major bloopers

i don't know whether you ever stay until the end of a film in the cinema or watch the credits on a DVD to see if there are any out-takes showing huge gaffs and people messing up. I don't think any of them could have come up with what we saw or heard today. On a huge campaign trail and trying to retain their government from 3rd place (although people keep showing me that that is more than possible), what a huge opportunity Gordon Brown had to meet some real people, in a campaign where he still has the responsibility of running our country. You know he is probably fuming at himself today as he was overheard, under pressure, muttering that a woman he had met was a 'bigot'. Definitely not a wise statement in a close fought election battle.
A couple of thoughts on this whole situation. First, we all make mistakes, but there is no smoke without fire. I made a pact with myself when i was 16. i wasn't a christian, but had got into the habit of swearing quite a lot and i didn't like it, it made me feel horrible about myself, so i decided to stop swearing then. Now if something bad happened to me, or if i hurt myself, i wouldn't slip into swearing because it is not in my head to do so. if i swore occasionally, then i would probably do so if i hit my thumb with a hammer, because the words are in my head. It is what is said and thought when no one else sees or hears that will come out at some point.
Second, we all make mistakes and i think that the mistake that Gordon made today will probably come to haunt him on May 6th, because however many times he apologises he will now be tarnished. We are so good at holding things against people. The Church, as a whole, the place where grace, mercy, forgiveness and restoration are the manifesto of their leader Jesus, are up there with the best. How forgiving as a Christian am I? or do i hold things against people. What do we stand for?
I am not a political beast, and for me the elections are not about personalities but about who, as a team, can lead this country. Yet i have been challenged by how i judge people and what I, as a candidate representing Jesus, can offer others. Richard

can everything be man-made?

Do you find you have to try and control everything? I think there are certain things i cannot cope with if i am not in charge. For example it was Joel's 4th birthday last week, and for his party he had decided to have it at a soft play area. In itself that seems fine, but this was the first party either of my children had had that wasn't a good old fashioned kids party. No musical chairs, no pass the parcel, no mad games, just soft play. So, my most successful part as a dad so far, had suddenly stopped. I had nothing to run.
As you are aware there has been this most surprising effect of a volcano over our flight paths over the past week or so. This is something that no one had seen coming, and has created the most havoc that we have seen in the air the UK has ever seen. Now for a lot of people it has effected their lives, some have just had extended holidays, others it has cost them a lot of money. What i do find interesting is that, having a conversation with someone the other day, is that there is the feeling that this should have been sorted before, and that someone didn't do their job properly.
You know what, i get the feeling that we think, sometimes, everything has to be controlled, and when it can't we just can't cope. It also seems to me that when we get to that situation whether that is through extreme weather or through a natural occurrence, that we still need someone to blame, someone has to be at fault.
Let's face it we are like that as a Christian as well, we need to be in control, and it is so hard to let God be in control. The problem we have is that He knows us better than we know ourselves, and that it is always best to let him lead, even if it is hard. If we try and run things in our own strength, we know there is a chance it will fail, but letting Him lead? only leads to success. So are our lives going to be man made or God made?

one death after another

I was really fortunate on my birthday to receive a blu-ray player. being one that likes techy eqpt. it was going to happen one day, and so persuaded Laura to go in with other family members for the next set of birthdays and Christmas's' lol for this blu ray. And having got a player i then needed to purchase some blu ray discs. And with me taking my kids with me shopping, i ended up with 2 films, cloudy with meatballs and 2012.

What struck me about 2012 was that pretty much it was about death. Yes there was the hope that the hero(es) might make it, and i suppose you would say ' well, what do you expect, it is a disaster movie', but i just couldn't keep up with how many people kept dying. It was like the original A-Team in the 80's. They used to end up reeking so much havoc out of a matchbox and a piece of string, and there were people who just ended up diving out the way when blown up. aah to be a stunt man lol.

It just got me thinking that we end up taking life so much for granted. so we have this amazing opportunity to live, yet we don't really do that much with it before it becomes too late. we end up going through the motions and not really thinking about much, when there is such a life to live. we can end up making such a difference to people around us and the place we live. Changing lives and having such an impact. Yet we just tick over half the time, probably because it seems that it is too much like hard or that actually we are not that important and probably one of the biggest reasons is that we actually don't think we can do much. Those are the lies that we end up believing often because it is easier and we are less likely to be let down or hurt.

And the irony of it all is that the only reason we can live to have such a huge impact is because one person died. How mental is that, the fact that life can only be had if we accept the death of one guy. Jesus. So when we put that death into perspective, it wasn't just one of the many we say day by day, but one that has made, does make and will continue to have a huge impact on everything He touches.

Guest blog - Roy Crowne : Holy huddle?

Roy Crowne is executive director of Hope - an organisation that encourages Churches and Christians do put word and deed together in mission. Here he gives us an insight into his dreams for the Church and young people over this Easter period


Saturday afternoons have been exciting for me over the last few weeks, as I am a bit of a rugby fan and Six Nations is probably the most exciting tournament, apart from the World Cup.

As I sat watching the intense game last Saturday there was a ‘ruck’ in which players were engaged which seemed to last for ever. No-one was moving and actually they were starting to move back.

My mind went off to a thought I had, maybe from a book or some speaker I had heard, where they were talking about the church getting stuck in a ‘huddle’, with no ability to move forwards. ‘Huddles’ or ‘rucks’ are quite important for planing or developing a strategy, but not to stay there. If you stay there you will always end up going backwards. You see – in the end the ball has to come out and go forwards with the goal, the touch down, and the try, then the conversion.

The church in many places remains as a ‘huddle’. My dream for you as young people is that you throw the ball out, stating that’s where we are heading. Then with all the energy, drive of the forward, the middle row and the back row, everyone works towards the end of the conversion.

I think this is a really exciting time for us to throw out the ball and for people to follow with the goal of the conversion. Jesus made an amazing statement, when he says to his disciples that the way to change the world is one by one, but the only way to achieve it is to throw the ball out into the deep and let God achieve the try and convert.

There was a fantastic little comment I heard once, when I was fishing – which I don’t enjoy – when someone put a worm on a hook, and I said to them ‘I don’t like worms’. They agreed, but said that whether you like them or not is not the issue. The fish like worms and the worms will catch the fish. So when we step out we may not always like some of those God has called us to embrace, but by doing so you will discover that there is a God in heaven who catches the fish.

So, this week, today, this month, this Easter, let’s throw the ball forwards against the opposition, and see what Jesus will do to mobilise the team to action.

Roy will be speaking at our next eq:uip event on 11th June. For more details check out www.nottinghamyfc.co.uk/eq

do we really understand what we are able to acheive?

Having been doing mission across Nottingham over the last 9 years i have been surprised, looking back, how much God has let us be involved in. Although we haven't purposely set out to be schools workers and doing Christian schools work, we have ended up being able to see nearly 2,000 young people each week through our work in schools. This has been through just serving the schools and giving them support and standing by them, in particular with spiritual and pastoral issues. Yes, we do assemblies and we do mission weeks through lessons and roadshows, but schools have really appreciated the ongoing support we have been able to give them.
To be honest, as i have looked at Jesus I see this as something that He would do. Jesus was someone who didn't judge but stood with people, got alongside them and supported them.
This is also something that we are passionate in doing. Getting alongside young people, supporting them when they feel alone, when they feel no one else is around for them, that is where Jesus would be.
Through the things we do, and looked to acheive we look back and see that by just being there, we suddenly have the opportunity to speak into thousands of young peoples lives.
Isn't it funny what creeps up on you, when you just aim to serve others.

Whose strength?

Being a bloke, i have this competitive edge. Even as a youth worker (I know i shouldn't) I very rarely will try less than 100% when it comes to playing sport or games. As i tend to play at this level quite often it is always a little embarrassing and humiliating when i lose. If it is a young person that beats me then they also like to tell me that they have beat me.

Of course then my pride kicks in, because my best wasn't good enough, and that sometimes hurt. I also look at some of the people in the Bible and see how good they were and what great things they did and sometimes wish i was like them.

I was reading in Judges about Samson and the person he was and i remember back to Sunday school and hearing how strong he was and how muscly he looked on the picture. i think i always saw him as the 'Christian superhero' (apart from Jesus obviously) and was someone who was the ultimate superman. Yet i was reading a commentary the other day saying that idea of Samson being that type of man, the He-man of his time is actually wrong and denying God. It says that people were surprised by his strength and that they couldn't work out where he got his strength from. Well, if he was that muscle bound man people wouldn't have been surprised and people would have known exactly where he got his strength from. His muscles.

So to know that Samson got his strength from God challenges me to think about how much i use my own strength and how much i depend on God. OK maybe not at table tennis, but at life stuff, things that are really important. Decisions that i need to make, Choices that come my way, i want to be strong, but how often do i realise there is no way i am strong enough on my own.

eq - mission training for young people

One of the most exciting things that Nottingham YfC have been
involved in over the past few years has been the training of young people to share their faith. Starting in 2003 it has been great to see over 40 young people trained and equipped in sharing their faith to their peers, through a year long course.
Although that generation of eq has come to an end, NYfC and myself in particular are still passionate about training and equipping young people in mission and evangelism. So the regeneration of eq has arrived. In 2 streams eq will aim to put mission and evangelism back on the agenda of young people across the city, and give them opportunity to hear from experienced and gifted evangelists and mission practicioners as well as giving opportunities to do mission.

eq:uip is our training hub. It happens 3 times a year and will give young people the opportunity to hear from the best in the business. It will be challenging and thought provoking and most of all it will give practical tips on how to share your faith with the people around you. Our first event is June 11th and we have Roy Crown (who heads up HOPE) as our speaker.

eq:mission is our experiential zone. Twice a year we will take a group of young people somewhere across the country to make a difference in a community, as well as give them opportunities to share their faith with others. Our first mission trip is July 17-18 .

Future dates will be produced with enough time for youth leaders to put these in their programme. The eq:uip events are turn up on the door for a fiver per person (youth leaders come free with 5 or more young people), and the eq:mission is thirty quid inclusive. Our heart and passion is for the young people of the church to be mission focused as part of their faith. For more details on the up coming eq events the check out http://bit.ly/9XNLPt
Let's see young people learn through hearing and doing in a world where it is all about having the experience that develops young people most, what a great opportunity to change your world.