Maybe it's just my perception, but December and January seem to stand out as months in my own mind where I recall great tragedies and disasters. Back in Dec 1988 I drove as close as I could get to Lockerbie just hours after a Pan Am jet crashed into the little town 75 miles south of Glasgow, killing 11 residents and all those on board that flight. In 2004 I can remember the first reports coming through of the Boxing Day Tsunami. Now, as I write, I'm recalling events not yet 2 weeks old where a little country, Haiti, in the Gulf of Mexico was devastated by an earthquake. As I write, they are still counting the dead, set to be somewhere around 150,000+. More folk die in these months than at any time of the year. Indeed, more personally, I remember my gran went home to be with the Lord on December 14th 1980.
Watching the aid effort, (faltering as it has been), I have to stand and admire the individuals who have given up so much and take great personal risks to offer aid and support to those in need in that country.
Through the Haiti tragedy, I found myself browsing the Red Cross website. A site I probably would never have visited had it not been for the tragedy of Haiti.
While browsing, something really powerful struck me about their website. Their menu had these 4 points.
GET PREPARED, GET HELP, GET TRAINED, GET INVOLVED.
What struck me while reading those words, was that while I never gave the red cross that much of a second thought before the Haiti earthquake, there were people in the red cross who were getting prepared, getting trained, getting help and getting involved.
They didn't know the earthquake was coming to Haiti, but they knew that by being prepared, by being ready and trained, their skills would be useful if/when the moment arrived.
How much more we, as part of the Church, should we be getting ready for an event which we know will happen. The Lord's return. And if we really believed it was going to happen, would we not be warning others of the event?
As we stand and watch the aid agencies in action and admire them, I wonder, just wonder, if the aid agency that God has sent to the world, is as prepared, trained, involved and concerned as those in the Red Cross?
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Monday, 25 January 2010
Lords defeat government over church staff...
A few minutes ago the Government lost a Lords vote over its attempt to alter the law on who churches can employ.
In a series of votes, Peers voted to keep the current law unchanged.
The current law allows churches and other faith-based employers to protect their ethos by insisting staff live consistently with the religion's doctrine on sexual behaviour. More information here.
It has been a privilege for The Christian Institute to support Lady O'Cathain on several religious liberty issues in recent years. Watch this short clip of Lady O'Cathain talking about our work on our YouTube channel.
REPRODUCED BY KIND PERMISSION FROM THE CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE
Note: We are bringing Callum Webster from the Christian Institute to Craigavon Baptist Church on the 10th March 2010 to address Christians from all evangelical denominations in the area who are interested in attending. He will update us on the changing times in which we live and the approach the organisation is taking in defending Christians all over the UK from an increasingly secular and anti-christian country in which we live. Make a note of the date. We would love to see you there. More details will be posted here later.
In a series of votes, Peers voted to keep the current law unchanged.
The current law allows churches and other faith-based employers to protect their ethos by insisting staff live consistently with the religion's doctrine on sexual behaviour. More information here.
It has been a privilege for The Christian Institute to support Lady O'Cathain on several religious liberty issues in recent years. Watch this short clip of Lady O'Cathain talking about our work on our YouTube channel.
REPRODUCED BY KIND PERMISSION FROM THE CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE
Note: We are bringing Callum Webster from the Christian Institute to Craigavon Baptist Church on the 10th March 2010 to address Christians from all evangelical denominations in the area who are interested in attending. He will update us on the changing times in which we live and the approach the organisation is taking in defending Christians all over the UK from an increasingly secular and anti-christian country in which we live. Make a note of the date. We would love to see you there. More details will be posted here later.
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Should Christians Tweet?
I just read a blog which has a rather understandable yet peculiar reason stated as his arguement for 'not' tweeting, or being involved in Social Networks:
That statement is:
I wonder if Jesus was around today, would He use preaching alone as His method of communicating or would he employ the tools of the age in which He was living and to which His audience listened? In other words, if Jesus had a Twitter account, would you follow Him?
Surely the point of any communication is to engage your listeners, to inspire, encourage and to gain more listeners through your message? If doing that, causes you to influence people with the gospel message and Biblical concepts, surely that's good? I mean, even if you want to call it 'stalking' it's something I would put up with, if those people got to hear the good news. It's not like they camp outside your front door waiting to pounce. Come on. 'Stalking?'
Now, I can understand the fears, the concerns, the pitfalls and the dangers of Social Networking sites. A lot of it concerns me, yes. But so does walking through some areas and estates (in broad day light). Does it mean we don't do it? Come on.
Twitters fall into two main categories in general.
More recently though, I've began to see my twitter account as a reason to 'tweet to be followed'. Now I know I'm not going to come close to gathering anything like the audiences of followers the aforementioned have achieved, but here's the thing:
I'm recognising the art of tweeting as a way to hone my own skills of reading the Bible and taking nuggets out of it for me. When I do, I write them down, as tweets. It's a great discipline. Then I post them out for others. It lets me see what's good, what others like and it helps me immensely.
Now if I gain followers, then that's great. They too can be blest. The main reason I tweet though, is for self-discipline, to hear from others greater than myself, and to keep myself encouraged.
Yes there are dangers in social networking sites, (especially for Christians), but please, don't give me the reason that you have to be careful who follows you to be a reason why you shouldn't do it. Rather, it's precisely the reason you should.
Now, what you tweet......that's a whole different ball game. Some other time maybe.
That statement is:
"people you follow do not have to follow you or give you permission to follow them. You just sign up and start following them. It's a bit like stalking."Does that not strike you as a little odd? I mean, I wonder if that's how Jesus viewed his disciples? Stalkers. Of course not.
I wonder if Jesus was around today, would He use preaching alone as His method of communicating or would he employ the tools of the age in which He was living and to which His audience listened? In other words, if Jesus had a Twitter account, would you follow Him?
Surely the point of any communication is to engage your listeners, to inspire, encourage and to gain more listeners through your message? If doing that, causes you to influence people with the gospel message and Biblical concepts, surely that's good? I mean, even if you want to call it 'stalking' it's something I would put up with, if those people got to hear the good news. It's not like they camp outside your front door waiting to pounce. Come on. 'Stalking?'
Now, I can understand the fears, the concerns, the pitfalls and the dangers of Social Networking sites. A lot of it concerns me, yes. But so does walking through some areas and estates (in broad day light). Does it mean we don't do it? Come on.
Twitters fall into two main categories in general.
- Those who follow.
- Those who tweet to be followed.
More recently though, I've began to see my twitter account as a reason to 'tweet to be followed'. Now I know I'm not going to come close to gathering anything like the audiences of followers the aforementioned have achieved, but here's the thing:
I'm recognising the art of tweeting as a way to hone my own skills of reading the Bible and taking nuggets out of it for me. When I do, I write them down, as tweets. It's a great discipline. Then I post them out for others. It lets me see what's good, what others like and it helps me immensely.
Now if I gain followers, then that's great. They too can be blest. The main reason I tweet though, is for self-discipline, to hear from others greater than myself, and to keep myself encouraged.
Yes there are dangers in social networking sites, (especially for Christians), but please, don't give me the reason that you have to be careful who follows you to be a reason why you shouldn't do it. Rather, it's precisely the reason you should.
Now, what you tweet......that's a whole different ball game. Some other time maybe.
Saturday, 2 January 2010
The First Sunday of 2010
Anyone walking in as a stranger to our 'New Years Night' party in the church, would have witnessed a community and family of 'healthy church' in action. It was wonderful to stand back and watch as around 70+ people, (young and older), joined in with all that took place.
Friday, 1 January 2010
Taking the Facebook Plunge (and getting inspired at the same time)
A few months back, I couldn't understand why anyone would tweet. (Twitter). Now, I'm a fan. (@pastorsr) Especially when you follow people like John Piper, Max Lucado and Rick Warren. Some really neat nuggets come from them, and John Piper tweets as often as once every 3-4 hours. Every one of them a nugget. (How he gets the time astounds me).
Anyhow, being a renowned iPhone fan and most of my tweets being posted and read on it, and now with so many people seemingly on facebook, and so many apps around to make facebook and twitter useable on iPhones, I thought I'd give it a whirl and see how it goes.
In no small measure, the decision was helped as I just upgraded my iphone to a 3GS and have the video options now, and facebook allows you to upload unlimited videos in number and length, (as opposed to twitter's 12 sec limitation), kinda help swing me from casual reluctant spectator to a 'let's get tore into it' player.
Anyway, the real point of this post was inspired by Facebook's profiling questionnaire (so maybe it's not that bad after all). Here's how:
Anyhow, being a renowned iPhone fan and most of my tweets being posted and read on it, and now with so many people seemingly on facebook, and so many apps around to make facebook and twitter useable on iPhones, I thought I'd give it a whirl and see how it goes.
In no small measure, the decision was helped as I just upgraded my iphone to a 3GS and have the video options now, and facebook allows you to upload unlimited videos in number and length, (as opposed to twitter's 12 sec limitation), kinda help swing me from casual reluctant spectator to a 'let's get tore into it' player.
Anyway, the real point of this post was inspired by Facebook's profiling questionnaire (so maybe it's not that bad after all). Here's how:
Sunday, 27 December 2009
New Year Thoughts 2010
Extract from our January 2010 Church Newsletter. Download full PDF version here
Well, it’s that time of the year again. The time of year when most of us think, “New Year = New Beginnings”. A time to ‘put right’, a time to ‘make better’, or ‘change direction’ regarding certain areas of our lives. Or does it?
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Breaking News: Christian Couple INNOCENT
For those of you who have been following the case against the Christian couple from Liverpool Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang, I am absolutely delighted to announce that the court case has just completed and they were found INNOCENT.
The fact that this case was even allowed to come to court in this country was a disgrace in the first place and shows that there are still some remnants of 'Christian Civility' and common sense in this increasingly secular society of Britain.
While the media and politicians plough on with blinkers and blindfolds to the Word of God, marginalising the very thing that once made this country Great, (the Church and the Word of God), they forget that there is a people, yea, there is a God Who is not mocked and it is He Who they seek to shun.
At this Christmas time, this judgment comes, once again, as a timely reminder, that the Bible states, 'the government will be upon His shoulder'.
We wait to see how and even IF this is now broadcast on the media. As I'm writing, SKY news and ITN have not reported it. (No great surprise there). It is however on the BBC website and seems to be a fair assessment of the case and outcome. (Well done the BBC for being consistent and fair).
Tread carefully politicians and law makers in our land. God is still on the throne!!!
ADDENDUM: The Christian Institute, who helped with the Vogelenzang's defence, stated that they would immediately be seeking an answer to the question 'why had this case even been brought to court?'.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) later defended the decision to prosecute saying it was a "serious allegation".
If a child never learns to sort out it's problems in the playground without running to mum or dad, we would call that child immature and lacking in life skills.
Yet the state has become the mum and dad to many 'adults' who see the state as a means of somewhere to run to. Not only is there a chance they will solve their problem in the courts, but that they (the state) will actually reward their behaviour with a sizeable claim. What kind of a nation are we becoming?
The fact that this case was even allowed to come to court in this country was a disgrace in the first place and shows that there are still some remnants of 'Christian Civility' and common sense in this increasingly secular society of Britain.
While the media and politicians plough on with blinkers and blindfolds to the Word of God, marginalising the very thing that once made this country Great, (the Church and the Word of God), they forget that there is a people, yea, there is a God Who is not mocked and it is He Who they seek to shun.
At this Christmas time, this judgment comes, once again, as a timely reminder, that the Bible states, 'the government will be upon His shoulder'.
We wait to see how and even IF this is now broadcast on the media. As I'm writing, SKY news and ITN have not reported it. (No great surprise there). It is however on the BBC website and seems to be a fair assessment of the case and outcome. (Well done the BBC for being consistent and fair).
Tread carefully politicians and law makers in our land. God is still on the throne!!!
ADDENDUM: The Christian Institute, who helped with the Vogelenzang's defence, stated that they would immediately be seeking an answer to the question 'why had this case even been brought to court?'.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) later defended the decision to prosecute saying it was a "serious allegation".
"In looking at the evidence in this case we had to consider whether there was any evidence that the defendants had caused harassment, alarm or distress and in so doing demonstrated to the victim hostility solely based on the fact that she was Muslim," said senior lawyer Nicola Inskip.
"We were satisfied that there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction that a religiously aggravated offence should be charged."COMMENT: So, now it is possible to bring someone to court in this country if they cause you distress. The Christian Gospel causes offence, that's never been any different from the days that Jesus (and before) walked this earth. However, surely the point is, even beyond and above the issues of race, religion and freedom of speech, the old adage should reign true:
"It's as much a fault to take offence, as it is to give it."Somehow I think we've not only lost the plot as a Christian country, but in that our legal system and our government are so concerned with 'protecting' that we as a country of individuals are losing the ability to sort things out between ourselves and so we are no longer people who learn to 'agree to disagree, without being disagreeable'.
If a child never learns to sort out it's problems in the playground without running to mum or dad, we would call that child immature and lacking in life skills.
Yet the state has become the mum and dad to many 'adults' who see the state as a means of somewhere to run to. Not only is there a chance they will solve their problem in the courts, but that they (the state) will actually reward their behaviour with a sizeable claim. What kind of a nation are we becoming?
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