Greenbelt 2013

Just had a great weekend at GREENBELT and want to share some of my hightlights - one being seeing my daughter Amy perform on the ROOTS stage of course :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjsoiEHBaEo&feature=share Hanging out with Harry Bird and the Rubber Wellies (namely Christophe and Jamie) was a real blessing. What lovely people just wish I could bottle them and  bring them out every time I get a little discouraged. The Boxettes were amazing!! Harry Barker was again just fantastic and so much more was great!! Was a little disappointed with Lamar :( but it was good to see him. Milton Jones was great as always and so true what he shared :) and the food well just amazing

I went to Greenbelt feeling pretty discouraged as its been a long 11 years doing what we are doing now. In fact its been a long 18 years when you think of what we went through before that, but I don't want to lament because we just did have a great weekend. Steve Chalke's talk was one of my highlights as he talked about his continue work with the OASIS trust and how they are expanding in the country. I remember being Steve Chalke's secretary for a week at Capernwray, he was hard work!! I guess he won't remember me though. Anyway his talk was very confirming and reassured me that what we are doing through Morecambe Community Church and West End Impact are pretty much on the ball as far as what he feels GOD is saying for this country as Christians. We need to get right back into society in our 'post-welfare' state and get stuck in as the church. That this time that we live in is an ideal opportunity for the Church as Jesus intended it to be to get their hands dirty and take over this land for God. Government is failing, the welfare is failing and as they have taken the responsibility off the church from the 1960's they are now starting to realise that they can't cope. So now is the time for the church to reclaim its responsibility. OASIS have taken over schools, shops, and various other buildings and establishment to run them with a Christian ethos (I should have looked at their website first for more details before I wrote) http://www.oasisuk.org/ but that is my dream for MCC that we will have an amazing IMPACT on Morecambe through the relationships that we build through the council, police etc and that we take over buildings and establishments to do God's work!!

I am not interested in building a congregation of singers on a Sunday (although worship is good) I am interested in building a team of activists for Jesus who are willing to get their hands dirty and make opportunity for God to change the world!!

My dilemma is how to envision people how to get them involved, how to get people saying 'yes this is where we want to go'. I found it difficult coming back from Lanzarote as I was still tired even exhausted. My tiredness comes from a feeling of being discouraged and criticized for doing what I believe God is telling me to do. Normal church people who are used to the church of the 70's 80's and even 90's find the concept of MCC/West End Impact hard to grasp. Some even see it as a distraction of how they feel church should be thinking it unGodly or not spiritual enough. Steve Chalke confirmed to me in his talk that I should just not listen and that I should stay true to myself and true to what GOD is doing through me and us and some of the team!! I was accused recently of 'running the church like a business'. Unfortunately I was not quick enough to say YES actually that is what GOD has gifted me to do and that is why our church has grown so much over the last 10 years. He has given me the skills to make things happen with finances and projects and business plans and funding bids etc. and if he had not given me those skills and I hadn't used them MCC/WEI would have only lasted about 2 years probably. We should always stay true to ourselves and who God made us and use the skills he has given us to further God's kingdom. Just wish that people who don't see that wouldn't criticize so much and be stuck in the stereotypical thinking of how church should be. I wish we knew more about what the church was when it first started. Steve Chalke reckons the synagogues of that day were very different places to the way we imagine. I wish I knew where he got his research from. Anyway basically we need to show people GOOD NEWS and set up community projects to bring GOOD practical NEWS to people as well as spiritual - we need an WHOLEistic approach :) Help me LORD to envision people and get a like-minded team together this year - help us to make it very clear to people what we are doing and why!! and thanks Steve Chalke for being bold. I am also just so short that we are so on the cutting edge of what God is doing without even realising it until we go to something like Greenbelt and see it happening in other part of the country and world.