looking back, moving Forward

It's hard to believe that at the end of this week I'll have been in post as the Youth Missioner in this patch for a year...  There's been so much happening in what seem to be all to short a time. Two MA papers submitted and passed with great grades. Moved house again. started a Youth group, a weeks youth pilgrimage, 2 baptisms and 4 taking communion for the first time, a house group started. two holiday clubs planned one completed and one starts in the morning. Trips to olympic warm up games ( we saw Mexico the Gold medalist play). and a weekend brake to Turin. There plenty more I've missed I'm sure of that.

Theres been learning curves some steep, laughter and pain.  whats for the coming year. that together in this little patch in a corner of Leicester we continue to build on the foundations of this year. that we continue to press on together...

None of what has happened this year could have happened in our own strength.  One of the passages that has been a constant this year was psalm 37: 3-7

Trust in the Lord and do good;
    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. 
⁴ Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him and he will do this:
⁶ He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, 
    your vindication like the noonday sun.

⁷ Be still before the Lord
    and wait patiently for him;

It's so easy to have plans and ideas that we think are great or good. If we are not seeking after Gods will and vision for the place that we are called to it's like building on sand with no foundation. yet when we seek him and those plans are ideas come from HIM then those projects and plans will move forward not always with amazing here and now celebrations. rather with the laying of seeds in the lives of others.

MA

My patch has bee quiet again recently, One of the last things I've wanted to do is spend time writing. Why well, the third paper for my MA has been the paper from hell.. The essay title I had chosen was and is something that I'm interested in.  The paper and research just wouldn't come together.  The paper was handed in at the end of June and last week it wasn't as bad as I had Thought..


One more paper and the dissertation to go and thats it the long wait for the final marks and then..  Hopefully Graduation...

It's Oh SO Quiet......

It's Oh SO Quiet...... Well at least Blogging wise it has been for my patch.... 


 Last week I was back at Cliff College for a intensive lecture week towards a MA and what was to turn out to be my last full lecture week, my final paper before my dissertation will be a independent research study. 


Tuesday night was the college celebration the fortnightly service. 


The preacher that night asked what image of Jesus what image of God do you carry. that may seem like a simple and easy question but its far from it. I Like many others have been watching the New ITV series Eternal law, the story about a group of angles who work among us these ones are lawyers. Not most peoples idea when describing lawyers but for those of  us who have a different opinion then there a fallen angel who tries to work against them. The salvation story runs through so do the themes of hope, reconciliation and peace. One of the images that comes through in the programme is that of the God who punisishs as one episode brings this with the idea that Mr Mountjoy (God) seems almost determined to destroy the world if the angels fail to save everyone. This misses the love and reaching out to the world that took place when Mountjoy Jr (Jesus) came into the world. the image of God that we carry shapes our actions and views.  

We can easily slip into a wrong image of God, the preacher that night gave the image of Jesus found in the gospels ( matthew, mark, Luke and John..) the question Do you have this image of Jesus. 

My answer wasn't the answer I had thought it would be... whats yours

December

December seems to hit at a high speed. Even with Advent a time to prepare to reflect on the great mystery of christmas as godly Play puts it. December seems to pass in a blur. Which is sad I've started to enjoy and see advent in a new way recently, partly through being connected in london with a Anglican church and with friends who view and realise advent in different ways to us here in the uk and this year being in a new patch. It;s been good not to have the trapping of christmas around until almost the last week of advent. The tree Went up in church on the 18th when the christingle took place. 


A wonderful carol service at Baslow Methodist Church while visiting STF at cliff college. 

carols by candlelight at All Saints

And another but very different back in MyPatch by candlelight

How High Can You ...? pt 2: the answer

How high can you get a pile of books 


before they fall over?....  That was the question I was asking when working on my essay and feeling like i was being buried under books.....well i just found out :)

Had to think about the shot in the library in Ghostbusters with this....... and yes they were wobbly 

all fall down :)

back in the box till the essay is sent off.. all the sticky tabs have to be removed from the college books and sent back. Not quite celebrating yet as a friend keeps reminding me it's not finished till it's handed in to the marker and it becomes their problem!

Not sure how good the paper is.. whether it will meet the grade.. It's been a long hard fight to write the paper ... the first one I've done as a part time Post Grad student ( me doing a post grad course still seems a dream!) I guess whatever happens with the paper. I've learnt a lot....

the paper title "what have the means of grace got to do with the mission of God?"

Reading wesley's means of grace sermon, thinking about that over the past few weeks one thing I want more than ever is that deeper relationship with God... and to be used by Him to open to those in my patch and see His grace already at work in their lives, without them knowing it!

How High Can You ...

get a pile of books?

Today my patch hasn't been all that big. In fact it's been my dinning table I'm still trying to write a essay for my postgrad course. And  even my little friend Huey has gone back home ( my minister's dog) 

what I'm thankful for though are birds, views and facebook

The question in the title of the post well that where my mind wandered to  ... I wonder how high will the pile of books that  I'm using get before they fall over ... if they weren't needed and open on pages I need I'd probably have tried already! Maybe once the essay's over i'll try it and post :) watch this space ...

Wrestling with Grace

Today has been spent wrestling with grace sounds a strange idea maybe. I've been writing a assignment on the means of grace and how they relate to the mission of God. One of the books I've been reading for  this was by Kevin Watson A Blueprint for Discipleship 

 "what is grace?" 

Watson tells the story of a class he had at seminary on friday morning  turning up half asleep for a three hour class ( I can sympathise with him as he wrote). Getting there finding out that the lecture had a task for them that morning to go out and ask people three questions. One of those was that question asked above "What is grace?"

He recounts how 

" I remember being terrified that someone would respond, "I don't know. What is grace?" I did not know hat I would say if the question was turned back on me "

and asks what would you say if asked what is grace?

What they found as they shared back in class in talking to people out on the street that was that most people they spoke to did not have a good idea about what grace is. They had ideas and opinions about church and christians and Jesus but when it came to grace they found it hard to explain.

(writing the essay today I know what Watson means :) )

Watson suggests that the question of what is grace and of how we interpret it is 

 a crucial question because grace is the foundation of the Christian life. According to scripture, grace plays a primary role in our salvation

Durring bible study with a friend two simple questions are often asked

1. what does this mean in my life
2. what does this mean in ministry 

I found myself asking what does this mean in my patch what does this mean for the people living here in vauxhall and lambeth in 2010.  What does grace mean to them, to my neighbours.