iGod

Easter is not just for the religious type

A local vicar and pastor stood by the side of the road holding up a sign that said, "The End is Near! Turn yourself around now before it's too late!"

"Leave us alone, you religious nuts!" yelled a driver as he sped by. Then from around the bend they heard a big splash.

"Do you think," said one clergy to the other, "we should just put up a sign that says, 'bridge down' instead?"

I have heard people say that they are not the religious type, insinuating that, perhaps, I am.  As if I came out of my mother’s womb clutching an open Bible with a full-robed choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus by the bedside. I mean who sets out in life to be religious?

For some strange reason though a few atheist writers recently, such as Alain De Botton and Richard Holloway, find “religion” attractive. In fact, the former writer has gone so far to try and set out a religious life for non-believers. Then there is AC Grayling who has even written a bible for the atheist.

Someone once wrote, “To be is to be connected. And to be connected is to be plugged in.” The Bible states that we are all “made in the image of God”. These are both big, big statements and this is a small, small brain here that reflects upon them. Yet, life is a big experience and so I think it deserves a little of our time to dwell on the big stuff once in a while, don’t you?  And it is also okay not to have a conclusive answer in two minutes. Some things are meant to be pondered over a lifetime. Maybe even over eternity.

I guess for many people though “religion” in the UK stands for a shrinking minority of church-goers who hate gay people, resent women and despise those who have abortions, but anyone with a bit of savvy will know that this not quite the case but, of course, it makes a convenient headline.

However, personally speaking, if my faith does come across as judgmental, intolerant and exclusive, it bothers me and the finger needs to be pointed firmly back at my face.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Sadly, I think at times he is right. I have met many non-Christians whose conduct is better people than Christians. Religion in itself does not make anyone a better person - Christian or atheist. But, of course, choosing to follow Jesus is not principally about ethics, it has to do with an awe-inspiring divine-human relationship.

Shortly our local churches will be celebrating Easter, a time we celebrate new life in Christ through his resurrection, but maybe we could see as the time when Jesus Christ, the son of God, came as the non-religious type for the non-religious type to draw all people to himself into a real, relevant and restored relationship with God the Father.

I truly believe the message of salvation is still as powerful and pertinent as it was 2,000 years ago, because you see Jesus’ death happened in a secular setting, not in a private religious community. It was not really a religious event at all. It happened in the city of one of the busiest and most important trading outposts of the Roman Empire.

On Good Friday we remember how Jesus, isolated and with a minority following, gave his life in a divine act of love for the majority, regardless of belief or faith. Now, I am not wanting to impose my position on anyone, but I do want to put it out there to our community.

We are all free to accept or reject, but let me leave you with this last thought: did Jesus really die just to make us religious? It just doesn’t stack up for me.

Maybe see you at Stour Valley Vineyard Church 10.30 am on Easter Sunday at the Delphi Centre.

Happy Easter!

ASD

Me and the Prostitute

When I was a young man I met a prostitute. No, not in that sense.

It was in the late Eighties and I had just started working in London’s glittering West End for an ad agency. Everything was new and I was still trying to get to grips with my pocket-sized London A-Z.

Thinking I would take a short cut through some back streets to get to the tube quicker I found myself going down this dimly-lit grubby street. It had been raining and so I had one of those black city-type long rolled up umbrellas. Well, I was trying to make an impression.

Walking fast I caught sight of a heavily made up girl leaning on a door way smoking a cigarette, half-bathed in red light. She was wearing, well not very much to be honest, but what she was wearing was in leopard skin print. But what really struck me were her long black suede boots. They seemed to go half way up her body. I remember thinking what an absolute picture she looked and began considering the kind of person she must be.   

Well, I lost my concentration and managed somehow get my “man about town” umbrella caught in one of my shoelaces. I began to run uncontrollably towards this lady trying to stop myself from tumbling over – but, alas, too late. I ended up slumped awkwardly face down in a puddle by her thigh length black suede boots.

I felt this hand reach down and grab mine and pull me up to my feet. My briefcase and its contents were scattered unceremoniously across the street. Not good.

“Are you alright? Can I do anything? Do you need any help? I looked up with utter embarrassment and saw something unexpected - kindness. Not for the first time that evening I had been caught unaware and wrong-footed.

I have learnt over the years, thanks to this chance encounter with a sex worker, that kindness is what makes us human. There is much in society that tries to demean its virtue and label it as the act of church-goers, do-gooders or weak people.

The Roman philosopher and emperor Marcus Aurelius declared that “kindness was mankind’s greatest delight”, but humanist thinkers such as Voltaire saw it as a weakness and argued that there was nothing in it for the individual. He vehemently disagreed with the Christian virtue of “love your neighbour as yourself.”

Nowadays this Enlightenment thinking has gone deep into our society to make us naturally suspicious of any kindly behaviour. It is often dismissed by clever people as being sentimental or moralistic.

Some say that we are only kind to each other to get something out of it for ourselves.  Maybe, but for the Christian our motivations are different. We live not for ourselves but for the pleasure of God. Again, not a popular concept in a secular individualist society. Yet in that place, personal fulfillment and life purpose has a chance to go deeper than if we just live for our own ends.

Admittedly there is vulnerability in doing acts of kindness, but it is a risk we take. We learn to take on board “the greatest commandment” given by Jesus: “love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength.” And along with that, “love your neighbour as yourself.”

Now it may seem a foolish thing to believe in today’s culture but, hey, seeing today’s society as it is, I think I’ll take my chances and be a kind fool for Christ and see where it takes me.

ASD

Life Version 2.0

(My article reproduced from Community News)

I have a love-hate relationship with technology. I love it when it makes my life easier, but absolutely hate it when it interferes with my routine and it becomes the master, not the servant.

Quite unabashed, I have been an Apple Mac user ever since my second year at ‘vicar factory’ back in the early 90s. Before then I kindly borrowed someone’s Toshiba Portable MS DOS computer, which in truth wasn’t that portable. Not only was it heavy and left dents in my knees, but the battery life was shorter than a queue to the Crazy Paving Appreciation Society’s Annual Lecture.

Nowadays, alongside my lighter laptop, I also have my mobile or should I say ‘smart phone’, but as I discovered recently this has not been without its problems.

I attempted to upgrade my phone software to the latest whizzy-whiz, faster, better-than-ever-before version. Also known as iOS 5. In truth, I was not unhappy with how things were before, but the thought of something better and free, well…it was simply an offer I couldn’t refuse.

So on a quiet weeknight I hit the download button to let technology do its best. Unfortunately it decided to do its worst. With a big gasp I watched my entire set of emails, calendars and contacts disappear before my eyes. (And, no, my emails weren’t backed up!) If ever there was a time to find a grown man crying in a corner it was then. The promise of a better-connected life had let me down.

It has made me think how we can often put a lot of blind faith in things that are not necessarily proven, but given enough hype can accept anything as truth. We want to believe that something will make our lives better.

It is natural to want to upgrade the standard of our lives. We can look at the current version and think, “This just sucks! Maybe something has to stopped functioning in our life or we see something in someone else’s and want what they have.

The late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple said famously in a university plenary speech:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”

The immensely successful and talented Steve Jobs recognised his products were not ultimately enough in them self. That is quite something, isn’t it?

Life has a spiritual profundity that modern science still struggles with any integrity to make redundant. There remains this longing in us all to be known, loved and accepted for who we are, not for what we have achieved. Many Christian commentators have called this a God-shaped hole wanting to be filled by himself through his Son Jesus Christ.

If the promises of God are true and Jesus is who he says he is, it requires a full upgrade to a new way of seeing and experiencing life. The old version will never do.

St Augustine, the early church father said rather wryly:

“I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: ‘Come to me all you that labour and are heavy burdened.’” [quoting Jesus]

Is God’s Life Version any better than the modern alternatives around?

I give the last word to Paul the low-tec Apostle who said this about the great iPriest, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

ASD

'Red Rev' Giles Fraser?

Just reflecting about the resigination of the Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, Rev Dr Giles Fraser. While left-leaning The Guardian fetes the man, I hear, maybe not surprisingly, the Daily Telegraph takes another view.

Whatever side you take, he typifies the need for the Christian to speak up and get involved in politics and injustice, even when it doesn't always make you universally popular with your own peers.

US Christian activist Shane Clairborne says:

"Theologian Karl Barth said, 'We have to read the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other.' For too long we Christians have used our faith as a ticket out of this world rather than fuel to engage it.

"In his parables, Jesus wasn’t offering pie-in-the-sky theology… he was talking about the real stuff of earth. He talks about wages, debt, widows and orphans, unjust business owners and bad politicians. In fact Woody Guthrie breaks it all down in his song “Jesus Christ.” The song ends with Woody singing, “This song was written in New York City. If Jesus were to preach what he preached in Galilee, they would lay him in his grave again.”

"The more I read the Gospels, the more they seem to confront the very patterns of the world we live in. At one point Mary, pregnant with Jesus cries out: “God casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly… God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty…”. You can’t help but think if she were alive in contemporary America some folks would try to accuse the Virgin Mother of being Marxist or promoting class warfare. But all through Scripture we see this–over 2000 verses about how God cares for the poor and most vulnerable.

"What would Jesus say about Wall Street?"

 What would Jesus say about the Square MIle?

Would he be for locking up St Paul's Catherdral or for an open air church service?

The thing I am taking away is that if we want our message to be heard we have to first hear what culture is saying. This is not so much about wanting to sound populist like a politician, but to help us avoid sounding pompous like an old fogey.

May God grant us wisdom and courage in these times!

ASD

10 Commandments for Church Planters and Pastors

A cracking top ten by Rich Nathan, Senior pastor of Vineyard Columbus, Ohio:

Pastors and church planters face enormous demands as we try to juggle family responsibilities, ministry, and often, school and part-time jobs. How can we live sustainable lives? We read of tragic pastoral failures on a weekly basis. Most pastors don’t last in the ministry for five years (perhaps the only way we pastors are like pro football players!). I’ve been a pastor for 25 years. Here are ten practices that have enabled me to pastor for the long-haul.

#1 Build a rock-solid daily personal devotional life with God. This simply means that you spend time every day soaking in God’s presence. You can handle an enormous amount of pressure, if your foundation is solid. Pressure is not the problem. Weak foundations are the problem. If your foundation is shaky, you won’t be able to handle very much at all. Maybe you’ve heard the expression: “You can’t fire a cannon out of a canoe.” If you are really going to accomplish something; if you are going to be able to achieve and do the great things that God has in store for you to achieve and do, you need a strong foundation. The cannon of your life needs to be bolted into granite. And the granite of your life is your rock-solid personal time with God every day.

#2 Choose a prayer partner, who is a peer and with whom you can be utterly transparent. What I have personally done in my own life for the past 20 years and what we require of every pastor on the staff of Vineyard Columbus is to have a prayer partner. At Vineyard Columbus we take one day every month outside of the office talking and praying with our prayer partner. We have a set of accountability questions that we ask each other such as:

a. Are you struggling with sexual purity in any way?
b. Have you seen any pornography, or anything on TV or in a movie that you shouldn’t have watched?
c. Have you done anything sexually you shouldn’t have done?
d. Are there any emotional attachments forming with someone who is not your spouse?
e. Have you handled your money and financial dealings with absolute integrity?
f. Have you experienced any breach in any relationship? Are you at peace with everyone?
g. Have you forgiven everyone for everything?
h. Are you experiencing intimacy with God on a regular basis?

#3 If you are married, schedule a weekly date night with your spouse. It is really important to stay current and to fuel romance and intimacy with your spouse. My wife and I have a regular date every Monday. It doesn’t need to be expensive. It could be coffee and a long walk through a park or a leisurely breakfast. But schedule a weekly date with your spouse outside your home.

#4 Get financial counseling from a professional financial counselor. Strongly consider (if you are married, with your spouse) going to a course like Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. Life is sustainable when your financial house is in order.

#5 Ruthlessly avoid all compromising situations with the opposite sex. There are few things that derail people from the plan of God more than sexual impurity. Jim Downing, who is one of the patriarchs of the Navigator organization, was asked some years ago: Why is it that so few people finish well? His response was profound. He said: “They learn the possibility of being fruitful without being pure. They begin to believe that purity doesn’t matter. Eventually, they become like trees rotting inside that are eventually toppled by a storm.” Live a sexually pure life.

#6 Take care of yourself physically. Join a gym. Get into the habit of walking with a friend. Watch your diet. It is not enough that you’re involved in ministry. It is not even enough that you grow in internal purity and intimacy with God. You are a whole person. Your life is integrated - body, soul and spirit. You cannot neglect your body or your emotional life and continue to do well. So, take care of yourself physically.

#7 Do not confuse knowledge or skills or giftedness for spiritual maturity. You are gifted. You may know a lot. You may help many people. None of those things are the same as spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity is a matter of your internal character, your honesty, your willingness to forgive everyone for everything, your joy during trials, your trust in the sovereignty of God, your endurance in hard times, and your unwillingness to compromise integrity. Don’t confuse knowledge or skills or giftedness for spiritual maturity.

#8 If you are married, take a great marriage inventory with your spouse and have a professional marriage counselor discuss the results with you. Here at Vineyard Columbus we offer a marriage inventory called LIMRI. We have regular marriage retreats. Do a marriage inventory especially at the front-end of pastoring, and every few years after that.

#9 Join a small group (and if married, join with your spouse). Christianity is a team sport. We cannot grow successfully apart from biblical community. Join a men’s group, a women’s group, a coed group, or a recovery group where you can know and be known.

#10 Cultivate the fear of the Lord and a fear of sin. We sinners always dreadfully under-estimate the cost of sin and dreadfully over-estimate our ability to manage the consequences after we choose to sin. Sin costs and once you choose to sin, the consequences are out of your hands. We read in Proverbs 14.26-27, He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children I will be a refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.

Deuteronomy 10.12-13 says, And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

Psalm 34.9 tells us this: Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.

Psalm 128:1 says: Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways.

 

ASD

Time out for summer

Much to the amusement of my church I recently went camping for a few days with the family. Though I admit it is probably more accurate to say glamping. This is the luxury form of camping, a growing trend among people like me. We are the self-confessed wimps who when it comes to staying outside for prolonged lengths of time choose to have a little bit of luxury to make the ordeal just that little bit more manageable. Well, what do expect from a West Londoner living in East Anglia?

So after searching the internet from the comfort of our solid bricks and mortar home we found ourselves a yurt, a Mongolian-style tent on a camp site near Southwold. This had a double bed in it, along with decking and chairs to allow you to watch the big Suffolk sky sunsets on those hot barmy Summer evenings. Although, in our case it was more of a case of snatching the sun while we could before dashing for cover as the next rain shower suddenly appeared.

Still the kids loved it and, in truth, I did too.

After having the coldest winter for 30 odd years I guess many of us are ready for some kind of break. We can feel the tension building, can’t we? For those of us with children we find ourselves running around all over the place. The end of the school term means numerous discos, concerts, class days out, transfer days etc. It is fast and furious and certainly not for the faint-hearted.

Now it has to be said that stress is a funny thing. Often we can fail to recognise it until our body eventually starts to kick up a fuss by becoming sick and tired, and we feel generally low in spirits.

Paul the apostle knew a thing or two about camping. In fact, we read in the Bible that he actually made tents. In biblical times there were people who lived in tents all year round. (Something I personally find hard to comprehend but, hey!) These tents were far from holiday camps, they were places where families were brought up and work was done.

For Paul he saw the similarities between a precarious life living in a tent and the human body. Like canvas he described our bodies as temporary things. In other words they have a limited shelf life and are not designed to last forever. However, as he goes on to say, the soul is. We can look forward to an eternity with Christ

Meanwhile, we have to look after our bodies. Paul wrote to one young 1^st century church that while we are in our tents, our bodies, we will groan and be burdened with the strain of life and all its daily challenges.

Therefore, it is important that we all listen to our bodies and take care of the fabric – including the mind and spirit. We must learn to take time out and properly rest.

After all, we are created to rest. In the Bible’s very first book, Genesis we read that God rested after creating the world. Was it that God was exhausted? I doubt it. It is more likely it was to reflect on his work at creation and take pleasure from it.

We might feel we desperately need a break, we might not, but one thing is for sure it is good to take a break from the routine and reflect on our work too. It’s a good discipline to lean back and enjoy the fruits of our labour.  

This summer I hope and pray your tent will feel better for a bit of time out. If you’re not going away, maybe plan for some local days out somewhere.

Meanwhile, just to let you know that our church does not meet formally in August as are resting our leaders and Sunday Support teams. However, you are welcome to join us for one of our summer socials. See our website for details. We start Sunday services again on 4 September at the Delphi Centre. All welcome.

ASD

John Stott - a small tribute to a great pastor, theologian and author

Former vicar of All Souls Langham Place in London, and a key leader among evangelicals worldwide, John Stott died at 3.15pm yesterday (27 July) in his retirement home at St Barnabas College.

He was surround by family and close friends. They were reading the Bible together and listening to Handel's Messiah before slipping away in his sleep.

John leaves behind a massive legacy. Much has already been writen in the last 12 hours about the man, so I feel my own small contribution here will be extremely poor by any standards.

However, I can still fondly remember him coming to our college in the early Nineties and speaking at Chapel. Being theological students he expected much from us and only spoke from his New Testament Greek. Incredible! It was one of the few times I can even remember that happening. I just sat there colouring in the pages of my Good News BIble. But he was not a dry academic scholar, he was a man who was in love with the Lord, more than the words he studied.

For over seventy years he has remained an influential and redoubtable figure on the landscape of post-war Christianity, often arguing for the place of Bible-based faith among his Christian Liberal colleagues when at times he was a lone voice.

He had the most amazing skill to reason and articulate at a level most could people could understand, he did not just write for fellow scholars. The simplicity of his well-crafted arguments showed the depth of his studies. They came with such confidence. He depature has surely left a gaping hole in our lives. However, we do have the most amazing library of books left behind penned by him over the years.

Doug Birdsall, executive chairman of the Lausanne Movement, put his global influence in context: "John Stott impacted the church around the world in many ways.  Perhaps his greatest contribution was to articulate clearly and to defend robustly the evangelical faith which he always understood to be biblical faith, grounded in the New Testament.  Evangelicalism was to Stott an expression of historic, orthodox Christianity...

"Everywhere John Stott travelled to teach, he encouraged 'double listening'. This was a listening to the voice of the Spirit of God through his Word, and listening to the voice and the needs of our broken world."

A memorial website has already been set up at http://www.johnstottmemorial.org/

Well done, good and faithful servant. Enjoy eternity with the one that saves.

ASD

 

 

 

 

A nice quote - closer to God

A great little quote from my friend Steve over at Verve and Verse. 

We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers.

~ Abraham Joshua Heschel

ASD

'Happy Pancake Day' from the church

Being Shrove Tuesday, our church plant, Stour Valley Vineyard Church is taking to the streets to do our Great Big Pancake Giveaway, offering these culinary delights to our town's office and shop workers, along with the shoppers themselves.

The 'Great Big GIveaways' came about after reading American Vineyard Pastor Dave Workman's book three years ago called The Outward Focused Life, which is all about creating 'a servant culture in a serve me world'. If you don't have a copy, buy one.

Today we'll be out there with our familiar SVV Gazebo, along with camping gas cookers, frying pans and spatulas. This follows on from the other mass giveaways we do, such as hot mince pies at Christmas, bottles of water and juices in the Summer, heart-shaped chocolates on Valentine's Day and Hot Cross Buns on Palm Sunday.

So why do we do it?

it is part of our expression of what we believe we are called to be: kind to strangers. We are in the Kingdom business of wanting to show a God of kindness and generosity - with no strings attached. We don't give it a name like evangelism. This is way too loaded and full of over-expectation. However, it is undoubtedly a witness and is making hopefully a postive statement why we do what we do. And we love it.

Of course, we want to see our church grow numerically and spiritually, but if we reduce evangelism to a free pancake on a cold Shrove Tuesday lunchtime it becomes a cheap gimmick and we should be very ashamed of ourselves.

Admittedly, but unbegrudgingly, it does costs us quite of a lot of time, money and energy to do these community events, and if we were looking at these from a business investment perspective I am not that sure we would have many financial backers.

But that's the Kingdom for you. It often takes the reverse position to point people towards Christ without distraction.

For instance, we see in the gospels the coming of Christ in an unkingly manner born in a dirty stable, the lonely unglamourous death on a Roman cross and the unexpected power of the resurrection. This is not an obvious formula for success. However following Jesus has spawned a worldwide movement, spanning 2,000 years and encompassing a third of the world's population, as well as still being the fastest growing major faith system.

This makes God's way very different to the world's. The Kingdom of God is an upside down way of working. For instance, In our weakness we find strength, we are told the first shall be last and the least shall be great. Whoever wants position must be another's servant.

So we go out on the streets and do something untriumphantly understated as give out a pancake. However we believe 'small acts of kindness done with great love', to quote Mother Teresa, can change the world. And it is within every Christian's grasp to do it, individually and corporately.

Yes, it means we are have to be sacrificial with our resouces without looking for a return on our investments, otherwise we are not truly being servant-hearted. For some today it will mean booking a day off work, lose a day's pay or simply getting the courage up to leave the walls of the church building and be seen as a servant of Christ in our community.

So as we prepare to begin Lent tomorrow, on Ash Wednesday, which for many Christians will mean abstention of certain things, may I wish you all a very Happy Pancake Day!

ASD

 

 

 

Performance versus participation in church services

I have been reading Todd Hunter's new book The Accidental Anglican (Baker) where above other valuable insights he speaks about his transition from Vineyard USA National Director to Episcopal bishop. There is a lot to take away from here for sure.

Todd makes a point quite early on about the danger of a spirituality that is performance-led, something that does not require participation from the congregation beyond turning up. Todd argues that there is a powerful case for a rediscovery of liturgical worship in the contemporary evangelical tradition to enrich the good among us that the Spirit brings. He comments:

"Liturgical seekers cherish the confidence that comes from historical connectedness, from theology that is not tied to the whims of contemporary culture, but to apostolic-era understandings of Christian faith and practice.

"Our frantic lives make us yearn for rhythms and routines that build the spiritual health we seek. For many of us the architecture, theatre seating and structure of our former churches said to us: 'Sit back, relax and receive what comes to you from the stage.' While having no need to criticise that, there is a hunger in many churchgoers today for a Sunday ethos that says, 'Sit up, be alert and participate.'"

I think it can be said that Evangelical Charismatic churches makes a fundamental mistake if they promote "freedom in the Spirit" as simply being an escape from formal liturgy. Todd says it must be possible to embrace liturgy and not be seen as religious or duty-bound.

I have recognised the need for "rhythm and rountine" in my daily devotional life, which is why I keep a simple daily office first thing in the morning to help create space to be alone with the Lord and to be disciplined in praying for others. I hasten to add this is not a fad for me, I have done it for years now, being from the Anglican tradition myself. Furthermore, I have never felt the need to renounce it, even being a Vineyard pastor!

Todd is right, Evangelicals (usually from an Anglican heritage) are ever so slowly rediscovering the richness and beauty of liturgy. Shane Clairborne and company seem to illustrate this revival with their new book Common Prayer.

I am feeling increasingly uncomfortable with "Christian celebrity".  Not least because I find some aspects of it quite appealing because it offers an easy, if lazy spirituality where I can come to just take, rather than give.

For instance, I wonder how many of us scan the details of an event to see who is speaking or leading worship before we consider seriously booking? We might be sub-consciously thinking, have they got a book out? Have they got a worship album? Do I know any of their songs? Have they played on main stage at a well known summer conference? Do they go to one of the big lively churches?

Where I live in East Anglia we are unlikey to get the overseas travelling speaker with a book, DVD and promotional tour visiting. You see, we just don't have the same attraction or status as some London churches or organisations. But, you know, I am glad. I would rather church was organic and built from the bottom up with normal people. It keeps the whole thing real.

John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard and the guy who kicked-started the philosophy to a lot of today's contemporary worship, said famously that when we come to the Lord we worship to an audience of one. It is all about Jesus. It was only about Jesus. Nothing else should motivate us.

As an unabashed card-carrying Evangelical Charismatic maybe a rediscovery of a participative act of worship would protect us from the dangers of a performance-led spirituality where once in a while the congregation may get a look in.  Maybe then "everybody would get to play" - beyond valuably serving in church life.

ASD