The practice of the presence of God was popularised by Brother Lawrence  in the classic Christian book of the same name. (The Practice of the Presence of God on Amazon)  It is a great aspiration but one most of us find difficult to achieve.

I came across a guy who does a lot of driving and consequently found that his day, with all its frustrations, was very difficult and he quickly lost any sense of the God’s presence. He decided that he needed some way of being constantly reminded in his car to seek out a space to acknowledge God.

As traffic lights were one of his major frustrations he thought he would use them to his advantage.  Instead of cursing his luck as the lights turn red he would treat them as a reminder to turn his mind briefly to God.

He says it has made a big difference to his day making him more ‘God conscious’.  Is this something you could try? or do you have other ways that help you practice the presence of God in the everyday?

Roy Gregory

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Looking down to Fishermen’s Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge and all the other wonderful sights San Francisco has to offer, high above the streets of San Francisco atop Nob Hill sit several buildings which have cameo roles in Hitchcock’s Vertigo (recently voted the best movie of all time). Across the square from the Fairmount Hotel sits Grace Cathedral, this is not only modelled on Paris’ Notre Dame but has copied stained glass from Chartres. Sad to say, I’ve have yet to visit Chartres but I am determined to do so in the near future as what fascinated me about Grace Cathedral was its labyrinths. These objects too have been copied from Chartres. In Grace Cathedral one labyrinth is in the chancel and the other is outside, after all this is California.

No Minotaur, underground caverns or golden thread, these labyrinths are two dimensional projections on the floor. Such labyrinths have been traced back as far as 324 AD and in the USA, at least, seem to be enjoying something of a renaissance. They are used as an aid to prayer.

Tracing a labyrinth’s path (I write “path”, singular, as unlike a maze there is only one path to travel) there are no blind alleys or cul-de-sacs, and you can’t get lost, at least not geographically. However, you may find you can lose yourself in God’s presence and transcend the space mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Something quite supernatural may be felt as you walk slowly from the entrance to the labyrinth towards its centre and back out again, praying or meditating on words of scripture. The concentration induced by the exercise somehow helps one to centre-in on God. The usual mental distractions to prayer (vividly described by Henri Nouwen as like monkeys in banana trees) melt away as one leaves the entrance and picks up the rhythm of walking and praying. Fascinating.

But you don’t have to be in California or France to experience a labyrinth. You can replicate the experience by simply tracing a labyrinth with your finger or pen. I find it a very helpful tool for my quiet times, particularly when distracted by the cares of everyday life, maybe you will too?

Can you recommend a good hotel in Chartres?

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A few weeks ago, I wrote to a Christian publication who had carried a job advertisement which was a ‘very rare breed’. I asked them to publish my letter on their ‘Letters Page,’ which they did. The advertisement had been for a SENIORS PASTOR at a Church in London. I wrote because in our day this is certainly a very rare occurrence and I wrote to publicly commend the members of this Church for their commitment to the ministry amongst Seniors. I could not remember seeing any such advertisement in the last many years, so this was a great encouragement to me and I am sure to other Organisations involved in ministry amongst older people. However, the question needed to be asked and still needs to be asked as to why we don’t see more of this? After all, we are all very aware of the demographic changes ahead, including such things as 20% of all those alive today will live until they are over 100 years old.

Outlook Trust has been challenging the Church, especially over the past two years, to widen their vision to include mission and ministry to and among older people, as well as mission and ministry to younger. We should not ignore either at the expense of the other. It would be very interesting to know how many ‘Chaplains to older people’ there are both in the Church of England and the other Major Denominations’ locally and nationally, compared with the number of Youth Workers and Youth Pastors. If the number of job advertisements is anything to go by, there is a gigantic mismatch between the two.

I was encouraged by this one advertisement and it was and is my prayer that it might be the beginning of something new in the Church. In my letter I asked those with this same burden to join with me in this. To my joy, just after this, a Church in the South West contacted me for help in compiling a job-description for a Seniors Pastor, which now makes two posts. We do need to pray on so that two becomes four and four becomes eight and so on — WILL YOU JOIN WITH US IN PRAYING FOR MORE POSTS TO BE RAISED UP.

As ever
Norman V. Critchell
Director of Outlook Trust

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Think about everything you do for God. Ever feel pretty good about it? Ever feel a bit annoyed when God doesn’t seem to bless you enough for what you do? I mean you probably give time, money and more to God right? And that’s a good thing yes? But what if God doesn’t want your begrudging offerings. What if God wants you?

Before Jesus was gave the ultimate sacrifice, humans made animal sacrifices. Why? To make themselves right with God. To atone. Who were these sacrifices for? I always assumed they were for God, but the wages of sin are death not sacrifice, and throughout the Old Testament (and repeated in the New by Jesus) God states that He is not happy with sacrifice, but instead desires mercy.

So what’s the issue? I think ultimately sacrifice becomes selfish. We start to think of what we give and forget why we give. This happened with the Israelites, who instead of sacrificing the right things tried to use sacrifice as a way of getting rid of their less valuable livestock. A deformed sheep they can spare but the healthy firstborn? That will cost, that will have implications.

And so we think about how much we sacrifice for God, how much we do for Him, whether it is enough to get away with, whether it costs too much. Our sense of justice skews towards ourselves – is it fair that I give this much ? We see what we do for God in terms of sacrifice but how accurate is this? Does it really compare to the sacrifice Jesus made so we could have new life? Isn’t there a better way?

Matt 9:13 ‘ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’

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Knee deep in mud, gale force winds and hauling millions of chairs across a field in Swindon, was not how we were expecting our internship to begin.

OK so maybe we were only ankle deep, and it was probably more of a strong gust than a gale… and there were probably only 1000 chairs but you’ve got to have a dramatic opener for your first proper CVM blog. We were thrown in at the deep end and were told to expect the weekend to look like a lovechild of New Wine and Top Gear, which it really was. This is how two young men in their late teens survived The Gathering XII…

Jack Undrell: Diary Entry

Thursday was jam-packed, muddy but HOT! All the team started to look like tomatoes after a couple of hours. We worked from midday until late evening, washing up, putting up tents and marquees. At the end of play we had fish & chips before a well-earned sleep.

Friday morning was mental! The boss wanted us to sort out a lot of last minute preparation before 800 men arrived. My main duty was assigned to me: Managing the CVM stand, which was brilliant. It was amazing talking to everyone who came through check-in and later that evening, I got to listen to Jon Burns. As a football and rugby fan, his story was incredible.

Saturday, what can I say, the blokes must have got a lot out of the sessions as the resources were flying off the stand. Darrell Tunningley went on to give his testimony of how God transformed him from a heroin addict and a convicted armed robber to a church minister, which was incredible. However, for me, the best moment of the weekend was seeing around 40 men commit their lives to Jesus later that night.

On Sunday morning we all shared communion, (first time for some blokes) and quite a surreal experience for me. Before we set off for home, I knelt with hundreds of men to meet with Jesus in the mud.

Looking forward to next year!

Andy Cozens: Diary Entry

I couldn’t have thought of a more effective way of getting to know my colleagues than sharing a campsite and actively serving Christ with them. The type of bond that was formed between me, Jack and the team over the weekend would have probably taken over a month to form if we’d just been sat at CVM HQ.

Having such a close band of brothers and sisters made the kit-hauling, dishwashing, tea making and errand running so much more easy to cope with. Not to say that it wasn’t hard work, but it would have been much harder without the team’s general supportive attitude towards each other.

Within the CVM team was the camera-team, which I was blessed enough to be a part of. It was our job to capture all the main meetings, seminars and worship times with four old BBC cameras.

I had prayed a lot before joining CVM that I would be able to use the gifts and skills that God had given me to bring glory to him and already, on the second day, I was doing just that. What an answer to prayer!

Without doubt the best part of the weekend was 40 guys came to be prayed for after a Gospel message. It was at this moment when I realised how much God had been working over the weekend.

Who knows what happened when those men arrived home again but my prayers are definitely with them and their families. The Gathering XII gave me a new heart for men’s ministry and I am so glad to have joined a movement that is so effectively making Christ known to so many men.

All the Best,

Jack&Andy

Book Now for The Gathering 2013

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Patience is apparently a virtue, but it is one that seems to be becoming extinct, at least in my life. We live in a nanosecond microwave culture, we want things and we want them yesterday darn it! I don’t know if you are like me, but I have allowed this to seep into my spiritual life – I see the changes I desire to make but I only want the results – not the hard work.

What’s just as concerning is how I react when the immediate change I desire is slow to arrive. I throw the towel in – if I can’t change that quickly then what’s the point? I get so discouraged, and this discouragement blinds me to any progress that I may have made.

I wonder what pleases Jesus more – empty acts or a willing heart? Could it be possible that He can do more with a willing heart than someone who just acts right? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that we coast through life with a willing heart but never actually changing, but rather that when the discouragement hits we remember that God looks at the heart, and that change is a journey not just a destination.

2 Corinthians 12: 7-10
‘To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.’

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A few weeks ago I was discussing Christianity with a friend, and discovered that his understanding of the word ‘faith’ was different to mine.

It brings back the memory of a similar conversation with a Hindu uncle who said to me: “You must have faith to be saved!” For my uncle, what was crucial was having faith – who you had faith in wasn’t the issue.

If you look up the definition of ‘faith’ on the internet, you’ll get a variety of perspectives. If you ask others what they understand by the word faith, and dig a little bit at what is behind their understanding, you may discover, as I did in my recent discussion, that they include / exclude essential components of faith which you wouldn’t. But even different faiths, as well as those who reject faith, have different understandings of faith!

Closely linked to faith is the question of how we interpret what we experience.

When I visited a Hindu group in Wembley, a gentleman said to me: “When I first came here, this person walked in who I hadn’t met, and instinctively I knew that I should follow him. I didn’t realise he was the head of the centre. I’ve been part of this group for over 20 years.”

How do we check that our interpretation of an experience is valid? Or do experiences somehow authenticate what we believe about them? Just because we experience something, does that make our interpretation true? Just because we believe something, does that make what we believe in true? Does faith authenticate truth? Or is that just faith in ‘faith’

When I was younger I was given a present, and intuitively I believed that if I kept it with me, it would protect me and help me do well in exams. However one day it was accidentally damaged, and I realised that it couldn’t look after itself, let alone me. It was my first lesson in developing an understanding of faith, what I would call ‘a reasonable faith’.

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

- John 20:29

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David Murrow (author of ‘Why Men Hate Going To Church’) has discovered a church that has taken on the challenge of appealing to men with amazing results. Grace United Methodist learned how to grow again – without abandoning its traditions. You won’t find a drum set in this church – but you will find men. Lots of men.

It can be really difficult for church leaders to attract men into their churches, and even tougher for female church leaders, but here we have an example that many can learn from.

Watch this short film and see what you might be able to apply to your own church

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

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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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- 10.37pm, Carleton Street, York.

Invisible Enemy: ”Do you think your work will make a difference in the lives of those around you? In the long run, will anyone remember anything you’ve said or done? When will you face the the truth Alex? When will you accept that pinning your hopes on the Nazarene is like living your entire life through rose-tinted glasses? The world has moved on, yet your archaic faith drags your existence to a complete halt. And what if you’ve been deceived? What if the death and resurrection of the Nazarene didn’t play out as your book says it did? Think about what that would mean for a moment. This ‘freedom and forgiveness’ that you talk about endlessly would become empty relics. What would you make of those acts of selfishness, greed and vanity, which you thought you’d been forgiven? Maybe that’s why you still feel guilty. And if your past hasn’t been cleaned as white as snow, then where does this leave your future? Let’s be honest, all the men around you found their wives years ago, yet your life is becoming a laughing stock for the lovestruck. You need to re-think your priorities son, whilst you still have time to turn it all around. Don’t waste your life Alex, you only get one. I’ve seen thousands of men like you give up everything for a cause which left them hanging.”

Invisible God: “You, dear son, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

1 John 4:4

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