Falling With Style

Driving to the office this morning, along a rural country lane towards the town, a family of deer chose their moment to leap through the hedgerow and cross the road in front of the car. The first three made it, then the smaller deer skidded and swerved to a stop by the side of the road as I did likewise in the car! There was no collision, and all six deer hurried on their way, our admiring glances at their beauty and poise lost on them as they disappeared into the opposite foliage. When we come to prayer, we have many purposes and motives in mind. Breakthrough, healing, momentum. All good and rightly sought after. However, the encounter with the deer reminded me of a comment by E M Bounds, which emphasises the place of protection and comfort in our prayer. Bounds tells this story in his book, The Necessity of Prayer: 'Rising early one morning I heard the barking of a number of dogs chasing deer. Looking at a large open field in front of me, I saw a young fawn making it's w...

Over the last few days I've been chatting through the implications of Jesus' famous words in John 10 with a number of people and small groups. We've been exploring together what impact these statements about his Good Shepherding have for those of us who are walking through a church leadership transition. God Himself is the supreme Shepherd of his people - That's one of the primary ways that he reveals himself through the Old Testament. But his plan has always been to entrust some of the weight of his leadership to under Shepherds, to enable them to express something of his heart and his care. So, from Moses, through Joshua, the Judges, Samuel, the great King David, God's people were Shepherded. There were more bad Shepherds than good - These, the Prophets denounced, even as they longed for the one true Shepherd who would come and lead God's people. In Jesus the Messiah, the Good Shepherd arrived. At the same time, He is both the Lamb and the Shepherd. The o...

We are in a unique time in the local church right now. A Pastor who has led faithfully for over a quarter of a century is handing over the leadership of the church and the team, to me - a man who is new on the scene and new to the town. During the transition period of the last few months, I've become increasingly impressed by the way in which this faithful Pastor is known and understood by good people, some of whom have walked with him for a long time. There is an ease and simplicity about life when we are known and we know. A rhythm of unspoken understanding in our words and listening, no need to analyse motives when we already know the heart from which the voice speaks. This security is vital for the ongoing health of any local church. The absence of it is noticeable by contrast, particularly in a community where intimate relationship has formed. On a number of occasions in the last couple of months, I've had conversations with people I don't yet know well and assumed ...

As we prepare for another nativity, I've been considering the link between the Three Wise men from the East, probably Iran, and the thousands of Iranian believers today. These three Iranians represent a massive prophetic promise. The first to come from far off to worship Jesus. Following a star, beginning a journey based on limited revelation, ending in submission to Christ and a total rejection of their old lives and world views. They point prophetically to the millions who have and will come to Christ from across Asia, from the Middle East, through Iraq, Iran, India and Pakistan. They are a foretaste of the many who will follow in their footsteps. Today we don't hear stories of stars in the sky. However, there are many stories of Muslim background believers in the oppressive Iranian regime who have dreams and visions of Jesus. Many too who are stopped in their tracks by a satellite broadcast beamed into their homes, or a youtube clip about Jesus onto their smart phones. ...

Maybe it's over familiarity, or the fast approach of another badly costumed kids nativity play -but the wise men in the story, found in Matthew 2, need to be commended. First though, a few of our favourite myths need well and truly busting! These three Kings didn't just appear out of the mist, dropping into the perfect nativity scene with Shepherds, animals, Mary, Joseph and the lobster! Most scholars agree today that their starting point in the 'East' was Iraq, Babylon, maybe even Iran. Either way, these guys came a came a long way, and they had been following the star a long time. The fact that Herod orders boys under the age of two to be killed gives us an idea that Jesus was probably an infant by now. The shepherds were long gone, the manger back to it's animal use. Mary and Joseph would have long since presented Jesus at the temple and met Simeon and Anna. Indeed, verse 11 of Matthew 2 hints that the young family may now be living in a house rather than th...

'One anothering' is one of those church phrases that the rest of the world rarely registers. However, the fifty nine one another references in the New testament are all so active and powerful that it's time we gave them a bit of airtime and started living them out. Eat, sleep, read, repeat as the song goes (almost!) Through a time of unprecedented change at a local church level, my prescription is that we do just that. Copy and print. Stick them around the house, meditate on them in the mornings. We will mature as we align with this truth, as we let them become the default setting, the climate control for this season of life together in the local church. When there is so much change going on, we can quickly become consumed by the 'what' and the 'how'. All important, but these one another's show us that 'who' we are together through the process is far more important. We could summarise them negatively : Refuse factions, refuse gossip, be wise...

Expectation : A strong belief that something will happen or be the case. At its most potent this firm, unshakeable belief in a certain outcome produces anticipation, expectancy, eagerness and hope. These are the feelings that flood through us when we are convinced something is going to change. They are powerful motivators, and when this kind of expectant hope is kindled corporately in a local church community, undiluted anticipation can rush through the whole and bring real forward momentum. Our problem comes when reality fails to meet our great expectations. The irresistible force of our assumed progress crunches up against the immovable object of reality. And it's reality that bites. Time and again we fail to hit the mark, sometimes coming in close, sometimes nowhere near. Either way, we become conditioned to failure and disappointment. Nothing saps hope in the local church more than this. We dared to believe, but look what happened. From the people who came out of Egypt t...