Here is the run down of the Five-A-Side tournament I took some guys to the other day.  It's early days hoping to take twice as many next time!

City Gate Church Retain the Newham 5s Title

In a competitive Newham Community 5s on Monday December 13^th, City Gate Church won the last match of the tournament to clinch the Cup for a second time. A close 2-1 victory over early favourites Cliff Walk Church brought the trophy home.

The 5-a-side games were very high scoring at the Academy in Loughton with some tremendous goals being scored. The football followed a talk given by local footballer and West Ham Physio Seyi Oni. Seyi shared how his love of football is entwined with his Christian faith and how he had walked away from Church during his teenage years, but is so much happier now he is back with God first and then football in his life.

The Newham Community Sports Team is a branch of World Sport Ministries and stage regular sporting events in Newham, usually played with Christian Spirit and values! For more details please contact newham@worldsportministries.com . Sports quizzes and golf days are other events regularly staged.

Results

1^st. City Gate Church 12 points (scored 19, against 12)

2^nd. Cliff Walk Baptist Church 10 points (scored 19, against 9)

3^rd. Bonny Downs Green 10 points (scored 20, against 16)

4^th. Bonny Downs Orange 3 points (scored 13, against 34)

Why go all the way to New York to learn about church planting?

It’s a good question and I have been asked it a few times.  City to City is a church planting training centre set up by Redeemer Church in New York City.

Redeemer has a 5000 strong congregation of mainly young professionals and is led by Tim Keller.  One of the unique things about this church is its view on world wide mission.  It believes –as we do- that Jesus has given the church the job of sharing Jesus throughout the entire world.  But they don’t send out missionaries even though they easily could afford to.  They believe that the best way to share the good news of Jesus with everyone is by planting new churches, which reflect local people, in all the major cities throughout the world.
Over the 20 years Redeemer (itself a church plant) has been around, it has planted dozens of churches and helped to plant many hundreds more!  So they have a vast vision, depth of experience and amount of knowledge on the subject of international, culturally relevant church planting.

While we were in New York we had to go and visit many church plants.  Some actual plants of Redeemer and others supported by them.  Of course, none of them would have worked in East Ham, but then they shouldn’t!  But each one was mainly made up of local people, who had come to faith through the birth and life of the new church.  We went to a jazz church in the art district of Brooklyn, a youth & students congregation in the East Village, a posh church in the Upper West Side, to just mention a few.  We also got to have lunch with and hear the stories and experiences of the lead planters in each of these churches.

My favourite was the church that reminded me most of Bonny Downs.  It was a church of about 150 people and in a multi cultural district made up of Greeks, Jews and a variety of other people groups.  It was a poor community and had bags of life.! The church itself met in a Jewish Synagogue.    One of the coolest things about the church was that it was only 5 years old and had already planted another sister church and was in the process of planting another one, both in neighbouring communities.  Even with their limited recourses they had a vision for and were expanding and seeing the Kingdom of God grow!

It wasn’t just the churches we visited that helped to inspire me.  On the course were 15 other church planters from all over the world.  From Japan, South Africa, Mexico, Malaysia, Greece, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Czech Republic, Canada, Argentina, France, Romania and oh yes East London!  They were an amazing and encouraging bunch of people and full of inspiring stories.  We were able to share our troubles, questions, doubts and passions together.  It was a good reminder that even though we were all from completely different cultural backgrounds we were all part of the same family.

The teaching was amazing and Emelie and I are full of vision and ideas for how we can help grow a congregation that will transform the Flanders area and beyond!
So why did I go to New York?  The quality teaching, the great examples of diverse churches, the international church planters…and it was a beautiful city to explore.

I was excited to go to New York but I am ten times more excited to be back and I can’t wait to see what God is going to grow out of our little but mighty church!

BenAboutLondon

Vision Part 1: "We want to see Jesus..."

Hi guys, sorry it's been a while.  I had a loooot of thinking to do after New York and didn't want to let anything slip about any changes without speaking to key people first.  I've done that now but still have a lot to think about.  One of the first things I am thinking through is our church vision.  

Our awesome vision is this "We want to see JESUS transforming LIVES, changing our COMMUNITY and the WORLD!"  Great isn't it!?  But how does this work out?  What does it mean for us?  Those are a couple of the questions I'm bashing out at the moment.  Over the next couple of weeks I'll be putting up on my blog thoughts as to how this vision fleshes out in my mind.  I'm not wanting to change our vision just want to understand it better in order to share it better.

So here we go...

Vision Part 1: "We want to see JESUS..." 
Colossians 1:15-18, Philippians 2:5-11, 1John 5:20

Everything we do is about Jesus!

Jesus is fully God revealed in person.  Through Jesus everything was created.  Everything was created to shine with Jesus beauty.  Not only is Jesus our amazing creator but He wants us to be in relationship with Him. 

"Christ is exactly like God, who cannot be seen.  He is the first-born Son, superior to all creation.  Everything was created by him, everything in heaven and on earth, everything seen and unseen,  including all forces and powers, and all rulers and authorities.  All things were created by God's Son, and everything was made for him.  God's Son was before all else, and by him everything is held together.  He is the head of his body, which is the church. He is the very beginning, the first to be raised from death, so that he would be above all others." Colossians 1:15-18

That’s why Jesus came to earth 2000 years ago as a person like you and me, so we could really see and understand what He is like.

 

That’s why Jesus grew up and taught us about His Heavenly Father, so we could understand that God wants us to be part of His forever family. 

That’s why Jesus loved, helped and healed all sorts of people that others looked down on, so we could understand that it doesn’t matter what other people think of us, He loves us!

"Christ was truly God. But he did not try to remain equal with God.  Instead he gave up everything and became a slave, when he became like one of us. Christ was humble. He obeyed God and even died on a cross. Then God gave Christ the highest place and honoured his name above all others." Philppians 2:6-9

That’s why Jesus was treated like a criminal and died on a Cross.   Jesus saved us from our selfishness and sin by taking the punishment we deserve. 

That’s why Jesus defeated death when He came back to life, so that death wouldn’t be our end either and we can know Him forever.

"We know that Jesus Christ the Son of God has come and has shown us the true God. And because of Jesus, we now belong to the true God who gives eternal life." 1John 5:20

That is why Jesus now lives in Heaven ruling as King, so we can live to know Him and share His forever love with the world.

As a church we want to know Jesus more and more and share Him with others.

This is a working progress so please let me know what you think.  What is missing?  What you like?

BenAboutLondon 

Two stories to inspire

As you know I am currently on a church planting course called "The Fall Intensive" by Redeemer: City to City in New York.  We are on our second week and it's been amazing so far.  As part of the course we get to meet some of New York's church planters, to hear their stories and ask them questions about what it's like to plant in a major urban City.  Here are two stories that particularly inspired me.

1. Jon Tyson: A vision of church

When Jon arrived to preach at one of Trinity Grace’s sister churches, he felt God tell him to pay attention to what was going on around him.  So he picked himself up and watched.  He was greeted at the door by a member of the church who was obviously homeless.  This rough looking homeless man was on the Welcome team handing out church notice sheets as people came in.  Jon moved further in the church and looked back to take a second look at what God’s grace was doing at this moment. 

Then in came the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.  This woman was a model and very classy.  Then the model and the homeless man greeted each other by name and then gave each other a real big hug.  Jon then watched as these two friends chatted and shared there weeks with each other then both walked up the stairs and into the service.

"Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all." Colossians 3:11

Jon used this story to illustrate the awesome radical social power the church has.  No other human society has the kind of message that can unite and bring together vagabonds and models!   The church is God’s vehicle for Gospel centred cultural transformation.

Let’s pray our churches don’t become cliques for like minded and socially acceptable people.

"For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility..." Ephesians 2:14

2. JR Vassar: God’s call

Before JR was planning on church planting in NYC he was looking else where.  He started by putting pins in maps in all of the major cities in the US.  He prayed, fasted and sought wisdom from Godly friends.  One day JR asked a friend, “If you could plant a church in just one city in America where would it be?” It didn’t take long for his friend to say “New York!” To which JR replied, “Where would you second choice be?”  New York was the last place he wanted to take his family.

A while later JR and his wife set their minds on Seattle as the place to go.  He planned a recon trip to start networking with leaders in Seattle.  But a few days before he was to go his friend called and asked JR to travel to NY with him for a few days.  JR thought, “why not a free trip to NY? Then I’ll get started in Seattle.”  JR went to NY and met many people who lived, worked and ministered in the city.

On his return home his friend asked, “Well will you consider New York?” JR immediately replied “No!”  His friend enquired why and JR replied, “New York is a dangerous city!  I can’t take my wife and children there it will destroy my family!”  His friend didn’t press the point but asked JR to keep his options open.

New York now firmly out of the picture JR travelled to Seattle to do his recon.  On his first day there he was reading the story of the 12 spies in his quiet time and came across these verses:

Then the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are."  Numbers 13:31

"Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?" Numbers 14:3

He then realised that his criteria for where he should plant and of keeping his family safe was based on a wrong perspective of the call and power of God.

Five years ago JR moved to New York with his family and together they started Apostles Church NYC.  The church is growing strong by God’s grace and the are about to plant their third congregation. Oh yeah… and JR’s family are thriving in New York!

Lord, when you ask us to do the impossible help us to say with Caleb:

"Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it." Numbers 13:30

Forgive me Lord for running from your amazing mission to reach the hardest and darkest places in the world.   May we always remember ho much God loves our cities!

Let me end by saying thank you to all the church planters we’ve met on the Fall Intensive.  Your stories, honesty and call have been inspirational, challenging and a great encouragement.

BenAboutLondon

The core of church planting from the Big Apple

Hi everyone! I just wanted to make a post to say, we've arrived safely in New York.  Well we're actually in New Jersey but from where I'm sitting we have amazing views of NY.  I am looking over the Hudson and can see a lot of the cityscape including the Empire State building (as well as other landmarks we don't know yet).  We're staying in a new apartment building called 70 Greene.  It's much nicer than we expected and on the 43rd floor! But I'm not in NY for the stunning views and high rise apartments.

"On this earth we don't have a city that lasts forever, but we are waiting for such a city." Hebrews 13:14 

As I look over the city I am realising in a new way that planting a new church here is a completely different challenge to planting one in East London.  So why come here?  I hope to find the core of what it takes to plant a church in any major city.  That's what the Fall Intensive is all about.  The people are different, the houses are different and the economies are different... But the Jesus & His gospel is aways the same.

Redeemer is a church based in NYC with lead Pastor Tim Keller.  They have not only helped plant churches in many of the diverse communities in NY but have also done the same in many churches across the world.  I believe what I will learn here will help me trust in Jesus more and help me with vision and practical tools to plant our little church back in Bonny Downs (the best community in the world!).

At the same time however, I don't want to get sucked into the dream that "plans" or "strategies" are what you need to really plant a church.  I've heard all sorts of different ideas for what you "need" to plant a church and every time they offer success if you follow them properly.  However, the bottom line is not "strategy" is the saviour of church planting...  Jesus is the only saviour!  

That's what Redeemer is all about and that's why I'm here! 

BenAboutLondon

City to City's Fall intensive for Church Planters

Church Planting Around the Globe from Redeemer City to City on Vimeo.

In less than two weeks my small family are heading off to the Big Apple.  I will be attending City to City's, Fall Intensive training programme for Church Planters.  Although I have been in ministry for about 10 years now I have never had any real training on how to plant a Church.  I feel this is long over due.

While I love what I am a part of in London I often feel like I'm just about keeping my head above water.  I sometimes struggle seeing a way forward.  By going to New York I hope not only to learn things so I may have more wisdom in future plans but also to seek sound advice and council from experienced people and those in the same boat to myself.  New York may be a long way to go for a London boy but I'm praying that getting some distance will also help me to see things from a fresh God perspective.

"For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me!" Psalm 31:3 

The course is based around Tim Keller's vision of Gospel centred Church planting in major world cities and will cover the following subjects:

• Gospel Theology
• Grace Renewal
• City Vision
• Integrative Ministry
• Church and Culture
• Gospel Preaching
• Contextual Mission
• Church Planting
• Movement Dynamics

Those all sound pretty fancy (I normally prefer to use words with one or two syllables) so I need to get my study brain back on before I go.

Emelie, Gabriel and I will be sharing an apartment in New Jersey with another couple attending the course.  It will be quite intense training for me (hense Fall Intensive) but I am more worried about Em.  While Emelie is really excited to go, she is a bit scared about being in a big city with a baby, without the support that she gets from her church family.  Please pray for all three of us in this.

I'll leave you with this vision of Tim Keller's that has greatly inspired me over the past few years.

Redeemer City to City from Redeemer City to City on Vimeo.

Thanks for your prayers,

BenAboutLondon

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Bonny Downs Church - World Cup Football Festival

Our World Cup may be over but Jesus is Forever!

Well the dreams of World Cup win for England are over for another 4 years but my World Cup was anything but boring.  As you may know we had planned a big event around the opening England vs. USA game on June the 11th.  Well it was an amazing success!

We were praying for 1000 people to come throughout the day and in fact we had well over 2000 people come along.  We served 1500 servings at our free BBQ and had a team of table talkers ready to meet and greet people as they say down to eat.  Right up until the day we didn't know how many teams we would have for the five-a-side tournament but in the end we had plenty of teams and lots of fun.

It took a lot of crazy planning and fund raising to afford the big screen but it was well worth it in the end.  You could see the screen from the Barking Road and it drew many people in who we have never met before.  For the main event (screening the England vs. USA match) we had around 400 people stay and watch with us.

After the event a local police sergeant came to speak with me and was absolutely amazed that there were no incidents of any kind.  No fights, nothing stolen, no complaints and zero unrulely behaviour!  He couldn't believe it for a football event of this size.  I told him, "We had help from the man upstairs." He laughed.

Numbers are nice but not everything.  The vision of this event was to deepen old relationships and to start new ones and to cast our nets wider and find people God is working in and start introducing them to Jesus.

Through the day over 2000 invites to church were handed out to people who had a really a great time.  My prayer is that those people will now not only know about the Church on their doorstep but will be glad we're around.  Hundreds of people had one to one conversations with our table talkers (who didn't just talk around tables).  My prayer is that they would be brave enough now they've met a real bona-fide Christian - and seen that we don't have three heads - to one day to cross the threshold of a church!


It will take a long time to figure what the total impact from this event will be.  But already little glimpses are starting to come clear.  Here is one example.  Yesterday I was out on Serving Sunday offering to do odd jobs for people on behalf of the church.  One Muslim family seemed very sceptical about me until I mentioned the Fun Day and immediately the door was opened and now I have a gardening job booked there next week!  The door to this home was opened by our Fun Day.  Please pray with us that many more will be opened and Jesus' name will be honoured.

Thanks for all your prayers,


BenAboutLondon

Jesus wins at the World Cup - part 2

England are playing the USA on their opening World Cup game next week and I predict a 2-1 victory to England!  It'll be a tough game but I think we have what it takes (even without Beckham).  But seriously whoever wins our church is hoping to see a victory in building bridges and reaching our local community.  A few months ago I posted a blog about a World Cup Family Funday we were praying to run.    I'm happy to say that all the money, help and almost all the volunteers we needed to run the day have been provided.  God has brought us help though More Than Gold, the Mustard Seed Foundation, Transform Newham, and even Barclay's bank.  Even our promotion of the even has been really blessed.  The other day we had free advertising on BBC News. No one knows how they heard about it but we're glad they did.  

"Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you!" 2Thessalonians 3:1

They think it's all over... Well it isn't yet!  There is still a loads more to do.  Please pray with us:

• Praise God - for all the answers to prayer and miracles so far.
• Leaflet distribution - please pray we get the rest of the leaflets out.
• 1000 people - please pray in faith with us that we can reach 1000 people through the day.
• More teams - pray that we get more teams for the five-a-side tournament.
• Table talkers - For the people who will be sitting round the tables at the BBQ meeting and greeting people and talking about life and faith.
• Volunteers - please pray the final volunteers are found.
• Safety - please pray for our team of security so that the whole day goes without any issues.
• All the rest - All the little things that need to get sorted by the day that are too numerous to mention.
• God's glory - that He would be put first in everything on the day!

Thank you for joining with us!

BenAboutLondon

What does your Wordle say about you?

The other day I was introduced to a site called Wordle that you can create these cool word images.  The even cooler thing is that you can link it through your blog and it will create a Wordle based on you most commonly used words.

"My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever."  Psalm 145:21 

So I thought it would be interesting to see what I really blog about.  The bigger words are the most common words I use, the smaller they get the less they are used.

My top 5 are:
   1) People
   2) Jesus
   3) Church
   4) God
   5) Community


I'd like Jesus to be No.1! So I'd better talk about Him more. Maybe London should be at least on the top 10 as that's my Blog title.  Give it a try you may surprized what "Your Wordle says about you".

BenAboutLondon

Five things becoming a Dad and church planting have in common

As you may know by now I just became a Dad for the first time.  Gabriel Jonathan Clark was born on the 7th of May at 0023 weighing 4.04 kilos.  It's been a wonderful experience so far with feeding, burping, nappy changing, washing, cuddling, power napping and laughing being the basic routine in my life.  I can't wait to see how he will grow up but at the same time I want to seize every second and stare at him!

"God gave them his blessing and said: Have a lot of children!" Genesis 1:28 

I'm sure that just like when I got married, as this new venture develops God will have new important lessons to teach me about my relationship with Him.  I can't wait to learn them.  As I was thinking about caring for Gabriel I started to think about how starting a church plant and being a Dad have their similarities.  Here are 5 of them:

1) You are never prepared by the time it starts!

No matter how much you think you're prepared there is always more you should have done, read or planned.  You can't see everything that will happen and there will always be curve balls thrown your way.  The lesson is prepare, prepare and prepare some more but don't be fooled, you are not prepared enough. 

2) You knew it would be hard but it is much harder than you thought!

I heard lots of people tell me being a Dad is tough and I should get the rest in while I could.  Believe me I listened to their warnings as I knew it would be no walk in the park.  But now I'm doing it those sleepless nights are way harder to deal with than I ever imagined.  I knew when I got into church planting that over 70% fail and that it'd be tough but the reality has been harder than I ever dreamed.  I sometimes think if God had really told me what it would have been really like, would I have started in the first place?

3) There's plenty of advice out there but in the end you have to decide what's best!

People always have advice on where you're going wrong, what you need to do and what your priorities should be.  There is plenty of helpful advice offered that is great and well appreciated. On the other hand though there is a lot of rubbish.  Even if people have never done it themselves, met you, your child or visited your church they know exactly where you're going wrong.  In the end though it's mainly just opinion.  There is no clear manual to being a Dad or church planting (even though there are plenty of books that claim to be just that) and you have to use prayer and common sense to really figure it out.

4) It has to depend on someone!

Gabriel can't do much at the moment. He can cry really well, sleep, stare and wriggle.  Oh and today he demonstrated that he could projectile poop, quite a sight I'll tell you!  At this point in Gabriel's life he needs his parents to do everything.  We need to feed him, change him, dress him and protect him.  If we didn't do it he would just die.  One of the tough things I've found in the early days of church planting is that no matter how much we planned if I wasn't there one week things didn't go well.  Now a few years on it can work quite well without me for a while.  But the dream is that some day soon as leaders grow and develop the church will leave home and be able to stand on its own two feet.  For now I'm there for them both and I want them to know they can rely on me.

5) It's a messy job with amazing rewards!

I was warned before Gabriel came that I'd soon become obsessed with poop.  That I'd talk with complete strangers about it's colour, texture and frequency.  Oh and that I share those disgusting stories about poo and pee flying everywhere as you try and change a nappy.  I was convinced they were wrong... They weren't.  I'll spare you the details but to put it bluntly you have to deal with a lot of poo.  The reward of holding your clean baby after a nightmare experience is awsome!  Just holding him and smelling him is amazing!  In a small church plant things don't often run smoothly and it can be very stressful.  With not many people to call on you have to do most of the work yourself (yes even cleaning the toilets).  And on top of that you are helping people through tough times.  However, when you see someone growing in their faith or falling in love with the Bible for the first time all the messy jobs are worth it.

That was just my five.  Can you think of any more?  Drop them in the comments below.

BenAboutLondon

Video of the open-air performance

Here are two videos a spectator took of the open air performances on Saturday.  I'm the guy in the hat about half way through in the second video.

Are we SALT... or good for nothing?

This has been a crazy busy Saturday. As Em and I and an army of local people prepare an evening of theatre and storytelling in our local park.  It's not a church activity in any way other than we're helping to organise it.  Emelie is the director and I'm a dogs-body and actor for the event.  It may not be "Church" but I strongly believe it is what we as the Church should be doing.

"You are the SALT of the earth. If SALT loses it's saltiness... it is good for nothing!" Matthew 5:13

One of our main objectives at Cafe Church is to be SALT to our community.  What does that mean though? We believe SALT - in the way Jesus meant it - was to be a preservative in the world.  It's our job as part of the family of God to be involved in the world and to add a positive influence in it, to stop things going off.

As Christians most of us believe this but we actually make it hard for each other to do it.  We fill our evenings and weekends with Bible studies, prayer meetings and "fellowship times", making actually involvement in the world such a tiring thought.  So we retreat into our safe Christian bubbles.

Why not do less at church and be involved more in the world around us?  Of course there are plenty of things we should keep well out of but there is so much we can get involved in.  Let's look around to find community activities and allow ourselves time to get stuck in.  Art, sports, parks, cafes there are all sorts of places we can find amazing opportunities to meet, support and bless local people.  We'll not only make new in roads for the gospel, we may even make our world just a little more beautiful and seem more "normal" to people.

How can you be SALT in your community?

How have you been SALT in your community?

Let me know.

Just off for a final dress rehearsal.

BenAboutLondon

Addition:  Some of performers came to visit Cafe Church the next day after the performance and more are wanting to visit next wee! Please pray for them.

An ironic prayer request

Over the past two days London City Mission has hosted a prayer conference teaching church planters how to pray for and make prayer central to their new ministries.  It may sound like teaching your grandma to suck eggs but the truth is the prayer life of many Christians/churches is sadly lacking.  I was only able to attend the first half day due to ill health but I was greatly challenged and encouraged.

In the first part of the morning we looked at how the churches call in to be a "House of prayer to all nations!"  A place where people come from all over the world and lean on a personal relationship with God.  The challenge was simple where do our churches square up with this calling?  We spent time examining the health of our own churches prayer lives.  And then the question was put...  

Q: What would Jesus say if he were to talk to you about your churches prayer life?  There are three possible answers.

A1: He'd be happy.
Maybe there are some areas that need addressing and improving but generally you are praying and leaning on God as a  church.  Your leaders are praying together and individually for guidance and help.  You have regular prayer meeting that are well attended.  And people in the church value prayer highly.

A2: He'd be worried.  
You have some good things going on but not enough of it.  Jesus would write you a letter like in Revelation where He would commend one or two things.  But then He'd give you a serious warning about some other things that had to get better.

A3: He'd be seriously angry!
Remember how he came into the temple in Jerusalem? With whips, over turning the tables and shouting...

"It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you make it a den of robbers." Matthew 21:13 

Is that how he'd deal with your church? Or mine?

In Cafe Church we have 5 planks in the out working of our vision and prayer is one of them.  But to be very honest it hasn't been high enough on my agenda.  I feel God has been incredibly gracious to me by showing me now while things can be sorted, rather than later before it is too late.

I have a few ideas to start to remedy the situation but first I need to pray and I need your prayers.  I know it's ironic to ask for prayer about prayer but that's where it needs to start.  Please pray that I would hold and believe in prayer as highly as I do His word.  I want to be like the Apostles who said...

"We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." Acts 6:4

Nothing else matters but being completely dependant on our loving Father through prayer and His word.

Answering Darwin's deepest question

One of the biggest questions I face as an evangelist in London is, "How can a good God allow suffering?"  Occasionally it's posed in the more aggressive or emotional way, "Don't even try to talk to me about God's love when people are suffering all over the world!" 

Yesterday I watched the film Creation, about the struggle that Charles Darwin went though as he was about to publish his Origin of the Species.  And indeed his big question was the same.  As he looked around at nature he saw brutality and pain and even more personally he lost his beloved daughter at a very young age.  I actually felt sorry for Darwin. Theology at the time wasn't prepared to answer such questions and so preachers could offer him little hope.

We can all understand Darwin's question.  We've all asked it.  Some of us have come to a place where we feel comfortable (most of the time) with an answer we've found.  Some of us avoid the question because we're afraid we wont find a satisfactory answer.  Still others of us have given up completely on the idea that God can love us because of all the horrible things we have suffered.

Here are three simple thoughts about my faith that have helped me deal with this question through my own struggles.

1) Giving up on God wont solve the problem
Suffering is a problem for those who believe in God but its also a problem for those who don't.  I believe in a loving God that doesn't solve my questions about my pain.  But I put it to you that atheism doesn't solve the deeper questions either.  Atheism says about suffering, that's just the way it is.  But that answer doesn't satisfy either, does it?  Even atheists still say it's not right or fair when a loved one dies.  There is something in us that just wont accept the answer, "That's just the way it is!"

I believe giving up on God wont solve our problems with suffering.  In fact it wont help us at all.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." 2Corinthians 1:3-4

2) The cross proves that God is on my side
I may not know why suffering happens but I know one thing it cannot mean.  We can often believe that when we suffer God is mad at us for something but the cross screams the opposite.  The cross says that God came to us in Jesus and suffered for us and with us.  Jesus knows what it is like to be abandoned, rejected, lonely, falsely accused and even murdered! The amazing thing is that He went through all that for us.  Jesus suffered the consequences of our sin so we wouldn't have to.

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" Romans 8:31-32

I don't know what the ultimate reason for my suffering is but I do know it isn't that God hates me.  The cross proves God is for us and not against us.  


3) I trust God that suffering has a purpose
If atheism says, "that's just the way it is!"  Then Christianity can be summed up with this, "God has a greater purpose (that I can't comprehend) through all suffering and it will be somehow worth it!"

To this someone might say, "How dare you say God loves me!  If he loved me he would have saved me from this pain!"  But I could turn my pain around on an atheist and say, "How dare you say God doesn't love me and that my suffering has no purpose and hope behind it!

"So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory." Ephesians 3:13

What offers more hope, the idea that all is meaningless and in the end none of it will matter, or that a loving God -who knows what it is to suffer- says that not one of our tears will be wasted in His perfect plan for the universe?

At the cross Jesus demonstrated that even through the greatest suffering and pain God can bring about new life and hope!

"When I am afraid, I put my trust in you." Psalm 56:3 

Don't abandon God in your suffering, cling to the hope that is offered in Jesus.

"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." Revelation 21:4

Share Jesus, Kick a football!

Don't let your love for sport stop you telling people about your faith.  Instead you can use sport as a valuable tool to take the gospel to people who are hard to reach.  

Last weekend we held the Crossbar Challenge (quiz) at the Sports Pavilion where we meet for Cafe Church.  About 50 sports loving people (mainly guys turned up) and we had a great time.  The quiz had 6 rounds and was created by Christians In Sport.  Including lots of multimedia (including video clips, sound bites and amazing photographs) the production value of the quiz was outstanding. The highlight for me though was seeing guys who would never think about coming to church sitting next to guys from Cafe Church and having a great time.

At half-time I shared my testimony and you could have heard a pin drop.  I really felt God's help as I spoke and had a few gospel conversations afterwards.  On the response slips at least two people said they would like to talk more about having a relationship with Jesus!   Also, we've already had two people visit us at Cafe Church from the quiz.  All in all a great evening

So, if you love Jesus and enjoy sport let me encourage you, don't see them as opposing forces, instead you can use your passion for sport to bring people to Jesus!  In fact using sport as a tool for evangelism is one of the best ways of reaching young men, who are the people hardest to reach.

If you would like some help in setting up a sports related ministry contact World Sport Ministries.  WSM have been an invaluable support in setting up a Community Sports Team in Newham.  The Crossbar Challenge was the second sports outreach we have run as a CST but we have many more ideas in the pipe-line.  For example we are going to be running a Family Sports Fun-day on Saturday the 12th June.  During the event we're planning a free BBQ, a five-a-side football tournament and showing the England v USA World Cup game on a giant 16m2 LED TV.  But the main event will be testimonies being shared, bibles being handed out and people signing up for Alpha style courses.

Thank you for all your prayers for the Crossbar Challenge.  Please continue to pray for us as we plan future events.

And don't forget share Jesus, kick a football!

Ben 

Don't be a fool, lose your RELIGION!

This Week at the Well (our sending church) I had the privilage of preaching on Matthew 19:16-30.  This is the will known story of the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus to ask, "What good deed must I do to get eternal life?" 

1 - Lose your RELIGION

And behold, a man came up to him, saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" Matthew 19:16

At the heart of this young man's question is a business transaction.  He wants a product "eternal life" there is only one possible vendor "God" and so He sets the price.  In order to buy eternal life you need to pay God lots of good deeds.  If you store up enough credit then eternal life is given to you.

If we see our faith as a business deal it will cause us many problems.  First when things go wrong in our life we might blame God and say, "I kept my end of the bargain God, why aren't you?"  Or we might blame ourselves and say, "If only did more then God wouldn't be punishing me!"  But the biggest problem is that we are not making Jesus our saviour we are making ourselves our saviour.  Jesus may be our dealer or shop keeper but we pay for our salvation with our own efforts.  Notice the man asked "What must I do?"  He's not trusting in God's goodness, grace or love, he's trusting in his own ability to save himself.

This way of approaching God can only lead us to uncertainties.  If we are buying eternal life we will never know if we've paid enough off.  My Dad used to tell me, "It's a good thing you can't buy eternal life because you'd never be able to pay it off!"

2 - Hand over CONTROL

Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven..." Matthew 19:21

Jesus asks this man to give up everything to follow Him then he will have eternal rewards.  Think about it.  That money doesn't just represent wealth, it also represents his power over his own life and others.  It's his security in life and his comfort.  It's his control over his own happiness and destiny.  Jesus is literally asking him to give everything up!

We all want to be in control over our own happiness and destiny. We may not do it with money but we do try to stay control of our lives in other ways.  Maybe it's family that we are using to guarantee our happiness, "If I can just keep this family together then I'll be happy and worth something!"  Maybe we use our studies, "If I just get that top mark I can be happy and look other people in the eye!"  Maybe our jobs, "If I work hard to get that promotion then I'll be happy and people will look up to me!"

These are all ways we try to be our own saviour.  But the truth is we are not and can not be in control of these things.  They are harsh task masters.  If we do well they only ask us for more and when we fail they crush us!  We can't control our families, they are too complex.  We can't control our job security, as the recent recession taught us.

If we want to find true eternal happiness we need to quit saving ourselves and hand over control of our destinies to Jesus.  That is the cost!  EVERYTHING!

3 - And FOLLOW Jesus

"...and come, follow me." Matthew 19:21  

But it shouldn't be seen as loosing control.  It's handing control over to the only person who can handle it... Jesus!  The big questions though that might stop us are 1) Can he be trusted with my destiny? and 2) Is it worth it?

The answer to both those questions is really the same.  Firstly, he knows what it means to give up everything. The Bible teaches that Jesus is God and that he left the joys and perfection of Heaven to be born in a pugnant stable and to experience absolute poverty in comparison.  In the Gospels we see Him give up his job and family to befriend outcasts and sinners in order to give them hope.  We see Him abandoned by His friends and be left alone and naked.  Then we see the giver of life Himself nailed to a cross and killed!  Jesus knows what it's like to lose control.

But the real amazing thing isn't in what he gave up, it's found in the why he did it.  He did it for you and me!  

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2    

He did it for the joy set before Him.  He had everything except you and me.  We were lost in sin and rebellion and if He didn't step in we would have been lost from relationship with Him forever!  We were Jesus joy and His true treasure, worth more to Him than the riches of Heaven! And because we were Jesus' treasure, He can be ours and can be completely trusted!

Jesus is the only Saviour we can have that accepts us as we are and when we fail Him completely forgives and loves us.  Eternal Life is knowing this Jesus and having a relationship with Him forever and it starts now!

Don't be religious give your control over to Jesus!

“He Is No Fool Who Gives What He Cannot Keep to gain That Which He Cannot Lose!”  Jim Elliot

Jesus wins at the 2010 World Cup!

Only 115 days, 7 hours and 29 minutes (ish) till England begin their winning world cup campaign (hopefully). But even if they don't win there are amazing opportunities to introduce people to Jesus through the World Cup.

A few months ago More Than Gold approached us about putting on a event for the World Cup.  The plan was that this event will showcase to other churches across the UK the potential there is for outreach during the 2012 Olympics.  We loved the idea and didn't need much persuading.  So Bonny Downs North (that's our church plant) will be teaming up with other local churches and a few other organizations to run a football festival the day England are planned to play their first game against the USA.

During the day:

• "World Sport Ministries" will be organizing a five-a-side football tournament. At the prize giving there will be a talk aimed at the youth.
• "On The Move" will be helping to organize a free BBQ for local people who turn up.  Each table at the BBQ will be hosted by a local church member to chat.
• XLP will be bringing the youth bus down.
• Local Churches will be helping to organize music and other fun activities like face painting.
• We'll be showing the England vs USA game on a big screen on the field with a presentation at half time.
• At the event we are hoping to hand out programmes that show the rest of the games scheduled for the World Cup with listings of the churches locally hosting other games.

The potential is awesome and we could have hundreds of people turning up. We are hoping all this will happen on the field outside Cafe Church.  Cafe Church will also be hosting smaller showings of some of the key games as a way to build bridges into the community.  We are also planning a Christianity 101 course as a follow up to the event.

Please pray for all the planning and dreams of this event.  There is still a long way to go in planning it but I think you'll agree it sounds awesome.

Jesus said, "In the same way there is more happiness in heaven because of one sinner who turns to God than over ninety-nine good people who don't need to." Luke 15:7

I'd love England to win but I'd gladly trade a World Cup victory for one person who accepts Jesus as a result of outreach during the event!

Have you got any plans for outreach during the World Cup?  If so please share your ideas.

Entrepreneurs, Prostitutes & Bouncers

It's funny how the thing I love most about living in East London is also my biggest challenge in planting a church.

Newham is the most diverse community in the UK. In my small patch alone we have people from Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Nigeria, Ghana, Pakistan, Jamaica, Iran and Lebanon to mention a few. It's not just cultural diversity its also diversity of interests, faith, wealth and political views. One of the first things I was taught to do when I became a missionary was to get to know the community. Well I am and to be honest the more I learn the more I need to learn.  I know that the gospel (correctly understood) is glue that can bind together people from any background. But how do you plant a truly diverse church?

At the moment in Cafe Church we have been following Paul (the original church planter) on his journey and trying to learn a few lessons.  Recently we looked at his ministry in Philippi.  The first person he converted there was a lady called Lydia who was a successful business woman.  In the gospel Lydia found all that money couldn't buy.  Paul then goes on to release a demon possessed fortune telling slave girl by the power of Jesus.  In the gospel that slave girl found freedom. Then, while in prison Paul saves a working class jailer.  In the gospel that Jailer found true security.  The same gospel crossed all their boundaries and answered all their deepest needs!

They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." Acts 16:31  

Can you imagine that first church meeting in Philippi?  That's the first century equivalent to have Dragon's Den's Deborah Meaden, an ex-prostitute and a local bouncer meeting together for worship.  The diversity of that first church was amazing and beautiful.  That's what I want in our church plant.  I want people to look in and see people of all colours, races and backgrounds that represent our local community.  Because that's what the true gospel looks like.

I'll be honest; we don't look like that now.  We are mainly white east-enders. The challenge we have now is how do a bunch of English people breakout and become relevant to a mixed community?  I have heard people say that you can't do it and you can't please everyone.  I can understand that logic but I can't agree with it when I meditate on the gospel.  In east London there are loads of new churches being planted that have no relation to their local communities.  I do not want our church to become like that.

I don't know what the answer is (although I have ideas) but I do know that:

• The gospel is what everyone is looking for
• The gospel is the same basic message for everyone
• Only the gospel can truly bring unity in diversity
• When real diversity is seen in a church the beauty and awesomeness of the gospel is seen

"It is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." Isaiah 49:6

I don't want to limit the work of Jesus and make the gospel "too small a thing."


Please pray with me that before our church is too big we will be able to diversify.

If you have an ideas for me please let me know.