Chatting with the "ends of the earth"

You might already know but this year is our Year of Breakthrough at Bonny Downs Church.  We are praying into six areas that are specific challenges for our church at the moment to seek God's action and guidance.  One f those areas is building relationships for sharing Jesus across Newham's diverse cultures.

Bonny Downs has a good history of sharing Jesus and seeing lives changed from people within the white East End community.  They can be tough, direct and are generally suspicious of religion (unless they are devout Catholics). None the less Jesus as been drawing them to our church.  However, if we truly want to represent Jesus and His kingdom we need to be reaching out and winning more that just those who are like us! We need to be sharing Jesus with people from every nation, tribe and tongue! And we are in the ideal place for it!

(The Lord) says: "It is too light 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

Newham is the most ethnically diverse borough in the UK. A massive 70% is made up of ethnic minorities from all over the world. India, Pakistan, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Poland, Lithuania, Nigeria, Guiana, Iran, Egypt and the Congo to name a few. All of these nations and more can be found within a few hundred metres or so from my front door! Regardless of what the government might say about the Multicultural Experiment these different cultures do not easily mix. Although we are not split into ghettos (whole communities of just one ethnic group), building real friendships across cultural boundaries is very difficult. And if you can't build real relationships you can't share Jesus in a personal and relevant way.

So we are praying and God is answering!

Let's Get Chatting

At the start of the year some of the women in our church had the idea of a group to help local people practice conversational English. We don't have the skills to teach ESOL but we do love to chat with people.

As the women we're meeting other mums from different backgrounds small talk would begin. It wouldn't last for long because even if they could speak English their confidence wasn't very high. Especially in general conversation. There is a difference between formal English that you need to know to get by and the type of English you need to actually talk about the weather, or your family or your feelings.

So we started a 6 week course called "Let's Get Chatting". It's a simple format. Come eat lunch together (Halal of course) and chat about a simple set topic with someone who is comfortable with their English. The topics would vary from week to week vary from holidays, family, food to weddings.  The first week we were packed out with 27 people and it has been well attended right thought the course!

One of the highlight was on the topic of "food". Every one brought a dish from their home country and shared traditions and recipes. Not only have we been able to get to know more people from our community, but we've also been able to help them build up their confidence.

"It's was so wonderful to hear them laugh and tell stories about their weddings and families! We are really starting to become friends." A volunteer from our church

Please pray!

Tomorrow is the last of the 6 sessions of Let's Get Chatting. We are hoping to run it again in the future but more than that we are hoping to build on the relationships already made for Jesus sake!

Please pray with us!

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)

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 

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

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.

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

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

Whole Church Convicted to Community Service

In 2007 when our Church plant first started to meet we were in an old church hall, that was just outside the community we were trying to reach.  It was the only meeting space available at the time and just across the road.  We thought that those 10 meters or so wouldn't be so difficult to cross in modern east London.  We were wrong!  No matter how much we prayed or tried break through, those 10 meters were a barrier for them to come to us and for us to go to them.

By the end of 2008 we knew we needed to think outside the box.  We still didn't have a venue in the area but that didn't mean we couldn't have a positive presence in that community. So in January 2009 we started Serving Sundays.

We decided that on the last Sunday of every month we would not have our traditional hymn sandwich but instead go out and offer to serve the local people in practical ways.  We met at our usual time 10:30am at the church hall.  We then split into two teams, prayer and door to door.  The prayer team would stay in the church and commit to pray for the ministry, while the others went out to deliver leaflets or do odd jobs for local people.  We didn't know what take up we would have but we did have a clear vision.

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:14-16

Even if people didn't let us wash their car, walk their dog, paint their house or help them move we wanted them to see us serving and Glorify God.  Or as Tim Keller put it (at the Urban Plant-Life conferences in London) for them to think: "I may not agree with what they believe but I am glad they are part of this community!" 

We have been doing it for a year now and have been really encouraged by the results.  From the very first month we were having requests for jobs.  Some of the jobs we have done are:

• Painted bed rooms
• weeded gardens
• put up shelves
• mowed lawns
• helped people move
• visited people who needed friends 

One of the highlights for me was when we were weeding a muslim ladies garden.  She asked me, "Why are you Christians doing this?  I've been going to my mosque for 7 years and no Muslim has ever offered to help me with my garden."  What a fantastic opportunity that was to tell her about our serving Saviour, Jesus!  That lady hasn't become a believer in Jesus (yet) but we do visit her regularly and often pray with her. 

One of the hardest words to get past when you knock on a door is "Church".  As soon as people hear it many want to close the door.  Only yesterday morning I knocked on a door and after getting to the "C" word a lady said, "No thanks, not interested!"  I responded with, "No you don't understand.  We not inviting you to church we want to mow your lawn or wash your car!"  Her character changed immediately from defensive to open.  "Oh" she said, "Maybe you could come back in the spring to help me with my garden."  

We now have a venue for meeting in the community (Cafe Church) but we still do Serving Sundays once a month.  It has helped us as a church to unite in mission and to get excited about service and has brought us closer to the people we are trying to reach. 

Recently I came across this on Twitter:   

"Mission is more than the means by which the deficit of non-worship is rectified. Mission defines worship because God is a redeeming God." STimmis  

At Bonny Downs North we can't have amazing worship services because we don't have any musicians.  However, we can worship through mission, community service and evangelism.  If you are in a church where it is hard to find an in road into the community or in a church that struggles with worship each week, why not consider trying a Serving Sunday or something like it?

Church Planting Rule No.1 "Love your community to life!"

Many church plants start in certain communities for negative reasons.  High crime, low church attendance, poverty to name a few.   That's not necessarily a bad thing but there is a danger of falling into a trap of being depressing.  Instead of inspiring hope in a community we can affirm people’s negativity.  You can even attract some people by pointing out how bad a community is.  Many people in the community will agree and join in the discussion of how bad things are and who let it get that way.

I was challenged once when watching a Documentory series on BBC1 (I think it was called "The Estate we're in") some years ago about a woman who turned communities round from being crime-dens to being fantastic places to live.  This woman had sucessfully turned around one estate before and a camera crew was following her exploits as she moved into an new rundown estate to do the same.  She wasn't a Christian and was in fact a chain-smoking, hard skinned, battle axe.  She was incredibly stubborn and refused to focus on the negative.  Instead she used her stubborn streak to make the best of the positive things she saw in an area.

On the episode I saw, this lady was talking with a single mum who lived in fear in a tower block.  The mother said, "I was on the phone with my best friend earlier and she said she wanted to come and live near me.  I told her she was mad and no one should ever come to this hell hole."  The lady responded, "No, this is a great place to live and it's going to be even better.  Think about it you and I live here and we're lovely!"  The amazing thing is that lady turned that community around, with her single handed stubbornness to focus on the positive!   It was contagious and inspiring.

If she could do that without Jesus, think of the amazing potential we have in our church plants with Him!

"Little children, you are from God and have overcome, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."" 1John 4:4

Jesus loved this messed up world.  He didn't come down to it just to remind us how bad it is or how bad we are.  He came because he saw something that was beautiful and worth saving.    Even in the worst people and darkest situations the world has to offer, there are faint images of our Heavenly Father.  And to Jesus they are worth dying for.

"Then God said, "Let us make man in our image..."" Genesis 1:26 

People are beautiful.  Communities are beautiful.  And every community should become more beautiful if a church is living and loving in it.

Let's be inspirational and stubbornly contagious with our positive attitudes towards the places where God has asked us to serve Him and love others.

Tough challenge but that's the gospel...

Clear Boundaries for Football & Life

As I was praying over the football fields outside the pavilion where we meet for Cafe Church, Kevin (the grounds keeper) was repainting the white lines around one of the pitches.  As I watched I realised how important his job was, although not many people might think about it.  If you are going to enjoy a good game of football you need to have clear boundaries.  You need to know where each side starts and finishes, where the keeper is allowed to handle the ball, where the penalty box is and where the edges of the field are.  You need to see them in an instant and in the heat of the game.  If you don't then bedlam and chaos will follow 

I then went out and asked Kevin how often he does this vital job.  "Once a week" he replied, "I don't have to do it that often, but the clearer the markings are the better and safer the game!"  

It reminded me of Christian ministry.  We're all locked in a game more vital and real than football, the game called life.  The rules and boundaries are set by our Creator but through sin the markings are blurred and hard to see.  We want to play by our own rules and that makes things get messy.  People spend whole life times arguing about what the rules should be and who should get to set them.  When this happens on a football pitch things can aggressive.  The same can happen in the game of life it can with far more serious consequences.

The job of Christian ministry through Evangelism is to help people see the boundaries again and to bring them to a desire to play by the rules.  The job then moves to helping people to mark out those boundaries clearly in their lives through studying the Bible, preaching, prayer and accountability to a church community.  

"Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.""  John 8:12

Rules don't destroy the game, they make them!  It's the same with life.  God doesn't tell us how to live just to dominate and control us but to help us find the life Jesus promised, "A life in all its fullness!"

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."  John 10:10

If you want to know more about that full life Jesus wants you to enjoy feel free to email me.

If you have it already please pray for me as I seek to share those boundaries with the local footballers that use Flanders Field.

The Bread, Wine & Chiili?

Communion is an important part of church life.  It's the church communities chance to get back on track with each other, centred around Jesus and the gospel.  We've been missing communion at Cafe Church for a while because we didn't know exactly how we could it in a Cafe Church way, that wouldn't make visitors feel uncomfortable.

The Lord's Supper must be a really strange thing to outsiders but it really shouldn't be.  Everyone understands food.  Eating together is a really important part of family life in most (if not all) cultures.  The first Communion was part of a Passover meal and it's clear in 1Corinthians that it was still a meal later in the first century.

"When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk."  1Co 11:20-21

The solution that we came to was quite simple (but different).   Our communion is now part of a monthly bring and share meal.  So now on the first Sunday of every month everyone brings some food and we all enjoy fellowship with grub.  At the start of the meal we break a big fancy loaf and pray, reminding ourselves - and helping visitors understand - what Jesus did for us when His body was broken.  Instead of having a tiny morsel of bread we encourage people to take a massive chunk to eat with there meal.  This last Sunday my wife brought a big pot of chilli con carne, when people got up to eat they took their bread and then ate it with the chilli.

"In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."" 1Co 11:25

Then after the meal (see above quote) we then pour everyone a glass of wine (red grape juice) and remind ourselves - teach others - about the blood Jesus shed to bring about His new agreement by praying and drinking together.

Instead of making it a strange thing for non Christians to come into and watch from the outside, it's something you can easily invite them into. They may just come for the food but they hear the gospel.  But more than just hearing the gospel they get to see it in action, as the church family enjoy each others company and welcome people in.

Church meetings can often be mystical rituals to non Christians.  But I don't think they were originally meant to be.  Working in a church plant has been a great eye opener for me.  Everything we do has to be thought through carefully,  because we're primarily aiming at outsiders.  So before we do anything we have to ask these questions:

• Is it understandable?  
• Is it welcoming?  
• Is it gospel centred? 
• Is it Biblical?  
• Is it right?

Maybe we should be asking these kind of questions more often in our churches.  We can be so worried about making mistakes that we never try anything new.  I'd rather risk something new to see people saved, than keep things safe and not grow.

Remember, Jesus didn't die so that we wouldn't make any more mistakes.  He died for our mistakes!  So that if we love Him, even our mistakes wont separate us from Him!.  Let's not be afraid of making mistakes for the right reasons.

Yours in Jesus.

Ben

Christmas Cafe

Merry Christmas everyone! Let me start by thanking everyone that prayed for our Candlelit Cafe this past Sunday, it went really well. We had over 35 people come. Most were cafe regulars but we did have a few visitors amoungst us.
It was a pretty simple format. People arrived and were served Glogg (Swedish mulled wine) and Christmas goodies. We sat around and chatted about what we were doing on Christmas day and other seasonal stuff.

After about 30 minutes we started the main event. No one led it but I did start it off. Basically the format was a video Bible reading (from last years Baptism Union "Bethlehem readings" DVD), followed by a brief testimony from a member of the church that related in some way to the reading, and then we sung a carol. We did this four times and then I did a brief talk.

My main point was to show that if all Christmas was about, celebrating the birth of a poor baby 2000 years ago, then that isn't really worth celebrating. But as the testimonies demonstrated Jesus is still changing lives and relevant today. All the people who shared were very different and were all united through their relationship with Jesus.
My challenge was to ask people to take the time this Christmas to think about whom this baby grew up into and what he came to do. I wanted them to get beyond the prologue of His birth to see His amazing life, death and resurrection.

Afterward, we continued with the refreshments and converstaion.  I was encouraged to see that people wanted to invite their friends to come along to Cafe Church in the New Year. I think the combination of God's word and live testimonies proving it true was a very powerful mix. Please pray for the non Christians who came along.

I'm off on my Christmas Hol's now and looking forward to the break before 2010.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Ben

Only 960 days and 11 hours to go!

The Bonny Downs north leadership meetings are always good. Yes sometimes we need to deal with rotas and other boring things (for me anyway), but I always come away feeling like we talked about important things. Let me tell you about one of them.

Newham (that's where East Ham is) will be the host borough for the Olympics in 2012. That means millions of people descending upon our humble patch and huge opportunities for outreach and for community development. Last night for our meeting we had a special guest Matthew Porter from Transform Newham to wet our appetite.

One appetizer he gave us was the possibility of using the 2010 World Cup as a practice mission. That really got me excited. I love football and as our Church-plant meets in a sports pavilion, we meet footballers every week. We could have big screen outdoor showings of the big games. Matthew reckoned we could easily draw a crowd of 800 to the England games. Knowing my community I agree with him.

"Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest." John 4:35

Sports ministry has massive potential! With the World Cup next year and the London Olympics only 960 days and 11 hours to go! away, we'd better get cracking.

Please pray for us as we seek to partner with other churches in Newham to make the best of these exciting up and coming ministries.

Ben

If you'd like to find out more about the outreach potential of the Olympics goto:

www.morethangold.org.uk

If you'd like to find out more about sports ministry in general or get help setting one up goto:

www.worldsportministries.com