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Archive for the ‘Faith’ Category

Faintly Hoping

Posted in Faith, Inner city, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 24 January, 2012| 1 Comment »

We’ve had some great encouragements so far this year – new folk in church on Sundays and signs of spiritual hunger in all sorts of places. And yesterday we were reminded of the Lord’s presence and promises as we walked home from school: a fragile rainbow appeared right over the houses opposite the Vicarage. I managed to take a photo through our landing window, but you’ll have to look carefully to see the rainbow against the dark clouds.

Sometimes it can seem that hope here is fragile – there are challenges ahead aswell as encouragements. I need to keep reminding myself that the Lord is not fragile and that hope in him does not fade like a rainbow, but is living, secured by the resurrection of Christ.

In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope 1Peter 1v3

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A Vicar Raps: Beatbox Nativity

Posted in Faith, Fun, tagged , , , , , , , , on 14 December, 2011| 1 Comment »

Just caught this on YouTube and although I’m sure tons of folk have already seen it, thought I’d share in case you hadn’t…

Wish my Vicar could rap like this!

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Halloween Reflections

Posted in Faith, Family, tagged , , , , , , , on 2 November, 2011| 1 Comment »

We had a fun evening on Monday night. Wildchild came over and carved pumpkins with us. Then callers came round in silly costumes and we showed them our works of art, got them to tell us jokes, plied them with sweeties and gave them tracts about how Jesus is the light. It seemed like we were doing door to door evangelism from the comfort of our own home – and noone refused to listen to us or slammed the door in our faces. Although there was a teenage girl who claimed not to speak English in order to avoid the joke telling. And we weren’t so sure that she would be able to read the tract, although we hope someone in her family can.

The last callers (at 9pm) had to negotiate getting to the front door knocker round Gone, who’d deposited himself on the doorstep. He wasn’t drunk (tho’ a little smelly, I’m sorry to say), so although they were young and without an adult, it was fine.

Works of art in the Vicarage window

Yesterday I read a few thoughts from Christians with different approaches to Halloween but I think all of them fell into the Resurgence‘s ‘Redeeming’ category. Dr BexL at the BIGBible Project  had loads of good ideas and Kevin on his blog and Dan on his blog had useful stuff too. We at the Vicarage were glad to have seized this new opportunity to talk to our neighbours and bless their kids. Our only regret this year was that we forgot to hand out invites for Tuesday night’s Messy Church. But we’ll remember next year – this new festival is only set to grow in the UK.

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Halloween Survival

Posted in Faith, Family, tagged , , , , , , , on 31 October, 2011| 1 Comment »

Walking to school this morning, a girl from the Joker’s year had a bit of a moan at me:

When I come trick or treating to your house I have to do a joke.

Last year we imposed our Scottish guising rules and it’s obviously been remembered! I have a couple of pumpkins in and we’ll be frantically carving a pumpkin devotional after school tonight. I need to get off to buy some rubbish sweeties now, but I’m rather looking forward to treating the local kids later and telling them about the Light of Christ.

Last year I posted a Christian pumpkin gallery – so do tweet or link me your pics of this year’s gourds and I’ll stick another one up.

Last year's pumpkin

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Lecrae – I Am Second

Posted in Faith, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 11 October, 2011| 1 Comment »

Just caught this great testimony on I am Second from the Christian rapper Lecrae – he’s a little easier to follow on this than on Chase That.

He reminds me of a good few of the young men we see around here in the parish. Our prayer is that some of them experience God’s transforming love in the way Lecrae has.

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How to Lead a Young People’s Bible Study. Or Not.

Posted in Bible study, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 25 July, 2011| Leave a Comment »

On our Pathfinder Venture this summer we’ll be studying the bible in small groups with the young people. Our leader, Tim Ambrose, has made this great video with some very funny tips on leading a study:

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Skittle Prayers

Posted in Faith, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 4 July, 2011| 8 Comments »

Recently we have started a new way of praying in our Junior Church. I was fresh back from Bible By the Beach, and the fantastic youth and children’s work that went on there. And from there we have snaffled an idea which helps our youngsters to think of something to pray for, and that encourages them to pray for a variety of things. Our secret: sweeties!

Every week the leader goes armed with a packet of Skittles (M&Ms or Smarties would work too). They go in a bowl and at our prayer time each child takes a sweetie. Then they say a prayer triggered by the colour of the sweet. Depending on the colour selection, you can make up your own code. Ours is as follows:

  • Red – a sorry prayer
  • Purple – prayer for the sick
  • Green – prayer for the world
  • Orange – a thank you prayer
  • Yellow – prayer for the church
  • Blue (when we have the special packet) – anything you like!

This would work for any small group – even grown ups who want a different way to pray. And good for families too – our kids love it!

 

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Books for Camp: School Survival

Posted in Books, Church, Faith, Teenagers, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 13 June, 2011| Leave a Comment »

In my quest for suitable books for the young people on our Pathfinder venture this summer, I picked up School Survival by Catherine and Louise House. Louise is Catherine’s school age daughter and some of this book is based on the experiences she had when she moved school. And although it’s called School Survival, it’s particularly about friendship and working that through, with a single chapter about starting in a new school. It is very suitable for the Pathfinder age group (11-14) as it covers many issues faced as young people move on to secondary school.

The book is a combination of stories, quizzes, activities and bible study and is split into 14 chapters, including ones on making friends, bullying, gossip, prayer and church. It might be suitable for a Year Six primary school leaver to study over the summer holidays, or for family devotions or even as an outline for a church Pathfinder group to study over a few weeks (the chapters are uneven in size, so some could be combined). I’ll be ordering a few copies for our camp bookstall.

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All Age Service Illustrations to the Max

Posted in Church, Faith, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 6 June, 2011| 18 Comments »

All age services are a great way for families to worship together, but it can be a real challenge to keep them fresh and accessible. This weekend we began a new series for our monthly All Age gatherings. We are going through Colin Buchanan’s great song ‘Big Words that end in SHUN’, from his Super Saviour album, teaching a big word each month:

Big words that end in SHUN!
Show us what the Lord has DONE!
Through Jesus, His own SON!
Big words, Big words that end in SHUN!

Revela-­‐SHUN!
God shows himself to us
Substitut-­‐SHUN!
Jesus takes our place
Salva-­‐SHUN!
Sinners saved from hell
Big words, Big words that end in SHUN

Propitia-­‐SHUN!
God’s anger turned away
Justifica-­‐SHUN!
Just like we’d never sinned
Imputa-­‐SHUN!
Jesus’ righteousness is mine
Big words, Big words that end in SHUN

Resurrec-­‐SHUN!
Raised from death to life
Redemp-­‐SHUN!
Sinners bought by God
Adop-­‐SHUN
Sinners made God’s sons
Big words, Big words that end in SHUN

This Sunday we tackled REVELA-SHUN and the Vicar spoke on Hebrews 1:

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…

So the Vicar decided that we could get Dr Who to come and take us back to meet a few of the prophets to find out what they had to say. Suddenly plans were afoot for the construction of a tardis and the Queen, the Joker and the Engineer were very pleased to spend a day in half term wielding paintbrushes.

Tardis construction in the back yard of the Vicarage

Once it was painted, the Joker decided that our tardis should be manned by Doctrine Who. And so here is the finished item in our front drive, being shown off by Doctrine Who and an enemy (although my knowledge of Dr Who isn’t sufficient to tell you which enemy it is). It went down very well on Sunday morning, and is now installed in the boys’ bedroom, where time-travelling adventures continue.

Doctrine confounds an alien

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Reading. Or Not.

Posted in Faith, Inner city, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 1 June, 2011| 3 Comments »

Last week my two younger kids were in bed, but they were having trouble getting to sleep. That was mainly because some of their classmates were still playing loudly in the street below our house. The youngest of the kids still playing out was eight. And it was 8.30pm, so I thought it probably appropriate that they go home and possibly even consider going to bed themselves.

When I proposed this to them, they were incredulous. They didn’t want to go to sleep yet. So I suggested that perhaps they could get into their pajamas and read a book before bedtime. The eight year old then emphatically told me:

Books are for BABIES!

A report from the National Literacy Trust has been in the news this week, talking about how book ownership is linked to educational attainment. We have lots of work to do here if the children of our parish are going to reach their potential. And be able to read their bibles so that they can know the living Word.

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