Breakfast with the Council

Just got in from a breakfast meeting with Trafford Council leaders and some of the key Churches in Trafford. We were presenting some of the exciting things happening around the country with Hope 08. Hope 08 is a national initiative encouraging Churches "to do more", "do it together" and "do it in word and deed" over the course of the next year. Susan Leiper at ABC is co-ordinating our response as a local Church.

The exciting thing was to meet with the Council Leaders from all parties and hear how warmly they speak about the contribution Churches make in Trafford. We are by far the largest single voluntary organisation, running schools, helping families, supporting people through life's struggles. We own and maintain hundreds of buildings and on the whole do not rely on outside funding. The aim of the meeting was to consult with Trafford before Hope 08 gets underway to ask them if they felt the Church could serve and partner with Trafford on any specific projects. A number of ideas were raised and they will be taken further over the next few weeks.

Two things struck me at the meeting from a couple of comments made after I gave the preentation. Susan Williams the leader of the council thanked Rev Phil Rawlings (St Brides, Old Trafford) for his introduction to the breakfast where he shared on behalf of the Churches, appreciation and thanks to the Council for all their hard work and service. She was deeply touched that someone simply said thank you. We need to say thank you to people more often, particularly those who often get overlooked and takne for granted. It is one the easiest things to say and yet so often we forget to say it.

The other comment came from Dave McNulty (Chief Exec)who said that the Churches work was very impressive but he challenged us to become more strategic in our activity. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why the Church seems at times to be less than the sum of its part. We do a lot of good things but often alone, without co-operation and without reference to the bigger picture. He was inviting us into the bigger picture to play our part in the vision for Trafford.

Over 200 years ago the Churches got their act together and worked for the abolition of slavery, working with secular organisations and under the leadership of Wilberforce. Its time to get our act together again for the benefit of the people of our borough and the extension of the kingdom of God.

Say it again and again.

Have you ever tried repeating the same prayer a number of times over a period of a few weeks? I've been reading a book on prayer that encourages us to do this. To take a short verse of scripture such as "God is Love" or "The Lord's my Shepherd" and repeat it in your mind or out loud for a few minutes, then use the phrase during that day and the following week. I've been doing this recently with the prayer "Come Holy Spirit", which has become very meaningful in a short period of time.

In the first instance it helps when i come to spend time with God, by stilling my mind around a theme. Its always hard to start praying with so many thoughts going on in your head, but a short repetitive prayer focuses your mind around God. Our minds are a real battle ground in life, often full of stuff that is far from the mind of Christ. Repetitive prayer conditions the mind to think on the word of God and from that base to bring everyday life into the prayer. As I've been praying "Come Holy Spirit", I've found myself in situations these last couple of weeks where the prayer has become very powerful. Difficult situations have been transformed because I was bringing God into the context by calling out for him to "Come".

Over time the phrase will become second nature to you and God will begin to speak to you through the phrase and bring out deeper meanings. Why not give it a go right now! Stop reading this blog and spend the next 5 mins repeating some scripture in your mind?

Day of Prayer

I made time this week in my diary to spend a day in prayer. I am trying to do this on a regular basis, I think its one of the most important ways I can serve my Church.
Sometimes prayer days fly by and you wonder where the time has gone. Other times they feel like walking through treacle with a heavy load on your back. This was one such day, I found it hard to concentrate and listen with sensitivity. My mind was flooded with issues and concerns, I tried to bring them to God in prayer but my mind was quickly distracted back to the "ins and outs" of the problem.

Then I remembered a prayer a friend of mine taught me which is very simple, "Lord teach me to pray". this was the cry of the disciples and is at the core of prayer itself. In prayer we are all children coming to God learning from him how to speak and dependant on his power to enable us to communicate. In our own strength we are often left floundering, distracted and confused. Prayer always begins in weakness, calling on the Father to help us, not only with the issues of life that challenge us but also in the response of prayer to those issues. How should I pray ? What should I pray for ? What is God doing in this situation? What is God doing in me through this situation?

So I began to repeat this prayer to still my mind and after a time I knew how to go about things, what to pray for and how to pray for it. The prayer time became personally energising and I become aware that God was working in me through these prayers. Prayer isn't at the end of the day what I do for God, its more about what he is doing in and through me.

So why not give it a try? Its got to be the easiest prayer to pray "Lord Teach me to Pray" Repeat it slowly as you still yourself and see what God will do. Why not email me back and tell me what happened?

Tony Blair and Judgement Day

I'm getting the hang of this. After no entries for weeks here is another one on the same day!

I've loved reading loads of articles about the Blair years. One thing that struck me after reading the judgements by some of the countries most intelligent people is that they all differ in their judgements. Some feel he is the saviour of the NHS others that he is its enemy. Some feel he has turned around education and others that he has stagnated it in red tape and testing. Some feel he has liberated people and others feel he has created a nanny state. Who is right ? Whose view should carry the most weight? Who should he listen to as he tries to reflect on 10 years work.

It struck me that for most of us the opinion of people is very important to us, we constantly seek favourable judgements on our lives by those around us. We think that if we do certain things in the right way we will get a pat on the back for at least trying and hopefully more than that. But people's opinions will always be very different, their perspective will always be personal and never neutral. They will attempt to discern your motives but how can they know why you do the things you do? Do we really know the true motives behind Tony Blair for the last 10 years?

The only true judgement we can count on is that of Christ who knows all things. the only one we should trying to please with our lives is the one to whom we have to give account at the end of the show. He is the only true critic who can write the definitive account of the play that is our lives.

So when we look out to the audience from the stage of life and see the critics sitting with their pens poised, take a look up to the balcony and see Christ looking at you with great love and forgiveness willing you to do well and know he is the only one to whom we have to give account at the end. Waste less emotional time on pleasing others and more time on playing to the balcony. Then we will be able to better serve those we are called to love in life.

I am so bad at this

Having started the new technological revolution I haven't managed to enter another blog for several weeks. Apparently all you have to do is say something each week, but I cant seem to do that so far. So it looks like I have to bring you up to date with my life over the last few weeks.

Highlights =

1. My daughter-in-law Helen got baptised after Easter. She and James have been married for over a year and half and it was great to pop over to Lincoln and worship at New Life Church. She spoke so well even though she was very nervous. The Church has been a great source of life to them with loads of students and young people.

2. Ste and Leah got accepted to train at Spurgoens for September. They had a great time at the interview and loved the college, Nigel Wright made them feel very welcome. They are excited and nervous about the future.

3. Naomi our daughter got accepted at Manchester Uni for teacher training, she was very cool about the interview and enjoyed it. She will be a great teacher.

4. We had a fantastic Church Conference with about 200 people attending and a wonderful sense of unity and purpose about the future.

5. Went down to Highmoor Hall in Berks for a meeting. This is a special place I first heard God speak to me as a 15year old. It is a retreat centre which was set up by Paul and Anne Person, the couple who led me to Christ. It brought back so many happy memories and reminded me of my early days of faith.

6. Lesley my wife opened her latest exhibition at Sale Waterside centre. I was so proud of what she has achieved. She has spent the last few months with 6 different faith groups in Trafford looking at how textiles are used in birth death and marriage. It is open for another few weeks so try and take a visit.

There's a first time for everything

Well this is a first for me! Over the years I’ve managed to move from the Gestetner to the photocopier, from the static phone to the mobile and from the word processor to the computer. The video still however manages to challenge me but now I’m going to have a go at blogging. There are a number of major hesitations I have about this, firstly will I have enough to say on a regular basis that people may want to read? Do I need to come out with deeply meaningful thoughts every time I write? Do I have any deeply meaningful thoughts? Will I forget that people may read it and say something offensive or reveal a hidden dark secret that people find scandalous? How open should I be? Will people start replying? What will they say, will they be nice and affirmative and agree with everything I say or will they want to argue with me?
Will I fear the arguments and just write nice bland thoughts that bore everyone to tears.

I don’t have many answers to these questions but I am going to start this journey with some fears and a little bit of excitement. I was encouraged to start blogging by a friend of mine who pastors a Church in Ireland. He said people want to know more about the life and thoughts of their Church leaders, they want to understand what makes them tick and what God is doing in their lives. So I thought why not, lets see how it goes.

So join me if you wish and lets get talking about some of the big issues in life. Lets talk about God and his desires for humanity. Lets talk about Church and what it needs to be in order to reach this world that God is deeply in love with. Lets talk about our own vulnerable journeys and how Jesus is standing with us through it all.

See you soon when I have something deeply meaningful to say! Could be some time so don’t hold your breath.

Rog