What do you want to do?

We have a choice don't we? Well, life is about choices, from whether or not to have breakfast (you can't stop me having mine), to whether we choose to believe someone or not. I chose to collect all the dr who dvd's, yes the classics as well as the new ones. It was a decision i made, it is not a popular one in our household, as they have now been banished to an upstairs cupboard, but i will complete, yes i will complete.
We do 2 things this time of year. We look back and reflect and see what has gone on, and we look forward. This time of year we can choose something aswell. We choose to focus on one of those 2 things. We either choose, as we reflect, to stay in the past and to live our lives with no vision and expect nothing to change and we decide that we cannot influence anything, because we cannot make a diference. We live on past guilt, on past decisions that may or may not have gone well. We can spend our lives in the past. We can also choose to do the opposite and live for what we dream, what we would like to see in 2010. i suppose this is what new years resolutions are about. We can expect great things, we can make a difference and we can dream dreams.
Problem is, we have to hold them in the balance. I know people who do live in the past and are scared to dream, don't feel like they deserve happiness because of what has happened in the past. I also know people who live in past glories and will never admit that the dream is over but live on what has happened. Then again i know people who don't learn and who just keep making the same mistakes, over and over again, without realising they are going over old ground.
I would love to hear what your dreams are for this next year, maybe they are built on regrets of the past year, or maybe they are taking what has happened in the past and moving them onto the next level. Someone once said(someone very important), without vision the people perish. what's going to happen to you in 2010?

How do we read the Bible?

We have our annual conference each year @ Youth for Christ and each year we get some quality speakers. This year we are going to hear a legend call Lon Allison, who trained in musical theatre, so has a very unique way of communicating his theology. (I love it, bring on camelot again lol). Last year we had a guy called Leonard Sweet and his theme was the Bible: an apple, an orange or an ostrich egg. Basically he talked about how we are trained to read the bible as we eat an orange, dissecting it and taking it apart, but actually we miss a lot of good stuff by not looking at the bigger picture and seeing Gods heart for his people.
Alongside this I am starting to read some theories about how Jesus used the culture to explain his fathers heart. Not surprising as we do that all the time, using film, music, theatre, the arts to connect young people to the Gospel message. It is really challenging some of my thoughts on things that, as a traditionalist, i have taken as read. I love thinking things through and working out where and how God works. I think it is a real shame though, that when people challenge traditional thoughts that they get shunned and looked down upon for questioning. Doesn't God want us to own our faith, not have someone else's faith that tells us what to think. Jesus asked questions a lot of the time, to help people make their own mind up and realise what God was doing. Maybe some of the things we read are not about what we should do, but it is the meaning behind it. I remember revealing to someone that the good Samaritan didn't really happen and that it was just a story Jesus used. They were devastated. When do you last challenge the way you think? is it because you are scared what people think? is it because you are scared what you might think? God gave us a mind to use, and for us to understand. Go on....try it, you may be surprised, you may see the Bible in a different way.

Do children chill you out?

As i was contemplating over the last few days i have been, which has been quite difficult in a house with 2 small children (6 and 3 year old), around the Chritmas period. Which got me thinking even more. How has having children effected me? I know there are times when i get too stressed at them, and have to remind myself they rae only children, and half the time they don't mean what they do (I know that the other half they do mean it). But i think it has actually chilled me out in my life and my ministry. I do look forward to going home and enjoying hanging out with them. I enjoy taking them out with Laura, and not thinking about anything else. I think that when you have something that you can do that with (it doesn't have to be kids), that you can just live for the moment, the rest of your life flourishes. Yet when you let lifes toils and stresses take over you, it is tough to get your life back. I know that when Joel woke up at 5.45 this morning, i wasn't the best pleased, and i know that when Amy winges about her little brother, even when he just breathes, i have to remind myself of what I have, and what i am actually fortunate to have. And i think that my life, my ministry has all benefited from the 2 little bundles of joy that are growing up.

what gets you in the spirit?

So, now a week into December, I am letting myself getting into the Christmas mood. Maybe that was to do with the friends we saw on Saturday, and the first house that i have been to that has a Christmas tree up. Maybe it was watching my childrens nativity plays last week. Amy , playing Mary, not having a Joseph because he wouldn't come on stage (hopefully it will teach her that you can never trust a guy), and Joel, playing a shepherd, controlling his sheep with a hanky in one had and the thumb of his other stuck firmly in his mouth.
People, and particularly businesses, have been trying to get us into the Christmas spirit since September. With decorations being sold, christmas dinners being promoted and toys being advertised every other advert (in between dishwasher tablets)..we are, every year, brought towards the material side of Christmas quite quickly after the summer holidays. I wonder whether if we as Christians decided to bring the thought of Jesus birth forward that early, we wouldn't be too sorry, just imagine how many chocolates the advent calender would have to hold.
On a serious note, i love Christmas, i love the trimmings, i love the food, i love the tv shows (well, morecombe and wise and dr who obviously), but the fact that all that is a bi-product and that there is nothing more heart warming and special at Christmas than celebrating the birth of my friend and saviour, Jesus. Being a raving penty, you would be surprised to hear that i love going to a little church in my town every christmas eve, in the warm glow of soft lighting, and just remembering is beautiful. Come on guys let's make the main reason the main reason for the season.

are we all singing from the same hymn sheet?

Don't you love people? They constantly surprise me. When you come across someone, there are a few initial questions that you tend to ask them. The first is their name (one of my big problems is that i am thinking of the next question, when they are telling me their name). The next is what do you do? When i tell people what i do, especially Christians, their assumption is that it is really hard for a Christian organisation to get into schools. I then tell them that it is part of response to our faith to serve our local schools as well as build young people up, not only spiritually but emotionally as the whole person they were created to be. The response we get from schools, and their view of Nottingham YfC is that we do a great work with the young people that really need support. If you follower our twitter account you will know that we also do lessons in RE not only on the life of Jesus but on subjects like identity and justice. The schools loved these lessons, being showed in boxes of chocolates (who says our rewards are in Heaven lol) and requests for more lessons. It was quite a surprise then, when after sharing in a church about what we do, you get someone coming up to you saying how it is out of order what we do, and we shouldn't be allowed to do what we do. Where does the opposition come from? from within. Isn't it interesting that as an organisation you can set out with a particular mandate and then over the years life becomes more about staying alive rather than doing what you were created to be. As a Church we were created to make an impact on our communities, Jesus talked about coming to help the sick...the well don't need a doctor. My hope for NYfC, for the Church and for me is that we don't get distracted from the plan, and we certainly don't critisize those who are working with the sick.

does it ever live up to expectations?

Confession time. I have an addictive personality. I always have it seems. I remember collecting 'Danger mouse' stickers for my sticker album when i was 10, despite the fact i wasn't allowed to. I used to leave the house and hide the album under next doors hedge while i was at school and then pick it up on the way home. Which was fine until it rained one day. Four stickers away from completing the whole thing. Not happy. But, you know, i have now matured, no longer am i that person. No, I am older and wiser, although no less drawn into collecting things. I am in the middle of my 'now that's what i call music' vinyl collection, but the one that has me hooked is Dr who. Oh yes collecting the whole back catalogue of Dr who DVDs is proving a long term thing. Will it fulfil me? i doubt it, just like i was slightly disappointed with the latest installment last week. To be honest i had built it up a little in my head, and it would have struggled to fulfil my hopes. It was a bit of an 'Empire strikes back' in the sense it was there to build up for the last 2 of the 10th doctors story. But although it didn't live up to it, we all like to build things up, it gives us a hope, something to look forward to. The anticipation really drives us. One thing i have found is though, it is the opposite with my faith. I perhaps don't get that excited sometimes, but God does really deliver and always creates more than i expect. It would be great if my addictive personality would work on praying and reading the Bible, I am working on that, but what i do know is i will never be let down by Jesus, and i will never be disappointed.

life is harder than we know

We have just finished a week of lessons in a couple of schools that we work in. On one of the last lessons we took, there was a bit of an issue betweeen 2 girls, it all got sorted out and we moved them apart, and they both got on with their work. After the lesson we were chatting to the teacher about the 2 girls and she was telling us how one of them had been to 18 different schools, her mum was an alcoholic, and had been verbally abused all her life. Her dad, who she lives with now, was worried because over the summer no one called for her, invited her out, or asked to do something with her. Through all this, she is a really nice kid, someone who just wants to be loved and who gives respect to pretty much anyone that comes into contact with her. I was really broken when i was hearing this story, and just felt so gutted for her. Thing is she doesn't want my pity, she doesn't want people feeling sorry for her, she just wants to enjoy life. How would Jesus react in that situation? What would he give to her? A sense of belonging. Somewhere she feels safe, and somewhere she can be herself. Thats what we will try and do, not because of pity, but because she is awesome, and she deserves to know that she is loved and she is special. I love being a Christian.

Intimacy

Last night i went to see a guy speak called Kevin Peat. He was talking about living your destiny amd what gets in the way. One of the things he talked about was the word intimacy. We live in a world where relationships seem to move really quick, and the quicker you get to sex the better. We see young people looking for instant gratification, and so the word relationship doesn't have the same meaning as for previous generations. It is about what we get out of it, rather than working through something, giving as much, if not more than what you are recieving. Kevin mentioned that he had heard once that intimacy warrants the phrase..into me see. How many people do we let see the real us. He was talking about intimacy with God, letting him see all of you. It is amazing that despite all our faults God still loves us when we let Him in, and our fear is that when we let people in they will reject us because they don't like what they see so we don't let them in and see what we can get out of others. I think i was very challenged.

Why is it that we have a default mechanism of what we think is fair or not?
We are about to start a week of lessons in a couple of schools titled ' It's not fair!'. Even my 6 year old girl and 3 year old boy seem to have the saying on a loop when it comes to what they can or can't have. Now i know for them it is not necessarily about justice, for them it is more about what they want, but in all of us we seem to have a deep rooted feeling of what is wrong and right. Listening, as i do, to radio 5 in the mornings and their discussions, it is plain to see that what one persons justice, is not neccesarily anothers, as we all put our own slant on it, like my kids. One of the things in the Bible that i really love is the fact that when Jesus rose from the dead, he didn't appear to the most obvious of people, he didn't appear to those whom he thought would be the ones he should appear to. In a culture where men were seen as the trusted ones, the important ones, and women the lesser of the sexes, he appeared to Mary and Joanna. How awesome was that, it would have been easier to appear to his disciples first (as they didn't seem to believe the girls), and to most of us, we woudl probably take the easiest option. Thank God that Jesus didn't. In that little bit of the ressurection story, Jesus showed that justice and fairness ooze out of his father in heaven. I might just see how i do today. Richard

Welcome

Hi guys and welcome to my blog. This is a place where you will get a bit of an insight into the world of Nottingham YfC. Hear about some of the struggles and the joys. There are a lot of big issues that maybe brought up along the way to do with youth work and faith, so it would be great if you fancy journeying with me. I will also use this space to push events that we are doing, and other random things. I plan to blog each week, so keep an eye out. Let's just see what happens.
Rich