I had a knee replacement 8 weeks ago, so in between lots of exercise I have had time to catch up with some reading!

Right Here, Right Now by Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford is a ‘must read’. This book got me very excited, so I make no apology in doing a review for this blog.

When I read Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch in 2006 it blew my mind but I felt frustrated as I couldn’t communicate Alan’s ideas to many of my church leaders, even though my own understanding of mission had been liberated and energised. David Bosch said, ‘It is not so much that God has a mission for his church in the world, but that God has a church for his mission in the world’. That simple idea was hard for me to explain!

‘Right here right now’ challenges us to start today…. yes, you and me….and start in the place where God has put us today. I have been waiting since 2006 for my church to have mission at the centre of everything, but many are still muddled and think of mission as just a great extra activity. I can’t wait any longer…since reading ‘Right here right now’ I am no longer frustrated, I am released like an arrow out of a long bow. As Prof Leonard Sweet said in his review of the book, ‘It’s now time for doing’. God wants us all to be involved in ‘every member ministry’

Mission is risky, it means going out of our comfort zones. Jesus intended us to pair up, so don’t go it alone (Luke 10). We know from several studies that within three to five years of a person becoming a Christian, they will have few meaningful relationships with anyone outside the church. Hence our own mission activities should be focussed outside the walls of the traditional church, and we need to keep strong connections with the secular community.

Anyone reading this who wants to talk or pray further can email me at eddie.james@cvm.org.uk or post a comment. You may find shapevine.com useful.

A final quote from Albert Einstein ‘There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.‘

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My experience as a civil engineer working on development projects for many years in 10 African countries taught me a lot.  I discovered that the most effective and sustainable outcomes always come from projects that are bottom up and not top down. I am not just talking about money but ideas, leadership and information.

‘Listen to the poor‘ was the advice I was given by UNHCR before one of my missions to Tanzania.  Following this advice blessed me greatly.  I learned so much from the farmers, community workers, mechanics and labourers.  More importantly they learned to express their feelings and formulate ideas which in turn empowered them.

The same principles apply to us here today in the UK.  The poor are feeling disempowered because they are not being listened to.  The church has a vital part to play in leading by example.  We have God as our partner, we are not alone.  It is important that the local churches send out their public, private and voluntary sector workers fully equipped with prayer, encouragement and training. ‘We are not wrestling against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers in high places.’

This mission is urgent and important.  Start this week with your prayer triplet or home group.  Discuss how each member can be supported in their work place.

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As well as this weekly blog, written by a team of 10, we hope to have another team to lead interactive seminars at the CVM regional day conferences on topics that are important to the over 50`s.

These topics could include subjects that may not be covered in depth by the churches such as:

– Reaching Boomers….born 1944-64
- Care for elderly men in homes and at home
- Preparation for retirement….discovering your next vocation
- Discipling and ‘every member ministry’ ….No passengers!
- Social care…..Word AND deed
- A fulfilling life with the over 80`s……the last lap
- Men`s health and fitness

Running in parallel with the seminars will be a web based discussion forum that you can access from the CVM web site. The forum will be divided up into topic groups. This can then include those who can`t attend the CVM regional days, live overseas or simply wish to continue the discussion started at the seminar. You can input to as many topic groups as you wish. Each group would have an editor/ coordinator.

Please email me direct if you know of anyone who would like to be involved as a seminar leader, discussion group coordinator or blog writer. Please contact me if you would like more details or have suggestions for titles of topic groups. If any of the topics mentioned above are close to your heart please let me know.

eddie.james@cvm.org.uk

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Sitting in the stadium, on the middle Saturday night of the Olympics, soaking in the atmosphere with the sun setting and a kaleidoscope of colour decorating a fading blue sky. All of this just enhanced the atmosphere and experience for those who were there that night, for as the events unfolded something special was about to happen, other nights would also be special but this one wasn’t equalled until the middle Thursday of the Para-Olympics.

Each time a British athlete appeared to compete in a race the decibel levels rose to a point that it could be described as dangerous to your ears and it also created so many memories that it was difficult to take them all in. When Greg Rutherford, Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah won their gold medals everyone who was there stood in amazement and were lost for words and they needed to see the replays just to refresh themselves on what they were part of with 80000 others and countless millions watching elsewhere.

Also the Olympics and Para-Olympics have been breaking all sorts of attendance records, and many visitors visited the park just wanting to revel in these special times that it created and because it gave everyone a memory to take home with them.

The Olympics and Para-Olympics have left a mark on our nation, along with the Diamond Jubilee; they have created something that hasn’t been evident for a while, a sense of community and togetherness.

There has been much talk of the legacy these games will leave but will it be one that will last and what will happen after the show has left town and the media hype has dwindled into oblivion? Will the efforts of the athletes, coaching and support staff, organisers, and games maker volunteers be mirrored in society or will it just vanish into thin air? It is down to you and me to carry it forward.

Perhaps we need to think of the legacy as one which we as God’s people can be part of and by focusing on the Lord we can have a closer walk with Him. He needs us to be salt and light in a world which has lost its way. It is exciting to think that every time we step outside our front door we can be serving our Saviour simply by being his people to family, friends and neighbours we meet them in the street.

We need to follow the athlete’s legacy of determination, dedication and discipline in being a disciple and to follow the calling of the great commission. Then we will see how the Lord uses our obedience to His glory.

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On 12th June more than eighty Christian leaders from throughout the UK gathered alongside Parliamentarians for an hour of listening to God in silence in Parliament. Anglicans, Baptists, Catholics, and Christian leaders from a wide cross-section of ministries were present. Following the time of silence they all had an opportunity to share what they believed they had heard. The following is a short summary of that feedback:

• God’s appointed time to judge the nations of the world is very nearly upon us. Our nation, and its church have turned away from God and His standards and we are beginning to see and feel the resulting judgement.
• A remnant of Britain’s covenant past, its Christian heritage and the good fruit of our worldwide missionary zeal remains. We should embrace our spiritual sons and daughters from the nations, who have returned to help us. It is possible that God may yet act out of mercy to avert the very worst of the judgement that we have brought upon ourselves. The Church is called to be the voice of hope and compassion.
• The shaking of every part of man’s world-wide economic, social, political and religious systems has begun. It will be a time of great humbling, purification and refining in every aspect of society. Only what is built on the foundations that God requires will be permitted to remain – righteousness, truth and justice.
• When the judgement has run its course, God has promised to restore us. This restoration must follow God’s revealed strategies and guidelines and not be led astray again by man’s initiatives and good ideas.
• Because of His great love for this nation and all of its people, God’s heart is breaking and He longs for us to respond to Him, as individuals, as a church, and as a nation. The time to respond is now.

This is a summary report on an ‘Hour of Listening’ in Parliament on June 12th 2012 by Dennis Wrigley, Michael Fenton-Jones and Nicholas Szkiler of ‘Together for the Nation’ – a coalition of Christian ministries. Nick Szkiler has been praying with Eddie James for 10 years, and he believes this should be reported and prayed through widely. A full transcript of the feedback is available upon request.

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50 plus blog is produced by a team of 10 writers, it’s a weekly blog that is published every Thursday. Eddie James co-ordinates the blog and is looking for a few more writers – interested?

We are encouraging the churches involved in level 1 and 2 events to broaden their activities to include community service (such as the Besom) and also to involve teams of men of all ages. It is important to show a wider spectrum of activities in the CVM presentations and also to encourage the church members to be involved in all age teams. Besom works in large geographical areas, e.g. across a city and across all denominations, so that small churches and individuals can be involved.

We are also looking for specialists and advocates to speak on behalf of the lonely, vulnerable, sick and the old. For example men in old people’s homes need activities such as invitations to football matches and pub quiz nights. A recent survey showed that men in homes were not being stimulated mentally or spiritually as they were outnumbered by women and felt ignored by the overworked staff. Many churches are not aware of this and don’t invite the men to their services. We need to encourage the older men who are housebound.

Another important and urgent area of communication to the churches is reaching the ‘Boomers’. The Boomers were born between 1944-64 and are the last generation in the UK to have a background of the life of Jesus. Many have left the church as they found it boring, unadventurous and irrelevant. Roger Standing in his book ‘Re-emerging church’ has researched this and I have found that the few churches that are focused on the Boomers are alive.

It looks as though we will need many advocates as the public sector becomes underfunded and overstretched during this recession. Jesus commanded us to preach and heal. Word and deed.

So far I have outlined only 3 areas:
- Social action
- Care for the elderly
- Adventure for the Boomers
but I am sure that this is only the start.

A big thank you to Mike Bartrop, Steve Martin, Kevin Cruise and Dave Lodge for their encouragement in this venture. And of course a big thank you to the blog team.

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As we live in a world where Twitter has restricted information to 140 characters, we thought it would be interesting to apply this format to a list of ‘Ultimate Spiritual Goals’

We would like to make an anonymous list of these ‘tweets’ to show the variety of our goals in our walk of faith. The list may be published.

Please finish the sentence “My ultimate spiritual goal is …”

Use a maximum of 140 characters … not including the first 5 words!

This is a way of looking at your life that may be useful to you. There are no ‘correct’ answers.

You may like to do the exercise in a small group and share your goals.

If you would like to share in our larger group please email your goal to Eddie James (eddie.james @ cvm.org.uk) by 17 May. You can also tweet it to us @cvm50plus or post it on our new CVM 50 Plus Facebook page.

Many thanks for taking part in this venture.

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I was born in 1940, by 1955 I was in a skiffle group playing the tea chest! Then along came the ‘Boomers’, those born 1944-64. They developed our musical ideas and invented rock and roll along with the pill, computers, hydraulic excavators and even digital drum kits!!

Those post-war-bulge babies are now retiring, they have plenty of money, energy, ideas, imagination, management experience, social skills … they certainly don`t think they are ‘old’, they just embarrass their kids, as we always have!

The ‘Boomers’ are the last generation who went to Sunday School and Crusaders in large numbers, they know a little about the life and ministry of Jesus, they know that Easter is more than eggs. They drifted away from church for a variety of reasons, it was not relevant, their gifts were not being used, it was boring.

How do we re-engage those who have a residual Christian faith but have left church? Many have a nostalgia for their past, they have explored alternative spiritualities and found them empty. They are talented and experienced and are looking for a challenge and adventure. They are looking for a lot more than an invitation to a ‘guest service’, this is far too passive for most.

But they might well respond to a partnership in social or development projects, to work alongside the church community to the benefit of our localities. If you make disciples, you’ll always get the church. But if you make the church, you rarely get disciples.

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One definition of ‘Civilisation’ is ‘how a society cares for the vulnerable … the sick, the old, the homeless and the weak.’

There are 376,000 older people living in 10,000 care homes in England. Many do not have access to a geriatrician, who could significantly improve their quality of life by taking an overview of their complex age-related health problems. Of those that do have access, some have to wait as long as 18 weeks to receive treatment. The average life expectancy of an older person entering a care home is 18 months!

A recent pilot study for a national care group on the ‘Spirituality of Older Men’, highlighted the importance of men from the local church befriending men in care homes and taking them out. Men in care homes are outnumbered significantly by women so the culture is inevitably feminised leaving men marginalised. Their spiritual and social needs are very varied: one to one Bible discussion, invitation to a men’s breakfast, a pint down the pub, a trip to a football match or a car ride to a good beach.

The majority of local churches are not involved with visiting the men in care homes. Such visits require a dedicated team who are flexible and imaginative. Advocacy skills within the team will be important to enable any dissatisfaction or frustration to be brought to the management’s attention. Residents often feel unable to complain on their own behalf. It will take time to build up relationships and trust with both the staff and residents. Remember also that about 40% of residents have dementia … just one more thing to embrace!

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In Biblical times there were no social security plans or retirement savings schemes, the same applies today in many countries of the world. This is why the Bible commands us to have special concern for widows, orphans and the weak and needy. (Ps 82:3-4)

When I ‘retired’ from my last full time paid vocation as a university lecturer in Civil Engineering and Rural Development in Africa and Asia, the thing I missed the most was the social aspect not the technical. I missed the buzz of learning from an African peasant how to motivate and animate a village community. Teaching together in the same room a group of Jewish, Arab, French and English students. Knocking on a stranger’s door in the middle of the Congo and asking for B&B … the hospitality of strangers who became close friends.

The golf course and growing my own veg was not as exciting and certainly not as fulfilling as my paid job! But I kept listening to God, He knew my heart better than I did! Then three interesting and fulfilling mission- centred part- time jobs came along, one of them being with CVM.

We should not drift into ‘retirement’, God has a plan for each one of us, and how we prepare for this phase of our lives is as important as how we prepared for our first job. Each one of us has a unique set of contacts and skills. I have always been a tentmaker missionary, working outside the established church, so my present calling has followed on from my activities as a civil engineer quite naturally.

May I give you a practical suggestion? Start a prayer triplet, or connect 3 with a couple of guys you trust and ask God to open up ways of discipling for all of you. Remember we are all commanded to make disciples and God will build his church. He has a plan for you, even if you haven’t yet!

But let’s always remember Psalm 82

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