Kid Connections

motivation...

It's been ages since I blogged - and since we're at the beginning of a new month, and I'm not as busy as normal, I thought I might share a thing or two.
Today, I've been wondering about this: What percentage of church goers would say that they feel 'motivated' when they gather to worship with others on a Sunday? And ... What percentage of Christ followers would say that they feel 'motivated' when they gather to worship with others - not necessarily in a church building or on a Sunday? Is it the experience of the context, environment and format of worship that is motivational or is it what is being taught? Interesting!

Easter fun and worship

It's been a busy few weeks what with prep for Easter and all that's been happening.  I've met with friends, ministers and fellow children's pastor from other churches, Baptist and Charismatic churches in particular; been at a prayer retreat led by a Nigerian Episcopal Priest who's a dear friend of ours, at which a Methodist Minister (colleague of my hubby) was the speaker - and wonderful it was too; been at an alternative worship service at St Andrew's Bo'ness Church of Scotland(called Sanctuary First) with a couple of good friends from both the CofS and Baptist church; been on a reflective walk through the Labyrinth at St Silas Episcopal Church, where I work as Children's Pastor; been at a Good Friday Service at St Andrew's Methodist Church Milton, where my hubby works; took the kids to an Easter Egg Mania fun day complete with egg hunt, games, bouncy castles and praise music hosted by Harvest Fellowship in Hamilton - an AOG  Pentecostal church where some of our friends are involved; had a lovely fellowship evening with the same Pente pals at the home of some of our Evangelical friends who shared what's been happening during Holy Week with their church and other churches in Strathaven; went to our Easter All-age Communion service at St Silas - complete with balloon release!  I missed meeting up with some friends from the Salvation Army this month ... but they were busy training folk! 

I love the whole ecumenical variety and diversity of Church in both my personal and work life!  It's a real blessing although I do find the idea of 'labeling' a bit of an issue.  We are simply followers of Jesus after all, just trying to do the best we can - building community, bringing encouragement and glorifying God! 

The kids have had a good break from school, etc so far and we've manage to reorganise their rooms some what to give them a play room with lots of soft space to rest in too.  But ... we soooooooo need a bigger house with a few extra rooms - basic spec would be lounge, family/play room, 3 double and 2 single bedrooms, study, dinning room, dining kitchen, utility room, and 2 bathrooms is what's needed to help ease both family and work requirements!  If anyone is giving any away then we'd put it to good use.  Well ... anything's possible! 

Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest ...

Cherish 2008 - awesome!  It's unlike any other women's conference or experience.  Everything was total excellence.  Too much to say other than simply awesome!!!   Book now for Cherish 2009 ... to be continued! 

Met up with Bruce, which was nice even though it was a flying visit amidst the conference sessions.

The song that will always remind me of this conference and the 2000 women worshiping and committing together to make a difference in this world - here in the UK and overseas - is the song Hosanna from Hillsong.  Simply awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Thank you Lord - you are amazing!

It's the overflow of a forgiven soul ...

Some years ago I used to be plagued every night by worship songs.  I'd go to bed singing them, be singing them through the night, and wake up singing them ... quite often with my poor husband saying please can you stop singing!!

For the last week I've found that it's been happening again - that, and dreaming very vividly!  The main song that I keep singing is Matt Redman's Dancing Generation (check it out here).  It's one of the best songs I've ever heard and it just lifts my spirit so much.  The kids also love it and it keeps us bopping around the lounge for ages.

I used to dream every night and very vividly.  Many years ago I had some really bad nightmares and after a particularly bad dream one night my husband prayed over me that the dreams would cease.  I've never had a bad dream since!  My friend Billy dreams very vividly too and we've quite often share them, wondering what on earth they mean.  It hasn't been as common an occurrence for a while but God used to give me lots of dreams and some very prophetic visions.  I shared a dream I had with a friend last weekend, 'that she discovered she was pregnant again' ... perhaps there will be a child!?!?! ... or perhaps it's symbolic of new birth in some other area of her life?  It will be interesting to see what transpires.

I sense a new season is about to break in my life and I'm sensing God in a way that I haven't for a while.  I've been a bit lost in the wilderness being bogged down with lots of earthly stuff, and I've given up many of the things that edify and challenge me most to focus on other areas.  It's been a bit like walking with your head turned in a different direction but I sense God is realigning things - raising the bar and calling me to a place where I can hear him very clearly and respond to His voice.  Sometimes I find I'm too tired to be bothered ... but most of the time I fear the Lord is going to give me a large boot in the rear end if I don't listen well!!

I will sing to the Lord a new song ... may it be a sweet sound to Him. 

Todd Bentley and Roy Fields

I've been watching Todd Bentley for 4 hours!  Several people have been commenting about him and what's happening in Lakeland, Florida.  It's awesome to watch so many people worshipping so freely in the Spirit and the worship leader, Roy Fields, is effortlessly anointed.  I wish I was there!

I met an old friend on Monday who was saying that her pastor has been over to Florida and was definitely affected by the powerful anointing of God. 

It's understandable that many may be sceptical and suspicious, particularly if they are not used to seeing God work in powerful ways.  However, we need to be expecting!  God is awesome and works in an awesome way today.  God's power was not just something we read of in ancient times ... it's for today, and it should be a normal part of Christian life.  The struggle between flesh and Spirit is very real.  It is easy for someone to think they are seeing with spiritual eyes when they are really still operating in the flesh, even when they love the Lord.  It takes much discipline and submitting to the Lord all that we are in order to train our spiritual antenna.

Messy Church - fresh ideas for building a Christ-centred community!

With lots of talk happening about the shape of church with words like emerging, fluid, organic, fresh expressions, etc, here's another to throw in to the mix.  It's called Messy Church and the pioneer of this new congregation in Portsmouth, aimed particulalry at reaching children and families, is Lucy Moore who has written 'Messy Church' the book: overflowing with creative ideas to draw the community together for fun, food, fellowship and worship, this resource book contains 15 themed programme outlines. Each outline has ideas for creative art and craft activities, meal plans and recipes for eating together and family-friendly worship.

Messy Church grew out of one church's desire to reach out to those on the fringes of the church community and experience the love of Christ through creativity, fellowship and worship together.  It is one church’s attempt to be church for families who might want to meet Jesus, belong to their local church and bring up their children as Christians but can’t cope with traditional Sunday morning church services. It’s a once-a-month time of creativity, worship and eating together. You may have seen it featured on the Fresh Expressions DVD expressions or read about it in the Barnabas book Messy Church . You may even have visited a Messy Church or started one up as part of your church’s ministry to families.

Have a look at some pictures of Messy Church in action and find out more about how and why it got started on the 'messy' website: www.messychurch.org.uk.

Worship in the faith community - family, individuals or what?

I'm just about to go back to work after mat leave and, having had a lot of conversations with children's ministers/workers and other church leaders lately about the difficulties in corporate worship times, I've been reflecting a great deal on the aims and difficulties of what we are about when we gather together - particularly where children are obviously present or obviously absent!  It seems that the gathering of God's people in a local church context, and what that means, is both becoming something of a task that is causing difficulties and a task that is raising lots of questions.  Essentially, it comes down to three things:

(1) 'What is our biblical understanding of the gathered community of faith?' (church with a small 'c', as opposed to the Church with a capital 'C' - the missiological community, which is by nature the invisible Church or scattered community = the 'being' of Church),
(2) 'How does this biblical revelation and subsequent theological conviction influence our practise in gathering together?' (since theology can't be theology unless it is actually reflected in our outworking = the 'doing' of church),
(3) As reflective practitioners, 'How do we reconcile the cultural differences, generational preferences and contexts of today to offer something that is appropriate to all ages as a gathered community?'  Should we be influenced by culture and allow it to shape our practise in contexts that are safe, meaningful, understandable, relevant, etc OR should we be counter-cultural and speak somewhat prophetically into the culture or context of society we find ourselves in to challenge and influence it's shape? 

Confused?  Who'd be a Children's Minister!!??!!

How we answer these questions will depend on our values, presuppositions, traditional influences, and hopefully mainly on our openness and convictions of the Holy Spirit as God speaks to us in our earnest seeking to answer these questions.  Practical issues and questions DO help to highlight the underpinning values, aims, etc, and bring them to the fore of the discussion - that's why they are issues in the first place.   

Rather than bore you with some practical issues within the debate, check out the discussion started by Rob Mason under the 'Living a life of Worship' category at He Must Increase .Com , the UK worship leader network, or visit the link from Children Matter! entitled Children, Family and Oldies.  It's all good stuff - praise God for the interest!!!  And thanks to all for the comments.