That might sound deep… but it’s the truth….. tha’s what Paul was trying to get across to the Ephesians when he said:

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

We get so lost in the imaginary world of movies and fiction that we forget that there is a very real, SUPERreal world at work around us and what we say, do, believe is a key to seeing the power of God at work in our lives. I fully believe that what took place over Ania’s life on Sunday morning was a powerful declaration of intent and has set her life on a collision course with the plans and purposes God has for.

Exciting stuff…!