James Prescott

Jesus lasts

2010-11-23T19:47:00.001Z

Have you ever been doing something which you have deemed routine, normal, which you do all the time, and then completely out of the blue, a feeling, thought, insight has suddenly come over you which changed everything? Maybe it's just that I'm a deep thinker, but I get these things often. But I got one on Saturday which was truly life-changing, and opened my eyes to just what God's been doing with me.

I was walking through Sutton town centre, in the midst of Christmas shopping, with people everywhere with shopping bags full of presents, going in and out of shops, with offers all over the place for presents and decorations up, all fueling the consumer version of Christmas.

I felt sick.

I wrote a few weeks ago a blog post called 'Is this it?' and it was that thought going through my mind again. What I was seeing was all the evidence I needed of how much we need God, and that there must be something, somewhere, that is bigger and better than this. There has to be a bigger purpose and meaning to life than the consumer dream and dog-eat-dog, atheist, scientific, consumerist view of the world. (Even writing that sentence and re-reading it, it just looks inadequate and shallow, to be honest)

Before I had felt a kind of righteous anger at this, but now I'd moved on from that. It was much deeper than anger.

I actually felt God's heart for the people around me. It wasn't some holier than though, self-righteous, 'I'm better than you' religious idea or feeling. I can hardly preach to anyone else, because at times I've been part of this whole thing too and I'm in no way perfect or wiser than anyone else - as I will come on to in a minute. But I just felt sorry for people whose whole life revolves around money, possessions, relationships and 'things'. I was thinking that there is something much bigger going on, a bigger story they could be part of, a hope that is real and delivers - and none of them know it. I was thinking, if they only knew the hope and the reality of the Jesus I know, the God who invites us to join His story and who loves us all just as we are, their lives could be so much different. It fired me up again to make sure that I make the best use of what God’s given me to serve Him and serve His kingdom.

However, God wasn’t done with me. That was just the warm up. As I reflected on this I began to realise just how much I myself had been a part of this, even though I’d said I wasn’t. I realised this sadness I felt for others, was how God had felt about me sometimes even though I know there is something better. In a way, that’s worse, because I shouldn’t be orientating myself around these consumer dreams and values, I know there's a real hope that delivers and at times I've not given myself fully to it. I think I began to realise how much I had gone away from God in this area at times, how self-involved I was under the guise of wanting to do the right thing. I thought of all the prayers I'd prayed and how often I'd prayed for myself, for things I'd wanted or moaning about things I didn't have, in comparison to the time I'd prayed for others, how much confession I'd done and how much praise I'd given to God without condition.

I realised just how much at times I had allowed myself to drift away from God's heart and plan for me. I understood just how much fear there was and is in me. After all, fear is how our culture operates. Think about it. Most adverts on some level, most people trying to sell you something do it in a form of fear, trying to make you feel your life isn’t complete without their product. It’s how marketing works to a large degree, and I’d allowed that fear to run my life at times, instead of the fear of the Lord.

And there was other types of fear I’d allowed to get in the way.

I'm trying to pursue my writing and develop myself and invest in myself, so that I can become more like the man God made me to be and use what I have to serve others - which is a good thing. I've made a commitment to try and make Jesus the first in my heart - which is a good thing.

But I have realised how afraid those two things make me. Because they have compelled me to face up to reality, to expose myself to God and to the world, to take responsibility for my life and risk failure, embarrassment, and also making some decisions without knowing about how they are going to turn out. And in one sense, that's a great adventure and very exciting, and brings me closer to God.

In other ways, however, it's very scary, and it would be easy to walk away and go back into my comfort zone, immerse myself in the old consumer way of life which is a lot easier, and put my faith and hope in those things. But I can't now. I've seen how pointless - and, frankly, boring - that existence is, and I don't want to go back. I don't want a life without Him. My prayers now are beginning more with how much I need God, how afraid, vulnerable and weak I really am, how I want God to be the first and thanking Him for being with me. There's less asking for stuff now. I think there's a lot more fear of the Lord in my prayers than there ever has been.

I mean is life really all about just getting stuff to make us happy? Or getting a good feeling when we buy something? About achieving a certain status? About making money? About getting the right relationships and family life? Those things aren't bad in themselves, and it's good to pursue these things in one context. But if these are our whole lives, then we're not going to be truly fulfilled and satisfied. There's going to be something missing. And when things don't go our way, when things go wrong, when we struggle - and we will at some point - we will have nothing to sustain us, nothing to keep us going because the thing we put our hope in will have proven to be fallible. Relationships can fail. We can lose our jobs. We lose people. Reputations can fall as quickly as they rise. None of those things delivers all the time, and personally I believe that none of them ever completely satisfies even at the best of times.

I know that there's no way I can go forward without God in my life, without God at the centre. Nothing else makes sense without Him. He's the only hope we have. Not money, not status, not position, not relationships, not politicians. Jesus is the only hope we have, the only thing that makes sense of life.

And until we acknowledge and recognise that, there's always going to be something missing from our life. There might be things that can fill that hole temporarily or partially, but I'm here to tell you that they never really deliver. They never last. They always need replacing or let you down - and it's only as you distance yourself from them that you will see how pointless these things really are.

Jesus lasts. Jesus delivers. Jesus is what we need, and our lives will not be complete or fulfilled unless they are ordered around Him and His kingdom, and that's not just a one-off decision, it's a lifestyle decision, it's a decision to re-begin our lives, to start with Jesus and fit everything and everyone else around Him, not fit Jesus into everything else.

Otherwise, life is always going to be missing something.

Ultimately, there is something bigger and deeper here. The key to this is that Jesus has to be the beginning of our lives, the first in our lives. We need to stop and then reorder, restart our lives around and from Jesus and the cross. It has to all begin with Him and come from Him, otherwise life is never going to make any sense. The rhythm of our lives has to start with Him.

I will try to develop this idea a bit further in future blog posts - and maybe even my book - but for now, ask yourself these questions.

Are you missing something in your life?
What things are you using to try and make sense or worth of your life?
Do you know Jesus but are trying to fit Him into your life, rather than fit your life around Him?
How are you going to respond to Jesus?

Posted via email from James Prescott

Grace or merit?

2010-11-20T15:42:00.001Z

I don’t know about you, but I’ve often been in the habit a lot of the time that I have to live a certain way, that certain things are inevitable, that there’s a path before me that I can’t change and that no matter what we do, our lives our going down that path. For a long time I’d told myself the lie that my life is destined for failure & rejection. There was a time when I always thought that way, consciously, even when things were good.

No more.

Now I know different, I know the truth, I know that all of those things are lies.

God has been doing some amazing things in my life and changing me in recent years, that has dissipated, almost gone completely from the surface.

But of course, then something bad or unexpected happens, like the other day with me. Something sudden, unexpected and painful happened which disrupted the momentum I was on, which disrupted the way I’d organised and moved my life on and caused me much stress and frustration, and reminded me of my past which I’d moved on from so well.

It took a bit of time - a day or so - but eventually I succumbed to the old message my heart used to play. That all good things were just a lie and that God was just waiting to ruin my life, to cause me more pain and suffering, that there’s no good thing allowed in my life without me having to suffer at some point for it.

Sounds pathetic doesn’t it? Probably because it is.

I mean looking back I feel a complete fool for even thinking that or saying that outloud. But the truth is that God knew this was somewhere in me all along and still chose to bless me in all these ways I’ve been blessed - I mean, what an amazing God.

I mean that whole argument I was telling myself makes absolutely no sense. God loves me, Jesus died me, God has blessed me in so many ways in my life, and brought so many good things out of my suffering and grief, and given me so many gifts, so many opportunities and blessings. I am more blessed than a lot of people and have so much to be thankful for. I feel more alive in Jesus than I ever have been, I’m on a journey with Him where I don’t quite know will end, but I am kind of loving it and truly believe that however it turns out, God will use it for good. All that I absolutely believe and know to be true, all the way through to my heart.

But at the very end of my tether, when I had no energy left, no fight left, no mask on, I was totally broken, I realised there was still a very small part of me that simply wouldn’t trust God, that still believed that He has it in for me.

I am really thankful in this situation that I had a very good friend, who sat and listened to me talk about this on Skype for the best part of two hours and get all this out. But I am even more grateful for the next thing they did.

They pointed me to the Bible, to the promises of God. They reminded me of truths I already knew and believed that somehow had got lost in the panic and disruption of the previous day.

That God has good things for me - for us.

That He uses all things for good, no matter what.

That I’m His adopted son, I’m part of His family, and chosen and blessed by Him before time began. Fact.

In my weakness I began to claim these promises again, like it was the first time. Even though at first it was a struggle to believe them, but my friend didn’t give up on me. They kept challenging me ‘Do you really believe them?’ ‘What do they mean for you?’

The more I claimed these promises and started to reflect on them in my life, and interpret these promises for me, the stronger I felt, the more confident I felt that no matter what happened I could overcome this attack of the enemy. I was reminded of things I already knew, I felt I was being renewed, strengthened by the Spirit of God yet again, that yet again God was not giving up on me when things were difficult, that no matter how much a part of me tried to push Him away, He was having none of it.

Ever since then those verses have stuck in my mind, I haven’t forgotten them and I know they are true, no matter what life throws at me. I will always remember those verses and those truths, and that evening. It was a significant moment in my relationship with God. The truths I remembered that night were true, are true and will always be true, for me and for everyone.

And that’s the point.

This applies to us all.

C.S.Lewis once wrote about the idea that once you look at the evidence about Jesus, that you have to conclude that He was either mad, a liar or telling the truth, and once you eliminate the first two then the only conclusion you have left is that He was telling the truth.

One thing that always struck me about that idea and which this situation reminded me of again is that sometimes in our walk with Jesus we aren’t required to necessarily like the fact that He’s true and that the message of the gospel and the cross is true.

But it doesn’t change that it is.

We don’t have to always like the fact Jesus is true, no one has to like it. I don’t like that David Cameron is Prime Minister, for example, but it’s true so I just have to deal with it. It’s all part of relationship, which is what God really wants with us. There are times when the last thing we want to hear is a scripture quoted to us, and we’re disillusioned with God and doubting Him.

And we feel guilty for it, like we’ve done something wrong. Or we want God to go away and leave us alone.

But the reality is that this is all part of relationship. God understands that and fortunately for us He’s bigger than that.

He doesn’t give up on us. He knows this stuff is in our hearts even when we don’t, and He still chooses to bless us and love us. The honest truth is that God knew that I had these subconscious thoughts, that they were deep down there somewhere, even when I didn’t. But He allowed that difficult situation to expose them so that He could open my eyes to them and minister to them, and as I accepted again who He is, and looked again at some of His promises, some of those areas started to be healed and restored, and I developed new coping mechanisms, healthier ones, and was able to begin the process of replacing those old subconscious tapes of lies with new ones of truth - and now I can be more aware of those old tapes there and work with God to remove them.

This is all the process of relationship, it’s what we do in all relationships to a degree, you work through issues together and deal with them, and move forward. This is exactly what we can do with God, and yet again affirms the truth that God isn’t interested in a religious, legalistic faith all about rules, but about a relationship based on certain values.

The best thing of all, for me, is that God still loves us, forgives us, gives us opportunities and blessings, even when all along He sees those insecurities, fears and doubts that we don’t even think we have. He knows so much better than us, takes care of us and is always with us.

He has a rhythm for our lives, a plan that’s much bigger than we understand or know. He knows everything that’s going to happen, all the choices we will make and no matter what He is going to love us, bless us and be there for us.

I mean think of all the doubts, insecurities and fears you’ve had about things in your life, looking back at difficult times - or if you’re in difficult times now. The thing is you see that even in the so-called ‘good times’ those insecurities and doubts were still there, but we just couldn’t see them. God was blessing us, things were good, but He knew all those doubts and insecurities were there even then.

It’s easy in the merit-based culture we live in to think that when something bad happens we’re being punished for something, or that somehow we’re to blame for the bad thing that’s happened, or our doubts and insecurities which these difficult times expose are somehow the reason why the good times have stopped.

But that’s a lie. That’s the lie I think I believed for a long time.

That’s why grace is so scandalous and hard to accept, because this merit-based view of the world is so deeply ingrained in our culture. That’s why I’ve struggled to accept grace at times, because somewhere inside believed in that merit-based view of God for too long, and combined with a lack of self-esteem in my younger years it’s proved a deadly combination.

But a merit-based faith comes from a religious, legalistic view of God, and as I said, it’s a lie.

God wants relationship. He wants our hearts. He has a way He wants us to life, and the invitation is to join our lives to that story, that rhythm and reorder our lives and values around that. He loves and accepts us just as we are - but He loves us way too much for us to stay that way.

There is an invitation - to believe the scandal of grace, to join your life with God’s and let Him reshape you into the shape He originally had for you, and receive His unconditional love, grace and blessing.

Are you ready to accept that blessing?

Have you believed that you somehow have to earn God’s blessing?

Have you believed that bad things that have happened to you are somehow punishment from God, or that something has been denied you because of something you did?

How did you respond the last time something painful and unexpected happened?

Is your relationship with God based on grace, or merit?

Posted via email from James Prescott

God's Adventure

2010-11-18T18:06:00.001Z

I know that in the times we live in - the so called 'age of austerity' - where things are difficult financially, people are losing their jobs and there are cuts everywhere you look, that it's a difficult time to be optimistic and feel alive. Or so it would seem anyway.

But I don't know about you, but I'm feeling alive right now. Really, truly alive

Some things have happened to me recently which have made me feel alive more than ever. Or more accurately, I've made some choices recently which have resulted in me feeling more alive. I’m an optimist my inclination, but I feel even more positive about myself and what God’s doing in me than normal right now, largely down to these choices I’ve made.

I've invested in some personal coaching which is bearing fruit in ways I never expected with someone who has been a great encouragement, blessing and support to me, even friend (you know who you are, thank you so much!), I've got accountability with someone for decisions about my faith and life, I've started thinking practically about what God might be wanting me to do and taken the first tentative steps in following those things through.

You may already have noticed some changes here. My name at the top, the info bar at the side being about me and a more prominent picture of me. Now that's not because I'm vain (anyone who knows me knows that's the biggest joke ever) or I want glory or status for myself, but because I've realised to take the next step in my discipleship/development, and in particular in my writing, my name needs to be out there a lot more. Eventually I'll be taking the 'Evolving Church' name off the blog completely - although that's still an idea and concept I'm passionate about and would like to explore further at some point. But one 'evolutionary' step I think I need to take is moving this blog and my internet presence to being more broadly focussed on what God is doing and saying in my life as a whole, rather than continually funneling it through the idea of Evolving Church. It gives me a lot greater freedom of expression in what I write, so that's what I'll be moving to in future.

I'm writing this post partially to keep you guys (and gals) in the loop as to what's happening, but also because this whole process is something I want you to be part of and want to share with you. The way I write has always been pretty open, and I've always tried to take experiences, reflections and lessons from my own life and share and relate them to us all, and that's what I'll continue to do.

What's happening now really feels like an adventure with God. A few weeks back God really challenged me about putting Him as the first in my heart - above career, above relationships, above everything - and I took the decision to pursue that. That doesn't mean I instantly had total faith in God and put Him first naturally in everything, and didn't make me some sort of 'super Christian' straightaway.

But I'd made a choice. A choice I have had to keep making every day since, despite considerable temptation. To be honest, sometimes I've failed, like when I bought a DVD the other day despite a part of me - the God part - telling me not to and that I didn't need it. I realised then how far I still have to go, and was reminded that I'll never stop growing and learning - and failing - but that actually the whole thing is a process which I'm constantly going through and part of.

That's one of the main reasons why the religious idea of God makes less and less sense to me. Religion is about following rules, about meeting a set standard and when you get there you get some kind of blessing and reward, it's about fitting within some set rules and regulations, it's not liberating, it actually holds you back. Certainly in my experience of more ‘religious’ versions of the Christian faith, that’s the impression that’s been given, and how I’ve been left feeling.

And it doesn't involve relationship at any level - nor does it necessarily require it. I didn’t even know you could have personal relationship with God one a one-to-one level until I went to university. I mean, I prayed a lot on my own before then, but it always felt like God spoke to people mainly in a corporate way rather than individually. I never really knew He could at that point.

I think sometimes the religious view of God is a lot easier for us though, because it fits more with the type of life we are used to - a set of rules the we adhere to, and then reward for doing the right thing. That’s the culture and mentality we’re brought up in and which is ingrained to us almost from birth. On top of this, this kind of faith is one that's very easy to tag on to a consumer lifestyle, to be our 'thing', something we do once or twice a week, almost like a hobby. Faith can be a lot easier to view that way, and is often communicated or perceived that way, amongst many 'organised religions'.

But this is the thing. Jesus wants relationship, and the key thing about relationship is that it's two way. It involves active participation and co-operation on our part.

God in Jesus has extended His hands out to us through the cross. He is ready to meet with us, to know us and be known more by us, to interact with us and show us who we really are, and our role in the restoration of all things, our role in bringing heaven and earth back together again. To see God's kingdom here, now - not somewhere else, someday. But here, now, alive and active and growing. He wants us to go on an adventure with Him

But to do that involves our participation. It involves us making choices to be intentional about our faith, to put Jesus first in our hearts above literally everything and everyone, and submitting to Him, and committing to choosing that every day. God doesn't expect us to get it right all the time, but if we are being intentional then we will be more aware of when and where we don't get it right, and be more able to deal with it, because we'll be more in tune with what God is doing and wants to do.

Life won't ever be boring, that's for sure. I know my life doesn't feel boring anymore. I'm not claiming to have it all together, to have nailed it, to have all the answers or that I always get it right. I don't claim this attitude will solve all your problems either.

There will still be pain.

There will still be hard times.

Your life won’t always be simple. In fact, it may be even more difficult at times. It might even seem mundane sometimes - once the romance fades and we need to push on through (I still have that to come...) but we need to persevere in those times, because its through those times that we really grow. When we’ve gone through our Friday and come into Sunday (I will talk more about this in another blog...), then the joy, the good times, feel more precious, more joyful.

I know from experience life is not always going to be easy or ideal, no matter how good things are.

But I do know that since living this way, I've felt more alive than ever - and I don't want to go back to how things were, even though things were a lot safer before.

That's the adventure of God, the adventure of discipleship. That's the invitation God extends to all of us.

There’s a video below of a song by the band ‘Angels & Airwaves’ (if you’ve not heard of them, they rock) called ‘The Adventure’. It’s on a very epic scale, almost ‘Star Wars’-esque in it’s style, and for me it’s really powerful. It hints at there being a bigger story going on, an adventure for us all, one that we’re not meant to do alone. It inspires me certainly. I mean do you ever get a tingling down your spine when you see things like this, the fleeting thought that your life was meant for something bigger? I always do when I see things like this or any great film about destiny or identity - like The Matrix, Dead Poets Society and others.

I think that tingling feeling we get, that dream of something bigger, is from God. It’s God telling us somehow that our lives do have purpose, meaning, that’s bigger than just being part of the consumer life and tagging Jesus on to it.

God is looking for participants, co-conspirators in remaking creation and bringing heaven back to earth, He’s looking for partners, He’s looking for disciples. He wants relationship, He wants our hearts.

The song says ‘I cannot live, I cannot breathe unless you do this with me’. That could well be speaking about a dependence we need to have on God. But it speaks to me about God desiring desperately to have relationship with us, for us to engage with Him and be part of His plan, to join His adventure, to join ourselves to His story. He doesn’t want to do it without us.

Watch the video, and listen to the song. As you do, reflect on these questions.

Are you ready to embrace a bigger vision & dream for your life?

Are you ready to put Jesus first in your heart?

Do you want a life of adventure?

Above all, are you willing to join your story to God’s story, and go on the adventure of your life?

Posted via email from James Prescott

Control

2010-11-15T18:47:00.001Z

Today I bought a new album (which shall remain nameless, though as it came out today that narrows it down considerably, especially for those who know me) and as I purchased it in the shop I suddenly had this thought come over me, which has come over me a lot more often recently.

‘Do I need this?’

‘Why did I buy this?’

Now to be fair it’s a great album and one I’ve been planning to buy for a while by one of my favourite bands, it wasn’t that expensive and will get a lot of use. But that wasn’t the point.

Me being a deep thinker, these two thoughts very quickly went beyond the superficial and into why any of us buy anything, why we have possessions, why they are so important to us, and my eyes began to open.

It’s all about control.

When we buy something, we gain control over it. We gain the right of possession, we can do what we like, when we like, how we like with what we have bought without consequence (as long as its legal of course). But there is a feeling, an emotion, a sense of satisfaction we feel inside when we buy something we really want.

All of us feel it, no matter how much we deny it. It’s almost ingrained into us. This feeling of self-satisfaction and happiness. But it’s not just happiness we feel. It’s power.

Buying something and possessing us gives us power - and the more we possess, the more powerful we feel, the more control we feel like we have, the more independence we feel like we have.

But that feeling good about being independent is rooted in a lack of trust in anything and anyone else. It’s rooted in the consumer, dog-eat-dog mentality which says you can’t trust anyone else, that ultimately it’s all down to you to do what’s best for you and don’t dare trust anyone else, because all they will do is hurt you, take advantage of you and bring you down. In fact, it also can say that it’s better someone else gets hurt than you, try to avoid suffering and getting tied down as much as possible, and if you’re “foolish” enough to get tied down in a relationship there’s always the get out clause of divorce or selling the flat you bought together.

That’s the so called ‘consumer dream’ that we are sold from the minute we’re born. Apparently this is the key to happiness, this is what will give us most satisfaction and joy, it’s the only thing we can put our faith in - ultimately, ourselves. Of course, we love it, because it makes us gods.

And that can feel good. When things are good and we’re doing well, anyway.

The problem is that this idea only works for a few. It never works for everyone. The majority end up suffering - in fact, the reality is we all suffer, and because the consumer dream is all about feeling good, which never really delivers long-term, when we don’t then we deal with it very badly, and because our whole rhythm of life is geared towards achieving that dream we hardly have any space, any rest, any peace, and we don’t have community to support and encourage us at the difficult times, unless we are lucky enough to have grown up in a stable, happy family which is still together.

I experienced again today just how hard it is to be a Christ-follower in a consumer world and just how ingrained this consumer culture is into our thinking, feeling and routine.

I’m trying to be a disciple of Jesus, trying to have Jesus first in my heart, to worship Jesus not possessions and take joy from giving and serving, not taking and receiving. Jesus words about the road being narrow took on even more significance today, and there was something even more profound that I began to understand.

That being a disciple of Jesus is not something you can fit in to your ‘normal’ life. It’s not something to fit into your life.

It has to be the rhythm, the heartbeat, the soundtrack to your life. It has to be before anything. You have to retrain yourself to think, live and act like Jesus right from your very core, deep in your heart, in your subconscious.

We almost have to go back to the beginning, and start again. Retrain ourselves to think, act, live and breathe differently. So that we see everything - money, possessions, food, work, everything - in the light and context of Jesus, and those things, if we have them (and they aren’t evil in themselves), are merely a part of a life ordered around Jesus’ agenda and values. Enjoy these things in proper perspective, and be willing to let them go, for the sake of God.

Ultimately, the Jesus way is the total opposite. It’s surrendering control. It’s letting God take control of your life - not absolving responsibility, but being willing to take responsibility and make decisions in obedience to the way and calling of Jesus. It’s essentially saying that your life, and your body, and your gifts - which are ultimately from God anyway - now are no longer yours but His, to be used as He chooses for His purposes and cause. Our pastor put it brilliantly once, to be ‘change in Jesus pocket’. To make ourselves totally available for His kingdom and glory.

This is easy to say - not so easy to live, and its something I (and all of us) need to think about and spend a lot of time reflecting and meditating on, before taking some action. There are several communities in the US and UK who are trying to live out these values as community, and although I’m not saying all of us should do that (ideally maybe, practically, very difficult), I think they deserve greater examination and consideration, both in this and in the context of looking at Sabbath and rhythms of life.

Church is people you see. It’s a group of Christ-followers working together for the good of the kingdom, through serving their own community and the wider community, and through serving and loving each other, discipling each other, praying and worshipping together and being taught about how to be and bring Jesus into their everyday. At it’s best it provides a network of support in times of need and a place to celebrate in times of joy, and can be the centre of it’s local community. At it’s best, everyone in a church would be pursuing this Christ-like life, trying to be a real disciple. When you see that practiced in community, it is an incredible thing, a real blessing. That’s something we can all be aspiring to.

And it ultimately can only come if we’re willing to give up control and build God’s kingdom.

It’s amazing how far you can go from simply buying a CD isn’t it? Looks like I’m making some Progress...

Posted via email from James Prescott

The Most Honest You Can Be

2010-11-12T16:04:00.001Z

Have you ever heard someone say something about you, and the instant you heard it, it made sense?

Like it ticked a box, you connected with it in some deep divine kind of way, almost like you always knew this thing about yourself, or had felt it on some level, but someone saying it had merely confirmed it or vocalised it for the first time? You may even have thought this thing about yourself, but had either been too afraid or unwilling to admit it.

That happened to me the other day.

As part of my discipleship and growth I have booked myself in for some Skype coaching sessions with a well-known worship leader, someone with experience in ‘full-time ministry’ (though I dislike that phrase, as we all are one way or another) and who has studied theology and reflection at length, someone who can sharpen me, challenge me, and push me and move me on in my walk with Jesus and indeed in my writing.

For a while I’ve been trying to figure out my own distinct voice, my own message, my own style. I’ve known that although I’m pretty clever I’m not an academic in the traditional sense, however at the same time I’m passionate about church, theology & discipleship as well creativity, especially writing/speaking and video/audio communication. I’ve modelled a lot of what I do on people like Rob Bell, Brian McClaren and my own pastor Jason Clark.

I was talking about my style with this worship leader/coach and having read a lot of my blog and heard my story they suggested one other person - of whom I’m also a big fan - who my style closely matched and seemed to fit with. Donald Miller.

Now Don Miller is my favourite author outside the Bible. Rob Bell is a great speaker/author/communicator, but as a pure author Don Miller is supreme (and he’d probably be the last person to say it). I recommend his books to pretty much everyone I meet, especially his most recent, ‘A Million Miles in a Thousand Years’, about the concept of story in our lives (a book I read at least twice a year now, if not more). So to have someone say my style was similar to his and that these were the kind of books I should be writing, was encouraging to say the least.

But unlike the others, I’d not tried at any point in the past to be like him. I’d not copied him. Although I’d learned from the others, I’d essentially been me, and when I let me come out, then something a lot better emerged. Something similar to someone else entirely but something that was different.

It was me.

That’s thing this whole process opened my eyes to, simply that despite how similiar in style what I create might be to someone else’s work, whoever it is, it’s going to be different.

It’s going to be mine. It’s going to be me.

I mean I’m passionate about things that Don Miller isn’t maybe as much, I have experiences he hasn’t had, I have a different story to tell. The same with Rob Bell, Jason Clark and any others you may mention. I have a different story to tell than any of them and my work is going to be different to all of theirs - although their styles might have had some influence on mine, the work that I produce is still essentially going to be mine, and I don’t have to pretend to be anyone else or subconciously mimic anyone else, I just have to be me.

It’s a scary thing actually, being you, baring your soul - as someone who writes, I know this and I’m sure it’s true with anyone who creates. It’s almost like baring your entire soul in public, when you give out something of yourself you’re exposing yourself a little.

Almost like being completely, stark

naked.

We don’t like that word do we? Naked. It makes us feel uncomfortable even reading it on a page, yet alone saying it. In fact I wasn't allowed to use it in the title of this post, that's how faux paux it is nowadays. But it’s not a rude word as far as I can see though. It’s merely a statement of something, which can imply something else.

But this word has endless connotations, which go way beyond the physical. Being naked is exposing the deepest, darkest, most honest places of your soul to the outside world. Showing people the things you don’t want them to see, that you try to hide. Things that only you (and God) know.

But sometimes, it’s the only way we can be really ourselves isn’t it?

We get so conditioned by the world to act, live and think a certain way, that everything can become a show for someone and we don’t even realise it. Sometimes it’s only when we go to bed on our own - which of course some people often do physically naked - that this comes off, and we say our most honest prayers, think our most honest thoughts, and feel the most honest.

God sees this part of us all the time. He knows it better than we do. He sees this all the time, and nothing we do can hide it from Him.

But there is a message hidden in Genesis. Before humans rejected God, they were ‘naked and felt no shame’. I think we often miss the meaning there. It wasn’t just that they were physically naked and felt no shame, but that they were completely themselves, in the way God originally planned them to be, living in total harmony with God. To me the story says that when we’re in that condition

there is nothing to be afraid of

nothing to hide

nothing to divide us or come between us

In many ways, God wants us to be naked with Him. Divinely naked.

He can already see our naked souls - but He want us to expose ourselves to Him so that He can show us who we really are, and heal the scars and wounds that we might find, and heal the division between us.

God wants us to be divinely naked. Right now.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Divinely Naked

2010-11-12T15:33:00.001Z

Have you ever heard someone say something about you, and the instant you heard it, it made sense?

That happened to me the other day.

It was me.

That’s thing this whole process opened my eyes to, simply that despite how similiar in style what I create might be to someone else’s work, whoever it is, it’s going to be different.

It’s going to be mine. It’s going to be me.

Almost like being completely, stark

naked.

We don’t like that word do we? Naked. It makes us feel uncomfortable even reading it on a page, yet alone saying it. It’s not a rude word as far as I can see though. It’s merely a statement of something, which can imply something else. I almost didn't use it in the title of this post, but to me it expresses most the message I really want to convey here.

But when you look at it's core meaning and examine it, this word has endless connotations, which go way beyond the physical. It's almost a divine word in a sense. Being naked is exposing the deepest, darkest, most honest places of your soul to the outside world. Showing people the things you don’t want them to see, that you try to hide. Things that only you (and God) know.

But sometimes, it’s the only way we can be really ourselves isn’t it?

God sees this part of us all the time. He knows it better than we do. He sees this all the time, and nothing we do can hide it from Him.

there is nothing to be afraid of

nothing to hide

nothing to divide us or come between us

In many ways, God wants us to be naked with Him. Divinely naked.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Giving thanks while the goings good

2010-11-10T20:29:00.001Z

Many of you who've read this blog know my story, and it's not a pretty one. I say this not to gain pity or sympathy - I request nor require either - but merely to state the facts. My life hasn't been easy at times, especially my teenage years and early twenties, and for a long time I lived in the after-effects of that, and that suffering had a big role to play in shaping who I am now.

That's what suffering does.

It changes us.

It shapes us.

I realise now a lot of the anger that has driven me in recent years in making many changes in my life, and indeed in my writing, has come from anger I felt at this and other things I lacked in my life, and a sense of feeling second best to everyone. That God was able to use that and redeem it is indeed a miracle - especially as I thought that anger was merely a 'righteous anger'. It shows that with God, everything truly is redeemable.

Now my problem is slightly different. It's a common known fact that as soon as things start to go really well, on a very subconscious level we can start to drift from God. I mean when things are bad its very easy both to blame God and/or turn to Him for help - its very natural to do that, its how things were meant to be all along. The thing is, we’re meant to rely on God as much when things are good, when things are easy, as we do when they’re at their worst.

But of course, we don’t. If we’re successful, we can easily start to take credit for it ourselves, think its all down to us, or at best shove God to the side a little - and of course when you do that you're just asking for trouble. It happens in scripture all the time , and a big clue to the consequences (and a good way to find it) is that not long after it usually says 'Yet again they [usually the Israelites] did evil in the eyes of the Lord' (If I had a tenner for every time it said that in scripture, I'd have a lot of money….).

I never wanted to be the kind of person who 'yet again did evil in the eyes of the Lord'. I mean every time I read that phrase I was thinking how dumb they were, and I was saying in my prayers how I would never do that.

But then I stopped and thought something.

I do ‘do evil in the eyes of the Lord’. Often. We all do. If had a tenner for every time I'D done evil in the eyes of the Lord, I'd be even richer than I would for the times in the Bible, that's the truth of it. Again, we all would.

We are just lucky enough to have Jesus and the cross to pay the price for all our mistakes, so God doesn't have to talk about all the time we do evil in His eyes.

Which brings me back to my point. When things are going well, it's really easy to get complacent. It's harder to motivate yourself. The anger that drives me now needs to be divine anger, anger at things which really matter, and if I'm not angry about issues that matter, issues that God is concerned about, then I should be. I should be driven by a deep desire to serve God, please Him and build His kingdom.

In ‘The War of Art’ Steven Pressfield says that many writers are afraid, but not of failure, but of success. If they are success then they have to live up to what they’ve written, they have to live a certain way, they can’t hide anymore. Their character will be exposed and under public examination. He’s right too, the media do this all the time with public figures, we’ve all seen it.

I don't want to get complacent. I don't want anything to divert me from my cause. God has put me here and kept me here for a reason, and I want to serve Him and build His kingdom in whatever way He's got planned for me. Whether things are good or bad in my own life, that's almost irrelevant.

God is what matters in the end. His kingdom, His glory. That all good things, anything good in my life, is from Him and belongs to Him.

I want to give Him glory and honour Him rightly when things are good, not just when things are difficult. Its must less natural to give God praise, honour and glory when things are good, especially in the culture we live in which is all about, well, us.

How counter-cultural and how much of a witness would it be if the first thing we do in the time of our greatest success was give credit where its really due - not in a false kind of way, to attract attention to ourselves. But to do it in a way which says that this isn’t about us, a way which sees all our achievements for what they really are - a correct stewarding of God’s gift to us, channelling what God has given us into serving His people and building His kingdom.

It’s so hard to do - and that’s why it’s so important.

What was your instinctive, first, gut reaction the last time you achieved something and were successful?

When was the real happiest moment of your life, and do you remember how you felt when that happened?

Was God anywhere in your reaction?

Why do you think you reacted like you did, and what can you change next time to make sure your reaction is honouring to God?

Posted via email from James Prescott

Embrace blessing, put Jesus first

2010-11-06T08:04:00.001Z

I don’t often comment on specific Bible passages, but this one has really stood out for me this week. Check this passage out:

“Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then,who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7 v9-11)

I don’t know about you, but I have struggled a lot with this verse.

I mean, have you ever struggled with God giving you good things? Or have you ever felt guilty when God’s blessed you in an amazing way, when grace has been extended to you, whether directly from God or through someone else?

I know I do.

This last year or so I have been so blessed. God has given me so many good things, I don’t have too much to complain about. But sometimes its hard to believe these things are really real, or to truly embrace them, because we think we’re not meant to.

I mean aren’t we meant to be serving, giving, making sacrifices for God? Denying ourselves and taking up our cross? Forgetting our own desires and pursuing His?

Well, yes, in one sense we are, and in the Bible it does mention this.

But that is often misinterpreted to mean that God doesn’t want us to enjoy the good things He gives us and the opportunities and blessings He puts in front of us.

God wants us to have fun.

God wants to bless us - and that blessing doesn’t come from anything we’ve earned, it comes because of the grace and love of God.

But by the same token, God doesn’t just want us to be happy. Happiness is an emotion which quickly comes and goes, and our culture encourages us to pursue this. But because its so hard to attain and it doesn’t last, we have to keep going, keep striving, to pursue it - and that’s exhausting & ultimately unfulfilling.

I think God wants us to embrace the blessings we have - but that He wants us to see them as blessings, not as ends in themselves. He wants us to enjoy His blessings but He wants us to be willing to sacrifice them if He wants us to.

He wants to be the first in our heart.

You see when we put God first in our heart its much easier to enjoy all the blessings God puts in front of us. Because we know these are not ends in themselves, they aren’t the things we’re putting our hope and faith in.

I know its been much easier for me to enjoy the good things God has given me when I know that they all come second to God. But even now, I struggle to accept when the most amazing blessings come my way, because I think that God can’t want me to have them.

I can instinctively think

“What did I do to deserve this?”

“Why are you giving me this?”

“What’s the catch?”

When often there isn’t one. God just loves giving out, He loves blessing us, because He loves us. What I am learning is that I have to embrace these blessings, because if I don’t it’s almost akin to not trusting God. It’s like I’m taking something He’s given me and throwing it away, it’s kinda ungrateful.

But as I have said, I’ve only started to learn this once I started putting God first in my heart. When everything begins and ends with God, and everything is from Him and for Him, then when good things happen, and you know they are from God, then it becomes much easier to embrace them. Often we can over spiritualise things, and even use God as an excuse not to enjoy the blessings He gives us, because we think we shouldn’t enjoy blessing, because it means we’re not taking our faith seriously. But I think that as long as we put the blessings in their proper perspective - second to God - then enjoying the blessings that are put in our path is very much taking our faith seriously.

I don’t know about you, but growing up in the church I somehow got indoctrinated into this idea that having fun is a sin.

But that’s not true.

Making fun your entire life, and worshipping it, and putting it above God, that’s the sin. I mean, look at how many weddings and parties Jesus went to, I mean He liked to enjoy life.

But it was always second to God for Him. We need to take the opportunities put in front of us, recognise them and embrace them.

Here’s a clip from ‘Dead Poets Society’ (great film, if you’ve not seen it, make sure you do soon), which makes my point well:

Now of course, this doesn’t talk about God, but it makes an important point.

Seize the day.

Make your lives extrodinary.

We need to embrace the oppotunities and blessings God puts into our lives, we need to step out and take risks for God and allow ourselves to experience things. Life isn’t all about theory. James said that faith without action is dead, and that doesn’t just mean that we have to live out our faith through service & lifestyle - though it does mean that - it means that we need to step out and embrace what God is doing in our lives, and in relation to the verse above, to enjoy the blessings God gives us.

Now of course, there are other meanings and interpretations of this verse, and many of them are equally as meaningful.

We need to know & trust that God isn’t going to give us blessings that take Him away from us, and sometimes He opens doors to blessing and He just wants us to walk through them, to seize the day.

I think part of the journey of faith we are all on, part of the invitation of Christ, is exactly what Robin Williams says:

Seize the day.

Make your lives extraordinary.

Embrace what God has for you, take the opportunities He gives us, enjoy His blessing, and do it all in the light of Him - putting Him first above all things, seeing everything as a blessing from Him and in the light of who He is. Realise that God has extraordinary things in store for us, and part of that is embracing the blessings that He has for us.

I think these two quotes have much more to say to us as Jesus followers than we realise. It’s something maybe I will explore in the coming weeks.

But for now, know that God does give us good things, and He wants us to embrace them and enjoy them - in the proper context, in light of Him, as coming from Him, as blessings from Him, all second in importance to Him.

Then, we might really experience the blessing of God in a way we’ve not done before.

Posted via email from James Prescott

All Saints Day - Remembrance, encouragement and challenge

2010-10-30T12:11:00.001+01:00

This weekend its Halloween, as I’m sure many of you know. Time for dressing up, trick or treating, having parties and watching scary films. To be honest, I’ve never really seen the point in Halloween. I guess, being a church-goer my whole life, its never really meant anything to me.

But then I found out the real meaning of this day.

It’s All Saints Day.

All Saints Day has been celebrated for centuries. Its a day when, essentially, Christians remember all of those who have gone before. Now it would be easy to say its all about those who we would traditionally call ‘saints’ - St Peter, St Paul, and modern ‘official’ saints like the last Pope and Mother Theresa.

We get those people being called saints don’t we? After the lives they led, what they endured for their faith, the sacrifices they made and devotion to God, they somehow seem to ‘deserve’ that status don’t they?

Well at least, that’s the general understanding of it.

The problem with this understanding is that it implies that somehow God loves and blesses these people more than He does everyone else. That there’s this scale with God, this measure of how worthy you are of His blessing, and that only special people get this blessing.

Its kind of like saying some people are specially qualified for God’s special blessing.

Now I’m not for one minute saying that the people I’ve mentioned aren’t outstanding examples of disciples of Jesus. They are all great role models for us, they have all shaped our faith in one way or another, they show us what is possible and their example challenges us to live a more Christ-like life - or it should.

It’s important that we take time out to remember these kind of people, to remember the freedoms they fought for that allow us to express our faith openly and freely in this country without persecution, the people who gave their lives to bring the message of Jesus to the world, those who carried on this message despite enduring immense persecution and suffering.

Its absolutely right that we remember and give thanks for those people.

What I am saying though is that calling some people saints and saying others aren’t isn’t actually accurate. In fact, its an absolving of responsibility.

The truth is that anyone who calls themselves a follower of Jesus is in fact a saint.

That’s right, we are all saints.

God’s blessing, invitation and love aren’t just available for special people. It’s not just special people who are able to be used by God.

God’s blessing, His love, His invitation and His call are for all of us.

All of us are welcome, no matter who we are, what we’ve done, what we have or haven’t achieved, no matter what our status or wealth.

We are all welcome.

The invitation to be saints is one for us all.

But there is a challenge here too.

Being a saint isn’t just about believing. Its about being a disciple, a true follower of Jesus, its about living the life that God calls us to, ordering our lives around the way of Jesus. Beginning everything with Jesus and ordering everything else around that, building our whole lifestyle around that.

It’s about being Jesus to those around us.

God isn’t calling all of us to be missionaries, and not everyone is going to be Pope or Mother Theresa.

But God isn’t asking that of us. Let me explain.

How many of you have had people in your life who have, at a moment where you’ve been confused, lost, struggling, had someone speak some truth, love or encouragement in your life? Or someone who when you were seeking, or when you were feeling lost and abandoned came alongside you and loved you? How many of you remember the person who talked to you about Jesus or invited you to church for the first time?

Not a leader, not someone up front. But someone in the background, someone who maybe you haven’t really spoken to for a long time or you don’t really remember too much about, but you remember what they did?

There are many people like that. I’ve heard stories of people who have took time out to speak to people I know at the back of church sitting on their own, and they came back, became Christians and gone on to do amazing things for God in their lives since, which have impacted hundreds of people for Jesus.

But none of that would have happened without that person who spoke to them at the back one evening.

It wouldn’t have happened without that person accepting the call of Jesus to be like Him.

You see, that’s being a saint just as much as living a life like Mother Theresa’s. Doing something small for someone to help them when they need it, doing something good for someone without them, without anyone, even knowing it.

That’s being a saint too. That’s something we can all do. Furthermore, its something Jesus challenges us all to do, and wants us to do.

Being a saint is about being human in the way we were originally made to be, about living the way of Jesus in our everyday, with the people around us, both in the small things and the big things, both in our church context and out.

Now, in reality, we don’t get it right all the time. We all make mistakes, we all don’t do things we should do or do things we shouldn’t do, no matter how mature a faith we have.

However, God isn’t expecting us to get it right all the time.

It’s our hearts God wants. He wants us to be seeking, hungering and thirsting to be more like Him, to be true disciples, to follow Him and become more like Him. If we’re doing that, then even if we screw up, we are still headed in the right direction.

In reality, God loves us all the same, even if we’re not seeking Him. He loves the people who don’t know Him at all just the same as He does those who have been Christians their entire lives, and His grace and blessing is available to all of us equally.

So if we do screw up, God isn’t suddenly going to stop blessing us. That idea is based on this conditional blessing, which comes from a view of the world where you have to earn everything, where everything has to be deserved.

That is totally contrary to grace.

Grace is getting something we don’t deserve. Its available to all of us.

That’s why jealousy is so contrary to the way of Jesus, because it comes from a merit-based view of God, and God isn’t like that. God has grace, for all of us.

Which brings me back to my point. That although there is a challenge for us all to be saints, all to be disciples, all to live a Christ-centred life, that if we get it wrong on occasion God isn’t going to punish us, or condemn us, or stop loving or blessing us. We can trust that His love, forgiveness and grace is sufficient, no matter how much we screw up.

So on All Saints Day, don’t just remember the well-known saints, remember and be thankful for all those people who’ve been Jesus to you, in the subtle, little ways. The people who’ve made a big difference in your life through what they’ve said or done for you, how they’ve loved and served you.

Recognise that you are a saint, that all of us are saints, but that the call to us as saints is to be saints to those around us.

The challenge of All Saints Day is for us to try to be Jesus to all of those around us, both in the big things and the small things, in the choices we make, in how we treat people. To be true disciples of Jesus - knowing that even if we don’t get it right all the time, that we are still loved, accepted and welcomed by God just as we are.

All Saints Day is a day to celebrate the saints that have gone before, be encouraged that no matter who we are or what we’ve done or how many times we screw up, that the invitation to be a saint is open to us all, and to accept the challenge to be a disciple of Jesus.

In one sense, the entire Christian faith summed up in one Christian festival.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Time out with God

2010-10-26T21:13:00.001+01:00

Tonight I’ve had a little time on my own with God, reflecting, listening, worshipping and thinking about what He wants for me and what’s next in my life. I think its always good to do these once in a while, to reassess what God wants in my life and what His priorities and plans for me are.

It’s been great just to get some down time with God and to really take stock of where I am, where I’m going and what I’m doing and map out - in pencil, because making too many plans of our own as a Christian isn’t really a good idea - what I’m going to be doing in the next few months, how I’m going to grow, what I want to achieve and how I’m going to do that.

Inevitably some of that involves this blog. This is a big part of how I express my faith, and I love the evolving church title and concept, because for me it represents so much of how I view my faith. Its always changing & adapting to new circumstances, maturing, growing and essentially evolving, though it never loses its heart, its essential DNA.

But one thing I think I’m really passionate about is being authentic, being true and honest with myself, with others and in how I live out and express my faith. I think I’ve tried to do that with this blog but I think there’s an area in my writing where I really need to allow myself more freedom, allow myself to be more honest and at the same time go deeper theologically. I’m passionate about communicating in a way people can connect with and which isn’t bound up with religious or jargon-based language, a way that’s accessible to more people, which can explain complex ideas simply and faithfully. I also want to do this in as creative a way as possible, not for the sake of it, but really when I have a message communicating it in a way which suits the message, and not being afraid to try different things.

So hopefully over the next few months I’ll be able to explore some of these things, and hopefully develop and mature in my writing but also try to be more authentic and honest about what God has been doing in me and how that’s changing me

I always get excited when God starts to speak fresh words to me, and gives me more things to share and ideas to express, and I already have some ideas that I’m looking forward to sharing with you.

I think too that part of that may be changing the look of the site, so I’m now looking at templates with a view to changing the view of the site. I actually like the one I have, but it feels like it might be time to freshen things up a bit, and so I’m going to take some time and have a ponder on it - it may be God tells me simply to stick with this, but I really sense that it might be a good time to change it.

Feel free to let me know your thoughts or suggestions on this, it would be great to hear them.

One thing I would encourage you all in though is to make sure that you’re taking time out with God, and really evaluating where you are, what your gifts are and what God is leading you towards in the next stage of your life. Spend time listening to Him, and reflecting on what you hear, and make some decisions. It makes a world of difference and really helps focus your mind and your heart on where you going. It allows you to say no to certain things, and to make decisions to go for it in areas that you might not have done before.

It can be a scary thing to do, but God tells us not to be afraid. We can trust Him and He is faithful, and always has our best at heart. When you get that clarity from God on these things in your life, it refreshes your soul, it gives you new energy and focus, it really is life-changing.

Don’t be afraid. Go for it with God, He’s waiting for you to engage with Him.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Know your Sabbath, know yourself

2010-10-16T13:32:00.001+01:00

I watched the film ‘The Social Network’ last night, a film which tells the story of the early years of Facebook, how and why it came about and how as things developed it affected the relationship of the two guys who began it. Its a brilliant film and I’d recommend it to all of you.

However, I came away from the film so fired up. I guess the sheer creativity and genius behind the idea of Facebook and how it almost started from nothing to a site with over 500 million members kind of blew me away.

I realised then something that I’d been feeling for a while. This was feeding my soul. This was like a Sabbath.

Watching other’s people’s creativity - both the film itself and the story told in the film - stirred my own creative juices and got me thinking in new directions, I felt alive coming out of that film.

I realised this is something that happens whenever I go see a show, go to a gallery, watch a good, innovative or thought-provoking film, or see anything which we traditionally call ‘creative’ which is fresh, inspiring and is of good quality.

This is what feeds my soul.

Doing this is clearly part of what Sabbath needs to be for me.

But it also told me something about myself. Now I consider myself to be pretty intelligent, I enjoy academic books and blogs and understand them very well, I’ve always been an academic kind of guy.

However, I’ve always been more interested in the creative side of it. Rather than being interested in examining and discussing topics and using all the technical terms and language - all of which I understand - I’m more interested in exploring those concepts and then communicating them creatively, whether its through writing or some other means.

There are people who are ‘professional academics’, people who do Phd’s, who do doctorates, loads and loads of research and produce academic papers.

But that’s not me.

Now of course I do a lot of study, a lot of research and a lot of reading. I want to learn more and get a good grounding in my faith, and there’s always new things I want to learn. I might even do some kind of theology diploma training one day.

However, my way of expressing that knowledge is not in academic circles, in academic ways.

I want to communicate that knowledge in fresh, innovative and creative ways which people who aren’t academics can engage with, understand and connect with.

I am passionate about helping people understand and explore the way of Jesus in a way that’s authentic, that sticks to the basic principles of our faith, but is fresh, innovative and creative and uses language and methods people can understand to do that. I can feel even as I’m writing this that the adrenaline is pumping, because this is what I’m so passionate about.

To me the way of Jesus doesn’t need to be separated off into a corner, it needs to be on the same table as all the other world views, part of the bigger conversation about life. Perceptions of what the way of Jesus and church is all about, and what it really is, in the eyes of the majority need to be changed and people need to have their eyes opened to what church really is, and the way of Jesus is really all about - that it’s not a religion, but its a way of life, its the best way to live, that its about bringing a new creation right in the midst of this one.

I know part of my role in that is writing and creating things which help people understand that, and that talking about it to people, and in my role in my own church I can do that to a degree as well, as a leader and someone in ministry who speaks occasionally leads the occasional meeting. I am sure my role in that will evolve and change over time, and grow.

But how does this relate to you, I hear you ask.

Well the point is that whatever you do on your sabbath, it needs to open your eyes to who you are.

As we try and figure out what is our Sabbath - what we need to do to feed our soul, to make us feel fresh and inspired, to give ourselves peace, rest and refreshment - we also have to figure out what it is that isn’t our Sabbath.

Sabbath needs to be a break from whatever we do for the rest of the week, a break from how we create, what we do for work, what we give our energies to for the rest of the week.

So in order to figure out what we do for a break, we need to be sure of what we’re doing the rest of the week.

Sabbath compels us to re-examine our lives and see what we’re doing with them, it compels us to look at what we’re giving our lives to and see if that is what we were made to do, if that’s the work that God wants for us. When we are planning for Sabbath - and in Jewish culture they plan the whole week around it and spend all week preparing for it - then we need to know what are lives are really about, who we’re living for, what matters most to us.

Once we’ve done that, we need to make sure we’re doing it, so that we can then take a proper Sabbath which really refreshes us and makes us alive again.

So, ultimately, knowing our Sabbath helps us to know and find ourselves.

What are you giving your energies to?

Is it what you were made for?

Does it make you feel alive?

Do you believe there’s something more you could be doing?

The Bible tells us to constantly examine ourselves, and in Genesis we’re given a pattern for living - 6 days work, a day’s rest - which is declared Holy. So we need to get our patterns right, and we need to examine ourselves to ensure the story we’re living, the rhythm of our lives, is the one God planned for us.

Its one of the most important things we can ever do.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Sabbath & creativity

2010-10-09T10:23:00.001+01:00

Last week I wrote about the link between the idea of Sabbath/rest and discipleship. As I was writing that piece I began to realise there is a link between Sabbath and creativity as well.

In fact, to be honest, Sabbath at its best is at the heart of what it is to follow Jesus, and effects every area of our life. Sabbath is part of a rhythm of life that God designed for us, which is about, as we see in Genesis, creating and resting. Which brings me to the dimension of creativity in relation to Sabbath.

In Genesis 1 & 2 God creates for six days, and then rests. When the Bible talks about what God defines as work, its talking about creativity.

You see, as I have written elsewhere before, creativity is not just about art, design and music.

Its about bringing something new into the world.

Its what we do every day.

Every piece of work we produce, whatever our job, whatever we do during the day which brings something new into the world, then we are essentially creating.

Writing letters, doing presentations, solving crimes, treating sickness, putting out fires - they all bring something new and good into the world. Something that wouldn’t happen or exist if they weren’t there. Stopping a crime. Saving a life. Doing someone’s accounts, working in a bank and taking care of people’s money, working in a shop and providing people with a service and serving people, writing books or articles.

All of it is creative. All of it brings something into the world that wasn’t there without us. And you can say ‘well if I didn’t do it someone else would’. But the thing is that if everyone said that no one would do anything. If you don’t do what you do then something is lost to the world.

All of us have a role to play in the Kingdom. All of us are in one sense being creative when we work, we are bringing something new into the world. In the world God intended, God creates a world that isn’t perfect.

Yep, it wasn’t perfect. That’s not the word the Bible uses, that’s not what God says.

Perfect would imply static, that it can’t change, grow, that nothing further can happen. It means plants can’t grow, life can’t happen. Nothing can change.

Creation isn’t static. It’s not perfect. Maybe it was without sin, but not perfect.

There’s a big difference.

It was good.

God said it was good. He made the world and made each thing with the potential to make more of itself, each plant, each animal and us humans. He made everything to develop and grow and to create more. He creates everything with the ability to go on creating, with the ability, in one sense, to evolve and grow and make more, to almost join Him in the work of creation, in the context of what He has made and how He’s made it, within the boundaries that He has made.

This changes everything. When you look at it from this perspective, then God’s invitation through the cross is not to join His religion, but to be come a participator and co-creator with Him, in bringing His kingdom back to this world, in what He calls the restoration of all things - which, when used in the New Testament, usually means literally, all things.

Its no surprise that at the end of the Bible when Jesus comes back, He doesn’t come to take us anywhere else.

He comes back here.

And its a city He brings back, which, of course is the natural progression and development of what we had right at the beginning - a garden.

So where does this fit in with Sabbath?

Well Sabbath is where we take a break from our work, our creativity. Sabbath is where we reconnect with God and with the creation, and enjoy it. We recharge our batteries, we feed our souls.

I’m only beginning to figure out what this means for me. I think, for me, it means engaging with what we normally call ‘creative arts’. It means going to a gallery, watching a play or performance of some kind, going to a gig, watching a film, looking at books on art and design, or maybe finding some resources online on creativity. Maybe it means going to the country and engaging with creation, going for a walk (not that I can do that very often, but nevertheless, I know it works).

Those things, I have found, feed my soul. They inspire me, they take my mind in different directions, they give me fresh energy and inspiration, and I enjoy them all.

One other thing I’ve noticed about Sabbath and creativity, is what we often do when we talk about taking a break, getting away, having fun.

Does it often involve staying in our homes, shutting all the windows & slumming it all day?

No, we usually go somewhere outside. We like to go to the country, or go somewhere where we can sit outside in the sun, or we go skiing, or just plain go out somewhere. We talk about wanting to ‘get some fresh air’ or ‘get out in the open air’.

When we want a break, it often seems natural to us to reconnect with creation.

Is that a coincidence?

I don’t think it is. Its because when we want to take a break from what we’re doing, to get some space, we’re designed to want to go back to where we came from. Often, by reconnecting with nature, I think we are obeying a primal impulse that wants us to reconnect with God. And its amazing how often we so much better for it, and it gives us fresh energy for the rest of life.

We are all creative beings, and we are designed to need rest, to model what God did in the initial creation. Part of that I believe that when we do take this rest, and when we reconnect with our creator, even on a very primal, basic level, then it can give us fresh inspiration & energy for us to take into the rest of our daily lives.

Of course, its important to spend specific time devoted to silence, reflection and prayer in our Sabbath, and to spend more focussed time with God.

But the point is that Sabbath is meant to reconnect us to our creator, in whatever way we do that - and that it can be done through engaging with His creation.

Then, we ourselves have more energy and inspiration, and a deeper connection with God. This allows us to play our role in the restoration of the world to how God intended it, and part of that is through our work, our creativity, through bringing something new into the world. The scriptures say said that ‘whatever you do, do it in the name of Jesus Christ’, which essentially is saying that every act is an act of service to Christ, everything we do is a sacred, spiritual thing.

We need to look at work in a new way. We need to see it not just as work, that thing we do to get money. We need to see it as our way of bringing something new into the world, our role in remaking the world, our part in bringing God’s kingdom back, as part of an ongoing relationship with God. We need to get away from this idea that only church leaders are ‘in ministry’, and that we somehow need to use Christian jargon to serve God or do ministry, or have the right theological qualifications.

We’re all ministers, we are all serving God and being His representatives wherever we are, and we are all charged as followers of Jesus with bringing the kingdom back, playing our role in the restoration of all things.

We do that in our work, and in doing that we are essentially bringing something new into the world that wasn’t there before, and we’re being creative.

Sabbath is the way then that we reconnect with God in whatever way works for us, to give us the energy, inspiration and motivation for the rest of life, to do our work well and to be a minister of the gospel wherever we work in whatever we do.

Creativity and sabbath, together with work and discipleship, are all inexorably linked. They are all part of the rhythm of life for which God designed us.

In a consumer society where the pace of life moves so fast and we are always so busy, do we ever take the time to just rest and enjoy creation?

Do we ever create space just for God?

Do we allow ourselves a break to reconnect with God and creation?

If we don’t, it’s going to be much harder to be able to create, to work well, and to be able to live the full life that God wants for us.

In such a busy world with so much busyness and stress, Sabbath, surely, is needed more than ever.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Discipleship & Sabbath - Two sides of the same coin?

2010-10-03T20:35:00.001+01:00

The more I think and research the idea and concept of sabbath, the art of rest, how we need to get rhythms in our lives in order to be fully productive and properly rested human beings, the more I am beginning to see there is a bigger story at work here. I guess I should have realised this at the beginning, but God has been taking me on a journey and only now am I beginning to see where this is going and what it means.

You see, the art of rest and sabbath, and the rhythms of our lives, are inexorably linked to being a disciple.

Its that simple.

You may already have recognised this, but its taken me a few weeks researching this to realise just how close these are - in fact, they may well be two sides of the same coin. Because to live a life where we are fully rested, where we always have enough energy for life and where we have a good pattern at work in our lives, it means we need to be orientating our whole lives rightly.

Church itself can become an excuse not to rest. We think that we're doing something for the kingdom, something good and so therefore its allowed. And because its much harder to be silent and disconnect, then we go for the thing that will keep us busy, make us feel good and which actually comes more naturally to us.

I have found trying to create a space for silence and really listen to God is one of the most challenging things I have ever done. I find it very difficult at times to be patient in silence.

There is so much noise in the world around us, that we often don't realise how much we like it. Even if its background noise, noise we can ignore, we still feel safer and more comfortable if there is some kind of noise going on, something to stop us having to think, engage with ourselves, face up to reality, or remind us of what we're really feeling deep down inside.

Those are the things God really wants to deal with, and out of fear, impatience and busyness we just plain ignore them.

Not only this, but our bodies get used to this too. Our bodies get used to needing noise to feel comfortable, so even on a very subconscious level we are uncomfortable in silence.

But its something we need to do.

Its something we were designed to do - and designed to need.

There is a way of being human which Jesus came to show us, an original design for us, an original routine. The Bible emphasises this right from the beginning. There are two accounts of creation, and the first one is more of a symbolic one, one with deeper metaphorical and symbolic meaning, as opposed to the second which follows more practical and logical order - and in the culture in which it was written, order is important. The writer is saying that while the account of creation as it happened is important, but that the bigger story is more important. And the first story shows us there is a rhythm, a cadence, a routine, a pattern to life which God models - He creates, and rests. He works and rests. In fact He takes a whole day off at the end - and its so important He declares it Holy. In fact, the day of rest, the period of time set aside to recharge and reconnect - is the first thing to be declared Holy in the Bible.

Rest is that important to God.

He wants us to work, but He also wants us to fully rest. He wants us to set aside a day to disconnect, to recharge, to reconnect with Him and be reminded of what's all around us, to enjoy life, to celebrate, to feed our souls.

How often do we really do this?

I know I don't do this nearly often enough. I find it so hard to turn off my phone, not check my e-mails and not go on any social network site for a whole day. I think many of us do.

Have you ever tried it?

Do you think you could do it?

What questions does it immediately, instinctively raise when I suggest that?

'But if I do that I.....(add your own comment here).

But really, is it not possible to do that at all?

But it shouldn't be that hard, it really shouldn't.

We got along for centuries without these things, and ultimately we should be able to go a day without them. We might have to plan it, to tell people in advance so they know not to contact us that day, and ultimately to leave some way open to contact us in case of emergency, but it shouldn't be the mission that I know it could feel like for many.

Now one other thing, let me get this straight.

God does want us to work.

Sorry people, just because I said God wants us to rest doesn't mean us taking loads of days of work doing nothing! Seriously though, when talking about rest a lot it can lead us to think rest is all that matters, but that's not the case. God wants us to work, He designed us to work, to create, to bring new things into the world, to contribute to the world, to build His kingdom here.

But He doesn't want it to become our life. Just like He doesn't want rest to be our entire life.

Either end of that spectrum is bad, God wants us to get what we would call a 'work-life balance' in today's culture.

He wants us to use what He has given us to contribute to the world and build His kingdom here. But He also wants to rest, recharge, reconnect with Him, remember what's important and remember that the world doesn't depend on us. The ultimately, its all in His control not ours. Its almost an act of faith, and an act of great humility to take a sabbath, because we're recognising that the world can go on without us, that its God that sustains the world not us.

I have more to share with you on this topic and I'm excited by where this is going, and I hope to share something else on it with you this week.

I still have lots more study and research to do before I get anywhere near where I want to be, this is essentially a journey I'm on, and I'm still very much on the theory and the initial discovery. But it excites me, because God is clearly doing something with this and I am interested to see where this goes. I hope you will continue on this journey of discovery with me.

Next time, I'll be exploring something I touched on briefly in this piece. The link between rest/sabbath and creativity, what that looks like, where it comes from and how it impacts us.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Chairs

2010-09-26T19:31:00.001+01:00

In church today the emphasis was very much on social action, mission and looking outwards to the needs of the world around us, the reality of the world we live in and our calling as Christians in relation to that. Its something I've been thinking about a lot recently in general, and God's really been waking me up to some home truths in relation to this.

I've been trying to upgrade my phone recently as my contract is due for renewal, and so have been trying to get an i-phone 4 this week, without much success. Due to demand it may be a while before I obtain my i-phone 4. But during the week I was getting a bit annoyed as I'd waited a long time for this and now would have to wait probably another month. I even posted something in this vein on Facebook.

But then I saw Chairs, a short, 2 minute film by Rob Bell on issues of global poverty, social justice, providing - using the chairs - some very challenging statistics about the realities of what's going on in this world.
I can't embed it for some reason but click on the link below right, above or just here and watch it.

Just watch it first, then come back here.

Okay, done? Challenging wasn't it? Some absolutely shocking statistics there.

I saw that video, looked back at my status on Facebook - and the response to it - and felt sick. I felt so ashamed, humbled and challenged.

There are 1 billion in the world who don't have clean drinking water,
800 million people who will go to bed hungry tonight
2 billion who survive on 2 US dollars per day
1 billion children in poverty

and I'm worried about whether I have the latest I-phone?

I may not be, in our culture, seen as one of the richest people in the world. But in comparison to most people in the world, I'm rich. Its that simple. Instead of moaning about what I don't have I should be thankful and humbled by what I do have, and be using what I have and what I've been given to make a difference to those who don't. I've got no right to moan about not getting the latest i-phone - or any 'latest thing', when I want it. There might be things going on in my life - we all have issues we need to face up to, real problems we need to deal with, of course we do, and this doesn't devalue those.

But we need to get some perspective. Lets get upset about things that matter and do something about it.

One other thing. Did you notice it?

He didn't mention God, Jesus or Christianity at all. Not once.

Because these problems and the need to deal with them, aren't just a problem for Christians, these are issues for us all. None of us should be feeling comfortable at these statistics. Whatever we agree or disagree on, you cannot help but be challenged by these statistics. Either we can sink into apathy and just ignore it, we can take a poor attitude and blame it all on them, or we can do something about it, even in our own relatively small way. We don't all have to go out there and do big things, but we can change the little decisions we make and take these things into consideration. We can start to look at the world differently, and take responsibility for those in need, and keep that perspective when we get a gripe about something that probably isn't important.

One of the best lines in the whole film, and where I will finish here, is at the end when he's just gone through these statistics and issues, then immediately says something which sums it all up and should make us sit up and take notice:

"Now I don't know your worldview, I don't know your perspective, your background or your religion...
..but that is not right"

Posted via email from James Prescott

Is this it?

2010-09-22T17:56:00.001+01:00

Stephen Hawking declared recently - to the delight of all secularists and atheists - that science now had 'no need of God' (Read it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11161493). Of course we had all the standard reaction from both secularist/atheists and people of faith alike. It happened to be around the time of the Papal visit as well, which brought crowds out in hundreds of thousands, as well as millions watching on television. As I've reflected on these two things in particular I've come to some opinions about what these things and our reaction to them might mean for us, both culturally and as Christians

Before I come to that though I want actually confront what he's actually said about the laws of physics and laws of gravity explaining the big bang. I don't know if I'm the only one who noticed this, but if it only took the law of gravity or laws of physics for the big bang to happen, where did they come from?

Who created those rules?

Who dreamt that up?

Did they just 'appear' from nowhere and decide themselves?'

They seems like obvious questions, but no one seems to be answering them - or even asking them.

I mean that screws up his theory before its even got off the ground, yet some people will of course gravitate towards it and claim it instantly as fact. Incredible.

Now, to the deeper and more cultural implications of what Hawking said, how it connects with the Papal visit and what is says to us about church.

The more time goes on and we make more and more scientific discoveries about the nature of the universe, the more we know essentially, then in a secular consumer society the harder it will inevitably be to be a follower of Jesus. The more of a step of faith it may require to believe that there is a creator and a saviour who died and rose again to save us, because life will be - some will argue - totally explained by science (although they will continue to miss the obvious point that science provides no moral basis for living and that there are many Christian scientists) and we won't need to have as much faith in kind of recognised religion with a God that we can't see or scientifically prove exists.

The more we know, and the longer we live in a consumer/secular society, I believe the more people will simply see that its not enough. This is already beginning to a degree, the response to the Pope's visit alone said to me that with the collapse of the global market, capitalism, consumerism and the myth of secularism have been exposed as a sham. People are losing faith in those ideas. The longer time goes on, the more I believe people will begin to ask themselves this simple question:

'Is this it?'

Then they may start to look at creation with very different eyes, and maybe begin to understand that the scientific explanation of the universe may tell us something, but that there is something bigger going on, a purpose to all this.

One other thing I am convinced of too.

The more knowledge and less what is commonly termed 'faith' (although ultimately we are all people of faith, in one thing or another), that we see in our society, the more the message of Jesus will be communicated not just in words but in the lives of His followers. The more we know about the world, the more people will want to see a faith that results in real life change. People may hunger for an authentic life of discipleship, not just another thing to believe in or another hobby they do once a week. Not only that, but the more that those who teach the gospel will need to communicate creatively, innovatevly, in language & style that we can all understand and connect with.

They will want a church that can deliver. That's authentic.

Churches that are more religious and rule-based, which divide up the spiritual and physical, which practice a religious subculture, with 'Christian' this and that, and its own language - Christianese - will just become more and more disconnected from reality and ultimately will not grow from the outside. Because the gospel they preach, in my opinion, won't actually be the real gospel anyway. People may try them out, but ultimately they may be found wanting because they aren't embracing Jesus as a way of life that's integrated into the everyday, that relates to how we live here & now and the realities we all face, that's more concerned with going somewhere else than here.

In order to grow, the church may ultimately have to start seeking, practicing and pursuing authentic Christian discipleship, and be engaged with a God who wants us to bring heaven to earth now, into our everyday. Churches that will grow will be outward looking and engaged with the reality of the world around them and speaking their language, while staying true to the heart of the gospel. The challenge will always be to keep that message authentic, to be opening people's eyes to the God all around them and encourage true relationship and dialogue with this God, and asking people to carry their crosses daily.

So ultimately, the result of Hawking's discoveries may actually end up being the total opposite of what he thinks.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Starting the discussion

2010-09-18T13:09:00.001+01:00

Every so often I get one of those moments where I reassess everything and what I’m doing on the blog, or where I feel I want to reaffirm what I’m trying to achieve here and what this journey is all about. It’s something I think all of us need to do in whatever area or stage of life we’re in, as it helps us establish where we are and what story we’re telling - or not telling - in our lives and set out where we want to go, what we want to achieve and above all the story we want to tell.

Blogs get a bad rep sometimes, and especially in the States. Often they can be a good place for cowards and Pharisees who have gripes with public figures to get their opinions out and complain. It can be a cheap and easy way for people with an opinion to express it, and say whatever they like, no matter how insulting or hurtful - or untrue.

However, at their best blogs can be places where we encounter people within their journeys and be inspired by them. They are places where we can connect with complex ideas in a simple and easy to understand way. They can be life-changing, thought provoking and move people to action. They can pose the difficult questions and start important discussions.

That’s what I’ve always tried to do here.

You see, I don’t want this blog to be ‘the final word’ on anything.

I want it to be the first word.

By that I mean, I don’t want the topic to be open and closed, and leave no room for discussion. For me what this blog - and anything creatively using words to communicate, like a speech, sermon or book - is about is starting a discussion.

That might be an individual discussion with God and dialogue with yourself or self-examination about what kind of life you are living, or about some dimension of your relationship with God, or how you view church.

Or it might be that the blog speaks to something in your life you’ve been ignoring but need to deal with. Or something might give you a sense of calling that you hadn’t had, or help you start to face up to difficult issues in your life and walk with God.

It might be a discussion with a larger group of people or even with your church about how to move forward and actions you might need to take as a group of friends or a church community.

Whatever it is, my hope and prayer has always been that this will stimulate & inspire, encourage & challenge, and move people to action.

This isn’t one of those blogs that is all about me or my life, or what I did this morning or where I had lunch (there’s plenty of room for that on Twitter, if you’re so inclined).

I may share stories from my own life or experience but they will merely be to point out wider and deeper truths. I may share resources that have helped me and try to connect others with that, but again, its only to help, support and encourage you and share with you something that has been useful on my journey.

This blog is about exploring & discovering what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in a secularised, consumer society.

Its about exploring & reclaiming the heart of what it means to be & do church, and to be a Jesus follower.

Its about opening people’s eyes to the God who is all around us wherever we care to look for Him.

If you are a regular reader, I would love for you to continue walking that journey with me, and if you haven’t been here before, to join me on that journey.

With God, you never know quite what’s round the corner.

Posted via email from James Prescott

The irony of secularists (or Why we're all religious)

2010-09-15T21:46:00.001+01:00

With the Papal visit to the UK taking place this week, there has been much comment in the news about the state of the church, about the problems of religion (and by that they mean traditional organised religions - in particular Christianity) and why the Papal visit is wrong as only a minority have any religious faith.

Now many of these critics - in fact most of them - are what we called secularists. Secularism says that those of religious belief should be in a separate group of people, and although people should be free to express it they should keep it private and separate, and that governments should be free of religious input. Many secularists say that schools of religious faith are bad as they force religion on people from a young age, and think we should have schools which again encourage the distinction. Many secularists believe the scientific explanation of the world, and that something is only true if proven scientifically or historically, if there is hard evidence. They often believe we should all be educated as though these are facts, and that religions don't have evidence to support them so can be taught almost as alternative views to the world to their, correct, proven one. They believe they have the right to impose this view of the world on people because it’s the proven, correct one. Some are very aggressive and confrontational in their views, and are constantly attacking religious people for how wrong they are and criticising them at any turn, as they think they have that right given their opinions are in fact, proven facts.

Any of these types of thing sound familiar?

Dividing people into groups, looking inwards, trying to covert people to their point of view, sometimes agressively, have a system for funnelling their believes through and claim to have evidence for their beliefs. The very things that many of them accuse 'religious' people of doing. Interesting.

Now, lets look quickly at religion.

Here are a couple of dictionary definitions of religion:

'a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the universe'

'a specific set of beliefs and practices generally agreed on by a number of persons or sects'

The dictionary definitions do mention God, but only on general terms. It doesn't say they always have to involve some higher power or god of any kind whatsoever. So actually, when you look at the real definition of a religion, then essentially anyone who has any particular worldview, or opinion as to how we got here, or has any kind of belief in a way of life and a number of people agree with it, then its a religion. I'm guessing many of you know now that Jedi is now an official religion, as so many people have declared themselves such.

Well when you look at it that way, secularism sounds a lot like a religion, which would make its followers 'religious'. In fact, it pretty much means that all of us are religious in one way or another.

So back to secularism then.

Secularism is in my opinion the religion of our culture. This religion has many gods. It tells us that we are gods, but in fact the real gods are multinational corporations, television and advertisers, all telling us what to think, what we need, how our lives are lacking and will be made complete by purchasing certain goods. We go to places of worship - shopping centres for example - and because we are decieved into thinking we're in control, and we are free of control from outside forces. We think we are living how we want, no rules or boundaries apart from ones we set for ourselves

Secularism encourages us all to be individuals and that we all have the right to do and live however we want, as long as its not illegal and doesn't hurt anyone else. Oh, and as long as its not morally wrong.

It has no real, authoritative evidence for where these morals originally came from, it claims they come from our human nature, or previous cultural backgrounds or through evolution. But it actually provides no moral compass or basis for living in itself, and even its supporters recognise this.

However, there are subdivisions of this worldview. One is called consumerism, which is almost a relgion in itself, it could be argued it is the evolution of secularism, or a denomination of secularism.

Secularism - and consumerism - ultimately says that although we all have rights and freedoms as human beings, our worth comes from what we produce, from our status, wealth, achievements, character and talents. We don't have any intrinsic value, we have freedoms and we should all have equality of opportunity and choice. But what happens on a cultural level is that this encourages individualism and ultimately consumerism. In the end the concept of community is lost, there is little trust, people become very cyncial and the gap between the better off and worse off gets bigger.

Sound familiar? Yep, that's the world we live in ladies and gentlemen. Secularism is so great that a culture which is essentially founded on it is falling apart.

Not for me thanks.

Now, onto the way of Jesus, the Christian faith/worldview.

As I have said before, much to common misconception (even by some of its members), the way of Jesus is not a religion or religious system in itself, and you can't try to control or explain it fully through a systematic theology. Religion and theology will help explain it, in theory and concept, but it is not the boundary of it. Its not the practice of the Christian faith, its can't explain God fully and is merely about the theory. It helps us see in part, but not fully. Obviously with the definition of religion used above then Christianity is a religion. But the religion of Christianity is merely the theory, it is the concept of the Christian faith that we try to live.

Religion is a way to explore and understand the Christian faith, but it cannot fully explain it. It doesn't cover everything that the Christian faith and following Jesus is about.

Put it this way, religion is part of the Christian faith. But its only part of it.

Christian faith isn't just a set of beliefs about the universe. Its not just a set of practices or rules. If that's all it is, then it's just a club. Its just something you do as part of your life. That's the view of faith secularists have and encourage and that has become more and more prevalent even in some churches and Christians.

That, friends, is not what Jesus talks about in the Bible, its not what the scriptures speak of and its not what the early church modelled at all. This view encourages the view that there are distinctions between physical (bad) and spiritual (good), and that heaven and earth are separate places, and that heaven is somewhere we go where we die.

Nowhere in the scriptures does it say that if we believe in Jesus then when we die we go to heaven, and that that place is somewhere else.

It doesn't say that.

Yet somehow we've got this idea in our heads,

Let me explain this a bit, because this gets to the heart of the Christian message. The concept of Christianity as a set of rules we follow, and about us believing the right things so we go to heaven when we die (heard that before), is partially encouraged and even in one sense supports secularism but it also in Christian circles comes from a concept of faith which ignores how God originally made the world and starts with the fall. This way of seeing faith essentially begins the story in Genesis 3 with the fall and separation of heaven and earth. It ignores Genesis 1 & 2, where there is no distinction between heaven and earth, they are the same place. Everything is created good, not perfect, and given the ability to make more of itself. Human beings are invited to be co-creators and participators in God's plan for the world. In Revelation when Jesus comes back we see this in action. What started as a garden has become a city - a collection of gardens.

In this view, then what Jesus says about the kingdom of Heaven being here and now makes more sense. It makes the miracles have more sense, every time Jesus is showing them what the kingdom of Heaven is like. Endless provision. No death or sickness. In each act Jesus is bringing a sign - John even calls them as such - of what it will be when heaven and earth are the same place again. Paul talks about the cross being about Jesus reconciling to God all things in Heaven and earth. The literal translation reads 'all things'. The New Testament has several verses about the restoration of all things, reconciliation of all things and renewal of all things. Once again, all things means, literally, all things.

So there is no split worldview.

Heaven is a separate place right now, but only until Jesus returns. Following Jesus then is accepting the invitation through the cross to join in the great restoration project of God for heaven and earth, and playing our role in that. Its bringing the way of Jesus into our everyday, and seeing Jesus in the everyday, the common, the creation, the physical, in anything. It removes the need for the 'Christian' label - all music, art, created things have a glimpse of God in them and God can be found in all of them.

The action isn't somewhere else, its here.

This might help explain it further. In Old Testament times before Jesus, people could only hear from God through Priests, who were the only people allowed in the presence of God, behind the temple curtain.

However, when Jesus died the temple curtain was torn in two. It allowed the presence of God out, and broke down boundaries between God, His people and His creation. It allowed us to be able to meet personally with God and to see and experience Him in anything, anyone, anywhere, if we are only looking for Him.

The cross was about restoring all things to how they were in the beginning, when Heaven and earth were the same place, where there was perfect harmony between man and God. Every act is a spiritual act, everything is spiritual, God can be found anywhere.
Every time we do something which reflects the nature of God - even if we don't believe in Him - brings a bit of heaven to earth. Every time someone chooses the way of Jesus, it brings a bit of heaven to earth.

There is no distinction.

And God calls us not to do this alone, but in community. There are numerous 'one anothers' in the gospels. Jesus says to love one another - and ultimately, if everyone does this, then we will never be in need, we will never have to fear and we can all live at peace together. In harmony with each other and God - and the Bible says that's how it ultmately will be. So then there will ultimately only be one 'religion' and it won't be a religion as we use the term today.

It will just be how things are.

The role of church is, in this context, to reflect this to the outside world, to model this to the rest of creation and to be outward looking. Loving one another by definition means a church has to be outward looking, mission focussed, community focussed. It needs to be opening people's minds and hearts about how to see Jesus in the everyday and how better to bring Jesus into their every day, and be Jesus to the people around them. The role of church is to be a collective outpouring of this type of faith into the community around it, and to provide a support network, a place to be discipled, trained and encouraged in how to follow Jesus and discover Him in their everyday, about how to be Jesus in the everyday and how to see Him in the everyday. To break down the barriers in our communities that society has put up. Not emphasising our differences, not preaching at people and telling them what they aren't, but demonstrating with their actions that they have a different view of the world, that there is a better way to live and see the world. Showing people who they really are and that they are loved, valued and accepted as they are, where they are, and demonstrating that through our actions - both big and small.

The way of Jesus is about love, community, trust, serving, forgiveness, justice, grace and putting the other first. It is about non-violence, peace, and tells us that we all have a role to play in the restoration of the world to how it was originally intended.
It tells us we all have infinite and inherent worth from the moment of conception, without any stutus, talent or achievement. That no matter who we are or whatever our background or history, we all have inherent value and worth, and even if the worst happens we are never alone. It encourages us to take responsibility, but provides support, comfort and forgievness when we are in need or have messed up.

Religion can only partially explain this. The religion of Christianity helps us understand God better and know what the core beliefs around the way of Jesus are. Just like science explains the how of the universe and understand dimensions of God's creation.

But it cannot fully explain away the way of Jesus or the message of Jesus. It has boundaries, it's limited. God has no boundaries or limits apart from those He sets for Himself. And no matter how vast our imaginations are, we will never be able to fully explain or understand God completely, no matter what label we put on Him. Religion can tell us facts about God and about what followers of Jesus believe. But it can't fully comprehend, understand or explain them.

That's why when secularists and the like criticise the church or religion they miss the point. Christians and followers of Jesus - the church - aren't God. They aren't Jesus or the Holy Spirit. They are people who are trying to follow them, and by definition aren't perfect. The church do need to be better witnesses to our faith, and live our the true Christian life, not the boxed up, legalistic, tradition and cultural-based version of it. And the secularists and critics need to look beyond the church to the heart of the message of Jesus. The values of love, peace, justice, mercy and forgiveness. Those are at the core of the kind of world Jesus wants us to live in and bring to this world.

Finally of course, secularists need to have their eyes opened to the irony of their comments.

Secularism is a religion, and the dominant religious worldview of our culture and has been for decades.

Given the breakdown of community, rise in crime, increasing division and cynicism in our culture and above all the breakdown of families, increases in divorce rates and single parent families, and the continuing huge gap between rich and poor in our culture in that time, and the increasing lack of any moral compass in our culture, I would say its not really working. Would you?

In my opinion there is a much better way which makes much more sense. People just need to open their eyes to see it.

Posted via email from James Prescott

The irony of secularists

2010-09-15T19:48:00.001+01:00

With the Papal visit to the UK taking place this week, there has been much comment in the news about the state of the church, about the problems of religion (and by that they mean traditional organised religions - in particular Christianity) and why the Papal visit is wrong as only a minority have any religious faith.

Now many of these critics - in fact most of them - are what we called secularists. Secularism says that those of religious belief should be in a separate group of people, and although people should be free to express it they should keep it private and separate, and that governments should be free of religious input. Many secularists say that schools of religious faith are bad as they force religion on people from a young age, and think we should have schools which again encourage the distinction. Many secularists belief the scientific view of the world, and that something is only true if proven scientifically or historically, if there is hard evidence, and believe we should all be educated as though these are facts, and that religions don't have evidence to support them so can be taught almost as alternative views to the world to their, correct, proven one. They believe they have the right to impose this view of the world on people because it’s the proven, correct one. Some are very aggressive and confrontational in their views, and are constantly attacking religious people for how wrong they are and criticising them at any turn, as they think they have that right given their opinions are in fact, proven facts.

Any of these types of thing sound familiar?

Dividing people into groups, looking inwards, trying to covert people to their point of view, sometimes agressively, have a system for funnelling their believes through and claim to have evidence for their beliefs. The very things that many of them accuse 'religious' people of doing. Interesting.

Now, lets look quickly at religion.

Here are a couple of dictionary definitions of religion:

'a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the universe'

'a specific set of beliefs and practices generally agreed on by a number of persons or sects'

So back to secularism then.

Secularism is in my opinion the religion of our culture. This religion has many gods. It tells us that we are gods, but in fact the real gods are multinational corporations, television and advertisers, all telling us what to think, what we need, how our lives are lacking and will be made complete by purchasing certain goods. We go to places of worship - shopping centres for example - and because we are decieved into thinking we're in control, and we are free of control from outside forces. We think we are living how we want, no rules or boundaries apart from ones we set for ourselves

Secularism encourages us all to be individuals and that we all have the right to do and live however we want, as long as its not illegal and doesn't hurt anyone else. Oh, and as long as its not morally wrong.

It has no real, authoritative evidence for where these morals originally came from, it claims they come from our human nature, or previous cultural backgrounds or through evolution. But it actually provides no moral compass or basis for living in itself, and even its supporters recognise this.

However, there are subdivisions of this worldview. One is called consumerism, which is almost a relgion in itself, it could be argued it is the evolution of secularism, or a denomination of secularism.

Secularism - and consumerism - ultimately says that although we all have rights and freedoms as human beings, our worth comes from what we produce, from our status, wealth, achievements, character and talents. We don't have any intrinsic value, we have freedoms and we should all have equality of opportunity and choice. But what happens on a cultural level is that this encourages individualism and ultimately consumerism. In the end the concept of community is lost, there is little trust, people become very cyncial and the gap between the better off and worse off gets bigger.

Sound familiar? Yep, that's the world we live in ladies and gentlemen. Secularism is so great that a culture which is essentially founded on it is falling apart.

Not for me thanks.

Now, onto the way of Jesus, the Christian faith/worldview.

As I have said before, much to common misconception (even by some of its members), the way of Jesus is not a religion or religious system, and you can't try to control or explain it fully through a systematic theology. That will help explain it, but it is not the boundary of it. Obviously with the definition of religion used above then Christianity is a religion. But the religion of Christianity is merely an idea, it is the concept of the Christian faith that we try to live.

Religion is a way to explore and understand the Christian faith, but it cannot fully explain it. It doesn't cover everything that the Christian faith and following Jesus is about.

Put it this way, religion is part of the Christian faith. But its only part of it.

Christian faith isn't just a set of beliefs about the universe. Its not just a set of practices or rules. If that's all it is, then it's just a club. Its just something you do as part of your life. That's the view of faith secularists have and encourage and that has become more and more prevalent even in some churches and Christians.

That, friends, is not what Jesus talks about in the Bible, its not what the scriptures speak of and its not what the early church modelled at all. This view encourages the view that there are distinctions between physical (bad) and spiritual (good), and that heaven and earth are separate places, and that heaven is somewhere we go where we die.

Nowhere in the scriptures does it say that if we believe in Jesus then when we die we go to heaven, and that that place is somewhere else.

It doesn't say that.

Yet somehow we've got this idea in our heads,

Let me explain this a bit, because this gets to the heart of the Christian message. The concept of Christianity as a set of rules we follow, and about us believing the right things so we go to heaven when we die (heard that before), is partially encouraged and even in one sense supports secularism but it also in Christian circles comes from a concept of faith which ignores how God originally made the world and starts with the fall. This way of seeing faith essentially begins the story in Genesis 3 with the fall and separation of heaven and earth. It ignores Genesis 1 & 2, where there is no distinction between heaven and earth, they are the same place. Everything is created good, not perfect, and given the ability to make more of itself. Human beings are invited to be co-creators and participators in God's plan for the world. In Revelation when Jesus comes back we see this in action. What started as a garden has become a city - a collection of gardens.

In this view, then what Jesus says about the kingdom of Heaven being here and now makes more sense. It makes the miracles have more sense, every time Jesus is showing them what the kingdom of Heaven is like. Endless provision. No death or sickness. In each act Jesus is bringing a sign - John even calls them as such - of what it will be when heaven and earth are the same place again. Paul talks about the cross being about Jesus reconciling to God all things in Heaven and earth. The literal translation reads 'all things'. The New Testament has several verses about the restoration of all things, reconciliation of all things and renewal of all things. Once again, all things means, literally, all things.

So there is no split worldview.

Heaven is a separate place right now, but only until Jesus returns. Following Jesus then is accepting the invitation through the cross to join in the great restoration project of God for heaven and earth, and playing our role in that. Its bringing the way of Jesus into our everyday, and seeing Jesus in the everyday, the common, the creation, the physical, in anything. It removes the need for the 'Christian' label - all music, art, created things have a glimpse of God in them and God can be found in all of them.

The action isn't somewhere else, its here.

This might help explain it further. In Old Testament times before Jesus, people could only hear from God through Priests, who were the only people allowed in the presence of God, behind the temple curtain.

However, when Jesus died the temple curtain was torn in two. It allowed the presence of God out, and broke down boundaries between God, His people and His creation. It allowed us to be able to meet personally with God and to see and experience Him in anything, anyone, anywhere, if we are only looking for Him.

The cross was about restoring all things to how they were in the beginning, when Heaven and earth were the same place, where there was perfect harmony between man and God. Every act is a spiritual act, everything is spiritual, God can be found anywhere.
Every time we do something which reflects the nature of God - even if we don't believe in Him - brings a bit of heaven to earth. Every time someone chooses the way of Jesus, it brings a bit of heaven to earth.

There is no distinction.

And God calls us not to do this alone, but in community. There are numerous 'one anothers' in the gospels. Jesus says to love one another - and ultimately, if everyone does this, then we will never be in need, we will never have to fear and we can all live at peace together. In harmony with each other and God - and the Bible says that's how it ultmately will be. So then there will ultimately only be one 'religion' and it won't be a religion as we use the term today.

It will just be how things are.

The role of church is, in this context, to reflect this to the outside world, to model this to the rest of creation and to be outward looking. Loving one another by definition means a church has to be outward looking, mission focussed, community focussed. It needs to be opening people's minds and hearts about how to see Jesus in the everyday and how better to bring Jesus into their every day, and be Jesus to the people around them. The role of church is to be a collective outpouring of this type of faith into the community around it, and to provide a support network, a place to be discipled, trained and encouraged in how to follow Jesus and discover Him in their everyday, about how to be Jesus in the everyday and how to see Him in the everyday. To break down the barriers in our communities that society has put up. Not emphasising our differences, not preaching at people and telling them what they aren't, but demonstrating with their actions that they have a different view of the world, that there is a better way to live and see the world. Showing people who they really are and that they are loved, valued and accepted as they are, where they are, and demonstrating that through our actions - both big and small.

The way of Jesus is about love, community, trust, serving, forgiveness, justice, grace and putting the other first. It is about non-violence, peace, and tells us that we all have a role to play in the restoration of the world to how it was originally intended.
It tells us we all have infinite and inherent worth from the moment of conception, without any stutus, talent or achievement. That no matter who we are or whatever our background or history, we all have inherent value and worth, and even if the worst happens we are never alone. It encourages us to take responsibility, but provides support, comfort and forgievness when we are in need or have messed up.

Religion can only partially explain this. The religion of Christianity helps us understand God better and know what the core beliefs around the way of Jesus are. Just like science explains the how of the universe and understand dimensions of God's creation.

But it cannot fully explain away the way of Jesus or the message of Jesus. It has boundaries, it's limited. God has no boundaries or limits apart from those He sets for Himself. And no matter how vast our imaginations are, we will never be able to fully explain or understand God completely, no matter what label we put on Him. Religion can tell us facts about God and about what followers of Jesus believe. But it can't fully comprehend, understand or explain them.

That's why when secularists and the like criticise the church or religion they miss the point. Christians and followers of Jesus - the church - aren't God. They aren't Jesus or the Holy Spirit. They are people who are trying to follow them, and by definition aren't perfect. The church do need to be better witnesses to our faith, and live our the true Christian life, not the boxed up, legalistic, tradition and cultural-based version of it. And the secularists and critics need to look beyond the church to the heart of the message of Jesus. The values of love, peace, justice, mercy and forgiveness. Those are at the core of the kind of world Jesus wants us to live in and bring to this world.

Finally of course, secularists need to have their eyes opened to the irony of their comments.

Secularism is a religion, and the dominant religious worldview of our culture and has been for decades.

Given the breakdown of community, rise in crime, increasing division and cynicism in our culture and above all the breakdown of families, increases in divorce rates and single parent families, and the continuing huge gap between rich and poor in our culture in that time, and the increasing lack of any moral compass in our culture, I would say its not really working. Would you?

In my opinion there is a much better way which makes much more sense. People just need to open their eyes to see it.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Stop. Breathe.

2010-09-12T16:38:00.001+01:00

As regular readers know I have become very interested in the idea of Sabbath and concepts of rest recently, and am doing some research into the whole topic. I know this sounds a bit obvious, but think the more I am thinking about it, the more I am noticing things I hadn't noticed in regards to this issue, and these are things I think that very few of us really notice (or maybe we all do, and its just me...). Even at church, I am noticing that in a place that's meant to be on a day of rest, a time to reconnect with God, that it's just as busy and hectic and a rush hour journey or day at work.

So little time for peace and rest.

Little time to stop and breathe.

In the last couple of days I've been reading about the 'Reclaim your brain' series over in the US (see http://www.reclaimseries.com/ ). What they do is try to train people in neurofeedback, a way of slowing down your brain and still being very sharp and alert. Slowing down the pace your brain works, and being at total peace, but still having your brain fully alert and able to work. It has also been proven to lessen the number of epileptic fits in people like me who are epileptic.

We live in a consumer society where the pace of life is relentless. What happens is we get so used to living at that hectic pace, we think its normal and our brains start to think it's normal. So what happens is even when we think we're resting our brain and even our heart rate isn't actually in a state of proper rest. Its no surprise that in today's culture there are more heart attacks happening to those with no record of heart disease, more cases of stress, anxiety and mental illness of various kinds than ever. Its because we aren't resting properly, we're pushing ourselves too much and retraining our brains to work too fast.

We burn a lot of energy through worry, anxiety, stress, depression, anger - a lot of it unnecessary which we get used to thinking is 'normal' in order to work normally. We get our brains trained so much that it becomes part of our subconscious, our brains just think its normal so even when we're relaxing our heart is beating too fast and our brain is working too fast, and a lot of unnecessary energy is being used.

The key is to reach this 'sweet spot' where you're so relaxed like you are when you are having a nap or just coming out of a nap, almost like sleeping, but you have all the energy where that stress and anxiety was, and are fully awake. So therefore you suddenly have so much more energy for the rest of life.

This is how our brains were meant to work.

Our breathing and heart rate need to be in line with our brain waves, and often they aren't. Breathing is such an important thing to get right. Many of us breath from our chest, instead of how we are meant to breath, which is something called diaphragmatic breathing, breathing from your diaphragm. At rest - when we're sitting down, relaxing - we are only meant to breath around 12 times per minute.

Think about that.

That's one breath every 5 seconds.

Doesn't seem like a lot, but try it. Here's a little challenge for you.

Stop. Breathe. As you do, listen count how long your breaths are, and look where you are breathing from.

For optimum energy and health, we're meant to breath from lower down, not from our chest as many of us do. We often do that through sheer necessity and because it feels more 'normal' and allows us to get lots of breath in quickly. But actually, to get more energy we're meant to breath from lower down, and more slowly. We can train our bodies to do this, given time and practice.

I have tried this recently, and I have noticed even in small amounts how often I have more energy, feel more relaxed and peaceful. The trick is being able to maintain your optimum brain performance at work, but still have slower, more peaceful rhythm to your brain work and taking slightly longer, deeper breaths. Letting go of all the anxiety and worry and stress - all of which are unnecessary in reality - and using that energy to work, to perform to deal with all the things we have to face up to, with more energy and focus, and feeling a lot more rested.

But of course there is a connection between this and our relationship with God. One interesting thing - in the scriptures, the word for breath is the same word as the word for spirit. There is no distinction between the physical and spiritual. In every breath, we are essentially breathing in God, and breathing out all the things in our lives we don't need.

You see we are integrated beings, 100% spiritual, 100% physical, and all of it is interconnected. I personally believe that this principle of sabbath and rest in the scriptures, the seventh day which God declared Holy - notice the first thing God declares Holy is a day or period of rest - is totally connected with the state of our physical body and our brains. To have this time of Sabbath we need to engage with these issues and retrain our bodies to slow down. Getting rid of the excess energy - stress, anxiety, worry, anger - is a lot easier when your security is in God, and you have a relationship with a God who can help us deal with these kind of things. Because you have somewhere, someone, who you can unload this on to, who is big enough to take it and who can help us deal with it.

We need to recognise that these things - stress, anxiety, worry - are not normal, they aren't healthy. But fundamentally we need to realise why these things are happening.

Its because on some subconscious level we are, usually as we grow up, putting our security and value and worth in something other than God, - money, relationships, friends, family, work, achievement, status - and we aren't learning about the art of rest.

Its so easy to do.

I know that thing things that happened to me when I was younger have shaped me and still do. I know I have insecurities and fears and I know where these come from, and the point is that I need to recognise they are just insecurities and fears. They aren't based in the reality that God made me, Jesus died and rose for me and loves me more than I can ever know or understand - without my achievements, gifts, status, finances, without anything. God loves me just because He does and will provide for all my needs. He will always be faithful, He will never give up on me, He will discipline me when I need it and encourage me when I need it. He knows me better than I do and will not abandon me, despite all the ways I let Him down.

So I can choose to live according to my insecurities, worries, fears and stresses - or I can live according to the reality of what God says about me and what He's done for me. It doesn't mean I won't have insecurities and fears, but it means that I can control them, that I can let them go and ignore them, in God's strength. I can choose either to live by them, or to surrender them and live according to what God has said.

I can choose to live the consumer life, at a high pace, and equate value with busyness, with success and status, and over-worry about what others say about me (most of whom don't know me).

Or I can choose to slow down my mind and my body.

To take deep breaths

to breathe in more oxygen, and at the same to breathe in more of God

and to breathe out all the things I don't need.

Its not easy, and it takes time. I'm still learning how to do this, and I am genuinely excited by learning more and more about the art and discipline of rest and trying to put this into practice in my own life.

But its what we need to do, if we are to be fully human in the way God designed us.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Would Jesus burn books?

2010-09-09T18:26:00.001+01:00

I'm guessing many of you have heard the recent news about the Pastor over in the US who has decided the best way to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 was to burn loads of copies of the Koran (Read the story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11223457 ). Politicians, public figures and religious leaders worldwide have spoken out against the decision made by this pastor, including Christians - and I believe they have every justification to do so.

However, I'm not going to sit here and pronounce judgement. It would be very easy to accuse this pastor of being judgemental, unloving, and attack him for the damage this could potentially do for the name of Jesus. I mean, frankly, I don't believe what he's doing is what Jesus would do, and doesn't demonstrate the way of Jesus at all. I think it just make things worth.

But that's my opinion.

Let me make this clear, its not my job to judge him.

That's God's job, not mine.

Even though I fundamentally disagree with this man, there is a chance that beyond this one action, that God is somehow at work in his church. Therefore any criticism I make - especially given I'm not perfect either - is criticism of someone God is using in some way, which in the Bible is called blasphemy.

This guy will have to give an account to God for what he's doing, and that should be enough for all of us. I need to trust God, not to 'deal with him as I would', but to be just - because Jesus died for him too, and he believes in the death and resurrection of Jesus just as I do. I need to let go of my need to control, criticise or condemn this guy, and make sure I examine my own planks before I start looking at others specks.

I will say this though.

If it had been me, and I was going to do something to commemorate 9/11, instead of burning books I would have done the following:

First, I'd hold a prayer meeting in our church for all the families of the victims of 9/11, and for all those affected by the war, to which I would have invited local Muslims, although making it clear it was a Christian prayer meeting. I would then have the church host a meal either on church grounds or on neutral territory like a restaurant, and invited everyone in the church and all the Muslims in the area. I'd encourage the people of my church and the Muslims to sit next to each other and talk to each other. I would have then said publicly to the Muslims that any time they wanted to visit our church, they were welcome, even if they didn't believe what we did. Not only that, but long-term I'd meet with all the religious leaders of the area, including Muslim leaders, figure out what values we have in common and in light of that what we can do to best serve our community. Personally I think that's the kind of thing I think Jesus would have done.

But hey, that's just me. You come to your own conclusions.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Time for silence

2010-09-06T22:41:00.001+01:00

Today I was taking the train home from work, a different route to normal due to the tube strike in London, and obviously therefore much busier than normal. I didn't have my i-pod on for once and I had the most bizarre - and undeniably profound - experiences I've had. I was literally squashed like a sardine with lots of people on the train, standing room only.

But almost all of them were talking.

There was a bunch of school friends all talking over each other, a few work colleagues or friends chatting away and others talking on the phone. It was almost like I was the only silent person on the train. It was genuinely bizarre.

But I've been studying a lot about The Sabbath recently, and about the art of creating space in time to rest and disconnect. On Saturday I went on a pilgramage to a monastic community and spent time in pure quiet, in a prayer garden so quiet and distant from the rest of the world you could literally hear the silence.

Maybe it was because these things have been on my mind recently, but I couldn't help just how much noise there was - how many people talking,

over and to each other,

on the phone,

all busy with their own lives.

All full of adrenaline from the busyness of life.

I couldn't help but feel pity. I kept thinking to myself, "Is this what our lives have been reduced to? Just everyone wanting their say all the time, scared of disconnecting, addicted to the adrenaline rush of life?"

and above all,

scared of the silence of their souls.

Scared to stop, to rest, to disconnect. Scared to be silent.

Because they are afraid in the silence that no one will be listening, no one will be there, that they will be all alone and have no value. That they might not like what happens when they are forced to examine and listen to their own souls. Or listen to God. The culture we live in tells us that we are machines, that we need to be on the go 24/7 and keep working to achieve more - money, status, success, and that if we stop then we might miss out on something. It tells us we need more and that status and success is what matters, that what we look like matters, and that our value is tied up in all these things. Our value in life is defined by how busy we are - with both work and socially. So we spend a lot of time, energy and money building up that life for ourselves.

In the midst of that, there's no time for silence.

People become scared to stop, because they are scared of what's inside them.

Scared of being alone.

Afraid to face their insecurities and fears. Maybe they have nowhere to go with them.

If you don't know God, silence can be a very lonely and scary place, where your mind can get the better of you given enough time. That's probably why mental health issues are on the rise, why more people see counsellors and suffer from depression than ever before. People simply can't deal with what's going inside of them. However this fear of silence isn't limited to non-Christians, in my experience Christians are just as much afraid of silence as non-Christians - but for different reasons.

For example, I know I can be scared of silence. But its because I can get scared of what God might have to say to me, that it might be something I don't like, something uncomfortable.

But I am learning that silence is one of the most important disciplines we can have in our lives.

We need it.

We can't live without it.

It allows us to examine ourselves, bring those things before a loving heavenly father and allow Him to speak truth and love into those things.

God is in the silence.

Nobody has to have any fear of silence, if they know God. God speaks into the silence, He tells us what we need to hear, He tells us the truth. He gives us love, strength and peace. He reminds us that the world can go on without us, but above all He reminds of something that we all need to hear...

...that we are not alone, and that we are loved and accepted just as we are.

Without status, money or achievement.

We are loved.

Are you afraid of the silence? Are you always too busy for silence? Do you find yourself so busy you have no time for God to speak to you, no time to disconnect?

I want to encourage you. Challenge you even.

Take some time. Make some time in your life for silence, and in that time, ask God to speak to you. Ask God to speak to you through and in the silence, and bring to Him all the things you don't want anyone else to see, fears, doubts, insecurities. Allow Him to speak His truth and love into your life.

Be still. Be silent.

And know that He is God.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Are you a 'Hipster Christian'?

2010-09-03T19:12:00.001+01:00

One thing I want to do on this site is promote the sites of other bloggers I know and read, and websites and resources I have found which might be helpful. I have several friends who blog, and one who has just started blogging. In the next few weeks and months I'll be promoting their blogs and some other sites I've found helpful, they should all appear in the links on one of my sites - all of them will be at 'evolving church'.

Today I want to just briefly mention a topic I'm going to write about in more depth soon but which God's really been challenging me about, a new book and website which will really speak to many of us.

The book is called 'Hipster Christianity: Where church and cool collide' by Brett McCracken and the website is at http://www.hipsterchristianity.com/index.php.

The essential premise is one of examining how essentially in trying to become relevant and 'hip' the church may have lost some of the truth of its message, creating a generation of Christians who are all cool and hip, but don't have as much substance to their faith. He lists some common traits amongst these people, Apparently some traits of Hipster Christians are liking anything Apple, reading the likes of Rob Bell, Don Miller and Brian McClaren, really into creativity, passionate about social justice and like quoting or reading Bonhoeffer. Obviously there's no blanket 'one-size fits all' definition, some may not like Apple but be crazy about social justice, some may read one author but not the other - there are actually four types of Hipster Christian he describes - all of which are scarily accurate. I actually laughed out loud at how much I saw myself and many friends in some of these stereotypes. Scary...

The scary thing is though that some of these things sound uncomfortably familiar.

Honestly, does any of that sound familiar to you? Check out the four types on the website, trust me its scary how accurate they are.

On the website there is a link to a few articles McCracken has written on the subject, but far more uncomfortable is the quiz http://www.hipsterchristianity.com/quiz.php where you answer 30 questions (doesn't take long actually) and it tells you how much of a Hipster Christian you are in terms of a percentage.

I leave you to check out the website, do the quiz and have a little reflection on this. I will be back with my thoughts on the subject in due course (that is, once I've dumped all my Apple hardware, bought some different books and become a Christian fundamentalist)...

Posted via email from James Prescott

Out of control

2010-08-29T15:07:00.001+01:00

I've been pleasantly surprised by the response to my blog post a couple of days back on Richard Dawkins. It has clearly sparked debate between atheists and Christians, whom I don't know personally, and that's a good thing.

However there is a danger that when we get into these discussions that we can start to take sides and be defnesive, and in our efforts to pursue advancing our opinion, and strong in our belief that our opinion is the right one, we can easily start getting too obsessed with winning the debate. With being right.

Why?

Does it satisfy our ego?
Does it make us feel like we're worth more?
Does it in some way make us feel like we have control over that other person?

Maybe it can be one or all of those things, but I think they themselves come from something even deeper.

Fear.

In my experience and from what I have learnt and observed, people usually get really defensive about something due to fear. Think about it. When you've done something you regret and are trying to hide it from someone, you are afraid they will find out, and its easy to get defensive and argumentative in order to protect ourselves from being found out.

Now that's not the case here.

In this case, we get defensive because we are afraid our argument will get found out. We don't fully trust what we believe, or at least we don't know as much as we seem to be letting on.

This is why it intrigues me when people get defensive or aggresive when discussing their worldview - even if they are Christians.

I could easily have responded agressively and emotionally to some of the criticism of my arguments, but the truth is I don't need to. No matter how strong or articulate someone's arguments, it doesn't mean I have to agree with them, it doesn't mean I have to take it on board. If my security is truly in my faith and in Jesus, and what He has said about me and about what He's given me to write, then even if people do criticise, it doesn't change anything and I don't have to defend my faith.

I just need to respond with love. To respond well. If they are making good arguments and they have genuine questions about why I believe or what I believe, of course its right to respond. And its important to ensure that Jesus gets a fair hearing.

However, when its only about winning an argument, about being better or knowing more, then its really not worth it.

When Christians get like this about their faith, I am beginning to think its because they believe in Jesus, but on a subconcious level they have put boundaries on this Jesus so that they can control Him to a degree. What I mean is not that they don't have strong faith, or that their God isn't big, but that because of our human nature we can get an idea of a God we can appreciate, understand and agree with and get comfortable with that.

Its an easy thing to do. I know I haven't. My God hasn't been big enough.

You see you could get all the human beings who ever lived or ever will live, and get them to think of their wildest, biggest, most imaginiative concept and idea of God, and put them all together, and it still would only be a tiny fraction of who God really is.

God won't be boxed up.

You see, God is out of our control.

Totally.

Completely.

Out of our control.

He is bigger, more powerful, more awesome, mighty, greater than anything we can ever comprehend.

I believe if we are to know God more deeply and intimately, then we need to understand that concept. That's real faith. Knowing that God has the power to strike us down dead instantly if He chose to, could end our lives right now, can do anything He chooses and is out of our control, and yet choosing to trust our lives to Him anyway. I think when we approach God like this then we can truly know what it is to fear God, and when we fear God we have nothing else to fear.

When we come to that place of fearing God, God says to us 'Do not be afraid'.

We see His infinite love, grace, mercy and forgiveness. We meet with Him personally, intimately and powerfully, and have nothing left to fear, and we can know God in a deeper and more intimate way than we ever have done before.

Nothing anyone says to us or about us, no criticism, no argument, can shake us. We don't need to respond to it apart from in love, because our security doesn't come from our relationships to or interactions with people, but from our relationship with God.

Criticism can be a good thing. We need it.

However, instead of waiting for it from people we don't need to respond to, get it from somewhere else.

I have close, trusted friends who know Jesus and know me well, and who will always be honest with me. Who will tell me when I'm screwing up, when I've hurt someone, when I've made mistakes, when I'm out of order, or when something I've written is a bit dodgy or theologically incorrect. I trust and love these people, and when they give me that criticism - or God convicts me of it directly - then I listen, I examine myself, and respond in whatever way is approriate, with their help.

But I can ignore other criticism. If people want to have a reasonable, intelligent, mature discussion, then I'll engage with it, directly with that person. I might even learn something new from it, and it can be quite enjoyable to do that in a loving, respectful way. But if all they are interested in is humiliating me, winning an argument or boosting their ego and their words or actions clearly demonstrate this, then I don't even need to read it. I don't need to take any notice.

Because my security doesn't come from what people say about me, but from God has said about me, what Jesus has done for me and what God has said to me about me. That's it.

Not works.
Not actions.
Not anything I do.

Just because God has said He loves me and I'm worth everything to Him - something He wants to sayand is true of us all, equally.

And our relationships with Him can be stronger as we let go of our need to control, let go of a concept of God that we control, and recognise we have a God out of our control and who we should fear, but whose love, grace, mercy and forgiveness for us is infinite and unconditional.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Double-standard Dawkins

2010-08-27T12:57:00.001+01:00

I have just been watching a documentary with Richard Dawkins about faith schools. Watching it and hearing Dawkins again, it merely confirmed finally my opinion of the man. I have long gone past the initial anger and frustration with him. I think as I've matured and continued to observe and listen to what he says and the campaigns he supports, the thing I have realised is that in actual fact, its merely that I cannot have any respect for him.

I can cope with aethists or people of other worldviews criticising Christianity and the church, and actually find intelligent debate with aethists or non-beleivers I know quite stimulating, and helps me grow in my faith.

But what Dawkins does is totally different.

You see, the problem he has is that he operates on a set of assumptions that are fundamentally wrong. The principle one of these is that somehow religion and religious worldviews are somehow in a different category from so-called 'non-religious' worldviews. There is an assumption that what he believes is somehow in a different category from faith, because its based on science or something more proven or more accepted by mainstream culture, when in fact his own worldview itself is not 100% proven and involves a level of faith. And when actually the Christian faith for example is just as much a worldview as his own.

In this documentary for example he criticises faith-based schools for 'imposing ideas on children'. In one example however there are muslims attending 'Christian' schools, and in fact are still muslims. He is genuinely shocked by this, but fails to see this as evidence that his ideas are flawed.

He also just assumes the theory of evolution is right, and that its perfectly fine to tell people as fact that its true, and gives the impression that anyone who tries to convince someone of a different view of the history of the world and how we got here is forcing a false idea of them.

He seems to think its okay to indocterinate people to believe his own worldview, because he beleives it's scientific fact and therefore applicable to different views. But to try and educate people in a different worldview - while still educating them about scientific views of the world like evolution - is somehow imposing ideas on people. If he had his way, he'd have all children being educated in the theory of evolution as fact, and religions as something seperate, something that's not proven.

The reality is that his own worldview is just that - a worldview, and it should be subject to the same questions and criticisms as other worldviews like the Christian worldview. His own worldview he might think is based on fact - but evolution isn't 100% proven fact at all, and requires some level of faith just the same as a belief in any other worldview.

The gospel and the book of Acts for example, are a historical record of events written not long after they happened by some people who were involved in them. When historical events were handed down verbally at that time it wasn't like Chinese Whispers where things get changed and altered over time - there was a strong emphasis on keeping the story the same, as that's how events were handed down. Paul speaks about 500 people who testified and were still alive who had seen the risen Christ, and to be honest if they were trying to create a fictional relgion having someone raise from the dead and the first witness to be a woman - whose testimony wasn't valid at the time in a court of law or in culture - really wasn't the way to do it.

So there is historical and factual evidence for the Jesus worldview, and that's of course not including the testimony of the many people whose lives have been transformed by faith, and people who have been healed from disease.

Of course, the Christian faith can't be 100% proven, it involves a level of faith. But so does Dawkins' worldview, despite having a lot of evidence to back it up.

Dawkins, for someone so intelligent, comes across as very naive and ignorant. He worries about parents imposing their views on their children, but doesn't seem to mind when trying to make sure his own children are attending a school which supports his worldview of how he wants his children to be educated. There's a Catholic priest he talks to about this who almost straight out, and says he's trying to force his opinions on others.

He comes across more and more as someone who seems to be double-minded when it comes to religion and faith, and blind to the fact that his own worldview is equally valid as those who follow one of the world religions and in a very arrogant narrow-minded way seems to think his worldview is exempt from this.

Now let me make this clear. The church is no saint. The church is divided, hypocritical and has been guilty of all sorts of awful things. It has been narrow minded and arrogant, and stil can be. But religion and the church can distract us from the real message and teaching of Jesus - grace, mercy, love, forgiveness, justice. Religion is a massive problem and Jesus didn't like religous people, and the church so should not be restricted or bound up with religion that they forget the heart of the message.

Above all though, Dawkins worldview should be subject to the same criticisms and questions, and he either fails to see this, or just chooses to ignore it.

I have no personal gripe with Dawkins, he's perfectly entitled to his views and free to express them. I truly hope one day he discovers what I believe to be the reality of Jesus, and that science and faith, rather than being opposites, can help explain and compliment each other, as many scientists who are Christians beleive. As a Chrisitan I am called to love him as a brother, and pray for him.

But if he continues in the way he is, then I will not and cannot respect him.

To me, he seems as intent on imposing his own worldview on people in exactly the same way that he accuses 'religous people' of doing, and thinks that because his worldview is 'scientifically proven' then its fact, and isn't subject to the same rules as 'religions'.

Until he realises this, and sees the foolishness and arrogance of this view - even if he remains an aethist after seeing this - then I won't respect him at all, and there's no point debating what he says.

Posted via email from James Prescott

The power of an idea

2010-08-22T21:30:00.001+01:00

“What is the most resilient parasite? An idea. A single idea from he human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules” - Dom Cobb (Leonardo Di Caprio), Inception

One of the things that really resonated with me when watching Inception was the concept of planting an idea in people’s minds. The film seemed to think that you needed to enter into people’s heads to plant ideas in there. But in reality that isn’t true at all is it?

Ideas are deliberately planted into our minds all the time.

Films

Billboards

Internet

Magazines

Newspapers

Shop windows

All try to plant ideas in our mind, through advertisments, sponsorships, great design, music, and clever marketing. They try to tell us what we need, what we want, what we should look like, what’s good and what’s bad, what our lives should be about, what’s important to us.

Politicians do exactly the same thing, in fact, anyone with a public voice is trying to do it. Their motivation might be for your good, in some cases, but in most cases its a means of gaining your custom, your support.

Sometimes its even people making casual suggestions or comments, all of which plant a seed in someone’s mind, whether its conciously or unconciously.

We all get our opinions from somewhere.

We all get our ideas from somewhere

We all get our knowledge from somewhere.

There is rarely anyone who is truly neutral. Everyone comes from a certain perspective and background, which has impacted how they see the world and ultimately how they see God.

How often have you been in a discussion about some issue and somebody said to you

“They are saying now that.....”

“People are saying now that....”

It happens all the time doesn’t it? I notice it all the time.

It has no source, no direct quote, no name. But apparently this is a statement of fact.

No its not fact. Its not even your opinion. Its come from somewhere else, something you’ve read, some thing that has been said somewhere you’ve come into contact with. I do it a lot as well, and its an easy thing to do. But that idea that somehow this thing is true has been fed to us and we’ve not really checked where it came from.

It happens with critics of Jesus and religion. They come up with a set of criticisms which often is based on assumptions planted in their mind - that what we believe and our worldview is somehow subject to a different set of values and critiques than their ‘correct’ worldview. One of the biggest problems with Richard Dawkins is that he takes the idea of God and religion and almost put it in a separate category from his own worldview - because he assumes that his is right, and that what he believes and his worldview isn’t in the same category, that it doesn’t involve any faith whatsoever, and therefore is exempt.

They don’t think about where their ideas come from. They don’t fully conceive of the fact that all world views are just that - world views. They are all ideas about how we see the world and all should be applicable to the same rules. Ultimately though he doesn’t get that the values that he has come up to believe in and the freedoms he has ultimately come from the values of Jesus entrenched in our culture.

You see, both God and the enemy plant ideas in our minds - but for different reasons, and in different ways, and with different motives.

God intends them for good. The quote at the top of the post is spot on - an idea has immense power. If it is fully realised then it changes the world, and can impact many people. For example, the idea for Facebook. Someone originally came up with this little idea, and it mushroomed into one of the biggest websites around. Someone came up with the idea for the internet, mobile phones.

Ideas change the world.

But as with all things which have immense power, its been used for evil too. The idea that all Jews needed to be exterminated. The idea to blow up the Twin Towers.

These ideas changed the world. But in a very negative, painful way. Those ideas were never intended for anything other than evil.

God plants ideas in our minds too, and He can do it in subtle ways - but He never does it in deceptive ways. The difference between Him and the enemy is that the enemy will use anything to get his ideas into our minds, he’ll be deceptive, he’ll trick us.

The fall of man is the prime example of this - and of the power of an idea. Satan put the idea into Eve’s mind to eat the apple of the tree of knowledge, he deceived her into thinking it would make her life better, and she and Adam both gave into that.

That idea definitely changed the world.

I think its really important also that some ideas seem good or start with good intentions. We might thing we’re doing something for good, but often it turns out badly. That’s why it’s not often good to make decisions without wise counsel. Making rash decisions often leads us astray in life. Think of all the impulse decisions you’ve made. Advertisers love this idea, they so often use advertising to make us think that unless we buy their product straightaway then our lives won’t be as good, and we have to do it at that moment.

Advertising online, on tv and even as we’re walking through shops, special offers on things, they all lead to these kind of decisions. An idea is planted in our mind and we are rushed into making a decision.

All these deceptive ideas are designed - whether its from media, people or Satan directly - to make us feel like we have a need, like something is missing from our lives. That something is wrong and that making that decision, or buying that product will solve it. It comes from a desire to feel validated, to feel valued and worthwhile, to make ourselves feel better. At a very deep level many ideas play on that. Hitler’s drive and ambition, and the decisions he made, may ultimately have been made out of his own insecurities, and to boost his own ego by destroying the lives of others, by making himself better than others - and one of the reasons so many supported him would have been that for a percentage of the population, who were in dire financial cicrumstances, it would ultimately have played on their insecurities and fears.

The bottom line - and I make no apologies for suggesting this idea to you - is that we are all trying to find our validation from something or someone other than God, something created. Negative ideas get planted in our mind by the world around us which are designed to tell us our lives will be made better, and our egos and insecurities will be satisfied, if we make this decision or buy this product, or support a particular political party.

God puts ideas in our hearts and minds which are for the good of others, and the good for His kingdom - and ultimately, whether its obvious to us or not, they also work out for our best. The difference with these ideas is that God usually makes it really clear they are from Him - not always at first, sometimes He wants us to come back to Him so He can affirm these ideas and be in control of how they impact our lives - but He never deceives us.

These are ideas which are for the good of the other, ideas which seek to benefit other people and promote the values of Jesus. God even puts good ideas in the minds of non-Christians - all the scientific advancements in curing disease, in the work of major charities which aren’t necessarily Christian, all ideas which bring good into the world, which bring God more into the world, they are ultimately from God, whether we know it or not, or whether a person believes in God or not.

Sometimes following through with these ideas isn’t easy. A calling or vision from God is essentially an idea being planted in us, but its not always easy to be obedient. Often it involves risk and faith, which is why wise counsel is so important, and why we need to take time making decisions.

But ultimately it may often take courage to follow through on an idea from God, because He wants us to trust Him and to get closer to Him through that - and when that is the case we need to ask God for the courage to follow through and take those decisions.

Even good idea that we come up with, which aren’t given to us in prayer, worship or a ‘Christian’ environment - intellectual ideas, philosophical ideas, ideas that engage our brains as much as our hearts, ideas about justice or the environment - often they take a big risk and much courage to pull off. Scientists often go through many failed experiments before they come up with a cure for example, people often have to risk their reputation or their finances to get an idea or company off the ground, which ultimately can go on to make a huge difference in the world.

William Wilberforce’s idea to bring an end to slavery was a great example of this. This idea ultimately consumed his life and became tied into his identity - and it changed the world for the better.

Of course many ideas have been corrupted and used for negative ends, as is human nature. But there are ideas fed to us which aren’t good, which aren’t of God, which don’t seek to promote the way of Jesus, which only seek to serve themselves and the people who come up with them. They use the creative impulse given us by God for negative, self-serving purposes.

So how do we deal with all this?

I think one way of dealing better with this is awareness.

Paying attention to what’s being fed into our brains. Not necessarily counting all the adverts, messages that are being fed to us, but being aware that those things are out there and having our eyes open to them. Listening to the tone of people’s voices when they speak. It makes a huge difference. I try to do this now, and it does make a difference, it helps put perspective on things and you become less affected by them.

I think another thing, one that I’ve already mentioned, is to always try to take counsel when making a decision. Or at least, take time over making it. Never be rushed into making a decision, never allow others to compel you into making instant decisions. And try to avoid impulse decisions - though of course, sometimes God does occasionally ask us to act spontaneously, but when He does He makes it pretty clear it’s Him.

One other thing I have always done though is try to see God in anything, anywhere. I have always believed that we can see God anywhere, in anyone or anything, if we have our eyes open to see Him. If we change our perspective and try to see God in everything, to try and see the bigger picture, then not only will the negative things not affect us as much, but God may well speak to us through them. God could speak truth into our lives through the words of people who may not have intended them that way. God can use anything, anywhere for good.

Ideas can change the world. There is no doubt about that.

Jesus ideas about how to live, His teachings, have changed the world. They have shaped the values of western society, and its laws. The irony is, that people today are more and more blind to see this, people argue against the Christian faith and don’t realise that many of the freedoms they have and ideas about justice come originally from the teachings of Jesus in the Bible.

One of the biggest ironies of our time, I would argue.

If God gives us an idea and we follow it through, and are faithful, then even if the change isn’t obvious, it will make a change. It will bring something different and good into the world.

We just need to be aware that ideas are being fed to us all the time, to be wise enough to discern between which are good and bad, and be wise when making decisions and taking action.

Then, when we know an idea or calling is from God, we need to have the courage to follow it through, whatever it is.

In doing that, we grow to know God more deeply and it becomes ultimately more easy to discern which ideas are His, and which aren’t. God can use anything or anyone to speak to you and plant a seed of an idea in your mind - but so can the enemy.

Just keep your eyes open, and make your decisions wisely and courageously.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Which are you living - fantasy or reality?

2010-08-14T09:07:00.001+01:00

Many of you will have seen or heard of the film Inception, which is currently topping the film charts worldwide. Its a film about dreams, about the power of dreams, and about the concept of planting ideas in people’s minds. Its effectively a heist film involving dreams, but watching it raised some serious questions in my mind. Its probably the most thought-provoking film I’ve seen since The Matrix.

In the film the characters enter into people’s minds to steal or plant ideas there, and sometimes go to different levels of dreams - dreams within dreams - to plant or steal these ideas, and sometimes its possible to get so lost in the dream world that you can forget which is reality, and which is just a dream, or a fantasy. The question the film leaves you with - without wishing to give too much away - is whether the main character, Dom Cobb (played by Leonardo Di Caprio) is living in a dream or reality, and you could make a pretty strong case for both.

There are several questions this film raised with me. In the next week or two I hope I can tackle these in a series of blog posts, because I think the questions this film raises are ones we really need to face up to. If you have any of your own, please let me know.

The first question concerns the balance between reality and the dream, and how easy it is to get lost in a fantasy.

You see I don’t actually think we need to dream to live in a fantasy world. We can live that out in reality. We can cut ourselves off from the pain of life, ignore the big issues that are going on both personally and in the world around us, and hide away in our comfort zones. We can buy into the consumer dream that more money/status/possessions will make us happy and even make ourselves ill pursuing that dream, and inevitably we’ll be let down by the dissapointment of not making that perceived standard we think we have to reach. We can also often get so lost in whatever dreams and goals we have, or feel like they are so unattainable, that we retreat into a fantasy world where it’s all easy and there’s no effort to achieve it, no committment, no discipline or patience.

This is a place where addictions of any kind often have their root. The quick high, the quick fix, the easy way out.

Reality involves committment, patience and also facing up to suffering, pain and issues in our own lives and in the world around us, and accepting that this isn’t a perfect world and life isn’t going to be an easy ride - and for Christians, its only through Jesus that we can find a path way not to escape this reality, but to go face up to it and survive it.

However, even Christians can get lost in a fantasy world - a world where everything is great, everyone is happy and blessed, where God answers every prayer and performs miracles in people’s lives, where we have great experiences of God - but what people often forget is that God doesn’t call us to get cut off from the world, to look inward, but to look outward and engage with reality. People who indulge in only the big spiritual experiences and live in some cheesy Christian fantasy land seem to think that their church experience is the ultimate reality of life on earth, and that everything else just doesn’t matter and is somehow distant.

But that ignores the reality of a God who while He has made everything right, and one day will restore this earth to how it was originally made, a place without pain and suffering and death, that the reality now is a lot different, and God calls us to bring heaven to earth now in the places where there is most suffering. Not to look down on suffering or see it as a result of sin, or to pity people who suffer and love them out of duty or pity, or patronise them and give them some cheesy line about God’s love, but to actually show them God’s love and be understanding of their reality - and face up to our own reality, our own issues, in a very honest and open way.

The other reality is of course that Jesus has saved us, forgiven us and made healing and restoration possible, and does give us new and eternal life - but that’s no excuse to get disconnected from reality. Jesus was a real person who really lived, and lived as 100% human, experiencing all the same temptations and emotions we do, yet was 100% God.

And He was real.

500 people saw Him after His resurrection.

He’s not some happy smiley pansy-man in a bath robe, He’s the Son of God and His challenge to us is to face up to Him as the ultimate reality, and to face up to our responsibilities to use what we’ve been given to serve and love others sacrificially as He did, to make our stories part of God’s big story that’s been going on since the beginning and still has time left to go, and in which we have a part to play - and that role isn’t to disconnect and look inward, but face the reality of what’s going on in the world and engage with that in a humble, loving, servant-hearted, non-cheesy and non-patronising way.

This is a challenge to me as much as anyone. Its easy living where I do with the resources I have to escape into films, tv, computers, internet and forget about the real issues going in the world, and escape from the issues in my own life. But its better to face them and deal with them than hide them away, because they will catch us eventually.

Which story are you living?

Are you living engaged with reality,

or are you living in a fantasy world?

How can you live more in tune with reality and engage with the world?

If you’re a Christian, is your faith grounded in reality or is it merely fantasy?

Are you ignoring reality, or are you embracing it?

Posted via email from James Prescott

The need for rest

2010-08-09T19:15:00.001+01:00

Last week I wrote about my experiences at New Wine and how God had spoken to me about the ideas of sabbath, the principle and discipline of rest, and called me to explore this in my own life in a much deeper way and in so doing produce something that hopefully can be a help to others in applying this idea to their own lives. It’s a message that I think in our busy, adrenaline fuelled, market-driven, consumer culture is more relevant than ever before.

The first part of my own response to what God said last week was to sit down and go through my weekly routine and examine it, and see what I needed to change in order to get more rest in my life. I was really ill last week and I know it was because I simply hadn't had a break for a year.

I've sold one flat and bought another, and moved to the new flat, which according to experts is one of the most stressful things you can ever do, for the first time. I've changed jobs, which was a long drawn out process which took several months to sort out. I have been getting more involved in church, doing more writing and I have had issues in my family which are still ongoing. I've hardly had a rest, no holiday at all and have been sleeping less.

I don't say any of this to moan at all, or get sympathy. I say this merely to state what has been happening in my life. And some of these things are really good, and I consider to be great blessings in my life.

Serving more in church is one of the most amazing blessings I have ever had, and a real priviledge. I have grown and matured in my character and gifting, and am looking forward to serving more in the future. Moving house has been incredible, getting my own space, getting my own furniture and breaking free from my past. A very good thing. Moving job has been good health wise, a job which requires less stress and intensity, but is still challenging, has been a good thing.

All good things and blessings from God.

The reality is that I got so consumed with the things going on with my life, all the blessings from God, that I began to make them substitutes for God. I got consumed by the idea that if I did more, that if I achieved something, that if I was obedient to God, then everything would be fine.

I didn't focus enough on God, and I forgot that the world can go on without me. Its not an easy thing to admit, but the reality is the world can go on without us. It can go on without me. I'd forgotten who made the world, and who sustained it, and forgotten my own limitations.

I forgot about rest.
I forgot about space for God.

I forgot that I am a human being.

We are all human and we all have finite energy and a finite lifespan. We are not built to work 24/7, no matter what the world tells us. We were built to need rest. If we don't take this rest there will be consequences - and I've seen that demonstrated completely in the last week.

We need to create space in our lives for rest. Rest should be a priority, a discipline in our lives. Not something we do on the side.

Ever turned off your mobile for a day, or even one evening?

Ever gone a day without checking your e-mails or Facebook?

You see we need to create that space to rest, to recharge our batteries, both mentally, emotionally and physically - and all those areas come under the umbrella of spirituality and being spiritual, because everything is spiritual. If we don't, then eventually its going to back up on us, its going to effect our health, and not just our physical health. Because our physical, emotional and mental health are all interconnected, and ultimately it will all affect our relationship to God.

Rest is vital. Its life giving. We need rest to live.

So I have sat down and written a plan of how I'm going to structure my week and integrate a space for rest, and I'm going to try it and see how it goes.I'm going to read up on the original Jewish concepts of Sabbath and what it originally meant, how important it was, what Jesus said about it and how they practicised it. I'm going to some research on the pure science of our human body and how much rest we need or how much our body can take physically, and how that effects our other areas of life. From that knowledge and experience hopefully I can come up with some more detailed thoughts on the subject, and some practical things for all of us. I am sure it will take time, but it really feels like this is where God is taking me, and I will hopefully share some of my thoughts and experiences as I go on this journey.

I think in the world we live in, this is one of the most important issues we need to address.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Time for some rest

2010-08-04T11:23:00.001+01:00

This week I'm away at New Wine in rainy Shepton Mallet. Its my first proper break in months, in fact just about a year, and its all backed up on me.

I feel absolutely shattered, and my dependency on the busyness and adrelanine rush of everyday life has been exposed. I've been quite ill and am still recovering, but in the midst of all this, God has really blessed me and shown me something of Himself and what He wants for me.

For a while I've been taking more and more of an interest in the concept of rest as a discipline, the idea of sabbath and how important it is in our culture. The idea that while its important to be disciplined in the things you do - for me it would be work, writing, studying and running - its also important to be disciplined in the amount of rest you have, and to make it proper rest, rather than just 'chilling out'. This will be different for everyone as we are all different, but I would say its whatever you can't imagine your life without, whatever you can't get through a day without, the things you do all the time, that you need be thinking about taking a break from - whether its for an evening or a whole day. For me it would be the following:

Turn off my mobile phone.

Turn off my computer.

Not do any studying or writing at all, or anything condusive to doing that.

Not having any of these things going on would be a big challenge to me. But the thing we need to remember is that we weren't designed to be on the go 24/7. We weren't designed to be working all the time and pushing ourselves to the limit. God designed us with a need to rest and we all need to take that very seriously, and approach rest differently - not just as something we do when we happen not to be busy, but as a decision, a discipline.

I think this is a topic that needs to be addressed more than ever.

The strange thing, as an aside, is that this week I asked God to show me what project He wanted me to work on, and a friend had told me that it needed to be something that's part of my story. In my illness and tiredness, and what it showed about me and my life, I think God may well have given me His answer.

Consider this an introduction to the subject of rest and the sabbath in today's culture. I get the sense that in the coming months and years there may be a lot more from me on this subject.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Why do we like to be right?

2010-07-18T20:31:00.002+01:00

It feels good to be right doesn’t it? We all know it does. To know better, to win an argument or discussion, to appear more insightful or clever than everyone else. As human beings we enjoy that feeling, even if we don’t always or like to acknowledge it. But why do we like to be right? Why do we ‘have’ to be right? A lot of us would say we don’t, a lot of us think we are and others would admit the do. But in my experience that desire is there in all of us.

We want to be right.

We want to be best.

We want people to think well of us.

We want to win.

We want to know better.

I like to be right. It makes me feel important, valuable, better, significant, it boosts my ego and of course it makes me feel superior to those who disagree with me. Because of course, it goes without saying that they are all wrong (allegedly…).

This all comes from the fall, when we human beings decided we knew better than the God who made us, the universe and time itself (good decision there…) – something we still do, bizarrely enough – and thought we could do his job. From that moment, there came into being something called ‘the path of ascent’ – we all have this instinct, this desire, to do better, be better, achieve more, than other people. We all want to be gods in one sense, although we would rarely describe it that way.

To do what’s best for ourselves.

Because its good for our ego.

Its good for our confidence.

It gives us security.

Our culture teaches us that its all about winning, being the best. I know when I support my football team I’m always wanting them to win, to be the best – and when they win trophies, I am happy and often make smug little comments to supporters of rival teams. I bet a lot of us do that when our football teams win, even individual games – even if its just in banter.It happens in discussions too. When we are debating or discussing issues which divide opinion – religion, politics, issues of faith or lifestyle, anything where we have an opinion, one of the reasons we keep on with them is to emphasise our own point. By definition we are going to think our opinion is the right one, and we want other people to agree with us.

You see there is nothing wrong in holding an opinion or expressing it – but the issue is why and how we express it.

Are we expressing it to contribute to an open and genuine debate to try and achieve something, or are we just looking to ‘win’ the argument so we can feel better about ourselves and our opinion?

Lets be honest.

None of us are always right.

We all make mistakes. We all act foolishly at times.

We are all wrong sometimes.

One of the big problems in our culture today is that people can easily equate or confuse knowledge with wisdom. They go on Wikipedia or some such website, find out loads of information on something and begin to think that makes them wise – and so that in discussions they appear clever and wise and impress people, and more likely to win a discussion.

But wisdom isn’t knowing the right thing, or knowing all the arguments. Wisdom, I would argue, is knowledge plus good character, it’s the application of that knowledge. An example from scripture would be the Pharisees were experts in the scriptures, but Jesus clearly didn’t think them wise – and they weren’t because the way they applied it was foolish.They liked being right, and being the religious experts, but Jesus exposed and humbled them. He questioned them ‘Have you ever read the scriptures?’, knowing they had, but as an attempt to show how foolish they were.

I mean we don’t think gifted children with high IQ’s and great knowledge to be wise just because they are intelligent?

No, their childish actions would prove otherwise.

They don’t have the character yet to apply that intelligence and knowledge, and just because we are an adult doesn’t automatically qualify us to be wise if he have the right knowledge. Its our actions that will prove us wise, what we do with what we have, how we use that knowledge and apply it practically. Do we acquire knowledge merely to win arguments and appear better than everyone else, or to find out more about God, life, or whatever subject it is we are learning about.

It goes all back to this desire to be right. To be better. To know the most, to be right most often, to promote ourselves.

Now just to clarify here, there is nothing wrong with ambition, or a desire to be the best we can be. To pursue a career or vocation, to desire to be successful, to have more knowledge, to be who God made us to be. Those can be beautiful things.

As with all things, its how we turn this in on itself, when ego and pride can take over, and its so easy to do. We probably do it more than we realise. In essence it’s a form of judging someone, because when we make comments or gossip about someone else which make us look good, they are inevitably going to make others look worse. When we elevate ourselves to a place of superiority over someone then we are, in essence, judging them. We are making a comment on who they are while making ourselves look better.

This happens anywhere we are involved in talking – jokes, stories, banter, gossip, discussion of any kind. As I’ve said this may well be done unintentionally, because its so deeply ingrained into us. Its almost counter-intuitive to do it. But how often is the way of Jesus totally counter to what we are used to or what culture says.

Ultimately though it comes because we don’t put our value in what God says about us, but in what others think of us, how successful we are and our own status. Deep inside is a desire to be the best, to be the most right and most important – its called ‘sinful nature’ and we all suffer from it. This has seeped out and become ingrained in our culture, and is now more obvious than it would have been before. We see extremes of it in people who ruthlessly pursue success at any cost – multinational corporations who exploit those in Third World countries, corrupt governments (and non-corrupt ones sometimes) and corrupt individuals in different areas of life. Companies competiting for our money, even in areas of life we wouldn’t expect it. We are surrounded by it, it would be hard not to be impacted by it.

There is a different way though – if we choose to put our value and identity in something else. If we let go of being competitive and choose to trust what’s already true about us. That’s what Jesus did. He never had to prove Himself to anyone – He knew who He was and His calling, and when He spoke, He spoke truth, love, grace and forgiveness. He didn’t speak out of a desire to be right or to get approval, because He already had the only approval that matters.

What would it be like to live like that?

Being a true disciple of Jesus is taking a decision to live differently, to have different habits and behaviours, and we may need to train ourselves over time to think differently, to act differently. It might be decision we need to keep making every day. If we are truly seeking to be followers of Jesus, we are called to love one another and leave room for God to judge. We are called to lay down our egos and submit to the God of the universe, who after all knows a bit more than us (slight understatement there).

If we have opinions, we either go to the person themselves and tell them what we think in person – as Jesus says – or we keep them to ourselves. Otherwise its just gossip, judgementalism and ego-driven jokes, which look and sound funny but in fact can be damaging to the person on the end of them, and are really only there to boost the ego of their teller.

So next time when you think about making some comment about what you think about someone, think before you speak.

Think about why you’re really saying it,

who it really benefits,

and be honest with yourself.

I’m not saying this is easy – Jesus said the way is narrow – but its something we should all be aiming for. Our identity, value and security ultimately shouldn’t come from boosting our ego by worrying about how right we are or how better we are, but from our maker and what He says about us.

Idealistic? Possibly.

Unrealistic? I don’t think so.
Difficult ? Yes.
Will we do it again, even if we don’t want to? Yes, probably.

But its not about getting It perfect all the time – it’s part of the process of discipleship, part of becoming more and more like Jesus every day and living the life He wants for us.

So lets choose not to be competitive to try and make ourselves look better. Lets choose instead to try and trust the truth about God and ourselves, and love one another.

Lets accept and celebrate the fact that none of us is always right.

That we don’t know everything.

That we’re not the wisest person around.

And no matter how much we know, there will always be at least one person who knows more and is a lot more wise than us.

That, for me, provides great solace and great joy. Because that way we take a whole lot of pressure off ourselves, our value doesn’t come from what we know or being right or better, but from the God who really does know everything and is always with us and taking care of us, and has the power and wisdom to do it perfectly.

That way, we can relish the journey of life with have our eyes and ears open, because we will never be alone and life becomes more of an adventure, as there will always be something new to discover.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Evolving Church: The journey continues

2010-07-06T20:31:00.001+01:00

A while back I wrote about what my future plans might be in terms of my blogging, and discussed the various options available to me. After a time of reflection I’ve decided on a positive way forward.

Its pretty simple really. I have signed up for Posterous, a blogging site which essentially posts your blogs via e-mail. However, before you start worrying where this new site will be, let me explain. The beauty of this site is that when you e-mail your blog post to Posterous, it automatically posts it to any blogging site you use - Wordpress, blogger, anything - and also automatically posts links to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. So what I’ve done is link my Evolving Church blog, my old ‘James Prescott’ blog (on blogger), and my Facebook and Twitter accounts to my new Posterous account.

So, practically speaking, this means that wherever you’ve been reading my blogs, you can continue to read them at the same web address. So in one sense, nothing changes, but in another, things do. The real change will - and was always going to - be that the nature of my blog posts will be a bit more expansive, and it being posted on a Posterous blog with my name and a different emphasis will allow me to have a bit more freedom in terms of what I post, which is what I was really seeking.

I have more posts to share with you and new ideas I’m working on, including a very exciting concept - not necessarily a blog post - I have just come up with which is literally still in the very early stages, and may take some time to develop. As I do more study, in particular of the Bible, the nature of what I post my change, but I hope my style doesn’t.

I try to communicate what I hear and reflect on in language that all of us can understand. I believe that Jesus is part of a bigger conversation about what life is about - the way of Jesus I believe is bigger than religion - though can be expressed through it the best sense of the word - and has equal merit among any other worldview, and needs to be expressed and understood in today’s language, not in cheesy, patronising, religious language and that’s what I will continue to do.

I also hope that I will be able to showcase projects or ministries - in particular creative ones - that maybe are slightly unknown or emerging and which I think you’d all be interested in.

I believe we can see God anywhere in anything, anywhere or anyone, if we really look for Him, and that we need to be looking to constantly expand our vision of who God is and how big He is, we need to keep on making Him bigger and never ‘domesticise Him’ as Shane Hipps spoke about recently. I hope that is something I will always be doing on this site.

Thanks for journeying with me this far, and I would ask you to stick with me as I journey forward. With God, especially a big God, its always an adventure.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Restoring Community 2: The context

2010-06-25T22:00:00.001+01:00

Recently I posted about the whole idea of community and how if we can restore a real sense of authentic community within our church context, and take that vision into the communities in which we live and work, we can rebuild relationships within our communities, and rebuild the lost sense of community in our culture.

What I want to briefly address today is how this concept of community will look different depending on the culture and location in which we were born and live. For example, on a bigger scale how we do community, the processes and practicalities of community, will look different in a Western capitalist culture than it will in Eastern or African culture - merely because those cultures are very different than ours, the way the people see the world is different and their circumstances are different.

The importance of this principle of community exists, but the way it looks will inevitably be different - and not just in different parts of the world, but even different depending on the town and borough you live in. Different communities have different needs, different circumstances, different types of people, so their roles will be different.

It sounds obvious but its not. So often we want a 'one size fits all' method of solving different problems, but in practical living out of faith and building community there isn't going to be a 'one size fits all' idea.

The only 'one size fits all idea' is Jesus on the cross - the love, grace, mercy, forgiveness and sacrifice of Jesus for all of us, the invitation for us all to join in the building of His kingdom. And even then how we understand and hear that will depnend on our background, upbringing and culture, and which theological ideas we subscribe to and what our church background is - which in turn impacts how we live it practically.

Some people think you can just 'do what the Bible says', as if there is only one correct way to hear the scriptures. But how you hear it will depend on who you are, your cultural and religious background. There will always be context, perspective and room for interpretation. There is no such thing as a 'neutral' view of scripture, indeed there is arguably no such thing as a 'neutral' perspective at all. All our opinions, beliefs and views are shaped by our experience, knowledge, background and culture. If you believe something, it came from somewhere, its been shaped by something.

The bottom line from a Christian worldview is, ultimately, Jesus. A man - the Son of God - who lived a sinless life, faced all the temptations and sufferings we do and unjustly suffered and died, and according to the scriptures (and at least 500 witnesses) rose again for the restoration of all things - including the forgiveness of sin. Jesus is the centre of it all. That, ultimately is where it begins and ends.

Outside of that however there is inevitably going to be context, interpretation, re-interpretation and perspective. How we have been born and shaped will impact how we interpret and live out the way of Jesus, and ultimately that will shape our local churches and communities, and that's a positive thing. God made us all differently and all of us, both as individuals and communties of any kind, grow up in different environments with different needs and perspectives.

So, inevitably the practicalities of how we do community, how we do church, will be different wherever we are and whoever we are.

People are always going to disagree on the finer points of thelogy, ecclesiology (study of church), as much as they will on politics. But there are reasons for it, and we need to embrace our differences and accept them, and focus on loving and honouring God with all we have and loving one another as we love ourselves, and as we should be loved - Jesus said Himself the rest of it all comes from those two things, and if we seek to do those things, in the context of the cross and resurrection, we can be well on our way to building both the kind of church Jesus wanted and restoring community wherever we are.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Restoring community

2010-06-22T19:46:00.001+01:00

The Budget today brought to mind some things which have been festering in my mind for a while. The Conservative party have made spending cuts and increased taxes in order to stabilise the economy and sort out our debt. Any responsible government would have done this - although in my opinion not in the way its been done, however, that's what's happened. Lower-income workers will be hit hard by the VAT rise, poorer families by the freeze in child benefits and child trust funds, and sure start. Many people, especially poorer or low-income families in the London area, will be hit by the housing benefit cut.

The reality is though someone was always going to suffer for the tremendous economic problems we have right now. The answer is not to debate the rights and wrongs of economic policy - and I can not and never will agree with cuts that hurt the poor more than the rich - the answer to the problems, however idealistic, lies in, believe it or not, the Bible - the book of Acts, Chapter 2 v44-47 :

"All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.."

Check out the highlighted line again.

They were all together,
they had everything common,
and if people were in need they sold property and possessions in order to meet their needs.

In other words, they made sacrifices from their own plenty to give to those in need. Now this idea seems counter-cultural today, and one reason often given for ignoring this concept of sharing things between each other is often dismissed as something that people did 'in those times'. Now obviously, in case you hadn't noticed, there are cultural differences between now and 2000 years ago.However, this concept that the early church had in place wasn't cultural. It was counter-cultural then as well. The idea of everyone being in community and sharing food and possessions was counter-cultural at that time too.

Now I'm not saying we all sell all our possessions and give to the community. But what I am saying is have a different attitude towards what we own, towards our money, indeed, towards other people. We need to be more willing to give of our own time, energy and money for the needs of others. There needs to be a cultural shift - which brings me to my main point.

You see, the sharing of possessions isn't even the biggest deal.

The biggest deal is the concept of community.

This is a concept foreign to people growing up today. I remember growing up in a time when everyone knew everyone down their road, especially people of a similar age. We knew our neighbours, shared food with them - extra fruit from the tree, extra cakes we'd made - and we all used to go out and play down the road and no-one worried. You could leave your front door ajar when you went out to play (as long as someone was in the house), and you knew it was safe. As a child you could go and round your neighbours house to play and feel totally safe. Parents trusted neighbours to keep an eye on their kids, they all knew each other and trusted each other. If there was a problem, an emergency there were people there.

Yes, it was really like that.

For example, the many times my Mum was rushed into hospital, we didn't need to panic about a babysitter. A neighbour was always on hand to help babysit or anything else that needed doing.

Always.

In fact when my mum was really ill, there was almost a rota of mainly neighbours - but also church people too (who all lived locally anyway) who volunteered. One neighbour babysat so often I got to know them quite well, which is quite an achievement at 8 years old.

The point is there was real trust between people. A real sense of community.

Indeed, I am still in touch with several of the people down who lived down my old road - some still do - and the ones I don't see I always seem to find out the latest on.

There is so much fear in our culture now.

We live in a culture run by fear.

Advertisers market through a form of fear - its not obvious of course,,its not scary fear, but its fear nevertheless. More than ever people are concerned about diet, healthy lifestyle, and making yourself look as young as possible as long as possible, avoiding ageing, avoiding death as long as possible. The number of laws regading political correctness in every area of life is testament to a fear of offending someone, a way of avoiding something, not standing for anything and keeping things private. Our culture is less and less about community and more about individualism, entitlement, personal 'rights', doing what's best for me, taking care of me as no one else will take care of me - no one can be trusted.

The natural assumption is not to trust, rather than to trust. Cynicism is alive in our culture more than ever. Faith and religion are to be kept private, whereas new atheism -which is not a religion or belief system according to many - gets allowed to behave the same way because its basis comes from 'facts', which are more important than faith (forgetting the gospels and Acts are all a telling of actual historical events witnessed by many people).

The message of Jesus has been lost amidst the divisions in the Church of England, the many issues surrounding the Catholic church and people's general perception of church - as well as many Christians' own dissolusionment with traditional church.

So there are multiple problems and our culture needs to shift. Consumerism cannot go on forever - with the new financial reality we simply won't be able to consume as much. People are going to be compelled to find new solutions, to find new realities, to start being less individualistic.

There is an opportunity here.

A chance for followers of Jesus to reclaim what the message of Jesus really means, to change the perception of what church and following Jesus really means, to even grow the church.

But not just that, there is an authentic chance, maybe once in a lifetime chance, to redefine our culture. A chance to bring sense out of all the chaos and deal with the wider issues facing our nation and the world right now, to restore trust, hope and rebuild communities. To build relationships between people, a sense of togetherness in the communities we live and work in. To bring people together. And this has implications not only for meeting need, but for tacking social problems, issues of crime and violence.

All through the pracitice of relationship.

How do we do this?

By modelling community in our churches, by emphasising the importance of relationships in what we do inside and outside of church meetings. Through being community, being family in the way Jesus intended, and the early church modelled. Meeting each others needs, serving one another, working to meet the needs of our community, coming together to face the bigger problems in our culture, being outward looking, providing a safe place for people - a come as you are culture of acceptance, grace and love - but which is engaged with the real issues and problems we face, involved in our experiences, and that engaged with the bigger picture of what is happening in the world and not separate from it. That means working with local government, social services, MP's and organisations or charities at work within our area to help build local communities. By using our church buildings as resources for the local community, by joining together in nationwide but localised projects like the Foodbank which meet needs in our communities.

We need to bring the people of our communities together and build that community spirit, we need to encourage relationships between the people in our communities, which can be done through community projects of various kinds meeting people's different needs, projects which encourage people of the community to get involved and where we can show them the value of community, but also show them practical, living faith in Jesus.

When it comes to our own church communities, there needs to be a community, family, discipleship emphasis in how we approach church, how we run our home groups, how we do outreach and mission. There needs to be a missional focus, and a discipleship focus. Our churches need to seek to become communities of people who are seeking to live out their faith where they live and work, not just within the confines of church meetings and activities, a community where there is authentic Christian discipleship taking place. Many churches are already doing this - ones like my own one in Sutton - and in my opinion these are the type of churches that are going to be most engaged with the world, the ones that will grow, the ones that will attract non-Christians. Its largely through actions that the church is going to change the perceptions, change the adjectives which are used in relation to church and the Christian faith. In a world where people find it hard to believe anything any public figure - including religious ones - say anymore, its our actions that will speak loudest.

However, having said that, in a thriving, growing, true Christian community there needs to be quality teaching about Jesus, and it needs to be in the language and experience of the world we live in, not cheesy religious jargon, teaching which is creative and innovative, teaching which confronts reality and helps people to find the Jesus in their own circumstances, in their everyday, and encourages a sense of community and family. Teaching which challenges us to live a Jesus-centered life but at the same time speaks of the immense love, grace and mercy of God, and the restoration of all things which is made possible through the cross of Jesus. Teaching that doesn't use the language of religion, that opens people's eyes and changes the perception of church and the Christian faith, and points people towards true authentic Christian discipleship. And when we talk to people about Jesus, lets not use cheesy jargon, lets tell our story, lets show people what Jesus has been doing in our lives, lets be honest about our faith. Forget the jargon and the cheese, lets really be real about our faith and why we believe what we do, and how its impacted us.

We can show people we live our lives according to a bigger story, a different agenda, and one that can meet all our needs. Something people can put their security in and where people can find their true identity. Where love, community and relationship is valued more than money, status or possessions.

In doing that, we can change our culture, we can reorder our culture on a larger scale to something more like the kind of culture Jesus intended. It starts with all of us in our church communities, each reaching out and looking out to meet the needs of the communities we are part of and seeking to engage with them.

Now I'm not saying we will all become Christians, or we will do it perfectly, or that it will be easy. I know, it does sound idealistic, and redefining culture is not a short-term process, it takes time, effort, commitment, vision and prayer. There may be setbacks on the way. Indeed, this vision is only really being birthed in my heart and mind and I am sure that over time experience, knowledge and reflection will allow me to articulate it better and more practically, and to explore it in more depth. In time what I say now might turn out to be a bit niave. But I have always been someone who likes to see the bigger picture, believe in hope and try and cast a vision, so here I am.

I believe it can happen, if we reclaim the real heart of church - authentic Christian discipleship in authentic community - and look outwards to try and make that reality true wherever we live and work, both as individuals and as church communities. If we capture that vision of community and the values of Jesus, spreading out into the communities we live and work in, it can be done.

Ultimately though its not about what I say. Its about action. Its about the hard graft, the nuts and bolts of doing it, the sheer effort and slog of working these things out and making them happen, the tough journey of discipleship, where this will all be played out. Its a process that will be tough, but will be worth the effort. It's a process that will go on and on, and never end. There will always be more challenges, struggles to overcome and difficulties to face. There will be setbacks.

But we need to grasp this vision, because more than any government policies, this has the power to change communities. By resurrecting community in the world at large through building authentic Christian community. By rebuilding community through modelling it ourselves.

Bill Hybels once said 'The local church is the hope of the world'. Rarely has a truer word been spoken, and rarely have those words seemed so appropriate.

Posted via email from James Prescott

Evolving Church and me - where next?

2010-06-19T12:05:00.001+01:00

Last week I posted about my moment of clarity I had recently about myself, my development and discipleship, and where God was leading me with writing and speaking. I said there were other things I wanted to share with you, and this is the time for me to do this.

Yesterday I finally ‘went public’ about this with a group of people close to me. I have mentioned this issue here, but I had not actually shared it with friends properly and got some accountability. Yesterday, when it was revealed that in house group we’d be talking about things we run away from, I knew exactly where God was going to take me. So I shared essentially the heart of everything I shared the other day, and some of the issues I’d been having. In doing this it was a form of confession, I was going public. In so doing I got feedback and support, I got prayer and some accountability.

This act of confession, prayer and gaining accountability compelled me to think seriously for the first time about what I was going to do with this study time. I could no longer daydream about it and it have no timeline, I had to make a decision. I had in a sense created an inciting incident – as Donald Miller calls them – in my story, something that compelled me to face up to what I was doing and needed to do, and that compelled me to make a decision and do something practical.

Ironically the same day I had already begun work on one idea I had already had, which was to shift the emphasis in my blogging activity. I have increasingly found the label Evolving Church to be restrictive in terms of what I want to do as a blog.

Evolving Church is a vision I have, an umbrella for a number of ideas for talks/books/presentations exploring the nature of church and the Christian faith which I want to pursue medium and long-term. Evolving Church is something I want to continue to develop and work on – but the work I need to do now is study and background.

I realised last night that before I can seriously tackle any of the ideas I have, I need a basic understanding and grounding in the cutlure & world that Jesus lived in and preached to, I need to understand the context of Jesus message and what it meant to those who heard it. I need to grasp the humanity and reality of Jesus world and life, I need context.

I also realised I need to spend more time actually studying scripture and writing from my studies of scripture, and intertwining that with modern cultrual references, metaphors and insights, my own experiences and stories and practical ideas of faith, how I see Jesus in my everyday, and again understanding the context from and to which Jesus spoke and what His words would have meant to His hearers can help me better interpret that for today’s culture and see to whom and what, Jesus is really speaking to.

I want to go on sharing my journey of faith with you, and thinking about new ideas and concepts, I want to keep my eyes open to see the Jesus in everything, everywhere and everyone, in the everyday, in my own life and lives of others. I want to keep exploring and understanding more about the story of Jesus we are all part of, the invitation to be part of the restoration and reconciliation of all things to how Jesus always intended them to be – the heart of the way of Jesus.

I want to keep looking outwards, keep thinking progressively, creatively and innovatevely about the way of Jesus and what it means to do church. I am passionate about understanding and exploring what it is to be a community of disciples, what Jesus really meant by church, the new humanity of Jesus, and what it means to be a follower of Jesus – a disciple, rather than a believer – and to explore the ideas/concepts of the Sabbath, creativity and how the way of Jesus isnt’ a religion, but a way of life – not religion but church, as well as the concept/process of evolution in church.

The vision of evolving church in my life has not dimmed. The evolutionary process that takes place in nature and is constantly taking place in church, and which I believe is preferable to continual revolution, is still a passion and a vision I want to explore and develop – and communicating this in several different ways, spoken, visual and written, are all ideas I have and want to explore.

This is simply the next step in my discipleship, the next chapter in my story.

In order to fulfill the vision I have to the full I realise now that I need to be fully prepared, that I need to have a solid foundation. This house cannot be built on sand, it needs to be built on a rock and this is the best way for me to do that. I don’t ever want to stand still in my walk with Jesus or get into too much of a comfort zone, and this is simply me moving forward with Him. A friend shared a picture which makes a metaphor – its like jumping out of a plane wearing a parachute, in the right spot but not quite able to see my landing spot yet. There is also the fact that I want to devote more time to preparing things to use in my own church context and to write a couple more things for their blog – the Creative Arts blog linked below – which are also both important to my development.

So what does this mean practically?

Well I am still exploring this. Put simply, the blog is not the point anymore. The purpose of the blog really is to be an outlet for the things I’m learning and experiencing as I experience and learn them, and also for distilling ideas and concepts, and moments of inspiration, into bite-sized chunks. I am not altogether sure where this research/study will take me – I am sure much of it will be more likely to appear in teaching/sermon-style pieces than blog posts, although I will probably adapt anything I create into a blog/written form in order to share it with you. I may also share insights from scripture I’ve had, if I believe its right to share them.

But the point is not where or when or even if people see it. I am sure whatever happens the fruit will speak for itself in some way, but I need to get away from the idea of needing people’s approval to validate what I do, or gaining my value from simply posting blogs and getting good responses. There has to be purpose to me posting/blogging/sharing something, and I will continue to do this as and when appropriate – but only when it is. This means there may be periods where I don’t post at all, and other periods with frequent posts.

But where will this be?

There are two options. The first is to keep this site going under another more inclusive name, and the second is to start a fresh blog somewhere else and keep this here as a resource for myself and others to use. Either would work well, and both have equally valid justification. I will be praying about this and of course I will inform you all of what I eventually decide. And again, for those who know me, in all this I would ask you keep me accountable. I now have accountability from several people in my church for this, and the more I have the better in one sense, as it will keep me focussed and committed to what I am doing.

I hope you can continue to join me on this journey wherever it leads, and my hope and prayer for you is that through sharing my journey, and through what I experience and learn, that you too will be blessed and be challenged and grow in your own faith, that things I share can in some way become part of your story too.

Posted via email from James Prescott

The final post

2009-04-04T00:24:00.007+01:00

I have been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting recently, and have come to a decision regarding the future of my writing/blogging.

In recent months I've been trying to write two blogs with two very different focuses and while I believe the motivation and the vision behind that was the correct one, that ultimately it is becoming too much of a drain on me.

I've also begun to feel recently that the blogs were becoming more of an obligation, almost like a job. They have become something I felt I had to do rather than something I was passionate about. It had become more of a chore and the joy and the purpose seemed to be dissipating.

Recently I've had to contend with a lot of internal issues and one of the outcomes is essentially that I now feel like I need to pay more attention to what I write and what goes out on my blog.

In essence, instead of just writing straight from the heart, which is often what I have done in the past, and my gift of writing has got me through, I think now is the time to largely leave that behind and put more preparation into my posts.

In thinking about that, I've also come to realise that carrying on with two blogs is just not going to be manageable from now on.

My real passion is the church, the future of the church, what church should be and could be and how we can communicate the gospel more relevantly, and I think those messages are best communicated through my newer blog, www.jamespressgang.wordpress.com (the link is 'Evolving Church' on the right)

This is the 'Evolving Church' blog I started last year, and I think that site rather than this now more accurately reflects where I am in my faith and what God is speaking to me about.

Therefore, this will mean that from now on I will only be posting new posts/blogs on my 'Evolving Church' site, and that this will be the last post on this site 'James Prescott'.

This site has been a real journey for me, from when it started in 2006, and I think I have now moved on to a point where I've done all I wanted to do here.

The site will remain open and you'll be able to read all the posts I've written, but other than that my work on this site is done.

Thanks to everyone who has read or contributed to this site, it really means a lot to me and it wouldn't have been the same without you. I've loved writing this blog, but they say everything that has a beginning has an end, and this is the time to end.

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If you want to keep reading my work, please go to:

www.jamespressgang.wordpress.com

www.jamespressgang.ning.com

(or just click on 'Evolving Church' or 'James Prescott's Network' on the links)

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If you want to contact me:

E-mail/msn: jamespressgang@hotmail.com

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Thanks everyone! :-)

A new development - 'James Prescott's Network'

2009-02-26T22:14:00.002Z

Another new developement on in terms of my site and my work.

The new development is my 'James Prescott Network' on Ning. I've realised that although its important that I continue with my respective blogs, 'Evolving Church' and 'James Prescott' (see links below), that its now important that I have a space where people can connect with me and with a bit more personally, with photos and videos and all that jazz.

For this I have decided to actively promote my new Ning network page. The link is now on my links below (along with my new 'Rob Bell' link which I'd really encourage everyone to check out - more on that in another post). If you are already on Ning then you can become a member of my network, if not you can still read and view all the information on the homepage, just click on the link 'James Prescott's Network' on the links below.

I will keep on running the two sites I write now independently, and so as far as this site goes northing will change and new posts will appear as usual.

The network is a place I will try to update this place with news on anything significant I'm doing personally and hopefully with first news of any major projects round the corner, or major developments. I'll also be doing some book recommendations and posting some more teaching from Youtube, from Rob Bell and others I find useful, as well as blogs which I want to recommend.

The network is basically a place where people can connect with me and benefit from the resources I find as well, while still being able to read my two blogs.

As I've said both this and my other blog will still operate in themselves independently of the site, but will feed into that page so as well, so as to keep all my resources in one place.

I'd appreciate it if you guys kept visiting here and my other blog independently of the network, and to encourage that I will only be showing the most recent post in my network home page, and to see others you will need to come here.

Obviously there's a bit of work to be done to get the network all up to speed, but bear with me and I hope it will all be going as I wish very soon!

Please do visit the network and e-mail me your feedback, but also do please keep a regular check on this page as this will be the only site which has all my 'Evolving Church' blogs archived and stored together.

Flow Reflections Part 5 & 6

2009-02-15T20:00:00.004Z

Here are the next two video reflections on 'Flow'. I've just finished this mission, and there will be another videoblog soon reflecting on what I've learnt and how I've grown in this process.

For now, here are parts 5 & 6 of my video reflections on 'Flow'.

Coming soon...Flow: Final Reflections and hopes for the future.

Flow Reflections Parts 3 & 4

2009-02-04T18:39:00.005Z

So here are two more of my video reflections on 'Flow', my church's 'mission into your own life'. There will be more to come soon. One thing I would ask is that you make sure that the volume is turned up to maximum in order to hear them properly.

I know the quality is not brilliant, but I hope you're really blessed through my reflections below.

Hope you liked them. Coming soon, Flow Reflections Parts 5 & 6...

Flow Reflections Parts 1 & 2

2009-01-29T20:26:00.008Z

As promised, here are the first of my blogs on 'Flow', my church's 'mission into your own life'. They are video reflections on my experiences during the first few weeks on the mission.

They're filmed on my mobile as I experienced them, so they are quite raw and authentic.

There are two shown below, and there will be a further two coming very soon, and some more as the mission goes on. I hope that they will be a testament to what God is doing now and will be encouraging for you all.

Watch, enjoy and be blessed!

Hope you enjoyed them both.

Coming soon...'Flow Reflections' Parts 3 & 4.

Coming in 2009

2009-01-27T19:01:00.001Z

A new year, a new look.

Slight change to the look and feel of the site this year, and hopefully with it more of a focus to the site. My 'Evolving Church' site is developing and taking more of my time, but this is still important.

I hope that this year I'll be able to look at some key issues facing Christians today and take them head on. On my 'Evolving Church' site I'm going to be looking at several key issues the Church is facing today, in particular the topic of identity and how important it is to the growth of church.

Here I will be discussing issues like that but more in relation to individual growth rather than its overall impact. I will also be posting some videos here as well, and my 'Flow Reflections' are going to take the form of a video blog (quite raw and unpolished, for authenticity) which will be starting very soon.

Keep reading, its going to be a challenging and interesting year here on my blog.

Nooma 'Dust' - What it means

2009-01-13T18:56:00.005Z

Many of you who know me and have read my blogs know how big a fan I am of Rob Bell, his teaching, books and DVD's.

On one of the DVD's, 'Dust', he talks about God's faith in us and belief in us to follow Him. He uses the story of Peter walking on water, and says that one of the reasons he sinks is becuase he loses faith in himself.

Now this goes against the traditional view of this verse. Many people have attacked Rob Bell for this, but I think I know what he's getting at.

He's not saying that Peter thinks he can do things by himself.

He's not saying that Peter loses confidence in himself and his own abilities.

He is saying he loses faith in His ability to be like Jesus. His ability to become like Jesus and do the things Jesus does. He loses faith in his own value through God.

Jesus calls Peter out, He believes in Peter, and that through the power of God he can do what Jesus himself is doing. Peter keeps his eyes on Jesus, and keeps faith in His ability to do what He does, and has faith in what Jesus has spoken to him to do.

Then Peter doubts. He doubts whether he's truly capable of following his masters footsteps. He's lost faith that he could ever do the things Jesus does, so he takes his eyes off Jesus.

So in fact, both meanings are correct.

Peter loses faith in Jesus, and he loses faith in himself - in his own ability to be like Jesus, to follow Him and do His will.

Jesus does believe in us. He believes that if we follow Him and put Him at the centre of our lives, order our lives around Him then through the power of the Spirit we can become like Him.

Not perfect of course. But as close as is humanly possible.

Jesus entrusted the spreading and building of the kingdom of God to His followers. He beleived in them, that if they were obedient to God and put Him at the centre, and allowed Him to work through them, that they were capable of "even greater things" (his own words).

Rob Bell doesn't for one minute suggest that we can do things for God in our own strength. He doesn't ever say that. What he does say is that Jesus and God beleive and have faith in us to put Him at the centre, and through His power do the things He wants us to do, which are beyond the abilities we would have without Him.

That's what Rob Bell says when he says Jesus has faith in us. He sees who we really are and what we're capable of if we put God at the centre, and wants us to see it too. Then we really put Jesus at the centre of our lives, and we end up doing things by His power and in His name that we never thought we could do, but Jesus always knew we could by His power.

If we lose confidence we can do what God has called us to, if we lose faith and trust in Jesus and take our eyes off Him, if we doubt what He has spoken about us and to us, and we doubt His ability to enable us to do anything He calls us to, then we may fall down. We might get set back.

Indeed, we probably do sometimes.

But that's where Jesus comes in and saves us, and sets us back on the road we were on, and we are stronger for the experience.

Jesus has faith in who we were made to be in His strength. God beleives in the person we can be through faith in Him.

That's what Rob Bell means, and that's a great source of encouragment.

Through faith in Jesus and believing in His call on our lives and in who He made us to be, by His power and in His strength there's nothing we're not capable of.

'Flow' Reflections: Never forget

2009-01-09T18:20:00.003Z

On Wednesday I started a mission with my church called 'Flow', essentially a mission into my own life and re-ordering it around God.

As such, it is my hope that in the next few weeks I will achieve a deeper intimacy with God and will hear from Him in different ways, as such a lot of my posts will be categorised 'Flow Reflections' both for your and my benefit.

This is the first of these.

One dimension of 'Flow' is daily prayers, and as part of this I set reminders on my outlook calendar at work to remind me to pray every hour. At first I was very conscious of this and thinking about it all the time. But eventually I got carried away with my work, and was busy working and talking to people when suddenly, out of the blue, this reminder popped up on my computer, reminding me to pray.

It took me by surprise, because somehow in the busyness of the day I had totally forgotten about my prayers, totally forgot about God.

It brought home to me how easy it can be to get so carried away by the busyness of everyday life that we can simply forget to pray at all, and forget about God completely.

That's a lesson for us all I think, though I think many of us already know this experience.

The whole idea of this mission is to instead put God first and make everything else revolve around and involve Him. I've set my reminders to keep on doing this each hour every day, even after the mission had ended.

I hope that by the time the mission is over I will actually be looking forward to the little 30 second - 1 minute break every hour to remember God, and that my work will start to revolve around that, and around God.

It also occurred to me how we can also get so caught up with doing church-related things, that we forget why we do them in the first place. So busy helping, serving, setting things up and doing things that we start to forget why we're there and who we're doing it for.

That is something as Christians we should beware of.

When we serve, let it be an act of service to Jesus, not just something we do to be helpful or friendly.

In the busyness of life, we need Jesus just to get us through and keep us going, and we need to be kept reminded of what's really important.

Lets not forget about Him.

2009: Challenges, goals and a real hope for us all

2009-01-04T17:47:00.003Z

So a new year is upon us, and I thought it right that both in terms of my personal growth and also the development of this site there are some thoughts I should share.

1)'James Prescott' in 2009

This site will continue to exist, for sure. I will continue to be posting my thoughts and reflections on everyday life within today's culture, as Jesus speaks to me about how to live the Christian life through the things I encounter within my own cultural context, church and Bible study, and I will still be posting those reflections here, though probably not as many as 2008 because of my other site (see below).

2) Evolving Church in 2009

In terms of my other site, www.jamespressgang.wordpress.com , the plan really is to continue developing my ideas about church. That site will be where I post my visions, thoughts and reflections on what church is and how it needs to evolve, adapt, grow and re-define itself for today's world while keeping Jesus at the centre. I'd encourage all of you to regularly check that site as well, as I will be posting there regularly.

I hope to visit some churches this year of many different types, and hopefully around autumn time I'll be writing a piece (probably in two or three parts) with my reflections and conclusions from these visits. I may report on individual visits if something really stands out, but the real benefits of these visits will come out in this series. I also hope to keep posting here my thoughts, vision and reflections on what God wants of church in this coming generation, what church is and isn't and how we can move forward and evolve as a church both locally, nationally and internationally.

3)Flow

I'm doing a church mission called 'Flow'. Essentially this is a mission into my own life and re-ordering my everyday life around Jesus, with daily prayers and bible study, giving, serving and discovering more about myself. I hope to use this to hear more clearly what God is speaking to me about, more about church and also to get into good spiritual disciplines I can continue with after the mission has finished. For me its the perfect way to start the new year, and it begins this Wednesday (7th January) for 40 days.

4)A more disciplined life

The real area I am being challenged and need to grow in this year is my self-discipline, and getting into good disciplined habits. This covers the area of my diet, health and personal fitness, as well as Bible study, prayer and general reading. These are areas God really is challenging me about and I hope to tackle these this year, and have already set some goals in these areas. Living a more disciplined life around the values of Jesus is a key part of anyone's spiritual development and growth to become more like Jesus, and in particular as a leader I feel responsible to get these areas of my life re-ordered this year and develop good habits which will hopefully stand me in good stead for the future and give me a deeper perspective in terms of envisioning and realising the vision of an evolving church.

These are the challenges that face me this year and areas I hope to grow this year. We are all on a journey with God, and this is I think the journey Jesus has for me - and this site - this year. I would appreciate all your prayers and I hope simply the act of writing them down makes them real for me, and will allow me to keep hoping and believing when I'm feeling weak and not up to the challenge.

People may seem to be very despondent in the current climate, and those issues are very real and need to be faced and acknowledged. But life is like that. We face problems and challenges all the time.

There is a very real God who is always with us and equips us with all we need, and gives us strength to persevere. A God on whom we can depend on, who loves us and accepts us as we are, who shows us a better way to live and a new kind of culture to live by.

A God who gives us hope.

As I, this site and all of you enter this year, let us do so acknowledging the challenges ahead, but positive that with the help of our Saviour anything is possible.

Have a great year.

Real Christmas

2008-12-18T21:01:00.003Z

Its that time of year again.

Christmas.

Is it me, or does the real power and meaning of Christmas get more and more drowned every year in the wave consumerism?

What we want for Christmas, what we're giving, what we're doing, what we're eating and drinking.

Does anyone stop to think why?

CHRIST-mas.

Its about Christ. Jesus Christ. The Saviour of the world. Son of God. Who gave up His divinity in Heaven, where He could have stayed forever, so that He could restore the relationship between God and man and give us back our true identity. So that things could still be as God originally intended.

Its about the God who made the universe humbling Himself to become a vulnerable baby so that He could save us.

Its the greatest gift ever given. No wonder we give gifts. No wonder we celebrate. No wonder people feel like there's a new hope for the future.

That's because the real meaning of Christmas is God loving us so much He gave us the greatest gift ever. His own Son. A gift we didn't deserve and can never repay.

The real meaning of Christmas gives us more reason to celebrate, more reason to give, and more reason to have hope than any tradition or consumer dream.

Lets celebrate and enjoy this Christmas, but remembering its true meaning and significance, not allowing both tradition and the consumer dream to take over.

Real Christmas, real celebration, real hope.