Church

So I've been thinking a lot about church recently and what that looks like.

I'm not a raving radical or a mad traditionalist, but I think the church is made for more than this. I had was leading a bible study last night and thinking through the Luke 10 passage on loving the Lord your God, and loving your neighbour as yourself. This feels radical, as we chatted it through I realised that I haven't really put good thought into what these verses mean, what they call us to be.

I think as churches we are very good at loving ourselves, making ourselves comfortable, and having things within church that suit us, and make us feel good about having a great church where it meets our needs. But is that church? Well actually in some ways, probably yes it is!! We need that fellowship and the that sense of belonging, and being in it together. But has that taken over from being radical, from being an integral life changing part of a community that does not know God, yes, it probably has.

In Luke 10, the Pharisee asks, 'who is my neighbour?' and Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan, the man who stopped not only to help a beaten stranger, but help a beaten Jewish stranger, when the priest and the Levite had passed by, not wanting to get their hands dirty, or for that matter even see if their is anything wrong. Perhaps the church is too much like the priest and the levite, perhaps it happily walks by thinking about how good it is without much thought for the people who are in desperation, the people that it encounters that it actually could do something for! The church in some ways has become desensitized to the issues around it. It has become a spaceship on an alien planet but the people within it have forgotten to go out and explore.

In the story of the good Samaritan, the Samaritan sees the need and deals with it. He becomes practically involved in the life of the beaten man, and he expects nothing back! This was a man with heart, who knew what love is and knew that it was best given away. Lets, with God be people who do the same!

The church is made up of people, and as people we have become consumer church goers, happy to keep church as it is, not wishing to rock the boat. At the minute the church can feel a bit like a toothless dog gumming on the community it is part off, not making any real headway. As a church, as people, we must look to our God, call for his guidance and look to become, not a toothless dog, but radical, community engaged, loving community, that is integral in the area it inhabits. A church thats sees the need and goes for it, one that is no longer selfish and self satisfied but one that desires to show God in all his glory and love to the community around it in whatever form that may take and however painful that may be. The church is suffering because it is no longer relevant, because people do not believe that Jesus is relevant any more, this is a call to me, to the visionaries, to the hands on people, to cups of tea ladies, to the church, to look at how radical this Jesus we claim to follow is, and move into our communities with a sense of purpose and a deep desire to introduce them to a God who loves them, in whatever form that may take, and however uncomfortable that may make us feel!

I'm just spewing out thoughts as they come, so feel free to comment...

hello,

So every time I go to resurrect this blog I get very distracted by lots of other stuff, such as Monk or Bones or a cup of tea, but this is my determined attempt to do it again!

I'm not particularly sure what I will use it for and plus, who is particularly interested anyway.

Isn't life just a little bit too busy!

I mean we run around a lot, doing a whole lot of stuff, but I'm not always entirely sure what the point of it all is. It's not a particularly healthy way to live. I was home this weekend for the first time in a while and because I had been quite busy, and even when I got home I was busy, it really took away from just being present with my family, which sucks.

Just over a week ago I managed to fill my car up with petrol, no great revelation, but my car is diesel! €300 later I was on the road again! but their was a positive, it made me have to wait at a garage for nearly 2 hours with my mate Seb. We had a grand old time, just chatting, with no where to go and nothing to do, i think maybe life and love would feel more substantial if I slowed down a little bit and enjoyed being with people. I mean technically that is my job, but even then I am easily distracted by many little things that need done! Life is not work, life is people and relationships, maybe I need reminded of that every so often.

living for God

Hello again,

How are you all?

i've been thinking about what it means to have God as Lord of your life, its something we throw about, and we sing 'i surrender all to you Jesus,' but i don't think we really get it! i mean what does having God in complete control of your life really look like, i don't honestly know but i would like to find out. We take words like worship, love, holiness, growth and we Churchize them, they no longer become radical words, or life changing words they are limited- we sing songs and that is worship, but worship isn't just singing songs, in fact i think that is just a small part of what worship really is, its about living a life of worship- but what does that look like, i don't know! how do you make every breath you take worship, that probably comes with getting to know God and what he really is like. we tend to have a really small view of God, or we focus on one aspect of him and forget about everything else, and because of this we can't really wworship him with our lives, our view of who God is really needs to be bigger. which means our view of ourselves needs to be smaller. but how does this happen? Look at Isaiah or Paul and their lives where completely transformed because they had a vision of God- they didn't want anything other than him once they caught a glimpse of him, i would love for that to happen. But until that time i need to look for God in the things around me, enjoy his creation, look for him in the people i meet, and of course explore him and get to know him through the bible. this will lead to more of God, it will lead to a radically different life, one where i am smaller and God is bigger. i think also that i need to start really serving people, i mean really serving them, putting them before any of my own selfish ambition, i mean like Jesus when he washed the disciples feet- a true example of humility, but its a true example of radical love, here was Jesus putting the disciples above himself, its a true example of worship- by serving these men, God was serving God in a true act of worship. i think we can be very selfish in our singing to God, it becomes not about what we give back to God, but what he can give to us, or about the nice feeling we get inside. i'm not saying its a bad thing, but what i am saying is come on, it isn't about us, its about God and glorifying his name, bringing praise to him. Its the same with love, so often we're in it for us, but God asks us to love unconditionaly, to show his love to everyone- Jonah- he had to go to Nineva, he had to show Gods love, much as he didn't want to- he was uncomfortable! and well its the same with us, God asks us to love uncomfortably, when it hurts he wants us to love, when its the unlovely he wants us to love, when its ourselves he wants us to love. why, because he is love, because all these forms of love he gives, and he gives more than we could ever imagine. he loves us, the unlovely, he loves us, even though time and again and we hurt him with our actions, because he loves us no matter what we think about ourselves! Man i wish i could really love like that, i wish i could leave of my selfishness and my own desires, Lord Please help me!

Blogging

so i have decided to enter the world of blogging! do i know what i'm doing? not really, but i'll do it anyway.

i don't know how much i will use my blog, or what i will put into it but i'm sure i'll think of something!

i suppose i could start by saying i now live in Swords, county Dublin, having vacated the beautiful house on Tates ave Belfast; which now has a PS2 with pro evo, i left at the wrong time.

I'm enjoying Swords, its a good change, there is a good beach near by. it can get very lonely down here someties, but that is all part of moving away from pretty much everyone you know. i also at times don't really know what i'm meant to be doing, you see, i took up a job as youth pastor in Swords Baptist which means now i am the youth pastor, but having a title does not mean you know anything about what you're job is, so i'm still finding that out, which is good, but at times frustrating, at other times i just feel lost and other times i think i might actually be doing something useful. i didn't expect it to be easy, i didn't really know what to expect, and i felt completely inadequate for the job, but i'm here now and i feel even more inadequate, which is hopefully a good thing, hopefully it will encourage me to rely on God more and more, and i think it is.

its funny how you normally associate people working in a church as people who have got it all sorted, who know what they are about and know where they are going, but i'm working in a church and i know that i definately do not have it all sorted, and i am a broken person, and i need God to put me together. but i know God wants me in Swords, and if he wants to use me as i am now, in all my brokeness and sin, and if he can use me as i am, well then my God is an awesome God!