Let's Pray!

On Palm Sunday (13th April), the Anglia Youth Band led the meetings at Stowmarket Corps. This post, and the one that will follow tomorrow, contain the message I gave at the two meetings.

After telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. As he came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, “Why are you untying that colt?”

And the disciples simply replied, “The Lord needs it.” So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on.

Luke 19:28-35 (NLT)

This may seem an unusual passage for talking about prayer, but hopefully I can uncover some new truths in a passage I am sure you have heard many times before.

In the passage, Jesus directs two of the disciples to go and fetch the colt for his ride into Jerusalem. This is not an unusual request by Jesus – he often asked the disciples to undertake strange tasks for him (e.g. casting fishing nets on a different side of the boat, feeding 5000 people with a packed lunch, etc.), and in verse 32 we see the disciples obeying this instruction. They go to the village, untie the colt and answer the owners as directed.

This immediate and obedient response from the disciples is a little out of character. Looking at just two other examples of Jesus’ requests to the disciples, you can see what I mean.

In Luke 5:4-5, we see Jesus instruct the disciples to throw their nets to the other side to catch fish, but Simon Peter’s response is “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again” – not exactly enthusiastic! It almost appears as if Simon Peter is just humouring Jesus at this point, not obeying out of faith.

Then in Luke 9:13, Jesus has just instructed the disciples to feed the 5000 men, not including women and children. What is their response? “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. “Or are you expecting us to go and buy enough food for this whole crowd?” Again, a mix of sarcasm and not much obedience!

I’m sure you can think of more times where Jesus gave instructions and the disciples were less than enthusiastic, or times where they missed the point of Jesus’ ministry.

In this passage, there is no record of what the two disciples said to Jesus after receiving their instructions. We are not even told which 2 disciples he sent, and therefore are unable to think of a possible response based on our knowledge of their personalities based on other passages. All that we have is simple obedience. Given the honest recording of the other incidents, maybe this time they really did just get on with it instead of talking back. After all, by this point, they had spent 3 years with Jesus. Their faith would have grown, as seen by this obedience.

But what about us?

How do we react to Jesus’ instructions?

How do we receive his instructions?

Are we like the disciples in this passage, or the other times?

As Christians, we are to follow Christ’s directions just as much as the disciples did. When we pray, when we read our Bibles, when we attend church services, we should be coming with hearts open to hearing God’s directions. And once we hear them, we should step out in faith like the disciples.

But this wasn’t an immediate faith and belief the disciples had. It was developed over time. We too must develop our faith by spending time with God. We can do this through our prayers, Bible reading, and sharing in fellowship with other Christians.

Pray, and step out in faith, like the disciples this Easter. And if you don't yet have that faith, spend more time with him and ask for your faith to be increased.

Live Below The Line Challenge – Join In!

First off – sorry for the absence! I was having technical difficulties with the blog editor but now, I’m back!  Expect posts to be appearing at their normal rate now!

It’s been a crazy few months, but I want to start my posting again with a personal challenge I have signed up to, and would encourage you to sign up to as well.

Live Below the Line.

Have you heard of it?

The challenge is to live for 5 days on £1 a day. £5, 5 days. For all food and water. Sounds impossible. But every year, thousands of people sign up and complete the challenge, raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for their chosen charities.

Charities that aim to eradicate extreme poverty from our world – to help the 1.2 BILLION people that have to live daily on less than £1 a day.

The LBTL challenge is one I have seen other people do since it started in 2010, and I have always admired the people who complete it, and sponsor them as they work at it. But to me, it has always seemed impossible.

Great idea, but not for me.

I’ll wave the flag for you, give you money, pray for your efforts, but don’t expect ME to do it.

Then, the Divisional Youth Officer’s were challenged at FORGE (ALOVE’s Youth Worker Gathering) to set up divisional teams and ‘compete’ to raise the most money.

I could not leave my division in the lurch.

It was time to take the plunge.

I am going to live below the line.

And I am asking YOU to join me and the Anglia Division team to raise money to end extreme poverty.

For me, this is not about competing with the other Divisions. This is about finally stepping up to the plate (literally) and doing something to raise awareness other than giving money to other people and posting links to information.

We are so good at ‘supporting’ causes through social media and giving a ‘one-off’ donation. But surely we can afford to give more of ourselves, really commit to a cause and go further than we would normally go.

If you are sitting there now and thinking as I used to ‘Great, but not for me’, I want to personally challenge you now.

Why do you say that?

Is it because it will disrupt your comfort?

Is it because you don’t want the hassle?

Or is it for some other reason?

Ask God to reveal your heart and really consider taking the challenge. Push yourself.

And if you decide to take the challenge, join our team. You can sign up here: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/team/anglia-division

Please donate and share the pages of our team so we can raise money and awareness of extreme poverty if you are unable to undertake the challenge for any reason.

Please encourage others you know to join in too.

When I start the challenge, I will try and post daily updates of how its going, what I’ve eaten, what it cost me, and how I’m feeling.

Please support in any way you can.

While Shepherds Watched

I'm currently finding the song 'While Shepherds Watched' going round in my head to various tunes, and finding myself reflecting on how the Shepherds experienced the first Christmas.

Luke 2:8-20 NIV
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”   Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,   “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”  
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”   So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

It's a story we know well and see retold numerous times at this time of year, but there are always new truths to be discovered.

For me right now, the thing that strikes me most about the tale of the Shepherds, is that the angel appeared to them as they were watching their sheep. Yes, we know. That's what shepherd do. They watch sheep. How can this be the most striking thing?

The angel appeared to them as they were doing their work. I don't know about you, but I don't always expect to see an angel appear in the DHQ office. That may sound unusual for someone who works in ministry to say, but it's honest. Do you expect an angel to show up in your school, college, or work place to tell you the Saviour of the world has been born?
But that's what's so amazing. Very often, we split our life into ' God stuff' or 'Holy stuff' and 'everything else', and we limit God's ability to speak to us to those 'Holy times'. We blind ourselves to where he is in the 'ordinary' moments of our lives, where there may be an angel waiting with 'good news that will cause great joy' - the very joy or news we need to receive from God.

God did not intend life to be split this way. God created everything, even those things we don't class as part of our 'Holy' life. And if we limit God to those 'Holy' times, we can miss out on so much he has for us. Imagine how different the Nativity would be if the shepherds, having dismissed Holy things from happening in their work, simply ignored the angel appearing before them!

When we experience God in our lives, we are called to share our experience with others. After the shepherds had seen Jesus, they had to go out and share their good news with those they met! They just couldn't keep it to themselves!

If we stop ourselves from experiencing God in our ordinary lives, we can also miss out on the chance to share God's word with others. If we haven't heard it, we can't share it. And sharing our experience can be just as exciting as the original experience, and it can bless others in ways we may never hear of or understand.

Advent is a great time to start trying to expand our expectations of where we hear God, because everywhere we look we are reminded of the time of year. We can use these reminders to open our ears, minds, and hearts to receive from God.

Spend time asking God to speak to you through the ordinary. Try looking for angels as you go about your 'everyday'. You may be surprised by what you discover when you start looking for it!

Please feel free to share any experiences you have in the comments section!

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Red Sky

This morning, there was a beautiful red sunrise as I was coming into the office. As the old saying goes "red sky in the morning, sailors take warning." And with the second storm of the year set to hit us today, it seems to still be true today. Many people will have read this sign in the sky (or will have seen the weather forecast) and know some preparation is needed to keep themselves and their homes safe.

Advent is a time for us to prepare to remember Jesus` first appearance. Just as we can read the weather from the colour of the sky, we can read the coming season of Christmas  from this time of advent.

All around us the message is loud and clear. We see it in the decorations, the lights, the advent calendars, the carols, everywhere you look! Christmas is coming!

But how are you preparing yourself for the season, as many right now will be preparing for the storm? Have you read the signs that point to the true meaning of Christmas?

Or are you preparing for the gifts, fun, and family time that, for so many, is all Christmas is about?

To try and help my own preparation for Christmas, and maybe to help you too, I aim to post regularly to this blog over the next few weeks with some thoughts.

Stay tuned.

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No More Blurred Lines

I’ve been debating writing this post for a long time.

I try to keep this blog clear of my more ‘feminist’ views as when I get on that soap-box, I find it difficult to get off. And most of the time it is irrelevant to what I want to say or share through this blog.

But I can’t stay silent about this song. Because I care about the young people within the Anglia division, and throughout the whole country and world, that have been exposed to this song without maybe realising the message or culture it promotes; who sing along to the catchy tune and haven’t though about what it says.

‘Blurred Lines’ by Robin Thicke is misogynistic and promotes the victim blaming, rape culture we live in. It promotes the view that women are commodities for men to use and abuse as they like because they are ‘good girls’ who ‘want it’.

There. I said it.

Numerous University Student Union bars have already banned the song because of its content. But it still concerns me how I can turn the radio on at any time of day and hear how when a girl says ‘no’, she means ‘yes’, and that it is acceptable for men to pursue women in this way. I’ll admit, the lyrics aren’t as explicit as all that, and many critics of this view of the song say Thicke is actually putting the ball in the woman’s court, you have to really delve into the lyrics to pull out that meaning. The surface message, and most listeners will never get past that level, encourages victim blaming, ‘lad’ culture, and rape culture.

If you think this is something Christians shouldn’t be standing against, then I am concerned about your theology too. This song could encourage the oppression of women, violence and rape. You may think I’m being extreme, but music is a reflection of culture. If this wasn’t a current, cultural issue, then the song wouldn’t exist.

Our culture is full of cases where women won’t go to the police when raped because of being blamed for their own rape. Questions about what they were wearing, how they acted, etc. make them ashamed of what happened. Even when they have been completely sober, completely covered by clothes, and just walking down a street, victims are blamed for their attack and assumed to be the cause of it in some way.

Our culture has adverts in the back of local newspapers for sex chat lines and ‘massage parlours’ that are often fronts for human sex trafficking. I admit that not all sex workers are trafficked or kept there against their will, but human trafficking for the sex industry is very much a reality.

More than 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked every year.

77% are women.

87% of trafficked victims are sexually exploited.

This is a serious and growing concern that The Salvation Army is working hard to combat. More information and resources to join this fight can be found using the links at the end of this post.

The Bible is very clear that there are no ‘Blurred Lines’ regarding sex and relationships. Sex is reserved for marriage; a loving and committed relationship between a man and a woman that God has brought together. It is to be about sharing and expressing love, and not about who has control or who ‘wants it’. Its not about being ‘domesticated’ or what you wear.

I could go on for a long time about the song, it’s meaning, and why it is not something we should promote or encourage. But I feel have achieved what I aimed to in this post; raise awareness of the meaning and that as Christians it is not something we should be consuming.

Our culture is filled with negative ideas about sex, love and relationships. ‘Blurred Lines’ is not the first and, unfortunately, it won’t be the last.

I encourage you to think about what you listen to, watch, and read. Is this something that promotes the Kingdom of God, or the negative ideals of the world? What we consume will eventually change the way we act, think and speak.

“What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Mark 7:20 – 23

The Salvation Army's 'Cut It Out' Campaign - alove.salvationarmy.org.uk/cut-it-out-0

Stop the Traffik - www.stopthetraffik.org

Community Living



Me in the Big Top



I’ve just got back from spending 5 days in Shepton Mallet at Momentum. Momentum is a Christian festival for those in their 20’s and 30’s and run by Soul Survivor. Thousands of 20 and 30 somethings gathered for worship, teaching, ministry, seminars, and social activities, and God met with us incredibly.

I’ve attended the Soul Survivor events before as a youth leader, but this was my first time at Momentum. It was fantastic to go and be able to soak in God at the end of what has been a great 13 months in role.

The theme that kept rising to the surface during the week was about doing life as a community. For many years, the culture we live in has focussed on individualistic needs.

Life is all about what I want. What I need. What others can do for me.

And the more we engage with social networking sites, plug in our headphones, and play on our phones, we are becoming more and more disengaged from the depth and benefits of good friendships and communities.

More and more people feel lonely, while according to their facebook they have hundreds of friends!

I’ve experienced this loneliness. Moving away to a new city where I knew no one left me feeling lonely for a long time.

My main support and community was still up north.

Fortunately, I have since found a good group of friends (who I went to Momentum with).

But life gets hard when you don’t have that community around you. And our corps/churches are the first place we should find this community. God’s plan is for us to be in community. God himself is even in community! If its good enough for God, it’s good enough for us! And it’s a command of Jesus:

34 “I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other as I have loved you. 35 All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other.”John 13:34-35 (NCV)

The Bible is full of verses about how we can love one another and the importance of building community. Just type ‘Bible verse’ and ‘community’ into google and see the results!
But how do we build community? What if our churches aren’t places we feel supported, but a place where no one truly knows us and we feel lonely?

Start by getting to know people in the congregation! Do you go out of your way to ask people in the corps how they are, and truly want to know? Do you know what their concerns are? What good things have happened recently? By starting conversations and taking genuine interest in each others lives we begin to build community. To all the young people that read this blog, if you don’t feel comfortable speaking to the adults just yet, start with each other! You may be surprised how much you discover about each other! Why not start by spending a few minutes at the start of your group by asking what you can pray for in each others lives, or what the best thing of their week has been?

As well as community in our churches, it’s good to develop support and community outside those places. The groups and clubs we attend are often crying out for a greater sense of community. Everyone can come and meet each week, but all we do and talk about is the activity we’re engaged in. We can attend for months, years even, without knowing what is happening in the person’s life who sits next to you. And they can know just as little about us! We can’t expect community to develop on its own.

Someone has to start.

By taking the first steps, engaging people in conversation that goes beyond the mundane, we can develop community. Or how about organising some time with the group outside the normal time?

And remember to pray. Through praying for our corps and other groups we are a part of, for the people within them, for the things they share with us when we engage them in conversation, we will start to develop community.

Submerge: Go Deeper (EMASS 2013)

Another EMASS (East Midlands & Anglia Summer School) has come and passed! And once again the week was packed full of fun, fellowship, and worship. Our theme this year was ‘Submerge: Go Deeper’, so there was a lot of water games, water bombs, and water-y teaching. Want to know more? Well keep on reading for the highlights!

Sunday – The sun shone once again over registration as students arrived, unpacked, auditioned and said hello to old friends. Once everyone was registered, the school gathered for the welcome meeting.

In the evening, we were privileged to welcome the new Territorial Youth Secretary, Mike Lloyd-Jones, to the school who set us up for the week and shared something or his hopes for his time as TYS.

The teaching focus for Monday was on Jesus inviting us to share in the life-giving water he offers, and how once we accept this invitation, we will have a more vibrant life. Students were given the opportunity to accept this invitation by filling in some party invites and returning them to the front of the hall as their ‘rsvp’.

Monday evening was Games Night! All the games took on a water-y theme, and had bonus points available for completing extra tasks, such as ‘sing a song about fishing while completing the game’, or ‘sing the theme from the dambusters’. Games included; breath holding; water bomb throwing (without breaking), and flappy fish.

Tuesday saw the return of the Sports Day. Five teams ran, threw, and jumped their way through a number of races to compete for the title of ‘EMASS Champions 2013’.

Tuesday also saw a new addition to the EMASS timetable – Water fight! Students and staff were kitted out with water pistols, sponges, and water bombs for an intense, 30 minute battle! Fighting was fierce and no one was safe! Within a few minutes, everyone was soaked to the bone, but that didn’t stop them! Chaos erupted, and eventually even big, black bins were filled with water and tipped over staff. Although dripping wet by the end, everyone helped clear up quickly and all were soon on their way back to their houses to shower and warm up.

On Wednesday evening, parents and friends were invited to join us for an evening with Steve Price, illusionist. The crowd ‘ooh-ed’ and ‘awh-ed’ in wonder at his tricks, and Steve shared about his faith. More information on Steve Price can be found on his website at www.stevepriceillusions.co.uk/

The morning teaching focussed on why, as Christians, we should serve others, and what our motivation should be. Students were encouraged to think what small actions they could take to serve others when they were at home in their ordinary lives.

Thursday featured the annual EMASS talent night. While a fewer number of performances than in previous years took part, the quality was just as spectacular! Acts included; a vocal quartet, a duet, pea shooting, a Busted tribute act, worship band, and a special staff item. Plus a rousing rendition of ‘Lean forward, lean backward’ by the crowd between acts.

The teaching focused on how Jesus can bring healing to our lives and gave students the opportunity to receive prayer for this.

Friday – Students were encouraged to think about finding time to ‘Soak’ in God outside of events like summer school so they could keep their enthusiasm high and spiritual needs in check. The teaching showed how taking this time is necessary, otherwise they can not share with others what they don’t have themselves.

The Big Night In theme was ‘Titanic’, and at least four ships turned up! There were also scuba divers, a number of Jack Dawsons’, a string ensemble, a penguin, plus many more fantastic costumes!

All too soon, Saturday came around. The worship offered a chance for students and staff to share testimonies about the week; what God had been saying and doing in their lives. It was a huge encouragement to see their responses.

The final celebration went off with a bang! The school started with a flash mob, and the rest of the evening showcased the amazing week we had shared together.

Did you come to EMASS? What were your highlights?