Awards Dinner

We held our first work Awards Dinner at the weekend. It was a fantastic evening celebrating all that the young people with disabilities that I work with have achieved over the last year. We were able to present awards, both silly and serious, look at photos taken over the last year and show our appreciation to the hard working volunteers who make it all possible.

I was so incredibly proud of all the young people, both those with disabilities and our volunteers, who put so much effort in throughout the year. All the hard work organising the evening was worthwhile just to see them all enjoy looking back, while also looking to the year coming up.

Celebrating the achievements of people is something we should all do more of.

Be careful the words we use

There have been lots of words used to describe Raoul Moat over the last few days - and some of the strongest were by our Prime Minister. While I think what Raoul did was utterly horrendous, and I can't understand why some members of the public are treating him like a hero, I do think we have to be very careful about the words we use to describe him.

Because, despite all he has done, he is still someone's son and someone's brother and he is still the father of his ex partner's children. I can not begin to imagine what it must be like to come to terms with he did if he was a member of my family. But having to come to terms with it in the public eye, with so many nasty words used to describe him must be simply awful. I believe we must let them grieve the loss of their family member in private. The police need to carry out their investigation, but lets not add to their pain by the language we use.

Burning Embers or Flickering Flames?

I'm now relaxing after an evening in the woods with 36 Cub Scouts. As part of the evening we were cooking over fires. So often the Cubs were disappointed that there were only embers in the fire pits and no roaring flames. They got frustrated that it was taking so long to cook and so were so excited when a flame started to flicker. Unfortunately, in their enthusiasm, they thrust their skewers with the dough twiddled around the end into the flame, only to see their food burnt within seconds. You see the dough needed to cook slowly in the hot embers.

Our churches can be like that. We can be in such a rush to action, and can get so frustrated when things take a long time that we jump straight into doing things. So often we can end up getting burnt, or burnt out, because we rush into action too quickly. There is too much of a focus on what we do in church, and less of a focus on who we are.

Flames in a fire flicker around from place to place - going wherever the wind blows. Yet the embers are a stable and secure source of heat. They may not be as exciting and active, but in the long run they are far more effective. Maybe sometimes, we need to consider being burning embers rather than flickering flames.

A transforming church

I've just listened to the recording of Eunice Attwood's speach to the Methodist Conference - and what a breath of fresh air! Eunice is the new Vice President of the Methodist Conference and spoke with such passion, humour and down to earth common sense about the love of God, the impact that love has on us and the impact it should have on those around us. There were a number of things that struck me.

1. God's unconditional love for us. It is not 'God loves me if...' We need to be offering our world the unconditional love of God. This does not mean that we shouldn't challenge people about their lives, and it doesn't mean that we don't need changing, but we don't have to do any of this for God to love us.
2. Our faith must engage with people. It is no use being safe in our churches when the people who are suffering are often somewhere else. We need to find where people are, and we need to walk with them.
3. Small acts of kindness can have profound effects on people.
4. We need to create safe places for people to truly be who they are and be able to tell their story.
5. God's love should transform our life and our church. Knowledge about God is not enough. Only an acceptance of that love can truly transform us.
6. A church that doesn't transform will stagnate. As hard as change is, the alternative doesn't bear thinking about.
7. Methodism is a rich church in terms of members - both lay and ordained - and buildings. Lets use the resources that we have.

It is so great to hear someone speaking with such passion, hope and confidence in the gospel and in the Methodist Church as one of the bearers of that gospel. My prayer for Eunice and Alison (the President) is that their passion and vision for the Methodist Church will be infectious so that the Methodist Church can rise once again to what God has called it to.

Dads in church

Last Saturday I spent a rather unproductive day in Early Learning Centre trying to recruit volunteers for work. Most of those who came in were far too pre occupied trying to stop their children taking everything off the shelves to think about volunteering with our charity.

However, it did give me time to do a good bit of people watching. The most interesting group of people coming in were the Dads with their children. Most of the dads fell into two distinct catergories. There were the dads who were fraught with the whole shopping experience and then those who were so excited about being able to play in the Early Learning Centre without getting funny looks! There was one dad in particular who was thrilled by all the different gadgets and toys to play with. His favourite was a very cool policeman's helmet that had a flashing blue light and siren on top. I must admit, I would have liked to have one!!

It did make me wonder though if we are missing a trick at church. Traditional patterns of church probably do suit women better than they suit men and I wonder if we could do more activities to engage men, and dads in particular, in church. We should consider having more activities that revolve around gadgets and toys that many men can enjoy being part of. We should also focus on doing activities that bring whole families together. Not just something that one parent (often the mother) and the children attend, but have events that really do engage everybody. This may mean that for some of the time there is more than one activity happening so that all are fully engaged. The church should be promoting and modelling the family unit. Famillies are often men and women, old and young and that is how our churches should be. Families shouldn't stay together purely because it is economically beneficial to do so, but rather because being part of a truly loving family is the best place to be.

Cumbrian Shooting

At a time like this it can be so easy to rush to judgements about the person involved, whether we should ban gun etc.

However, today should just be a day to say that our thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been touched by this tragedy. God bless them all.

World Cup Fever

The countdown to the World Cup is well and truly up and running. As with 4 years ago there are countless cars driving around with England flags flying from them. I feel this celebration of our national identity is really important and unifying. In an age where we mourn the loss of community and struggle to discern how to express our identity in a multicultural climate, it is important to have occasions to come together and celebrate who we are.

However, 4 years ago I was a leader on a youth group trip to Germany (where the World Cup was being held) and so we bought some German car flags to fly from our minibus. The mischievous side of me would like to drive around now flying the German flags and see what reaction I would get. I fear that it would be very negative. While it is good to celebrate national identity and hold a desire for our country to do well, it should not lead to others being excluded from celebrating their culture and beliefs, or a breakdown in dialogue between different cultures.

It is the same within different Christian denominations. I do not believe that Christian unity should mean Christian conformity where we all meet together and do the same thing every week. I believe we should celebrate our own denominational identities. Different denominations worship, engage with God and the community in different ways and this should be celebrated. However, it should not be done in such a way as to suggest that one denomination has all the answers or that one particular interpretation of Scripture is the only one.

I hope this World Cup will be a positive experience of national celebration from people of all nations. But let us continue the dialogue between different communities, cultures and denominations.