Pilgrim

I led worship today at GMC, themed on Bill Hybels "Whispers from God" book.  The prayers were a combination of those sourced from "500 Prayers", and one I composed myself.  As usual at GMC I had the pleasure to work with a very skilled worship group, who are not only musically talented but are also extremely gracious.  The songs chosen concentrated on the theme of praising God as the lord and almighty king of creation, then moving on to reflect on the importance of relying on Christ alone for our strength, and remembering that Jesus came into the world as light within the darkness, with the aim of freeing humankind from the rule of darkness so that we too could become sons of light Praise to the one true God, for he is always and eternally Good. Amen

Preaching today at Strood Methodist Church.  The service went well overall and I received some positive and helpful feedback. Below is the Sermon followed by the intercessory prayers I created for the day. Message 03/06/12 The book of Samuel describes a situation of political change in ancient Israel.  The descendants of Aaron who had inherited the priestly roles had inherited positions of power and influence.  Eli’s sons, we are told, let this sense of power corrupt them and they became arrogant, bullying the poor and abusing women in the temple.  Against this behaviour, we are given the figure of Samuel, who looks after Eli and carries out his service to the temple with humility and deference. Samuel hears God’s voice in the middle of the night, but does not recognise it, and thinks that Eli is calling out for assistance.  With bitter irony, it falls to Eli himself, whose family is to be stripped of their position and power, to help Samuel realise...

All Journeys entail Risk! http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7774178383725748202#editor/target=post;postID=5768561744049694598

I  have just got back from two very stimulating days at the leadership conference at Royal Albert Hall hosted by HTB. The two days highlighted such a rich diversity within the church today, such that we really do represent a rainbow church, wearing a coat of many colours with the connecting stream of reliance on Jesus. the days contained high quality presentations such as the new Anglican Archbiship of Canterbury Justin Welby who spoke of the importance of Grace, of the naturalness of Church Growth but that work is hard, though God will always provide. Bill Hybels from Willow Creek Church - spoke of how to encourage change/growth, of the importance of the here to there model (conc on the here and illustrate how untenable here is), the straight line model to determine how team members are coping and who needs help, and the challenge line - showing the importance of being overchallenged. Patrick Lencioni spoke of Cultural leadership and the relationship between Truth and Grac...

I conducted a service today at Lower Stoke that has been assessed as part of my journey towards accreditation.  The music didn't really work all that well, which was really due to two key factors from what I can see.  First of all, like a lot of small congregations, the music is from Itunes, which is so much harder to sing to that a real live worship group.  I think learning points have to be in communication with the church prior to the service.  I need to chase more at times, even if I feel uncomfortable about it.  It is hard to know if your song selection is acceptable, though at the end of the day, it is the message that is important, and that includes the songs and the sermon.  The other factor, is just that the congregation was just well small, several of us had colds, so the songs did not sound well. I think a further point will be that the presentation was scripted rather than experiential.  I think that there is a danger when preaching a ser...

Today I led the service at GMC.  The service really hummed and flowed really well.  The theme was "How do we live in the Spirit?" and I hope that the people that attended this morning were both comforted and challenged in some way.  Feedback has been positive so far.  A couple of learning points to note, practice reading aloud the prayers beforehand in order to note the natural breaks.  Thank you Sara for that.  Carol felt that the sermon was strongly grounded in the Bible which is a positive but I need to make sure that the language does not get any stronger or too academic for fear of losing some of the congregation.  She said that the balance today was correct - so that is good news.  Thanks as ever to the worship group who did an absolutely fabulous job  If anyone reads this who would like to hear the sermon it will be on the following link http://www.medwaymethodistchurch.org.uk/downloads-audio.htm   later today or tomorrow. God ...

Today I preached at Dene holm Methodist church, set in a community centre it serves the immediate Northfleet community.  The church suffers with a very small congregation at present though all are committed to the cause.  we were made very welcome and the service celebrated the first Sunday in Advent.  The congregation was mostly elderly people.  At their all age services they have attendance by the brownie and guide groups along with parents of the children but these people do not attend regularly which is a definite challenge to the church. The songs were delivered by computer based music and unusual for a Methodist church, the singing was not strong.  I am not  sure what I can do differently as regards this.  The songs were traditional which fitted the congregation. I received positive feedback from the congregation with several commenting that they would like me to come back again.  one of the congregation significantly commented that my m...