Without using language unbecoming of a trainee vicar I’ve had to try to find a way of expressing my delight.

This pic comes close…

Phew.

Great win and great performance today from Wolves. Our front three ‘Stephen’s’ – Ward, Fletcher and Hunt – were outstanding. Always nice to beat our local rivals… it will be nice to have another couple of local derby games next season (if we stay up).

One more win (hopefully at Sunderland next week) should see us safe, although I think it will probably go down to the last game of the season…

Predicting West Ham, Wigan and Blackpool will go down… and I’ve never been right yet.

However, Mick is a good manager, has done wonders with Wolves and now is NOT the time for a knee-jerk reaction. In fact, if we get relegated (and I still think we’ll be OK) Mick must stay in charge.

Got a couple of easy local derby games next. Small Heath and Tesco Town.

Easy…

I’ve not blogged for quite a while for a number of reasons, including various assignments and a nice holiday in Paris, but thought I should probably let people know what’s going to be happening with us in a few weeks time.

We’ve had a fantastic time in Bristol… the last 2.5 years have been amazing – we’ve made lifelong friends, loved our time at Woodlands, and even learnt a bit of theology. But it’s time to move on… and we’re moving to a fantastic place.

Next stop for us is Ealing in West London. We’re joining a great church called St Paul’s and are really looking forward to serving there – you can find out more about the church HERE

I get ordained in St Paul’s Cathedral on Saturday July 2nd… hopefully one of the only times that I’ll have to wear a dress.

I think that its fair to say we are nervously excited. God is so faithful to us and we know that God is with us. We’re looking forward to learning so much from the different people that we’ll meet.

The first session involved more tea drinking and conversation than fishing – in fact I didn’t have a single fish that time, only photographing a cracker of a Barbel for a friend.

My final session on Sunday afternoon was a bit more concentrated – I fished several spots for only a single little Chub, but it was a beautiful afternoon and I really enjoyed just being out. Yet again, the local otter was stalking me along the bank – it dived into the river only a few feet away from me just as I caught the Chub. Saying that, I prefer an otter around to the rats that were scuttling around me in the last spot I fished.

I took a couple of pics on my iphone which I’ve put up of two of the spots I fished.

Next season will see me on a new river or two as we move down to London. I’m really sad to be leaving the Bristol Avon as I’ve had some absolute crackers from it and I’ve got to know this stretch of river very well – in fact I reckon if I had another season I would really do well as I’ve learnt a few little secrets that I wish I’d know last summer. However, I might be back at some point…

I’ve just got back from a men’s breakfast at Woodlands Church where I’d spoken for a few minutes on what is means to hold one another accountable.

When we talk about accountability amongst Christians, we often mean ‘sin management’ – i.e. please help me to stop doing x or y. However, there is so much more to it than this.

Firstly, we have to oppose the idol of individualism. It is not good for men or women to be on our own. We are made for relationships – with God and with people. We are made to connect deeply with others because we cannot come fully alive on our own.

Secondly, we need to recognise that our failures and our successes affect others around us. The idea that “as long my behaviour doesn’t hurt anyone it’s OK” is frankly ridiculous. Our behaviour ALWAYS affects others – even that done in secret or alone. For Christians, this is even more true – we are the body of Christ. When one bit suffers, the whole suffers (1 Cor. 12:26).

Finally, and I think most importantly, accountability should be seen simply as ‘Deep Friendship’. We should always want the best and seek the best for others. This requires us to spur one another on to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24). Accountability means we need to take a positive view on how our life can influence and affect others in a positive way. This deep friendship will result in honesty, openness, transformed behaviour, and influence with others.

Change and transformation is possible, but only when we recognise we are made for community, that our actions affect those around us, and when we spur one another on to love and good works.

I’m always a bit lastminute.com when it comes to thinking about Lent. I always slightly resent the idea of giving stuff up and being frugal…

I want my life to look more and more like Jesus – i.e. if Jesus were to live my life, what would it look like. To be a Christian is to be a ‘little Christ’ so I hope to become more and more like him. That means that when I pray ‘Your Kingdom Come, Your Will be Done’, I also seek to live it out.

So we’ve come up with a simple idea that means doing (or not doing) things that will make these things happen.

Firstly, we’ll do something that imitates something from the life of Jesus that will help us to become more like him. One example of this might be to ‘retreat’ more (see Mark 1:35) and seeking more time on my own with God in prayer. Next, we’ll be doing things that seek to bring in his Kingdom. This might include serving in some way (i.e. soup run or something similar).

LTKC

His children are mascots at the game today, and will be present with their mum during the game.

My first Wolves away game was at Derby County, where we came from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 thanks to two bullet headers from Deano whilst on loan from Bradford. We beat Man Utd to his signature and he became a mainstay of our defence. I think that he is perhaps the best central defender to play for Wolves in my lifetime, although Jo Lescott would run him pretty close.

Puts possible relegation and Champions League qualification into perspective… RIP Deano.

I did a big piece of work last year on universalism (happy to email it to anyone interested) and came to some pretty strong conclusions. I don’t think it ultimately has a leg to stand on biblically, and it fails to deal with serious questions about justice, judgement and the problem of evil.

However, this video gives nothing away to suggest that this is what Bell believes. Nothing. What he seems to do is ask questions about the nature of heaven, hell, Ghandi and a caricature of God that many struggle to align themselves with. Now, he does challenge a few important beliefs (well hints at them) including penal substition and eternal conscious torment. No wonder Piper decided to put his ridiculously inflammatory tweet out “Goodbye Rob Bell” as this is challenging theology that he holds as utterly sacrosanct.

If Rob Bell is stating his belief in universalism then I strongly disagree with him. I’m not convinced that he is. I’m thinking that he is looking to challenge and probe some areas of doctrine, that if deeply rooted in scripture, will withstand his test with ease. Why all the fear and anger? Doesn’t seem particularly loving…

Finally, I do agree with Rob Bell on his final statement – LOVE WINS. Not sure that this means universalism though…

No bites in the first swim, so headed to another spot. Twenty minutes after fishing in this swim an otter splashed and swirled right at my feet… I was on the phone to my lovely wife at the time and yelled in fright down the phone. Sorry love! Thought I should probably move as fish would have long fled the scene…

Fished another spot with no success… starting to wonder what I was doing wrong! Got into a very muddy and precarious spot that has produced BIG fish for more me in the past. Managed to balance myself on a small muddy ledge and dropped the bait into the edge. After about 10mins the rod ripped round and after a good fight I landed a nice Barbel that probably weighed a touch under 8lbs.

Fished several other spots with no success. The rain was getting heavier, making the river banks pretty lethal so swim choice became more about safety than almost anything else! At about 830 I dropped into a new spot that looked nice. After a little while, the rod ripped off again and after a really hard scrap I landed a cracking Barbel that weighed 10lb 14oz.

And my new camera takes good self takes!

By this point I was absolutely soaked but determined to stay till the bitter end. Dropped into another couple of spots with no bites. In the second swim I had another big splash, and upon turning my headlamp on I saw a big otter swimming backwards downstream, its eyes gleaming in my headlight. Bit freaky really, and also the cue for me to head back to the car.

I’ve been fishing the Bristol Avon and Teme for a couple of years and never seen an otter – I’ve now seen three in two trips.

HTB Leadership Conference Talks – http://www.htb.org.uk/leadership-conference/

Vineyard UK Leadership Talks – http://www.vineyardchurches.org.uk/churches-placeholder/resources.html

However, as it began to get dark, I realised that my headlight was running out of battery. Then in the gloom I spotted an otter pop its head up in the middle of my swim. Whilst it is nice to see an otter… I’d rather see it from a distance, a long way from where I’m trying to catch a Barbel. Decided to move fishing swims! However… the headlamp had gone from being a gentle beam to almost nothing, meaning that most of the spots I wanted to try were too dangerous in the dark.

Missed a couple of chub bites and then decided to come home. Temps are going to drop this weekend so perhaps the Pike gear will be coming in the car with me to Tewkesbury next week.

Would not normally be a film that I would choose to see as I’m a simple car chase and explosion kind of chap. However, it was a great film, although incredibly bleak. The three main stars (Carey Mulligan, Kiera Knightly and Andrew Garfield) were superb. Nice to see Clevedon pier and beach substituting for a Norfolk coastline too…

Glad I’ve seen it, but it was certainly a tough watch at times. 8/10.

Had a great time yesterday listening to Mike Pilavachi speak at Woodlands – a leaders morning, and an evening celebration. For more about Mike and Soul Survivor check out HERE

Without wanting to misquote him… I was really struck by his insights on the idol of individualism that we in the West especially bow down to… everything is about ‘I’. I-Pod, i-pad, i-phone… me me me me me me me me me me me.

This i-dol is vicious and demanding… and refuses to satisfy. The key symptom that we see in our society is loneliness. Male suicide, hopelessness, depression, anxiety, fear… all stem from our worship of this idol.

What we need, and what we long for, is real and authentic community characterised by love, acceptance, excitement, fun and celebration. Something Jesus described, ‘The Kingdom of God is like a banquet…’

If God is community – ‘The eternal dance of Father, Son and Holy Spirit’ – and if we are made in his image, then our mandate must surely be to draw others into this eternal community by showing with our lives and our words what this means?

How?

The challenge and longing that I see before me is (as always) to follow the example of Jesus… a friend of ‘sinners’ (whatever that may mean as I’m a big one…) and a host of a good party. Help me God.

For the few of you who have asked me to elaborate on my cryptic tweeting over the last couple of days, I’ve put this little post together – it is by no means complete and I’m probably doing some of the things I’ve read a bit of an injustice, but here are some of the things that I’ve picked up from some social historians about church decline… some really interesting and challenging things that even 150yrs later we’ve still not dealt with. This is a bit generalised and perhaps simplistic, but I think the principles are valid… so here are three that seem really key, and are relevant to today.

1. Church Competition – denominations seeking to out-do each other in the building stakes led to far too many churches/seats for people. Churches seemed more empty and this led to a loss of atmosphere, a spreading of resources (more pressure on fewer people), a decline in morale and confidence etc. Sound familiar?

2. Church utterly disconnected from everyday life and people – it is often said that WW1 led to a dramatic decline in Christian faith and churchgoing, especially amongst men. Whilst churchgoing did drop generally (decline that had begun in the late 1800s and hadn’t increased that dramatically), faith DEFINITELY didn’t. Army chaplains surveyed loads of soldiers about faith and church. Hardly ANY lost their faith, in fact being at war seemed to strengthen their faith. However, the church had buried her head in the sand and lost touch with people. They didn’t provide a place for horror and trauma to be processed. The church did not seem in touch with everyday life, the workplace, unemployment etc. This is why they left – not because they had lost their faith.

3. Sexual revolution – the 1960s had a massive effect on church going. Callum Brown believes that this was the point (he even puts it onto 1963) that the church really began to decline – I disagree with parts of this – churchgoing began to decline significantly in the 1880s. However, this cultural change led to the beginning of postmodernity (everything before was questioned and often rejected, including the church). Again, the church became defensive, battened down the hatches, and failed to deal with this cultural change – what we see today with the church battling around the issue of sex and sexuality.

These three issues are hugely generalised and a bit negative about church – there are LOADS of examples of great churches and ministries that have grown and are growing. I’m not a pessimist at all… in fact church attendance grew significantly between 1945-1958, and in London today, churches are growing and thriving.

These same three things are issues for us today… and they are challenges that we must engage with. Too many empty churches means the same today that it did a hundred years ago. As we move into a post-denominational age, joining with other Christians and churches will be a necessity (and an exciting one at that). God’s people are called to be engaged and dug into the world – Get Stuck In (good blog name I reckon). We’ve got to address issues around sexuality with love, grace and truth. A failure to do these things will cost us even more ground…

Books that I’ve been reading – Robin Gill – The Empty Church Revisited; Callum Brown – Death of Christian Britain; Alan Jamieson – Churchless Faith. Also, a must read is ‘UnChristian’ by Gabe Lyons and David Kinnaman. Have also picked up a few things from other places as well.

I’m the kind of person who always has plenty to say, and more often than not I’m prepared to say it. Haven’t done so online for a while. Makes me think about the value of times, seasons even, when those who are like me need to stop ourselves from speaking. Even if we think its important.

Will be blogging a bit more from now on… for the three of you that read it!

OK… so you’re all salivating at my awesome sandwich. But as its Christmas, I thought that I’d let you all know how I make this culinary masterpiece.

Ingredients and Instructions

Take a big white bap, cut in half, butter both sides

Take some of the gravy from Christmas lunch (will probably be fairly solid – no worries) and spread over the butter

Add turkey – quantity is up to you – I recommend 2/3 thin slices

Add stuffing – ensure that you have a sample of every type (we had 3 types of stuffing) in the sandwich

Vegetables – I don’t recommend adding potatoes but parsnips work very well – slice thinly and add to sandwich

Pigs in blankets – slice lengthways and put in

Extras – ALWAYS add some bread sauce and cranberry sauce

Use a napkin

Enjoy!

Anyway… here are my top six tracks from the last year

Kings of Leon – Radioactive

Florence and the Machine – Dog Days are Over

Mumford and Sons – Awake my Soul

The Killers – Human

Jay-Z – Empire State of Mind

Timbaland feat. One Republic – Marching On

Best film of the year… probably Inception, although The Social Network was superb as well.

Guilty pleasures… . Also, the A-Team. Terrible story, poor script and ridiculously bad acting (especially Liam Neeson). However, I absolutely loved it.

Surprise of the year… Streetdance 3D for sure. (Thanks to my nieces who made me go!). Superb in 3D – Matrix-esque camera shots for some dance moves.

Stinker of the year… a few contenders but I think Clash of the Titans was probably the worst. Worse than awful.

I need that!!

Well worth a read…

Here’s the link to click on – BREATHE NETWORK