Another great Circuit Event!
This time it was the Bradford Churches away day - Sat 14th Oct. John Williams spoke on Spiritual Warfare. While the children had a great time with "Puppets for Jesus".

It was held at a Bakery, with a fantastic spread of food for lunch. The day started and ended with all age worship, and the rest of the day the children, learnt about the Armour of God in Ephesians, through craft, puppets and song.

The adults also looked at the Armor of God and considered the question

Is doubt the route of all evil?

Off to Clydebank this Sunday. Really looking forward to being with them as they consider their future. They are currently without a building. Watch this space!

That's torn it!
In Oct 06 Steve Wynn (Las Vegas magnate) was showing a guest a painting called "The Dream" by Picasso. He had just struck a deal to sell it for $139m (£74m). While he was talking. Mr Wynn waved his arm and accidentally struck the painting with his elbow. Nora Ephron was in the office at the time and recorded on her blog "There was a terrible noise. Smack in the middle....was a black hole the size of a silver dollar. 'Look what I've done' he said. 'Thank goodness it was me'". He subsequently pulled out of the deal.

Check out the whole story here :- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6061140.stm

Mr Wynn said he would now keep the painting for himself and have it repaired. He had bought it in 2004 for $104.1m (a record for art sold at auction).

One small action, One small hole, and its worth nothing. $139m gone! Although repaired, it will never be worth anything near that price, torn for life. Much the same as Sin! Yet God has worked a way through dying in our place with our sin tearing Him instead of us. He can more than repair us, He can renew us in His likeness, and so we can be worth more than the original ever was. Consider the price tag for this - Jesus Life - Gods' Son.

Intimacy, Food and Fellowship
8th Oct 06 - Hazlemere Church - High Wycombe
It was great to have Anne-Marie and the girls with me on this visit. Thank you to Michael and Elizabeth for the hospitality.

I took the morning service and then we stayed for lunch with the church so I could get to know everyone better. They regularly do this as a church anyway.

A Need for Intimacy - John 17:20-26 - preached at the morning service

Intimacy - Hijacked by society

Unfortunately to society "Intimacy" has one level - 'Sexual'. The bible puts the Intimacy of Sex at the end of a journey called marriage. The couple get to "KNOW" each other as friends through a pure courtship and engagement, and after making promises before God and church for the rest of their lives they "KNOW" each other physically. Society though removes this journey of knowledge and places Sex 'wrongly' at the beginning. One person I spoke to years ago, felt it was immoral to marry someone before sleeping with them, because you did not really know(?) them until you had slept with them. How sad! Its not until we know that one person intimately, and are secure within a life long commitment , do we then and only then express our love for them, in the intimacy of a sexual relationship. Compare the "Wonder" of Proverbs 30:19 with the shallow, matter of fact, self-centeredness of v20.

Intimacy - The Friendship Within

In John 17 Jesus prays for the Church to have intimacy with Himself and with His Father. This is prayed just before He is arrested, and we see His hearts desire for His people. Do we know what this True Love means? When we think of love we think of caring for each other, but its a lot more than that. Intimacy is putting yourselves in a vulnerable position with one another, trusting the other person will be gentle with you as you share your deepest fear, weakest failing, guilt and sins, maybe a bereavement or even a prayer time. We can never force this type of intimacy within a church, by telling everyone to hug each other etc. NO WAY! But do we hinder it, because there is a culture of gossiping, pride, judgmentalism or being too busy to listen to each other. One of the best ways of enabling someone to open up, is if we first of all entrust them with our weaknesses and fears.

Intimacy - Friendship Outwardly

So what has this got to do with outreach? Everything! For starters Jesus said "they will know you are my disciples by your love one for another", but more importantly, one of the most intimate conversations you can ever have with someone is leading them to Christ. If you're not used to being intimate with believers then how can you hope to have this level of intimacy with someone seeking Jesus. Does intimacy frighten you? Get practicing within the church by loving one another in true friendship. How well do people outside of the church know you? Have you ever asked them for help or confided in them? If not then they will never understand how knowing Jesus helps you with our failings, fears and doubts? Do they know you well enough to confide their deepest fears or guilt with you? Are you non-judgmental, humble and gentle enough to handle their vulnerabilities.

Wow! just posted my blog and then checked out a mates blog, and he had just wrote on the same subject today as well. Check it out! Far better than mine as he gives a working example in the last few days!!!!
http://thecrowdedhouse.blogspot.com/2006/10/in-evangelism-training-with-new.html

Apologies for not updating this – I know a lot of people have been taking a look and seeing no change. Well thank you Gill from Arnold for giving me a prompt on Saturday – So here’s an update on some of the things I’ve been doing. I must get into the habbit.

Arnold - Nottingham Sunday 20th August
Arnold is a lovely fellowship, I visited back in August, they are wanting to explore the opportunities in their area. I took their evening service so I could get to know them and they could also get to know me. I noticed a number of their people live very close to the church and walk to the evening service. I feel this is a great strength. The next stage is maybe doing a SWAT analysis with them on the Church and local area. Watch this space!

Wolverhampton Sunday 10th September
On the Sunday before, John Griffiths had suffered a Heart Attack and only came out of Hospital on the Friday, but he was there at 3pm to open up for the Sunday school (which I took) John told us how three of the nurses at the hospital had all been through his Sunday school in years gone by. We had a great time with the three teenagers looking at the book of Judges and our hope in Heaven. We then had a lovely meal with some of the church and followed by an evening service that I took.

Rotherham, Mexborough and Doncaster Circuit
Tuesday 26th September evening Circuit meeting
This is what Circuit Business is all about, and the most useful Circuit meeting I have ever attended. Because it was “Church Centred”. Although I had come from the Union, and it was a Circuit meeting, we were looking the subject of outreach through the Local Church.
I see this as the overriding purpose of Church House, the Union and Circuits, to enable our local churches to effectively reach people with the Gospel. After all the Local Church Fellowship is only part of the WRU that is Eternal, and has a direct scriptural mandate for evangelism from our one only "Head" Jesus Christ. The Union and Circuit is there purely to support in this work. Thank you for hosting the event, and I was so encouraging to see so many taking an interest.

The Pastures (High Wycombe)– Saturday 30th October & Sunday 1st September
What a great weekend – Left Sheffield at 6am – Arrived at The Pastures at 9am, without my change of clothes for Sunday. I met with over 30 people from the church to do a SWOT analyse. This was very encouraging for me to see the Church, honestly grappling with their observations of themselves as God people. I then spent the afternoon with David and Margaret praying over the issues raised and then in the evening I met with the leadership team. They see this as the beginning of an ongoing process, and I felt there is a real desire to see things happen in their area. I then took the morning service, looking at “Societies Substitute saviours” and how they replace Jesus with lots of temporary saviours such as Alcohol, Borrowing, Moving house, Changing Relationships, etc.