Monday musing

We had a very good and busy Sunday but if I ever tire of seeing someone declaring Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and submitting themselves to a pool full of water for baptism I am in the wrong job. There was much rejoicing in our church family yesterday. We had 18 to lunch to celebrate (it was 12 but somehow I can never stop myself adding a few more). Mrs C cooked 'Pacific Lime Chicken' from Cook Simple. It was stupendous.

Apparently, one in fifty of the C of E's clergy don't believe in God and we wonder why we are struggling a tad.

I am still chuckling about a phrase Geoff Surrat used about applying Willow leadership fads to the local church. He said too often pastors find themselves ''Up a creek without a Hybels"

I am so enjoying Shrink. I've had it now for a few days and it's dog-eared and heavily underlined. So much that Tim Shuttle writes is resonating with me and the way I am shaped. I used a story about Andre Agassi in my sermon on 'Justification by Faith' (do listen to this by Keller if you want a primer on what JbF is!)

This story that Ann Voskamp posted is one to read about Ebola.

I have been mulling on the testimony of Rev Richard Coles and the fact that Forward in Faith Bishop Jonathan , Episcopal overseer for traditionalists opposed to the ordination of women, has asked for permission to remarry which has been granted.

Since reading about Rev Richard Coles I have been singing 'Don't leave me this way' around the house which was something of a dance floor smash in the 80's. To my disbelief, Mrs C had never heard of it and was not even helped by my trying to dance to it in the style of Jimmy Sommerville. She was only 8 in 1986 so I've let her off the hook on her musical ignorance. Next things is she'll be telling me she's never heard of 'Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark' :)

The is a lot of darkness advertising locally. Halloween is Christmas for the other side. I always remember Danielle Strinkland's phrase in a talk at Soul Survivor that went something like- 'where the light is passive the darkness advances unopposed'. It has and will act as a wake up call for me and our people.

Boris Johnson has written a biography of Churchill called 'The Churchill Factor'.

We had a fantastic film sermon at our 16:30 service. It used the film 'The Guardian' which for some reason had passed me by. If you watch this film and it doesn't ignite the evangelist in you then I'll eat my sandals of peace. I watched it last week and, of course, it made me cry.

An unrelenting 'reach the lost man' is a American fellow called Perry Noble who has a church the size of Leamington Spa. Over the weekend, I spotted a post that he had written entitled 'Seven reasons I believe Jesus is going to save 500 people this weekend' and everything in my spirit said 'Give me a flipping break'  [Probably because I am mid-flow with reading 'Shrink' which is a critique of the mega-church]. I clicked on it anyway. Imagine my surprise to find myself won over as I read and by the end of the post I was left wondering how I could invite someone to his church. The little phrase that got me was this this one:

'Found people find people' which I quoted in my sermon.

I've nicked that phrase lock stock and barrel and am quoting it everywhere I go. Hope that's OK Perry :)