Park and Ride

Back home in Milton Keynes and Sunday comes round again. This is what we have worked towards during the week. Sunday starts early arriving at Church just after 7 am. By 7.30 am its a hive of activity.

The seats are being set out, PA plugged in, refreshments arranged, musicians tuning up. Our Early Bird service starts at 9 am with our second service following on at 11 am.

A couple of weeks ago we introduced a park and ride scheme. Our Car Park can not hold the number of cars we get to our second service particularly. We managed to secure the use of a nearby college and people then take a 5 min walk or catch our shuttle mini busses.

Today I joined some of the guys to assist direct the traffic and had a great time. I am also sure our neigbours in the surrounding streets are a little happier with the surrounding streets free from traffic.

Its a great problem to have and we need to continue to lift any lids that stop people coming to Jesus.

Scotland Again

Just returned from a few days up in Inverallochy in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. I spent some time with my old pastor and friend Roger Blackmore.

I first met Roger back in 1976. I was 13 at the time. I was at a summer camp in Perth and Roger who had recently become Pastor of my home church, Cairnbulg Assembly of God. He had popped up to see a number of the young people who were away from ho,e at the camp. Unfortunately I was ill and needed to go home. That 2 hour car journey started a friendship that was to help shape my life.

Roger was to become the model and inspiration for my life. He introduced me to a life sold out for God. From then on I only ever wanted to be like Roger and serve God for the rest of my life.

I eventually went off to Bible College and Roger ended up moving to New York. It was great to meet up with him last week with a view to getting our respective churches involved in joining together to run a mission in our old home town. We met with many of my contemporaries of 20 years ago and we have started planning to do something together in the Summer of 2007.

What amazes me even more is even though my contact with Roger has been sparse to say the least for the last 15 years we seem to have developed a very similar outlook on church life. We see Grace as being the dominant force in the universe. Our churches have a very similar outlook and vision and we even seem to have similar favorite preachers.

Thanks Roger I am still inspired by you.

Baptism

Our Church here in Milton Keynes continues to grow. This week we had a great baptism service where two ladies shared how their lives had been changed through an encounter with Jesus.

It took me back to my own baptism when I was only 13. Nowadays we construct a small pool in our church which we use. Growing up a stones throw from the North Sea we held our baptism services on the sea shore. They were great occations when many of the villagers turned up to watch the spectacle even though they never usually attended church. My memory maybe playing tricks but I think there was around 1000 people on that Sunday when I along with a few of my friends declared to everyone around that Jesus was number one in our lives.

I also remember that the sewerage pipe which dispensed all of the villages waste into the North Was quite close to the site of our service. With the tide in and the waves rolling in you were never quite sure what might float past. Enough said.

Opportunities Galore

With Chrismas a mere memory and having returned to work after the the New Year in Scotland my thoughts are turning towards the year ahead.

I am excited about all the opportunities that lie ahead and the fact that I have a free hand to write the script. I am sure challanges and difficulties will be there but I am also confident that I am able to meet them when they come with God's help.

With desire and comitment I want to follow Jesus in 06. My desire for this year is summed up in the heart cry of the Apostle Paul writing to Phillipian believers. He had worked hard to connect to god by doing what he though God wanted him to do without sucess. Then he was confronted with an encounter with Jesus that changed his whole value system. On looking at his vervent religious activity to gain God's approval he counted it as dog dung.

We realised that he was being called into a radical relationship of love with Jesus which was not about rules and regulations but a love affair. He said that the object of his life now was to get to know Jesus in an intimate way. To be transformed on an ongoing basis so that his desires and passions would become the same as God's.

I have a number of specific goals I want to achive this year wich include personal, family and church but to radically follow Jesus and His example is my highest goal.