fw-blog

July has been a really busy month - we’ve had an event every weekend - Forest Hill CC on the 3rd, Kings Church Braintree on the 10th, Sidley on the 17th, our own Sports Event on the 24th and Croyland Family Fun Day on the 30th.

Normally, we try to plan the diary so we are only away from our home church once a month, so we aim for one Roadshow a month. For some reason (er, poor planning on my part) July was log-jammed with dates, but with hindsight, all of them were well worth doing!

We’re on holiday in August, and have kept September clear to compensate for July, so our next Roadshow is in October. Dates are starting to be firmed up for 2006, so if you are interested in a Roadshow or other event for your church, do get in touch.

Josie and I were really pleased to be involved again this year with the excellent “Family Fun Day” put on by Croyland Evangelical Church in Edmonton, north London. We were invited by our good friend, Pete Goldring, who worked for a couple of years with the youth in our church, and is much missed. (It’s such a shame that he left south London to move back to the foreign north - these Spurs fans have no discernment…)

Our main memory of last year’s event was torrential rain

Continue Reading “Roadshow Report - Croyland Family Fun Day, 30 July 2005″

Following the Sports event and guest service at the weekend, our church put on an “introduction to Alpha” evening tonight at Gino’s Restaurant in Catford. I went along to sing a couple of songs. Some visitors came, and with the full Alpha course starting on 22 September, it was an encouraging evening. Alpha has had such an amazing impact nationally and internationally, and it’s been great for our church too. I really enjoy Nicky Gumbel’s talks, and I’ve actually never attended a whole course, so maybe this time…

This article appeared in the Cross Rhythms magazine last year, and I have been meaning for ages to scan it and post it on the FW site, but as CR have now kindly published it online, that’s one less thing to do then!

My greatest heroes in life have always been people who are prepared to ask God where and how they should serve him, are prepared to listen to his answer, and finally (and it’s the last step where many of us fall down), to act on what they hear, and, where the answer calls for it, to go.

Whether it’s to a far flung country, a different place in the same country, or just down the road, all of those are part of fulfilling the great commission, and are equally valid. However, there is sometimes a much greater visible cost to those who do go to another country, whether as church or agency-sent missionaries, or working in a secular context but with a missionary heart and aim.

Continue Reading “Heroes - people who go”

Well, it was a score draw on the weather front - the rain held off on Saturday, which meant the Sports day could go ahead, which was a great success. But the heavens opened this morning, so the open air service we had planned in the same sports arena had to be moved inside. (I could have forgiven the rain if it had stayed all day and saved England’s humiliation in the first Ashes test)

This was the second year the church had put on a free community sports event (last year as part of the wonderful Soul in the City events) and as with last year, we joined with some other local churches to put on a really high quality, free, fun-packed family event. The Mayor of Lewisham, Steve Bullock (pictured with me and Sue), had described the event as “one of the the highlights of the summer”, and was kind enough to come along again to hand out prizes to the children who had won races.

Continue Reading “Sports Day report”

There’s a great Doug Horley song called “Any kind of weather” which I was humming the other day walking home. The clouds had started gathering and it looked like rain, and I was desperately hoping it would stay fine as it was Josie’s birthday and she was having a pool party. I walked past a couple of people chatting over the fence, and heard one say “I do hope it rains - the garden really needs it”. Made me smile and reminded me of the great scene in Bruce Almighty where Bruce decides to answer everyone’s prayers with a blanket “yes”, and total mayhem ensues…

Weather is on my mind again today as our church has a weekend of outdoor events - a sports evening tomorrow for the local community (around 700 people came last year) and an open air service on Sunday morning. We’re praying for good weather, and are hoping that not too many gardeners are praying for rain!

We’ve always been amazed by the popularity of the FW website (false modesty a speciality of mine!) and in recent months, the site hit a new high of over 50,000 unique visitors in a single month (March 05)

KesherSearch maintains a top 50 list of UK Christian sites, and the FW site first appeared at forty-something a couple of years ago, and has steadily climbed to now be in the top 10, currently at number 8.

Continue Reading “UK Top 50 Christian websites”

Reports are breaking this afternoon about more incidents on the London underground, and another bus, following the terrible attacks on July 7. Our eldest daughter was shopping in London at the time, and in the few minutes until we were able to get hold of her to confirm she was OK, it gave me a tiny glimpse of the sheer agony that family members and friends must have gone through on July 7 before they discovered that loved ones were killed or injured.

As a Londoner, I love my city very much, and know that Londoners and the millions of visitors to the city every year, will not be affected or put off in the long term by the senseless violence of a few extremists. In the meanwhile, we pray for the peace of the city…

This question is an old chestnut that I’ve considered many times over the past 12 years or so that I’ve been writing worship songs. It has generated endless debate among writers, churchgoers, and those in the worship music “industry”, and there are very strong feelings and opinions across the spectrum, for and against. To an extent, I’ve sat on the fence somewhat on the issue

Continue Reading “Should worship music be free?”