I’ve just been hiding away for 5 days.

I’m on my way home after being at ‘Sisters of Jesus Way’ in West Kirby on the Wirral Peninsula. I’ve been away from home over the past 5 days. Yep, I’ve missed my family very much, yet I have had such a good time too!

I’ve had a goal to write, and wow, I sure got a lot done but I also wanted to meet with God afresh and love him more and more.

You can’t help but meet with Him at that place. It is such a delightful home with a beautiful rhythm of prayer and rest. Night prayer is at 7pm and most people head off to bed afterwards. Refreshing. On some nights I was asleep 3 hours earlier than I usually get to. It did mean I got up megga early but I just felt so much better for it!

I have been writting about being Big Hearted. The sections on Big Hearted God refreshed me as I wrote and spent time considering what God is like. I spent time contemplating that God is Love. Good and Father.
I do realise how fortunate I am to put dates in the diary where I can escape to a bolt hole and dedicate good time in prayer and writing… If you ever get an opportunity and are looking for a place, I can highly recommend my friends at the sisters. I used to go there regularly when I lived in Chester and didn’t quite realise how much I missed going there.

Writing about being Big Hearted

This is just a quick post as the last few days I’ve been hiding away and writing lots and lots!

The place I have chosen as a bolt hole for a week is one of these ‘thin places’ which I used to venture regularly but haven’t been here for years! The ‘thin’ refers to the space between here and heaven, rather than my waist size by the way… The sisters who run this retreat centre serve beautiful simple meals.

I’ve been writing on being Big Hearted. Wow, I’m loving it. It has been full of joy and adventure. After joining the sisters for morning prayer I have breakfast. I then pray and write for what feels like 30minutes then all of a sudden it’s lunch time. I then sit and pray and write again and the afternoon whizzes by! Then it’s one of their special teas which always have a bread and jam element to it! We then have night prayers together and everyone goes to bed megga early. I spend time meditating, writing, reading and seeking God for what he want’s me to communicate in my new book which is also written by Simon Goddard. His section on Big Hearted Church is just beautifully written. Inspired.

I can’t wait to have it all finished and get it out there! It’s in 3 sections, big hearted God, big hearted church and big hearted evangelism. Lots of stories and provocative thoughts to help us become even more big hearted.

Message of HOPE

So, it’s 10,30 Sunday morning and I’m out on the streets, well actually, to be honest I’m in a cafe enjoying a double espresso with my friend and fellow Baptist minister Phil Tinson. We’re writing messages of hope on stones. They’re going to sit on top of a plinth with a sign encouraging people to take one.

We’re having a great time writing random messages of hope for people, praying as we do that our messages will match the people we meet who need to hear from God and receive hope. 

The staff in COSTA think it’s a lovely idea to offer hope, the manager agrees we can use a table as a makeshift office/stone writing desk… Nice.

Once we’re all set up I feel we need to just allow people the opportunity to take a stone without any other pressure, in a way a non directive approach to evangelism. It’s difficult to do, to just observe, particularly when people stop and read the signs about the messages of hope, but we manage to resist talking to them, and simply allow them to choose a stone. In 15minutes of watching and praying only 3 people stop and consider the pile of stones and reach out to take one. One person puts hers back.

We then are joined by a couple who have been wanting to ‘have a go’ doing creative evangelism. Steve and Jenni are from Kings Gate church in Peterborough.
We decide that two of us should stand by the stones and invite people to take one for free and two of us would head off to secretly plant stones with messages in places where people may find them, on benches, in telephone boxes, ATM’s and door steps. This was a fun thing to do. Cheeky yet creative and hopefully it will connect with someone who randomly finds them.

There are three stories that stand out from offering words of hope. One lady was quite tearful when she picked up a stone that simply said ‘keep going…’ She explained that she had breast cancer and had felt as if God had been punishing her. She had been brought up a catholic and had somehow believed that her pain and trauma where being dealt to her by God. She had been depressed. She needed to know that God loved her and she needed to keep going and keep strong. My freinds Jenni and Phil prayed with her.

My friend John who I know from the streets took a stone that said ‘peace be with you.’ He looked at me and said, that’s exactly what I need. 

The last story is of a young woman from Bulgaria who we found out after offering her a stone with a message of hope was very worried about her granddad who was back home. Steve who was working with me ran up to her and her husband and presented them with a stone each. On her stone I had written ‘do not fear God is with you.’ She felt God speak to her through these words. 

This was such a simple thing to do. In many respects we could have just left the stones and the simple signs alone and allowed people to consider the plinth and choose a stone if they so wished.

However, being there gave explanation and some people loved the idea of taking a stone and reading it with us and wanting further explanation.

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Confidence to share your faith

I have just spent a day with ten lovely people from New Life Baptist Church in Kings Heath, Birmingham. All 10 surprised me with their willingness to engage with the days training. Lots of enthusiasm.

Typically to any training I offer there were opportunities to go and put it into practice. After an hour of teaching and activities looking at having confidence in the good news I then sent the teams off with an empty tray and £5. The objective to buy something to give away and see what people thought, and what they asked.

The 3 groups chose three different things, hot sausage and cheese and onion rolls, a tray full of different goodies and a tray with some posh sweets and chocolates. They offered them out and about and while only a small percentage of people asked ‘why’ they were giving things away for free some people did ask non-the-less.

In the afternoon I taught on how we can connect the message of Jesus with people by being creative and a little daring.

I spoke about the creative projects I do and then introduced the idea of treasure hunting. Much to my surprise most of the 10 wanted to then have a go doing treasure hunting, instead of the creative projects I had set for them. I joined 2 teams out there and we met loads of people while seeking our treasure. Including a lady right at the end who after we prayed for her declared, ‘thank you for stopping me, I needed that.’ Truly humbling.

The 10 members of the church who went through the training have encouraged me. Why? 1. They are going to carry on doing outreach in their community. 2. They were willing to have a go with the things that terrified them the most, the prophetic evangelism opportunity was the one where most people felt out of their depth. 3. While it was a training day they still regarded and loved people in their community so well. It was a long day, yet I am encouraged to think of these 10 people passing it on to others.

Most people around us don’t have a clue about the good news of Jesus. We need an urgency in our faith sharing.

So, Im sitting on the train thinking about my week…

I’ve got an early morning journey to Birmingham where I will be working all day offering training in: ‘Confidence to share your faith…’ I am all prepared and ready to roll so I’ve got a spare hour to reflect and pray. I suppose I struggle to work on Saturdays if I’m honest. Most are Sabbath with the family, so the ones I work, while being full of adventure and fun miss out on the joy of taking my daughter to balet in Cambridge, chilling at home, playing games or going out and about.

Yet as I reflect on my week I think about the variety of it. I’m privileged in what I do. I really am.

Sunday: a day off, snow trapped us in for most of the day and we chilled by a roaring fire. In the evening I enjoyed a couple of pints down the pub with a friend from round the corner. We learn from each other, I about Natural History, birds, butterfly’s and flora and he about the Christian faith.
Monday: I worked as an artist part of the Tree of Life project in Chelmsley Wood, engaging with people creatively. I spent time making a display of a sculpture I had made as well as getting very messy creating a huge painting of a hand leaving a gift of healing balm.
Tuesday: I was in London, Spurgeon’s College. What an amazing place! I spoke at their chapel time and afterwards spent an hour presenting my heart for the Presidency this year. I then spent time with the students talking and sharing stories. Great fun- and wow, some of the students decided to go and do something out and about in the community. Wednesday: I worked from home, emails and preperation for training days and a youth camp I’m speaking at next week with Peterborough schools and youth organisation CROPS. I also had physiotherapy for my back, which is getting so much better, thankfully.
Thursday: I worked at Ridley Hall all day, an Anglican training college in Cambridge. I have lectured the pioneer ministers before but on this occasion I hid away in my best friends study to write and plan and joined the students for lunch, tea and cake and more tea… and also spent some good time praying with my aforementioned buddy, Jon Philips. In the evening an old friend from Chester, Brian Dacre, called in and stayed over. Great time catching up!
Friday: instead of my usual day on the streets of Peterborough as city centre chaplain I spent the morning in Stoke speaking on live radio with Paul Hammond at UCB. We had fun and I was able to talk about the work of The Light Project. On the way up I spoke with a guy on the train all the way from London to Stoke. He asked me lots of questions and I in turn asked him what was stopping him becoming a follower of Jesus. There were some painful answers from him, I learned a great deal. He had some hard stories to share of church leaders living double lives. ‘I couldn’t follow them as I wouldn’t do what they do…’ He shared. In the evening I was able to chill and Ruth and I had a lovely dinner.

So, now today. A Training day invited by New Life Baptist church in Kings Hedges. My prayer is that we will meet with Jesus and then have the honour of introducing him to those who have yet to connect with him and the good news.

Story telling at Spurgeon’s college

I spent this morning at Spurgeons college. I spoke at the chapel time with all staff and students on the story of Abraham and his offer to the Three guests to fetch water so they could wash their feet and also for them to have some bread and meat.

My talk was simple. I spoke on the verse when the Lord said, ‘do as you say…’ But then he doesn’t! He doesn’t bring the water to wash the feet of his guests.

I challenged the college to think about the promises they make and whether they keep them… With the good news that we really do have the resources to fulfill our promises.

I shared stories from my life experience… Some funny ones in the mix, and afterwards a student shared how surprised he was that I had spoken on just one verse, yet how it had challenged him non-the-less.

I wanted to gently provoke the community at Spurgeon’s to do more and to be active in sharing their faith.

I was a guest there due to the upcoming presidency of the Baptist Union. What an opportunity though to share my heart for letting others ‘in’ on what it means to be a Christian. I look forward to more of these kind of appointments!

Tree of life art

I’m artist in residence for ‘The tree of life’ project based in Chelmsley Wood, an inner city estate. Tree of life is a project aimed at demonstrating the good news of Jesus in a genuine and catch free way. The hope is that through the project people may connect and engage with God.

Today I made a display of pictures of the sculpture I made with around 30 people. 

 The concept ‘Despite my brokeness my life overflows’ seems to connect with people who look at the pictures. 

Today I had such joy painting… I haven’t done so for ages and went for it with acrylics, large brush and a canvas 6 foot by 3 foot. 

I am pleased with the result that shows the giving of a gift. I believe that Jesus wants to give a gift of his healing balm to those who are part of Chelmsley Wood Baptist Church, for the broken, battered and bruised who they reach out so beautifully.

This picture symbolizes the giving of that gift. 

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