Commitment

 Commitment has been a big theme at UV recently.   On Saturday at a wedding service the marrying couple made promises of lifelong commitment to each other with their dedication to serve God underpinning their marriage.

In Sunday’s baptismal service a married couple went through the waters of baptism making promises of commitment to serve and follow God. Their baptismal day was coincidentally their 17^th wedding anniversary (which tradition marks by a gift of furniture) – the pledge they made to each other 17 years ago is still strong.

During the wedding service whilst celebrating the couple’s vows and promises I was very aware of the large number of people present in the congregation who had made similar promises, yet sadly their marriages had come to an end – often in painful and emotionally difficult circumstances. No one enters a marriage expecting it to fail, and I believe the vows ‘til death do us part’ were spoken with absolute sincerity and intention. Yet not all marriages – Christian and Not Christian last. 

On Saturday the marrying couple are enthusiastic lively Christians and their faith and belief in God was gloriously celebrated throughout the service. They acknowledged through their vows and prayers their need for God’s help and strength to make their vows last a life time.  Our genuine and sincere hope and prayer is that their marriage will be a success; that their commitment to each other and to God will last. 

 The heart warming aspect to the service was hearing so many other people, family and friends and church community committing to helping them build a strong marriage.

God’s commitment to his people was evident on Sunday during the baptismal service. The married couple being baptised pledged themselves; their lives and future to serving God and being obedient to his guidance in their lives. They committed themselves to the local church, where their gifts, skills, personalities will enrich church community life no end. Their commitment to church will also be a great support to their personal faith in God as their friends and family around them will be able to support and help them grow and mature in their faith.

The support of others is crucial to help us succeed in all of our commitments and I believe that belonging to a church is one of the best ways to help our commitment stick.

Our church encourages and challenges people to be better Christians in learning and service. We also encourage people to be better husbands and wives – serving, strengthening and supporting each other.

Christians who are struggling with commitments in faith or in relationships always have the example of God’s devotion to his people to turn to for their inspiration and strength.

In the Bible Isaiah the prophet continually reminds us that God’s behaviour and love and commitment to his people is shown by his continual ongoing strength giving and service to his people.  We describe this commitment as continual not spasmodic. It’s not based on how God feels right now- his commitment really is eternal and it’s because of this eternal capacity we never need doubt him. His pledge is shown through this: his love never changes, it’s who he is.

If God is part of our lives we can always draw on his divine great strength:  God’s commitment to us therefore strengthens the commitment we make to him, the promise we make to people around us.

Vows made in marriage or in a baptism should be made following God’s example of commitment – not based on how we feel at a particular time or place.  Because God has pledged himself to serve and strengthen and love his people - not on a whim but forever - and with God that’s a long, long time.

Church Outside the Walls

  

A few days on and I’m still buzzing from the thrill and excitement of last Sunday’s Church on the Street.

It was an electrifying moment when after a short time together in the main church building the entire congregation headed outside to the front of the town hall where a small worship group had already started the music for us to join in with.

After a brief time of singing and praying we split into different areas of service.

Some people joined the prayer base back in the church building.

Others preferred to pray for the town and the church by engaging in prayer walks around the town.

Some stayed with the worship service singing songs of praise and thanksgiving.

Some got involved in tidying up the town, litter picking around the park and surrounding roads.

A large number of people got involved with the street teams: offering free drinks and free fruit to passersby, busking and singing; or in the kids’ zone helping with free face painting, jewelry making and giving out helium filled balloons. 

Our young people were giving free chocolates away.

Yet others were engaged in random acts of kindness, offering to pay for things in shops, or even just giving people a smile.

The atmosphere along the main shopping area was like a carnival, music playing, flags flying and a crowd gathered around the gazebos and tables. It was Church on the Street and it was good.

Our aim or purpose for Church on the Street was to show God’s love and make the church visible and attractive ‘outside the walls’ by doing something positive for our community; and its good practice to reflect and examine whether we met our goal.    

I believe the answer is an unequivocal yes.

At our evening service  (this time inside our building) we heard story after story of people requesting prayer, people engaging in spiritually deep conversations, people responding gratefully to the free things they were given. One man was heard commenting that he’d already had his road tidied up – now he was being given free chocolates; he couldn’t believe it!

As I meet and talk with many people of many different ages I realise that people hold the oddest preconceptions of what church must be like. These tend to come not so much from experience but from how churches and Christians are portrayed or portray themselves in the media.  Being out on the street as we were and engaging in fun things helps break those preconceptions.

But under the fun and excitement we are communicating something very serious to the people in our town: that they are loved by our Father- like God, who like a free drink, quenches thirst and blesses people.  A free chocolate bar cheers people up.   One person commented to me, ‘I don’t know what to say so I’m just saying ‘God bless you’ to people’. But those words may be just what are needed to be heard and may go deeper and last longer than we can ever imagine. If just for one minute that morning someone felt special and loved by one act of kindness we did for them, then for that short moment in time they caught a glimpse of how God sees them.

Church on the Street was a great morning but maybe we should be thinking of making it a great way to be church.

The Gathering 2012

 Last weekend 24 men from UVBC  arrived at Lynt Farm, Swindon the venue for Christian Vision for Men’s  Gathering 2012.    The weekend was a programme of great singing and worship, fun stuff like darts and top 10 lists, giant inflatable’s but more importantly – challenging  and inspiring talks about how to be strong Christian men. It was a very special weekend for all of us and here’s why.

Last year, one of the highlights of the camp was Richard encountering God in a life changing new way. Following the camp Richard had an incredible encounter with the Holy Spirit and it was my great pleasure and privilege to baptise Richard a few months later. This year Richard brought his brother Peter along with him, and it was incredible to see Peter respond to God in a similar way. Peter is a top bloke anyway and it was good to get to know him over the weekend but what a pleasure it was to see Peter respond to God in such a moving way.

One of our group brought a friend with him, it may sound a bit of a cliché but its true to say, he came as friend but left as a brother when he stood up at the end of the Saturday night meeting and made a commitment to Jesus.

Others in our group stood and recommitted their lives to Jesus, asked forgiveness, sought prayer and generally were strengthened in their life and faith.  Amidst the fun, chats, general messing around, mud, hovercrafts, rodeo bulls, bungee runs, pub quiz and giant scaletrix, our weekend was punctuated by some powerful times of prayer.

I hope our wives, families, friends, partners and church recognise a real difference in all of us that were away. 

I hope that we are all a bit more considerate, less selfish and even more romantic! 

The real difference though should be that we have come back on fire & with passion; more alive, more wanting to do stuff for God.

I hope that we’ve come back fighting for God, fighting against the bad stuff that deadens people’s lives.

I hope that we have come back knowing our lives are anchored in Jesus

I hope that people notice a group of men have come back energised and passionate and proud to be Jesus followers, a group of men ready to make a difference with these words ringing in our ears and pounding in our hearts;

‘Your kingdom come around and through and in me
your power and glory, let them shine through me
Your hallowed name, oh may I bear with honour
And may your living kingdom come in me’   (I Then Shall Live by Gaither Vocal Band)

Last year 16 of us from UV went, this year it was 24 The challenge has come to take 40 Men in 2013.

It’s not about liking football or rugby (I like neither!). It’s not about being sporty (see my previous comment) it’s not about being young or old. It’s about taking some time out once a year to stand up proud as men of God who bear his hallowed name with honour and then coming home to make a difference. I hope in 2013 you may be one of the 40.

 If you want to catch a taste of the Gathering 2012 follow this link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeKNCziwPUM&feature=player_embedded

Church on the Street

Since becoming part of UV over a year ago I have been amazed at how well the church meetings have run and in particular how well people have responded and interacted with each other, even when there is clear disagreement.

Whether we have been discussing service times, clarifying our vision for the area, evangelism and outreach plans or building and fabric projects, people listen to each other, think issues through and even change their mind on occasion as they sense the direction the meeting is going.

There are of course the exceptions, the misguided or unguarded comment blurted out usually followed by the impulsive speaker sitting down with a slightly shocked air of, ‘Did I really just say that?’ whilst their partner gives a sympathetic smile that says, ‘I support you publicly but just wait till we get home’.  I’ve seen this a few times and I really wouldn’t like to be in that house when they got home.

This has been my experience thus far at UV so I really shouldn’t be surprised that last night’s meeting went so well.A few months ago we planned that this June meeting would be spent discussing the contentious issue of strengthening the church floor, however, as other options have been discovered there was a sense that we could use this meeting for something else.

Every Wednesday the UV staff has a training morning where we pick up a theme or concern to discuss and wrestle with. We’ve been working our way through a set of Willow Creek leadership summit short films, ’Take 10’. On this particular Wednesday the title of the talk was ‘The Call of a Leader.’  No one had high expectations from such a title; seek out and train next generation leaders, ministry/home balance, delegate, take risks etc, all good stuff but not exactly new. However, what we watched was literally mind blowing in its audacity and simplicity.  Harvey Senior Pastor of Citadel of Faith Covenant Church, Detroit, Michigan tells the story of his church equipping leaders by on occasion moving their church service inside, to active service outside on the streets of Detroit. On occasion their church heads outside to some of the more challenging areas of their neighbourhood , they sing they pray, they tidy, they evangelise, they give away things.  Through such actions their community has improved and their church has grown.

We watched this 10 minute film in our team meeting and in a progression from tentativeness to over the top confidence  with a good dose  of, ‘ Did we really just say that – Did we really mean that’? We said, ‘We could do this, we should do this, … we will do this!’

Last night’s meeting was sharing this vision:

 On Sunday July 8^th our church service will be outside the town hall.

On Sunday July 8^th our church service will be litter picking and tidying up areas like Upton Park, Castle Gardens, and Madeira Place

On Sunday July 8^th our church service will be engaging in evangelism – giving away free drinks and fruit on the high road

On Sunday July 8^th – you get the idea

The amazing thing last night was that some people clearly were uncomfortable and troubled with this idea but could sense God’s spirit behind it. Whilst many concerns were expressed) we deliberately asked people to voice their concerns) the number of ideas of what we could do on July 8^th was overwhelming.  I think we all caught the vision of what Church on the street could be and why.

The why is simple, Torquay is full of people who need to know that God loves them; we try and tell them that every other Sunday when we give away free drinks and food – God loves them and wants to bless them.

Our church is at its strength when 400 or so people meet on a Sunday morning and if only 300 people come out on July 8^th and show some love to Torquay what a tremendous difference that will make.

To those people who are nervous or concerned about July 8^th: every time the Street Teams go out we get very, very nervous.  Who will we meet, what will we say, what if I look like a complete idiot?  ( I actually learned to live with that hard reality a few  years back when a cheeky prankster stuck a ‘Say hi if you think I’m stupid’ sign on my back.   The whole day strangers were greeting me.)  When people ask me to pray with them on the street – a flutter of panic travels through me – what should I say, will the prayer work, etc?  We all get nervous but that’s no reason not to do this.

Last night’s meeting I think was a triumph of people saying, ‘Yes this is costly, it’s uncomfortable and I feel hopelessly inadequate, but….. We are a church here in a town that desperately needs God’s all encompassing love and Jesus’ soul saving resurrection power.’ We are a church in a town that needs us to be a church on the street.

Flash Forward

I was lent the DVD series ‘Flash Forward’ recently; we must have missed it when it was first broadcast as we were living abroad at the time. After just 1 episode I was hooked and I’ve realised my bed time has been getting later and later as I stay up late to watch just one more episode.

The series is based on the lives of several people following a mysterious event that causes nearly everyone on the planet to simultaneously lose consciousness for two minutes and seventeen seconds on October 6, 2009. During this "blackout", people see what appear to be visions of their lives six months later on April 29, 2010.

 For some people their vision is a wonderful blessing, they see themselves getting married on a beach or re-united with a long lost daughter. They have something to look forward to as they’ve seen their dreams will come true.  For others the future is not so welcome, they see themselves drinking heavily or fighting with someone, this future flash forward haunts them – what will happen to them in the next six months for such a horror to occur?

The question the programme poses is: if you knew what your future was- would you try and change it, or can you change it? And if one person manages to make a change that leaves his ‘flash forward’ unfulfilled how does that affect other people’s future? The programme seriously messes with your head.

There’s another group of people who during the blackout did not see anything – just blackness, emptiness, nothing.   They conclude from this that their lack of vision must mean they will not be alive in six months time. If you knew you would die in the next six months would you try to prevent it or just accept it? They call themselves ‘ghosts’ as they are living, but they know they will soon be dead. Some of them start taking extraordinary risks – if they are going to die anyway – why not?   Again the question – can the future be changed?  

I was in the pub with a friend last night who used the turn of phrase several times, ‘It wasn’t meant to be’; perhaps an indication of a deep held belief that our lives and choices are mapped out for us – our future is decided, it can’t be changed.  People express this sentiment all the time perhaps without realising it,’ It wasn’t the right thing’, ‘it wasn’t the right time’, ‘it wasn’t meant to be’.

Where does faith come into this?

Do we believe that God has our lives mapped out – a road for us to walk down, we just have to find the right road?   God has all our 90 or so years on this planet marked out for us?  Or do we believe that we make our own decisions and that our future depends on the decisions we have made in life?

If we believe God has everything planned for us then we’re let off the hook a bit; any consequences of our actions are not really our fault- there are all part of God’s plan.  The bad things that happen to us are also part of God’s plan. We don’t understand but at some stage we’ll understand why certain things have happened.   I don’t subscribe to this point of view.

If we believe that we are responsible for our own choices and decisions and that we have to live with the consequences of our actions we may end up with a more mature attitude to faith.  God is part of our thinking and decision making; we ask him for guidance, we trust his direction; we form our views and opinions based on what we know of God from his word, the Bible, and our own relationship with him.

If you had a vision of your future and you didn’t like it would you try and change it?