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