Shoutlouder

the perfect curry night out

// August 15th, 2008 // No Comments » // Book Review, Inspiration

So I’m feeling almost as happy as Team Sprint GB thanks to blogging friend Scott Rodgers who decided that my bribe to take him out on the ‘perfect curry night out in Leeds’ was worthy of the Gold Medal – or in his case a copy if ‘IT‘ which I will duly read and review for all of you who have no idea what I am talking about!

I love his comment on the blog though saying that he has ‘no idea what a perfect curry night out means’ so he’ll have to give it a try – which made me realise HOW FORTUNATE I am to live in the amazing Great Britain!

Our athletes right now are competing in probably their best games for as long as I can remember. There’s a sense of victory in the air that seems to be compelling the athletes on. I’ve found myself watching snippets of the olympics this week and seeing a country that seems to have lost its boring quiet optimism and graceful sportsmanship and instead got back a Lion’s roar – and it shows – we’ve started winning things!

I love the fact they were interviewing the Cycling guys this morning and it wasn’t “Well, let’s hope for the best…” instead it was “We can do this – we’ve never been better, never been more on form…”

It took us 7 days in the Athens Games to get our first Medal – after 7 days in Beijing we have EIGHT and we still have one of our best weekends for winning medals to come with more cycling, rowing and athletics to come.

Brits for years have been known as ‘plucky’ – the underdogs who seem to keep on coming back and trying and trying again. And yet our heritage is that we are a nation that conquered and led most of the known world.

I guess its time for the Lion to start roaring again.

You were never born to be ‘plucky’ – you were born to be a Kingdom builder, more than a conqueror – you were born a winner from the very first moment that you won the race to the egg!

Which randomly brings me back to the best curry night out in Leeds – because that’s something else we can be proud of. After all – the Brits invented curry – it’s true (in a way) – and if you’ve never been out late on a Friday night in the middle of leeds and took in a late night Tikka Makhani at my favourite Akbars Restaurant then you’ve missed out on something. You can guarantee that most of Team GB will be sitting around supping their energy drinks and chomping on a protein bar with dreams of Olympic glory interupted every now and then as their minds wander back to the first thing they’ll do when they get home to a much greater Great Britain… go out for a curry!

holy speed shopping

// August 14th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Faith, Inspiration

Even before the entire global economy went into meltdown I’ve not been one for spending money on stuff without thinking whether I’m getting a good deal for my money. It seems that even buying a bag of crisps will set you back a months salary these days and so the idea of ’shopping around’ is ever more on the agenda if you want to get a good deal. You can even shop around for your electricity these days!

However, after a number of attempts to Google the entire planet in search of the cheapest possible means through which I can buy a litre of milk and a tin of beans I’ve decided that I simply don’t have time to shop around.. so I’m just going to have to ‘faith’ it…

I haven’t come to this conclusion wildly either as I’ve recently had two occasions where I’ve bought something on the spur of the moment and the nudge of the Spirit and walked away with an amazing bargain. And I did it without a shopbot in a mile of my fingertips. I like to think of it as Holy Speed Shopping!

The first occasion was back in October when I’d had a pretty cool day and things were going well when I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me and say – “why don’t you check out the Skoda Garage today?”… Now you might be thinking that here’s God having a bit of a laugh with me.. but the truth was I’d been thinking about buying a Skoda Octavia for a few months because they’re big, reliable and relatively cheap. So after finding myself down at the dealership and scouting out the Octavia’s on show, I come across a gorgeous silver Honda Accord, about 2 years old with only 8000 miles on the clock and its Automatic as well! (For anyone reading this from a developed country – the UK for some reason still sells mostly Manually operated cars as opposed to the labour saving automatic gearbox). It’s ticking all the boxes including the fact its NOT a skoda and by the end of the afternoon I’ve got a part-exchange for £1000 off my old heap plus another £750 of the price through haggling and a deposit paid! Now – how often do you go and buy a car in one day, having looked at only one dealership!

The second recent occasion of Holy Speed Shopping was after thinking about buying my family an LCD TV to replace the heap we had at home. There again came the Spirit nudge and before I knew it I’m in the shop picking up a TV with over £200 off the price…

You may call me jammy – you may call me other names I can’t write down – but whatever it is I’m pretty grateful for the fact that moneysupermarket.com has nothing on doing life with the Holy Spirit. And before you start assaulting me for trivialising my relationship with God down to the level of consumerism – isn’t the idea that we do ALL our life with Him? So if it’s important to involve God in the big decisions of our lives then why not in the decisions that cost us our hard earned cash. After all – every bargain God brings my way leaves more cash in the bank to invest and sow! And more importantly He knows how much I really do HATE shopping around…

big sundays at Hope City continued…

// August 10th, 2008 // No Comments » // Inspiration, Sunday

I love Sundays – especially at the moment – as even though it’s summer and many people are away there seems to be lots of new faces around, some fresh growth and the worship and atmosphere in our meetings has been really filled with a faith-filled expectation and a real sense of God’s awesome Presence. It looks like as we head into September and we start out in our new building then we’re going to see a great season of growth and increase – that’s what I’m declaring and believing for as that’s the inheritance God has for his church!

(If you’re new in church make sure you come and say hi sometime soon as before long I’m going to lose track of who everyone is…)

Just finished Part 4 of my UNPACKED series today – and the final part… we’ve done the SOVEREIGN JESUS, the LIBERATING JESUS, the PROVIDING JESUS and today we looked at the ultimate topic of all, our SAVIOUR JESUS. I’ll be sorting some podcasting out this week so they should all soon be available to download and listen to if you’ve missed any of them.

Key verse today is from Hebrews 10:12-23 which speaks of Jesus being the amazing ONCE and for all sacrifice for us. The central understanding of God’s incredible GRACE being that he has done it all… he’s the Divine Bridge Builder who crossed the chasm between Man and Himself after centuries of Man attempting to cross an uncrossable divide. Instead God in his amazing love for His creation chose to cross it Himself.

A key theme of my UNPACKED series has been that Jesus is not for a once-in-a-lifetime moment in history when you give your life to Him but He is our Loving, Living God who is ALL we need for every day… Salvation is not something that just happened when you were 15 in a church listening to a preacher… but it is a POWERFUL act of God taking place everyday of your life as you allow His FORGIVENESS and HEALING bring constant transformation…. “being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory” (2 Cor 3:18)…

So stop allowing your past failures, insecurites, temptations, hang ups, illnesses and whatever issues clog your life… and live with the incredible power of salvation at work in your life bringing forgiveness, healing and wholeness to each and everyone of us…

I’ve really loved preaching this series – make sure you leave a comment if it’s made an impact in your life in someway!

Next week we’ve got our 0-30s Pastor – Dale Adkins preaching for the first time on a Sunday morning so that is going to be a Sunday not to be missed! Plus it’s Church Picnic weekend – so ‘Father God – please send some Sun!!’

solving theological conundrums via skype…

// August 1st, 2008 // 4 Comments » // Faith, Inspiration

Just been skyped by a friend with a theological conundrum to be answered – I liked my response so much I thought it’s worth posting on my blog. Feel free to add any further comments or questions on this issue in the comments below!

Friend:

I have a theological question thats hurtin my head chris would you care to give an insight?
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Chris:

indeed
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what’s your question?
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Friend:

christ gives us more than we abundantly ask for…….. so should we accept more because surely that contradicts the situation
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and how do we live by faith knowing that God is going to give us all we ask for
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Chris:

good question
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a key passage is that God is “ABLE TO DO more than all we can ask or imagine according to the power at work WITHIN US”… (Ephesians 3:20)
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the thing here is to understand the relationship WE have with God
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God has an abundance that he wishes to pour out
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but we also have a responsibility to engage with the power at work WITHIN US
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so God doesn’t just give us what we ask for… there is a transaction between faith and blessing
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Friend:

How does that work then?
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see Malachi 3:10
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God was ready to open up the STOREHOUSES of heaven and pour out more blessing than you could imagine on the people…
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but the people had to bring the WHOLE tithe into the house
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God’s blessing – meets the people’s faith…
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Friend:

So is it just a case of tithing properly then?
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Chris:

tithing is one aspect of expressing your faith in God – trusting him with your finances and being obedient.. but God’s looking for faith in every area of our life
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so you ask God – I need a job…. he’s looking for the faith in you to go knocking on the doors of great jobs…
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you ask God – I need a car…. he’s looking for the faith in you to pray and believe God can provide a miracle… he may also be looking at the motive of your heart too!
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Friend:

ok thank you
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much better than the answer someone else gave – lol he confused me a lil
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Chris:

My pleasure…

journey's into design… now my brain hurts!

// July 31st, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Inspiration, Leadership, Self-Development

I’ve just spent the best part of two days now working on the soon to be launched website for my Senior Pastor – the beige destroyer himself – Dave Gilpin. (I’ll afford a link here to the ‘not-yet-launched’ site for anyone reading this after about one week from now – otherwise you’ll currently only get the Hope City Church site).

I decided that I’d be incredibly geeky and try my hand at building the site on a Wordpress platform – as is this blog – as it seems everyone is suggesting these days that Wordpress is the latest CMS of choice.

Well for a basic novice who knows how to manipulate the odd-style sheet – I have to say its been a labour of ‘almost’ love. But really pleased at the result – even more so since Dave actually like it!

My designing days have been an interesting development of trial and error since the only design qualifications to my name is a solitary A-Level in Art and Design. It all started with a desktop PC in the church office that had a programme called Corel Draw (version 2 I think – that’s how long ago it was) and some Student Posters that needed making. Before long I was created a few flyers for the church, then a brochure for our training academy, then a website and before you know it I’m a freelance graphic designer earning my own living.

Well – maybe it wasn’t as simple as all that!

The hardest part of all this is presenting the final draft to Dave – as he’s not exactly known for the ‘pastoral put-down’. If he thinks its rubbish then he’ll say it… which I have to say has led to many frustrating and de-motivating moments in my graphic design journey. But – there’s always been a sharpening edge from Dave that doesn’t leave you gasping for air – but instead seems to propel you forward to do better, to excel where you thought you’d reached a dead end.

Most people take criticism falling down – one negative word and you’re out for the count. But I’ve chosen to accept that often my first work isn’t always my best. Whether its a website, a flyer or even a message for preaching on Sunday – my first draft is only the starting point. If you’re involved in any kind of project or task – don’t settle for just ‘winging-it’ on your first attempt. Do your best – then step back and determine to improve on what you’ve just done. 9 out of 10 times you can come up with something better!

So next time you’re feeling the sharpening edge of a mentor or leader – make a decision to allow the sharpening to proceed because it only leads to greater experience and success in your life.

sunday focus

// July 28th, 2008 // No Comments » // Inspiration, Sunday

It was so good to be at church on Sunday. When I miss a week I really MISS a week. There is just something so refreshing about hanging out with some of the best people in my life on a Sunday morning, worshipping God and getting stuck into something fresh from the Word.

I have moments when I find my brain stepping back and thinking about the randomness of what we do in life. Like – just think how random it is for a bunch of people to turn up at the same place week after week, sing songs to a Karaoke style screen with all but the bouncing ball, listen for 30mins to someone talking (or shouting, or being all dramatic… depending on where you go), then have coffee and go home! That may be over simplifying things – but the truth is that within all that we do here is something really healthy about living a life with a regular discipline of being at church.

I’ve particularly enjoyed the last few weeks in church as there’s a fresh buzz in the place. People seem engaged like never before. There’s an expectancy for God to move! There’s a sense of God’s presence in the worship and people are hearing and responding to the preaching of the Word. We’re within a couple of months of being in our own (and first) building in Leeds, yet it’s more than just the excitement of having a building – God has brought together a real family of people who will do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine!

I just finished a series (probably – although I may do a couple more) called UNPACKED: Unpacking who Jesus really is! You can read the intro to the series on my earlier post. But this week was part 3… unpacking Jesus who is the Bread of Life (John 6:25-35)- the great Sustainer, the staple diet of every Christian life!

I’m just really determined to see people get a fresh look at Jesus. Too many Christians build their lives on the one revelation of God that they got when they became a Christian. They hang off the words of some preacher for the rest of their lives, one altar call, one ‘light-on’ moment – and yet Jesus is so much bigger than a once in a lifetime revelation. Even Paul, who found himself on his knees on a road to Damascus being greeted by all the Glory of Christ himself, wandered off for a decade to seek to understand this Christ who had revealed Himself before launching out on any ministry.

If we could just determine to know Jesus Christ in a fresh way each and every week or month of our life (I won’t say ‘day’ because you’d never keep that up!) then we’d still only be scratching the surface of who he really is. And yet it is the fundamental question that anyone of us can ask – “WHO DO YOU SAY HE IS?” If the answer to that question originated more than a year ago then I suggest it’s time to seek Him afresh again – cause He’s got a lot more about Himself to reveal… and it’s going to blow your socks off!