What do you expect....

Last weekend was our Youth House Party.

We spent the weekend looking at prayer.

What gets in the way of us praying, what should we tell God, How does God speak back?

After each session there was time for those who came to go and spend time with God, on their own.

Youth work is a very rewarding job, but amongst all the joy there are still times when all you can do is sit back and be in awe of young people and their raw honesty and commitment to God.

This last weekend was one of those times.

I am was left speechless by the desire on the hearts of our young people to seek God, and hear his voice.

I can only give thanks to God for giving me the privilege of being part of these amazing men and women journeys with God!

So for me? I will continue to expect more. I will expect to hear stories of how these brilliant and beautiful young people change the world as they bring God's Kingdom to those who need it!

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Ephesians 3:20-21)

The book may just change your life!

This summer I have spent sometime reading; refreshing myself spiritiually as well as helping to do some background research for things that we will be looking at in the new term.

As part of this I have just finished reading the book 'The Vision and The Vow' by Pete Greig, and I think it may just change the way you view your Christian life, changing your life forever!

Written four years after Pete Greig wrote 'The Vision' on the walls of a prayer room, he know explores what a life that lives the vision out may look like. Highly readable, immensely enjoyable and extremely challenging I found this book has stoked the fire of passion I have in my heart for the Gospel and the Christian life.

Towards the end of the book Greig takes you on a journey through the world of covenant, rule of life, and vows.

If you really want to see your faith grow, and your relationship with God deepen then this book could just be an essential key to that.

Give it a go, I don't think you will regret it!

NEWDAY!

So today Newday begins,

If technology works, then I should be able to blog from my phone!

Oh the wonders of technology!

So keep looking for updates, I shall also be tweeting: http://twitter.com/paulfarmer and updating my facebook page too!

See you on the other side people!

House Party

In October we are going to have another Youth House Party!

The House Party is a great opportunity to get away from things have lots of fun and most importantly get deeper with God.

the dates for this years House Party are 23rd to 24th October and the cost is a mere £35. So next time you see Paul demand a booking form and get signed up!

As one term ends...

So we are coming close to the end of another term, summer lays before us!

But things do not slow down!

At some time in August we will pop down to the beach and there will be more details to follow!

Below you will see the calender for September to December. The big thing going on next term is the House Party. This is a great chance to get away, have some fun and get deeper with God.

For more details about the house party grab a flyer at Church!

Whats best?

If you are like me you often want to make the ethical choices when you shop if you can afford to. To help with this many companies signed up to things like the Fairtrade Foundation labeling scheme. This meant you could easily see if a product was ethical traded or not.

recently lots of companies, from PG tips to now Galaxy have signed up not to the Fairtrade Foundation but to another company called 'Rainforest Alliance'.

So what is the difference.

Well simply, for us the consumer not much. Both help the local growers and both take in to consideration the environmental impact. So with both you are helping out, and making a difference. The Guardian did an article on the two a while back you can read it here http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2004/nov/24/foodanddrink.shopping1

The main differences I could spot was that the Fairtrade Foundation gave a guaranteed minimum price to the local growers, whilst Rainforest Alliance only said to give them more then they previously got. However for companies it is a lot cheaper to sign up with Rainforest Alliance and so this is obviously more appealing.

In short, both help and so where you can either buy fairtrade of rainforest alliance products.

We are the body, football is the game!

Yesterday at our church's all age service, we looked at being the Body of Christ.

Within the body we all have our roles and each of us needs to fulfil our role for the body to function properly.

A brilliant current example of this would be the English Football team. As you look down the squad list you see star player after star player. Each of them has made a good name for themselves in the footballing world, and yet together over their 2 games so far in the world cup things have not looked good. So what is it that is stopping them from reaching their full potential and can we learn anything from them?

Over the past 2 weeks lots of reasons have been given as to why the England team are not performing, from injuries to bad tactical decisions.

The reality is that it is probably both.

As a church when we rely so heavily on someone when they step down, move on are are just ill for a while the church can suffer as everyone else has to take their slack. The solution to this is to share the load, to make sure we are not reliant on just one or two people. I once heard another youth worker say that part of his job was to work his way out of it. He was looking to make sure that if a time required it the church could fully support the youth work without him. Since saying this he has in fact moved on to another church and yet the work continued for a long time until a new youth worker was appointed. He fully understood it was important to share the load.

The second problem we can see is when people are faithfully serving just in the wrong place. Each of us has been created unique, each with a purpose to fulfil in the church and yet sometimes we can find ourselves sidetracked into other jobs that all though we are good at are not we are called to do. When this happens its like putting Rooney on the left wing (shall we learn from that mistake Mr Capello?), things just do not work as well as they could. It is not about someone's effort it is about what God has called them to be. As a youth worker I have certain gifts that others in the church do not have, yet there are others like our church secretary or treasurer who gifts that I do not have. What we have been called and gifted to do is not about who is better than who but more about knowing where we should be played on the football pitch that is Church.

Enjoy the rest of the world cup!