Upcoming Event

If you are in the Central Belt, (or even further north!), maybe you might like to gather with me and others across denominations as we seek God for his empowering, his strategy and his presence as we prepare our churches for welcoming more and more children and their whole families into the Christian faith.

If you know me or have been following this blog for some time, you will know that I cannot separate children and teenagers from their families. I have been reading and researching the first four centuries of church growth as preparation for the chapter on children and families in the New Testament in the book I am writing.

I have re-discovered much that is making my heart beat faster, my faith levels increase and an increasing, "awakes me at night" deep hunger for the good news to spill out into the community. Like an infectious disease, (!) my plan was simply to facilitate a time for others to catch it too by drawing folks together to worship and pray. I'll teach a little bit on what I see in the Bible that underpins and highlights the rapid transferral of a life-changing belief in the person of Jesus from one person to another through the extended family and social networks of the day - sociologists like Rodney Stark have concrete evidence for a 40% growth rate every decade from the time of Jesus resurrection to the end of the fourth century. Close study of actual death records in Egypt over one time period showed this growth rate to be modest - it was in fact far higher than this for the one specific area records existed for.

The reasons for this rapid spread of Christianity are varied and complex but there is consensus that the different way of life (witness) of the changing family had such an impact that people WANTED to re-orientate their lives towards Jesus - babies were born without the fear of exposure/infanticide, women were treated well and grew in their own giftings and leadership; marriage was honoured, slaves were treated well, families grew and thrived. In short - people were attracted to what they saw in the lives of Christians. Wow.Wow. Wow.....oh Father, how we want to see more of that in our time!

So this evening of prayer, worship, teaching and preparation to go and love and serve is on Monday 26 September at 7.30pm. Email me on children.pastor@gmail.com if you would like more information.

At the moment I am serving on the ministry team of an ILSOM (International Leaders School of Ministry) and have been reminded by the internationally-travelled speakers of the incredible growth of the church in South America, Africa, China, Indonesia, Korea....in short - in every continent bar ours and North America......

But something is stirring. Hunger is rising. A month ago, 15,000 young adults gathered for a conference in Chicago - Jesus Culture Awakening. I was privileged to watch a lot of the talks live and I urge you to listen to them - they blew me away.. You can find out about them here

I do believe that hunger is stirring in our nation too - to get "out there", to love and serve local communities, to love our cities, towns and villages. There is a rising dissatisfaction I have observed with just "doing church". Yet we mustn't rush ahead without spending time with the Father to just rest and listen; to hear his strategies and plans, just receiving from him because we're simply his beloved! Its hard enough to get out there without crashing and burning(interestingly I read this today and I wholeheartedly agree with Mike Breen's (initially tough-sounding) post.

And so the plan for Monday 26 Sept is that we too will gather to ask the Lord to enlarge our hearts to love the ones who are in front of us, maybe even related to us (!) and to believe that once more God can change a nation by impacting one who impacts another who then impacts another. We need the fuel and fire that comes from sitting at the Father's feet and drinking in the Holy Spirit's power and plans rather than relying on our own strategies and thoughts.

Some of my favourite things this week

1. The Song below: - which has long been a favourite and reminds me of the power of music. Tracks like this can catapault us from a list of "to do's" and pressure to perform/be seen to be doing ...into the presence of God. The best place to be when seeking future direction. Check out 2 Kings 3:15 - now bring me a harpist. While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha and he said....(prophetic direction was received in the next verses in the passage)

So this acoustic Brian Johnson song has been on repeat play this week for me. I love it.




2. The Sun (not the paper, the big light in the sky)
I've been able to sit outside reading. Marvellous. Day after day, in a wee sheltered spot in my garden.

3. Coffee with a pal
who I have known for a long time - since the early 90s! - but not that well. Ironically since we moved away from our previous place of abode we have met in more and more circles and this week we had lots of time to talk of dreams and visions and ways we might believe God is leading us to see the fulfillment of promises of a fresh awakening in our land! Please Lord, in our lifetime - we both knew of such longing and yearning all over the place in the Body of Christ for revival. How wonderful it is to talk of the things of the Lord that you long to see with a passion in this nation! That conversation turned the whole week round for me as it was utterly life-giving.

4. A very special card from the most unexpected folks in the church I have just left, one I'll treasure.

5. My beautiful family - it's been a hard, hard week with lots of tears but we have seen incredible breakthrough in our children's lives. My 8 year old son saw an angel who spoke to him on Good Friday as he broke down in tears as he saw afresh how much Jesus had sacrificed for him , and my daughter has shown incredible maturity as we have thrown ourselves onto God.

6. A blog post - this is simply phenomenal - (dated Wed April 27th if the blog has been updated since I first posted the link). I have been thinking a lot about preaching and teaching as I "sabbatical" it for now (for ever??). I sense God's saying: reflect, listen and learn - so I just "happened" to read this yesterday. Like me, Alyn was a secondary teacher and I love visual stimuli because I struggle with solely relying on the auditory mode of learning. (and I couldn't have got away with it for the past eight years. I'd have been beaten to a pulp by over 300 kids!!)

Awesome stuff and they are an awesome couple, used by God. Just because someone is a teacher, must they always teach?...

May this week mark the start of something new....

Blogging slowdown

Every time I go to blog, something stops it happening.

Ah, that's right, it's called LIFE! :-)
As our house is on the market, if we get a call to say a viewer is coming then everything has to stop for Operation Tidy-Up. We have two of the untidiest kids ever. Fortunately they are on a "holiday" to grandma's for two days so last night's Operation Tidy-Up went smoothly. We can rest assured that the ant collection will remain in the garden (thanks to a Canadian bug vacuum - the joy of North American toys) and that the doll's nappies (soiled) are packed away in the Baby Annabel suitcase and will REMAIN THERE.

Did mean to post some Canadian pictures last night, will get round to it soon, I promise. Our main prayer is for our house to sell so that we can count up all the pennies so we can buy a house in the new town. However, we are not homeless and in a little under three weeks time we will be renting. Wow. Haven't done that since I was 19.

Had a bank interview yesterday and some of the mortgage and financial stuff happening in the UK today makes for grim reading. We are affected by it in some ways (stamp duty agghhhhh!) and yet I feel strangely calm. I can't explain it beyind the fact that God started this process of moving and he will oversee every detail of it. He has been nothing but good to me my whole life long. This journey has showed us as a family that all we need is him. I have just done a little study on the word "riches" and in the New Testament Ephesians is flooded with references to God's riches for those who believe. This does not necessarily refer of course to material wealth, although I have always known "enough", some of which has come in amazing circumstances. Encouraging stuff.

Hopefully post more soon.
Deep in preparation and work for leaving and for the summer holiday club - this year almost 70 children out of 120 have no church connection at all! (We always have lots of our own children who come). I am looking forward to it very much.

May down, June to go.....

What a week.
What a month!!

I can't believe how fast it has gone.
I'm well ready for the "June rush" now; where the vision for children and family ministry over the next three months becomes a worked-out-on-the-ground reality and I field texts, emails and phone calls from a hundred volunteers, parents, members of the public etc etc for the summer "stuff".

Over the years I've always had tremendous help from our office staff but in the last couple of months I have been given my own admin person for some hours of the week, who I can just go to for anything and everything and I have really felt the benefit of this. Even things like doing phone calls. She is an absolute honey with the most amazing temperament - I wish I was more like her! - nothing is too much trouble and best of all, she really knows me; she knows what I'm like and how I need things done (if that doesn't sound too fussy). I love her to bits. And we have known each other for over 20 years. Wow!

Coming up is one of my favourite annual tasks, for the all age service in a few weeks time. I buy a Bible for the children who are moving "up". I try to buy something appropriate to their age and stage but I also look for something that contains something of the Big Story i.e. God's metanarrative. If you (my silent audience) would like me to publish here what I decide to buy this year, then I'm happy to do that :-)

I can tell you right now what the P5s are getting. They don't get another Bible as when they were P4s they got a full Bible which lasts them till they receive a youth bible in P7. However, as they are "moving up" (an important rite of passage) I do like to get them a paperback. For the last two years it's been Stormie Omartian's Power of a Praying Kid, which is excellent - particularly good on praying for the hard stuff, like sickness, death and dying. A brilliant resource for those at the "searching faith" phase
(I should be on commission).

This year my P5s are getting Mike Seth/Bill Johnson "Here Comes Heaven". If you buy your hungry-for-God child only one book, that's not the Bible, let it be this one. It's outstandingly good, and a groundbreaking idea in my mind Mike Seth, (former children's pastor at Bill Johnson's church in Redding, CA), in partnership with Bill Johnson, rewrote his "When Heaven Invades Earth" book for children (reading age 8-11, I think). Or younger if an adult reads alongside.
(all recommendations on this page are ........my opinion!)

So this is a VERY happy task. I should make it clear that not every child receives a book, because our groups "move up" every two years i.e. every child receives a Bible/book every second year. Everyone receives a certificate of attendance each year. Incidentally, never downplay the certificate. I have visited lots of our church children at home and I have seen many of these certificates stuck on the wall! Awards raise self-esteem in children.

I spend hundreds of pounds on this because there are lots and lots of children where I work. I think its VITAL that we recognise the children, bring them up to the front, clap them, make a fuss of them. I am so blessed to be somewhere where I don't have to fight for that to happen (if you are, feel free to email me for moral support or - seriously - prayer. I will do it!). It's not really a prizegiving, its not based on attendance or points won, its just based on the fact that YOU (kids) are part of our church family and we want to bless you. You might be reading this and thinking that financially you can't buy these books.

Some points to consider.
* Just go right up to people in your church (ask God who), share your vision for blessing children and ask them outright if they would be willing to donate into this "Bible" fund.
* Wesley Owen offer bulk buying discounts on certain Bibles - pick up the form from any shop. Make sure your church has a CPS (Churches Partnership Scheme) account to get an automatic 10% discount. I am amazed to hear from WO that many churches don't.
* check the prices of what you want to buy on Amazon - it can be substantially cheaper. I know this means you are not supporting STL (WO's charity arm) but if it makes a difference between buying gifts for the children in your church and not buying gifts..............
* I personally don't go for the substantially-discounted adult Bibles from different bible societies as they are usually thin-papered, in very small print, and without pictures. Children need material appropriate to them or they will cast it aside and label it as irrelevant because they can't read it. And that kind of thought will linger with them into adulthood. Spend more and catch the hunger-point.
* happy to give my opinions on anything you have seen or bought, I have probably bought it in the past too! Or is there a Bible or Christian children's paperback that you would recommend for presents or awards? Let me know in the comments section. It would be helpful if you could note what age range you think it is suitable for.

Better go, got summer club team training for my guys early tomorrow and people from neighbouring churches are coming. In the interests of ecumenicalism I've promised my SP that I'll be good and stick to that which unites, which is easy in children and family outreach - actually, scrub that! - it isn't!! What is the status of children before God etc....
(seriously, I head up a team from four other churches and we work together in a school club every Tuesday. I love'em to bits! I've just never met these folks coming tomorrow. They're from "the other side" of the 'hood)

Thought provoking part 1

I'm reading and writing about evangelism and integration of children and their parents into "not church" :-) ....into fellowship, a living faith, I guess I'm blessed to not personally experience this sad statistic, but I'm reading about the numbers of children leaving churches in their droves. In 40 per cent of UK churches, across all denominations, there is no children's ministry at all. I suspect this figure is somewhat higher, 5 years on. My denomination has commissioned some major research into this and my contact on the inside tells me it's a sorry picture too.

I'm more and more convinced as time goes by that we need to be intentional about reaching children; not just assuming that they would come to faith via their families. Several authors suggest that renewed efforts at adult evangelism are seriously hampered without outreach and witness to children, because we have an increasingly secular generation growing up, who will care little about our call "come to Jesus". What? Who? Why? Let's get nurturing that innate spirituality! Jesus knew what he was talking about with children! Let's ask Holy Spirit to pour out on the little ones, who are so open and receptive to know more of their heavenly Father! My observation is that prayer, worship, basking in God's love is as natural to them as eating and drinking. They were made to love him! And let's not forget the overwhelming evidence that those who make a committment to God before the age of 14 are more likely to remain in relationship with God all of their lives (see here - think its occasional paper 47, from memory. A jolly good read. And you can download it in German, should you so desire! Good old Lausanne, I read these papers for enjoyment every so often. They really are very helpful.)

All of the text below is from Evangelism - which way now? by Mike Booker and Mark Ireland (2003)

In some larger churches which run a wide range of activities, children's work can be viewed as a lower priority than "adult" activities like small-group leadership, eldership or preaching. Our society suffers from a strange type of snobbery which accords higher status to those who have least opportunity to influence people. Put at its starkest, a university lecturer (who works with people whose characters are already formed) is accorded higher status than a primary school teacher (working with people who may be far more open to change), who is in turn viewed as more important than a nursery nurse (who may have the potential for the greatest influence of all three). Seeping into churches, such an attitude means that work with children is undervalued and sometimes left in the hands of less able leaders. Children's work is for the beginners, so the accepted wisdom seems to believe, adult leadership for the wise and mature. The priority given to children by Jesus, Luke 9:48, (whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me) is sadly not always shared by his contemporary followers.

It may not simply be a matter of low priorities. Children's work may have to compete for leaders with increasingly complex church programmes, while at the same time many Christians have less free time available. Worship groups replacing one organist, meetings and committees which seem to have a self-propagating energy all of their own, alay involvement in services, all have their value but take up time. If work with children is being squeezed out, there may be a case for taking a long, hard look at the other church activities that are doing the squeezing.

"Now the children will leave is for their classes" is an often-heard statement in those churches that still have children's groups. The "children leaving us" mentality communicates that children are a minority group, separate from "normal church". This need not be a bad thing, it is possible that special groups for children reflect a special interest in their spiritual growth. However, the implications that children are not "us" can be part of the subtle message that they are less than a full part of the church. When families arrive at a service, if parents and other adults are greeted with a smile and a service sheet while the shorter people in the family are ignored, it simply adds to the message received by children that they are less than full members. Small, symbolic messages communicate to all present that children are a lower priority.

What is true within the church is true within the edge of a church as well. In the specific area of children's evangelism, the tragedy is that hugely successful events can go largely unreported. Thirty new children at a summer holiday club, several hundred hearing the Christian message at a special assembly in school may pass virtually without mention. When this happens, not only are children undervalued, but an enormous opportunity for encouragement is overlooked.

The Long Drive South

I've taken a break from my favourite activity - ironing - to blog some thoughts as I prepare to head south tomorrow afternoon to the bracing Lincolnshire coast for Spring Harvest. I'm working with Powerpack again. Regular readers will know I love them dearly! Blogged about them on at least two occasions and on this same week last year.

I've got a list as long as my arm to get through tomorrow, from finding materials for messy up-front games, to purchasing the necessary lorryload of fruit for the week ahead (Butlins food is..........plentiful........and vitamin-deficient), making some last minute pastoral phone calls, attending the Preschool end of term show, cleaning out the fish, remembering everything we need (EARPLUGS!) for chalet life and......oh!....packing....for four.

Today I worked till 8.30am till 7pm getting everything finished up for going away; communicating with all parties involved in the all age slots of the services for the next two weeks, ensuring everyone in the Easter cover teams knew where they were going and what they were doing, filling in some paperwork for BMS that I should have done last week; finally getting my summer holiday club team recruitment letters out - bless my admin worker today; she was fab!, all age cell admin and prep for the next two meetings - yup, being away is hard work prior to the event but wonderful once you're at your destination; knowing a good bunch of volunteers are not just keeping things ticking over but firing ahead without you :-)

I was teaching at Equip on Monday, our church's two-days-a-week discipleship programme and that which I taught, based on Lausanne occasional paper 47 (evangelism amongst children and families) the contents of which I do know pretty well, has really stirred something up in me this week. I am looking forward to a week away to think about this some more.

LOADS has been spilling around my brain this past month - on this blog you'll have heard my incessant references to George Barna (hey, don't knock large scale research and reflective conclusions), coupled with what I am seeing with my own eyes in children who love, love, love God and want him so much. I've been speaking to groups again recently about how we need to celebrate lifelong committment and love for Jesus from the youngest child onwards and upwards through the age brackets instead of expecting and talking of a period of rebellion away from God. I'm suggesting that we need to get rid of that attitude and expectation of rebellion, spoken or unspoken, and believe, expect and work towards children not only knowing God but walking close to him. And having amazing rallies and evangelistic events where we clap and cheer the thirty-something guest who testifies of a life of..........being close to God and serving him always and never doing drugs or alcohol and the like. How much better is it to avoid the pain and hurt? Is that not worth celebrating? With all my heart that's what I long for and pray for over my own two kids, often when they are asleep.

I'm feeling a real passion about this which may offend. Can't say sorry for being passionate about this (well, I would if I saw you face to face.....maybe!) but yet again (felt some prophetic frustration in this post I fear).... I'm feeling its time for the tide to turn, for us to REALLY take up the challenge of reaching and nurturing children in the things of God - if you win a young person to Christ, they are more likely to follow him all the days of their life, compared to someone who comes to faith as an adult (ref:Lausanne). Dunno about you, but I want disciples rather than numbers. I love kids and their families SO MUCH but I also love the LOCAL CHURCH heaps too and I want them to be an integral part of that. Sometimes I want that so much that it hurts. It pains me to think of children and young people shut away in separate boxes. This "botherment" MUST HAVE been planted there by God himself because if you didn't know this before - I used to not like children - at all - before God wrought a miracle in my life. I didn't even want to be around under 12s. I heard his audible, loud voice. If you want to know what he said you'll have to ask me in person one day!

I may blog briefly from the internet cafe onsite. Have a good week readers!
Perhaps post in the comments section what you will be doing on Monday morning at 11am..... Come on you lurkers - you can go anonymous and tell us what you will be up to on Monday at 11!

me - in Blue 1 amongst another 400 children no doubt singing, shouting, dancing praying or talking with them.

Upside Down, You Got Me Turning, Inside Out, and Round and Round**

Something happened to me on 7th September that has literally shaken my thinking on evangelism. It revolves around this passage.

Yes, I did know this story before that date and yet it came alive........(doh)
I had been preparing with a little team for an alpha course for families - we had prayed lots, we had planned together, we had prayed some more. Food for 30 was waiting. As 6pm drew near, no-one came. Ah well, I thought, a lovely meal awaits and this will be relaxing, all these folks are good friends of mine and it will be an opportunity to chat and catch up.

But something within me ROSE up - NO! It's not to be like this - we can't sit and share a meal so comfy and cosy - so it was coats on and into the street as we set off find people who will come eat with us. "Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find." So two of us set out and I invited families in the nearby park to our meal.

One family came - and the sense of God's love and care for them is moving me to tears every time I think of it. As a friend put it: think how much God loved them that he wanted to seek them out; it's as if the other people who were busy just weren't meant to come so that this family were reached with a meal which represented love, compassion and friendship. And they live on our doorstep.

It's this Lost Sheep principle which we lose when we become numbers driven...what? An alpha course with only two guests? And one a child! Hallelujah! Not just two people - it's a household! One of my most favourite speakers, Heidi Baker, who does phenomenal work in Mozambique and Malawi says "love the one, just the one. Everyone love the one in front of you. Then more will be added as they love the one in front of them".

And so my thoughts have turned to the flats in the streets around; the houses and streets aren't as wide and spacious and green as the houses which most of our congregation live in. The families perhaps not nuclear. And yet these are my neighbours. I feel some of my thoughts and strategies for the future being re-formed over the last two weeks in the light of this parable.

If the people we work and socialise with are too busy with their property (= field); their possessions (= oxen)or their partners, who are we to share the good news to?

**Can you name who sang this song? Answers in the comments!

Head above the parapet

I was speaking today to around 30 parents and carers on the work of Iris Ministries and in particular on the work in the baby houses in one of the five child care centres run by Rolland and Heidi Baker.

If you don't know anything about this particular couple, let me just say that they have spent most of their time since 1994 in Mozambique facing death threats, sickness, corruption and bureacracy. Iris Ministries now has emerged as one of the leading humanitarian organisations working with the poor in Mozambique (and now expanding into Malawi, Sudan and DRC).

They now care for over 3000 children. They have planted 5000 churches, training pastors and encouraging them to adopt up to ten children (I like that touch! - imagine if that were part of theological training here!)

I was speaking to people in the main who don't go to church. And you know what? I didn't feel like watering down the truth of what Iris achieves. The Bakers deliver "good news to the poor" and as Heidi says: what's the point in saying "say this little prayer after me, if the child has no clothes? or is sick? or can't read?" I showed a little of the documentary where she talks of God caring for the WHOLE person. I know a woman from Birmingham who works in the baby house and I told of the miracles she has seen - food appearing on the table when there was none, presents at Christmas never running out as hundreds of children form queues at the rubbish dump church to receive a gift, deaf and dumb children healed, AIDS tests reversed and - perhaps most moving of all for me - crushed and wounded spirits being restored. Most of the children who come to Iris have been abandoned by their parents.

Someone said to me that I was very bold to speak of such things. That it stirred things they'd rather not think about. I want to cry with frustration. Because we have so much, we believe so little. There is no need. Our lives are crammed with things that entertain much, look lovely, taste yummy, suit us beautifully, pass time creatively and fixate us materially that we PERHAPS don't need and long for the kingdom of God to come in quite the same way as a naked, desperate, lonely, sick child.

I'm challenged to the core.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.