Moving blogs

Not sure this blog is working so I'm trying a new format and spirit to blogging about matters spiritual and churchy.

New blog is a http://rjjm.wordpress.com 

It's a much more personal view of what I see online and in person. Hopefully, I will be able to say things there that I couldn't here.

The main issue is that I felt that any comments I made about churches would be received as outright criticism of people and ministries. So I kept quiet. Hoping I can be a bit more honest on the other blog without hurting people.

Bless you for reading and I pray that my other blog will enable me to bless people and ministries more.

~R

1000 * 1000

I recently met up with Patrick McDonald from Viva Network and had a chat about fundraising, web strategy and video production.

Viva Network is an organisation that helps Children at Risk in some of the poorest areas of the world. Viva's main Modus Operandi is to 'network' together churches in a particular area to help each other help some of the poorest and 'at risk' street children in the world. And these are not all rich churches with big buildings - many are tin shacks in what most people would call slums.

An example Patrick gave was that one church in the city may be able to school older street children to read and write; another in the same city but in the slums would be able to provide kindergartens for the small children so they wouldn't end up on the street in the first place. And, of course, Churches and other people in 'richer' countries could contribute money and assistance.

The idea is it's easier to help when other people are helping.

I was amazed at the sheer logistical issues that are involved in running a charity.

One of the main issue they have - as with most charities - is funding. But, not so much in the sense that they don't get any. They do - millions of pounds of grants, etc come in. But, these are poured into particular project and plans that the funding was originally aimed at. Also, these are usually one off payments. Running a charity - especially a worldwide one - takes committed staff and a consistent income.

The ridiculous state of affairs is that Patrick has to let go people who are doing a great job and ask them if they can come back in 3 months when Viva will have the money to employ them again.

So Patrick has an idea that he has entitled '1000 * 1000'.

He wants to get a thousand people to commit to annual giving of £1000 a year.

The thing I like about this is that it has the potential of a viral appeal - something that social network is just set up to do. All it takes is a for 2 or 3 people to commit and 2 or 3 more people to do the same and in no time Viva will have their funding. 

Facebook has apps for this such as the Causes App - and I am researching these and other online and social networking methods of fund raising.

I'm no fundraiser - but I know for a fact that we need the needy as much as they need us. It's a two way exchange and not a casting down of coins, but a human interaction that feeds both parties - the giver and receiver. We will all be both at some stage in our lives. Don't let the chance to give slip away again and again.

If you have any ideas or experience, or would like to contribute, please contact me (blog@rjjm.net) or contact Viva.

Christ Church, Abingdon

Christ Church, Abingdon

Last Sunday night I attended my dad's church in Abingdon called Christ Church.

The visit came at an opportune moment when I really needed it. The building itself is funny as it looks almost as though it used to be a chapel and was converted to something else (offices?) and then converted back to a church. There is a modern refurbished feel to an existing building. Dating probably from the 17th century. But it is warm and comfortable - which was good since it was a horrible wet day.

I was greeted by a friendly man who showed me in and gave me a couple of leaflets. This was a nice touch - simple but effective. I was late and the congregation was already most of the way through the worship time. So I was a little nervous. But the genuine welcome and being shown it the meeting room made me feel accepted and happy to be there.

Genuine is the word I would use for most of the service. It was very Vineyard style that I was used to: Unbroken time of worship; Space to God to speak; Sermon and Ministry times.

There was communion done with the the CofE liturgy - but even that seemed to been read with a genuine affection for the pre-selected words being read.

The leader of the service, Ron, had a chat with me afterwards. He was about the same age as me (30's) and had attended The Oxford Vineyard when he was at Wycliffe. Ron and I spoke about the service and our search for a church and he was really helpful, inviting us into the church and suggesting churches in Witney and Burford that he knew of.

My overriding feelings of Christ Church, Abingdon were that I was welcomed and felt very relaxed in the surroundings. It was about 25 minutes drive - so not impossible to attend. But, we'll see.

The reason I attended was that my father was speaking. You can download the mp3 here and see other talks from Christ Church at their downloads page.

Ministering in Suffering

Below is a list compiled by John Piper after the Columbine shootings and revised after the New York Twin Towers attack. Via Rick Warren's blog/podcast.

So good that I thought I'd post it on this blog.

21 Ways to Minister to Those Who Are Suffering

1. Pray. Ask God for his help for you and for those you want to minister to. Ask him for wisdom and compassion and strength and a word fitly chosen. Ask that those who are suffering would look to God as their help and hope and healing and strength. Ask that he would make your mouth a fountain of life.
2. Feel and express empathy with those most hurt by this great evil and loss; weep with those who weep.
3. Feel and express compassion because of the tragic circumstances of so many loved ones and friends who have lost more than they could ever estimate.
4. Take time and touch, if you can, and give tender care to the wounded in body and soul.
5. Hold out the promise that God will sustain and help those who cast themselves on him for mercy and trust in his grace. He will strengthen you for the impossible days ahead in spite of all darkness.
6. Affirm that Jesus Christ tasted hostility from men and knew what it was to be unjustly tortured and abandoned, and to endure overwhelming loss, and then be killed, so that he is now a sympathetic mediator for us with God.
7. Declare that this murder was a great evil, and that God’s wrath is greatly kindled by the wanton destruction of human life created in his image.
8. Acknowledge that God has permitted a great outbreak of sin against his revealed will, and that we do not know all the reasons why he would permit such a thing now, when it was in his power to stop it.
9. Express the truth that Satan is a massive reality in the universe that conspires with our own sin and flesh and the world to hurt people and to move people to hurt others, but stress that Satan is within and under the control of God.
10. Express that these terrorists rebelled against the revealed will of God and did not love God or trust him or find in God their refuge and strength and treasure, but scorned his ways and his Person.
11. Since rebellion against God was at the root of this act of murder, let us all fear such rebellion in our own hearts, and turn from it, and embrace the grace of God in Christ, and renounce the very impulses that caused this tragedy.
12. Point the living to the momentous issues of sin and repentance in our own hearts and the urgent need to get right with God through his merciful provision of forgiveness in Christ, so that a worse fate than death will not overtake us.
13. Remember that even those who trust in Christ may be cut down like these thousands who were in New York and Washington, but that does not mean they have been abandoned by God or not loved by God even in those agonizing hours of suffering. God’s love conquers even through calamity.
14. Mingle heart-wrenching weeping with unbreakable confidence in the goodness and sovereignty of God who rules over and through the sin and the plans of rebellious people.
15. Trust God for his ability to do the humanly impossible, and bring you through this nightmare and, in some inscrutable way, bring good out of it.
16. Explain, when the time is right, and they have the wherewithal to think clearly that one of the mysteries of God’s greatness is that he ordains that some things come to pass which he forbids and disapproves of.
17. Express your personal cherishing of the sovereignty of God as the ground of all your hope as you face the human impossibilities of life. The very fulfillment of the New Covenant promises of our salvation and preservation hang on God’s sovereignty over rebellious human wills.
18. Count God your only lasting treasure, because he is the only sure and stable thing in the universe.
19. Remind everyone that to live is Christ and to die is gain.
20. Pray that God would incline their hearts to his word, open their eyes to his wonders, unite their hearts to fear him, and satisfy them with his love.
21. At the right time sound the trumpet that all this good news is meant by God to free us for radical, sacrificial service for the salvation of men and the glory of Christ. Help them see that one message of all this misery is to show us that life is short and fragile and followed by eternity, and small, man-centered ambitions are tragic.

Church Visits

There has been some moan-age about the fact that I haven't actually said anything about the churches we visited yet. So in the next few days I will comment on three churches that we have visited so far: St Mary's, Cogges; Welcome, Witney and St Aldates, Oxford.

I have no real formula that I am going to follow but I guess I should comment on the things we are looking for in a church.

Basically, we're looking for somewhere to belong. We're looking for community. Sure we're looking for the kids but we're looking for the 'dults too. I guess we're looking for a family church. Of course, having been in a church for such a long time (15 years) you forget that other churches do things a lot differently. We're trying to figure out what we have taken for granted and what we are going to have to compromise on.

That's kind of hard when our emotions on the subject are in some turmoil. Which is what we need to keep in mind as we search and not be led by them.

Business Prayer Meeting

Had a great meeting this morning with a group of business people from the church I used to belong to. Most of the people there no longer belong to the church. It was good meeting, talk and pray about our businesses and needs at the moment. There is always an up mood, spiritually and emotionally, when I leave those meetings and it was amazing to pray and be prayed for in a safe place again.

Kind of crazy that so many good folks have left, but are all still meeting together and praying together. I asked someone the direct question of whether our old church was dying. They responded that it certainly looked that way. Not quite sure how to deal with that.

In an atmosphere of business it's not extraordinary that a business that is on top of the world one day can be bust the next. But when it comes to churches it feels a lot worse. But why should it be? If the church has died (is dying) because of a risk that was taken that didn't work out. Isn't it just the same a million business that did the same thing. That refused to sit still and play it safe but decided to take a risk. It think it's in John Maxwell's book 'Failing Forward' that he says that the majority of millionaires in the US was made bankrupt on average 3.5 times before they made their millions. The difference betweeen them and other 'failures' was they got up and started again.

Maybe the death of a church that takes risks is not a bad thing. The people who took the risks will get up and keep going.

Doesn't make it any easier to bear though. It one thing to leave a church. It's another to then have that church fold.

Criteria: Kids work

One of the reasons we are looking for a new church is that we were unable to take our youngest into the kids' work at our last. This had most to do with the fact our littlest was just too tired at 4pm when the service started.

I'll go into the whole 4pm thing later.

We had got so used to the fact that he would not go into Kids Church that we fully expected to be going into a church with the kids and coming straight back out again with a screaming 4 year old and red faced parents. I was pretty sure that I didn't want to go and search on my own without Nikki and the kids. The whole point was somewhere we could go as a family. Which is what we have been unable to do for quite some time.

So that's criteria number one. A place that the kids will go into. But not just that - we want them to be growing in Christ too. We want a place that will set them on fire with the Holy Spirit. I don't know what that will look like and I realise that you can't test these things in one visit. That's where we have to rely on the HS and our instincts to guide us I guess.

As a postscript to the post I will just say that the first church we went to the kids loved the sunday school. It was an amazing experience to have the boy just stroll straight in and start talking to the helpers as if he'd known them all his life. I was summarily dismissed by the handing of his coat to me. When he came back he was very happy asking when we would go again.

Nice to know that as least that part of search does not look to be the issue we thought it would. Indeed it has allowed us face the search with a little more excitement rather than dread.