Church Blog

We are a family of five and this is our average week - Monday: choir, cricket and After-school Club.  Tuesday: Mosaic Club and Sailing Club. Wednesday: After-school Club followed by football in the evening.  Thursday is homework. Friday:  KidzKlub and Youth. Saturday off and then church on Sunday.  Phew! This is before we add in parties, having friends and family around and anything the adults might like to do! It’s tiring just thinking about it all, let alone actually doing it! Life has become a bit of a juggling act.

I’m sure life wasn’t this busy when I was a child. Perhaps it’s just part of getting older, of being the parent and not the child, but it feels like life is in fast forward. My husband and I both work full-time and the children seem so busy with their activities. Why are we so busy and how do we put the brakes on? 

Josh Levs (CNN, America, March 2013 - Overscheduled kids, anxious parents) suggests that we are making childhood too stressful. He questions if we’ve forgotten what childhood should and could be like. He says “I couldn't care less whether they can run an 8-minute mile, play the violin, or set up a tent. I care that they know they can achieve anything, that they understand big rewards come from perseverance and hard work, that they treat others as they'd want to be treated.

I care that they fill their lives with positivity, love and friendship, and take time for those things. I realized I had gotten caught up in the means, not the end.”  

Levs is saying that sometimes we can get too involved in the what without considering the why. The saying goes: ‘Failing to plan is planning to fail’. How important that is in our role as parent.  We must stop and take time to consider what we want to teach our children about themselves and life and why we spend our time as we do.

The story is told of the stones in the jar. It goes like this. A jar is set in front of a group of students and filled with stones. The lecturer asks if it is full. “Yes” they say. “Really?” he answers. He picks up some gravel, puts it in the jar, shakes it, and the gravel makes its way through the stones to settle in the jar. He asks them again if it is full. “Yes” they say. So he picks up some sand, puts it in the jar and shakes it until the sand filters through the stones and gravel. “Now is it full?” he asks. “Yes!” they reply.  Then he pours water in. 

The point of the story is that if you put the sand and gravel in first you’ll never get the big stones in. If the jar represents our life what are the big stones? They are our priorities, what we want to teach our children and what memories we want to create. Teaching them to treat others as they want to be treated, to persevere, to work hard, to love others and be loved, the value of friendship and faith. Big stones for us look like family holidays and celebrations, time with friends and time for hobbies.   

Gordon MacDonald (Ordering your Private World) talks about our soul being like a garden that needs tending. Like any garden the gardener needs to remove the weeds that have grown and give space to plants that he wants to grow. He suggests we regularly look at what has appeared in our life over the course of a year. What are we doing that we don’t want to be, what weeds have grown? To go back to the jar analogy, we need to make sure that we are not filling our jar up with sand and gravel first. A club too many, working too many hours, too much screen time?

And then we need to put the big stones in the jar, for if we don’t put the important things in the diary first, you can be sure that, in the busyness of life, they won’t just happen. I know that this summer holiday we’ll be looking back at the previous year, its highs and lows, and doing a bit of ‘weeding’. We’ll also make sure that we think about our priorities and get the big stones in the jar that is our family life.

Funerals are always a sobering reminder that life is indeed short. Where do the years go? Time just flies by! Each year seems to go quicker and quicker! These are comments which we often hear (and say), particularly the older one gets. I have just preached a  sermon on the life of King David where we reflected on the people he asked to see as he approached death, and the memories that each person would evoke in David’s mind as he saw their faces and remembered past times. In the face of Bathsheba David would be reminded of how sin alters a relationship with God, in the face of Zadok the Priest he would be reminded of loyalty, a trusted friend and mentor, in Nathan the Prophet’s face, mercy; courage in Benaiah’s face, a fellow warrior, and hope in the face of his son Solomon. Finally, the last face is the face of God (Psalm 17). As I prepared the message it provoked the question in myself, if I had only one week to live, who would I call to my bedside and what would I see in their faces? But also the question could be asked, what would they be reminded of when they saw my face?

Each of us makes an impact in life, no matter how short or long. That impact will be either positive or negative, but no one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue.

Think of times in your life when you've really made an impact somehow. Chances are your heart was really involved in what you were doing, and your actions were coming out of a positive approach. Attitude directly affects the quantity and quality of your influence. Throughout history, Christians have striven to be like Jesus. Philippians 2:5 says, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus"---but how do you do that?

Whilst ‘surfing the net’ I came across these five pieces of advice on how we can make that impact for Christ, and I think they are worth sharing with you.

1. Spend time each day in prayer.
The more time you spend talking with someone, the more you become like him. Even Jesus spent time daily with God the Father. Mark 1:35 says, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." As you spend time with Jesus, your mindset will begin to mirror His.

2.     2. Know your identity and purpose.
If you've committed your life to Jesus, you must never doubt your identity as a child of God. Continue to ask God to reveal His purpose for your life until you are sure. Jesus was sure of His calling. In John 10:10, Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." When we know our mandate as Jesus did when He was on the earth, our impact will also be great.

3. Demonstrate genuine humility and servanthood.
In John 13, Jesus took the dirtiest job of that day by washing His disciples' feet. This was normally a task for the least valued slave. If Jesus, the King of all kings, valued serving one another with humility as much as this, so should you. In all the good works you do, you must be careful your motivation isn't pride. A good test is to ask yourself, "Would I be doing this good deed if no one would ever find out?"

4. Lead with boldness.
In Matthew 21, when the money changers were in the temple buying and selling, Jesus came with a whip and drove them out. He didn't risk offending anyone at the cost of disobeying God. He declared, "It is written, 'My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.'" The people needed to be rebuked because their focus in the temple was completely wrong. Don't allow timidity or the desire to please others to keep you from doing what is right.

5. Show compassion and great love toward others.
Jesus fed the 4,000 in Mark 8:2, saying, "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat." The climax of His love was when He died on the cross for the sins of all people. There is no greater love than to lay down your life for others, but showing love doesn't have to mean giving your blood. Love others by being generous with your time, energy, sweat, attention and heart. Easier said than done---but changing your attitude to be more like Jesus means putting others' needs before your own.

My prayer for every Christian at Plymouth Christian Centre is that each of us will see the face of God when we make our last journey to everlasting glory and hear the voice of Jesus saying ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’, because then we will know that our work for the Kingdom here on earth was not in vain. 

At Easter we celebrate the greatest miracle that ever happened. The shocking and sudden death of Jesus at the hands of Roman executioners – crucified in agony on a cross. His burial in a tomb. And three days later – the day we celebrate as Easter Sunday – the miracle of his resurrection; not from the brink of death, but from death itself. This weekend of Easter is at the very epicentre of the Christian faith. The doctrine of the death and resurrection of Jesus is not an optional extra for a bespoke faith – or a make-your-own spirituality. Without Jesus’ resurrection there is no good news at all.

As John Stott once stated:
“Christianity is in its very essence a resurrection religion. The concept of resurrection lies at its heart. If you remove it, Christianity is destroyed.”

The absolute centrality of the resurrection to the Christian faith is echoed by C.S.Lewis:
“The Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, came into nature, into human nature, descended into his own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him. It is precisely one great miracle. If you take that away there is nothing specifically Christian left.”

If there is no resurrection – there is no gospel. There is no Christian faith. There is no life after death. But why is it so important? What does Easter mean? What is it all about?! And what is your personal response to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? What has it got to do with you? What has Jesus got to do with you?

In Jesus’ day, people responded very differently to the news of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Thomas, one of the followers of Jesus, doubted the resurrection. He had believed that Jesus was the Messiah, and then Jesus had died. Thomas was traumatised. Thomas was very much of the school: “I’ll believe it when I see it!” There was Cleopas, who was walking with a companion to Emmaus when Jesus turned up. Cleopas was disillusioned and disappointed with the way things had turned out – he had put his hope and faith in Jesus and could not understand why he had died. And of course, there was Peter, who denied Jesus vehemently three times. The risen Jesus gives a broken and failed Peter another chance and a fresh start.

In the three characters of Thomas, Cleopas and Peter, we see different responses to the resurrection of Jesus – from someone who is full of doubt, to someone who is dejected and disillusioned, to someone who has denied Jesus.

All of them were radically changed following an encounter with the risen Jesus.

And we can be too.

“If Jesus rose from the dead you have to accept all he said, if he didn’t rise from the dead then why worry about anything he said…If Jesus rose from the dead, it changes everything.” (Tim Keller)

‘Our greatest power is the power of choice; our greatest freedom lies in the exercise of our power of choice.’

William Curtis

How much power do we really have over our own lives? Recent events have shown that we are all at the mercy of circumstances outside of our control. We see this in the political world where decisions made, and policies and laws passed change the way we live our lives, and what was illegal years ago becomes legal, what was unacceptable practice becomes acceptable. We see it in nature, in the recent floods that have affected people all over the country, including people in our own church. We see this in the world of business and commerce where events beyond the control of even the world’s biggest banks affect us in terms of employment and what we can buy with the pound in our pocket. These are just some examples, and I am sure that you could add many more to the list.

So, the question remains, how much power do we really have over our own lives? The Bible makes it very clear from the Book of Genesis to Revelation that all of us have the power to choose, between right and wrong, good and evil, selfishness and other-people-centredness, God and Satan, the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world’s system. It also insists that we all make a choice, and that no-one will be able to offer any excuse for making the wrong choice when we stand before God to give an account for our lives, we cannot blame our circumstances, (Romans 1:19-20).

The church is to be seen as God’s answer to this world’s problems with a message that is radically different to the world’s system, and tells us that we do not have to be at the mercy of changing circumstances around us, that whatever we face in life, we can know contentedness and peace; and although there are aspects of our lives which we cannot control, we always have the power of choice before us, to choose between living as a child of God or as a citizen of the world.

I am so pleased to be in a church where serving Christ and serving others is central to what we do. John Kirkby’s visit to us served as yet another reminder of how a person, who had lost control of his life was radically changed the moment he trusted Christ to give him a new start in life, and how God used him to launch the very impressive ministry of Christians Against Poverty (CAP.) You can listen to his story here >

Many people in today’s society have lost control of their lives, whether through debt, family break-up, addiction or unemployment. Events seem to be beyond our control, yet, within all this mess we still have the power to choose our reaction and our destiny in life, and the church is the carrier of Good News – it does not have to remain that way. There is a person, to whom belongs ultimate power, a person who is working with all his heart, soul and might to do good for us. That person is Jesus Christ!

Let us continue to work to make his name and fame known among those who have lost control and power over their lives, those who feel helpless with no sense of hope; let’s make every effort to present to them Jesus Christ, that they can have the chance of making the most important choice of all, to give control of their lives to the power of the gospel Christ, so that they are no longer at the mercy of events in this world.

There is a song that we used to sing in church which sums up these thoughts:

I do not know what lies ahead,
The way I cannot see,
yet one stands near to be my guide,
He'll show the way to me.

I know who holds the future
And He'll guide me with His hand
With God things don't just happen,
Everything by Him is planned,
So as I face tomorrow,
With its problems large and small,
I'll trust the God of miracles,
Give to Him my all.

I do not know how many days
Of life are mine to spend,
But one who knows and cares for me
Will keep me to the end.

I do not know the course ahead,
What joys and griefs are there.
But one stands near who fully knows,
I'll trust His loving care.

May you continue to know God’s power and grace in your lives as you serve Him.

This time of year gives us the opportunity to draw a line in the sand. Whether it was an annus horribilis, or an annus mirabilis, for good or bad, 2012 is behind us and a new year lies ahead. There is no going back – only forwards. This season provides us with a natural marker – an opportunity to look back and review and a sense of the potential for renewal and a fresh start. Like an old etch-a-sketch, or a new iPad, you can wipe the screen and start again. The Bible speaks of “forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead” – the changeover in the calendar is as good a time as any to do this.

I always get an itch around this time of year to declutter. I can’t help myself. I develop a visceral need to clean out cupboards and wardrobes and rooms – out with the old, in with the new. This applies spiritually as well as physically. This is a time for me to seek a renewed sense of God’s presence, to “draw near to God”, to go deeper. Often this desire comes from a sense of drifting, of a cluttered life that has placed God at the fringes. I need to centre on God again – to reorder my priorities, to declutter my soul. A beautiful poem by Eugene Peterson expresses this season for me:

The stark empty branches of the tree in winter are a “deciduous reminder to let it go.” This is a time to throw off the hindrances and bad habits of last year, and in my state of emptiness, to turn to God. It’s a time of examination and evaluation. A good tool in this respect is the Prayer of Examen, an ancient form of prayer introduced by Ignatius, which has four stages of reflecting on the presence of God, gratitude, review, and response. You can find more information on this here. Also, this is a good time to engage afresh with the Bible. There are a multitude of different ways to read the Bible, some of which are listed here. The main thing is to make a start – and keep going!

I wish you a Happy New Year and pray that in this coming year you will prosper, even as your soul prospers.

Warm regards

Geoff

How do you like your Christmas tree? Real or fake? Neat or messy? Themed or eclectic? Shiny or shabby chic?

I have found, as the years go by, that our tree gets more cluttered every Christmas. We have gathered and been gifted various ornaments and keepsakes and decorations; some hand-crafted by the children, others transported from German Christmas markets or picked up in some little village craft shop. 

The ornaments and trinkets are reflective reminders of years gone by. The tree, and Christmas, seems to get more and more weighed down with the stories and the memories - a perennial picture of life. 

As we create our stories and make our memories, we return with seasonal certainty to the story of Jesus’ birth. This story, like our Christmas trees, has been embellished with detail and decoration that sometimes distracts from the simple and majestic message proclaimed by the messengers in the bible:

“Unto you is born a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.”

Amidst all the trees, trinkets and tinsel, and even, dare I say it, church activities and services, may you experience the life-giving, redeeming reality of Jesus, born as your Saviour.

God loves you so much that he sent his Son to die for you…

God bless you richly and deeply this Christmas.

Love from Geoff and Jenny and all the team at Plymouth Christian Centre

VIEW OUR CHRISTMAS SERVICES AND EVENTS >

There’s a lot of shouting these days. People of opposing views labelling those on the opposite side of the argument with various pejorative terms on a sliding scale of incivility. We see this in politics, with Members of Parliament shouting at and insulting each other across the chamber, we see it in the realm of religion, with people on either side of the fence of faith lobbing incendiary insults at the other side, and we see it online, with cowardly and caustic commentary from anonymous avatars.

From a faith perspective, it’s really refreshing to me, therefore, when people come together to talk (rather than shout) about God and faith and the deeper issues of life. We have found that Alpha, a 10-week course exploring Christianity, provides the perfect environment for such a conversation. It involves having a meal together, listening to a short talk and then discussing people’s views and ideas and questions.  The Alpha course is running in 169 countries around the world and has been attended by over 19 million people. It was described in the Independent on Sunday as “The world’s most popular course in Christianity.” In fact, world Alpha course numbers have grown by 29 per cent over the last couple of years.

The Guardian takes up this theme of conversation: “What Alpha offers, and what is attracting thousands of people, is permission, rare in secular culture, to discuss the big questions - life and death and their meaning.”

As we have run the course these last few years, we have found that, regardless of what conclusions they reach on Christianity, people that attend do not want the course to finish. They have enjoyed food and friendship and an environment where they can talk and be heard. 

There is too much shouting and not enough talking. There are a number of churches around Plymouth that run the Alpha course, or similar courses, and if you are inclined to investigate faith and Christianity in particular, I would highly recommend that you join the conversation.

Let’s talk.

Find out more about the Alpha Course >

The summer holidays are not quite as exciting as they used to be.I do have a week off work in August, but I don’t get a whole six weeks to enjoy beach trips, playing with friends, ice cream, TV and sleeping in. As a child the last few weeks of school went by far too slowly, but when the summer finally did arrive it went on forever. Whilst there was a lot of excitement leading up to the summer break there was also a strange excitement in going back to school in September. I loved getting new stationary and a new school bag, and looked forward to using it. There was also the anticipation of seeing your friends again, and being in a new year group; an older year group.

When you are at school or University it feels like the transition from August to September is truly a new year, rather than January, and I think it is still a significant season change for all of us. The summer just feels more relaxed, even if the sun rarely shines, and as autumn approaches and we hit September there is a feeling of a new beginning.   

Even within church life, the month of August becomes quieter. Our mid-week children and youth groups take a break, as do most of our Community Groups. We will also be taking a break from our series on Luke during August. But we will continue to meet every Sunday and whilst we may feel like it is a quieter month we know that God will still meet us and speak to us as we continue to meet together. We have a great weekend planned for the 11^th-13^th August, with a Family Fun Day on Saturday 11^th, organized by our men’s ministry and a visit from Pastor George Miller on Sunday 12^th and Monday 13^th August, for a time of healing ministry.

As September approaches we can look forward with excitement to some great things happening at our church. A new Alpha course is launched on 26^th September, which continues to be one of our best outreach tools. In October we are hosting “An Evening with Graham Kendrick and Tony Campolo”, which will raise money for the charity Compassion. This is a city-wide event so book your tickets fast. We also recently released our new courses booklet, which outlines all of the courses we will be running this academic year. We are continuing with some of our well-known courses, like Freedom in Christ and The Marriage Course, but we are also launching some new and exciting courses, including two theology courses, a spiritual disciplines course and a more in-depth baptism course for anyone wanting to be baptised. You can register for any of these courses via our website or by contacting the church office.

Lastly, one of the most exciting and significant events happening this year is the refurbishment of our building. Over the next 6 months we are going to be working really hard to raise the final funds that we need to start the second phase of the refurbishment, which we plan to start this Spring. There will be fundraisers and events, which you will hear more about soon. Geoff is going to be preaching on the vision of our church in September, at both the morning and evening services, and he will be talking more about the new courses and giving a much more detailed account of where we are at with the building changes and what will be happening this year.

I hope you enjoy your summer and look towards September with excitement.

The Big Society was the flagship policy idea of the 2010 UK Conservative Party general election manifesto. The philosophy behind David Cameron’s idea is, of course, under-pinned by the need to cut back on social services, and to be replaced as far as possible by voluntary organizations, philanthropists and social ventures  taken on by community-minded people. In May of this year, a report by the think tank Civil Exchange says that, far from being strengthened in the first two years of the big society, civil society organizations have been weakened by public sector cuts, particularly in deprived areas. It certainly seems that society in the UK is increasingly being divided by socio-economic factors of the 21^st century.

The political drive from government to motivate a generation in a capitalist society, from whatever ideology, to solve the symptoms of our broken society seems to me to fall a long way short, when compared with the call from Jesus for all people everywhere to love your neighbour as you love yourself as epitomized in the story of The Good Samaritan, and in Jesus’ example of how to serve others through his feet-washing episode with the apostles.

The Big Society idea contrasted with our recent mercy ministries Sunday, highlighting the great work done by Rahab, Pregnancy crisis, the Soup Run, Street Pastors and Kidz Klub. How refreshing it was to hear the stories of mercy and grace coming out of these ministries from people motivated not by a political ideology but because they love God and others. These are examples of God’s Big Society, known as The Kingdom of God, and Jesus came to establish this Kingdom two thousand years ago. Keep your ears and eyes open for another very exciting mercy ministry we are looking to be involved with called CAP (Christians Against Poverty). You can check it out at www.capuk.org

There has been much comment in the press recently on various attempts to gauge people’s happiness, from Cameron’s “happiness index” to the latest round of research carried out by scientists from various institutes around the world. A team at the Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston, America, for example, recently collated and examined 200 such research studies looking at psychological wellbeing and cardiovascular health.

And yet, the question remains for many of us: what makes us happy? Or why do we feel so unhappy?

Advertisers have long since been telling us that “happiness is…” anything ranging from a particular brand of cigar … or chocolate … or coffee … or anything else that they are trying to sell us. The myth of materialism continues to promise the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and advertisers play on this desire relentlessly.

This dovetails well with our celebrity-obsessed culture which continues to paint airbrushed images of contentment with fake tans, fake lashes, fake hair and, ultimately, fake happiness. The only way is not Essex.

It appears that with all our technological advancements, obsession with celebrity, and searching for material wealth, we are not necessarily making much progress in this area. Take for example the number of prescriptions for antidepressants issued in recent years in the UK: this has risen by 28% from 34m in 2007-08 to 43.4m in 2010-11, according to the NHS information centre. This does not paint a very happy picture.

Jesus had some very interesting words to say about happiness that could not be further from our current culture and that turn many of our values on their head and that are worthy of consideration. He talked about happiness for the poor, for the hungry, for those who weep now, for those who are persecuted. Jesus challenged the default belief of his day and ours that riches, having plenty, being famous or well-liked lead to contentment. He offered another way, an alternative worldview, that at first glimpse does not seem to make much sense, but that he said would lead to...happiness.

Listen to our Luke sermon on happiness>