Christmas musings

Today I am taking part in my Tuesday ritual. Head to the Metrocentre in Gateshead, go to Starbucks, grab a coffee and study for my next preaching/ leadership night/ or whatever my next speaking engagement happens to be. I love sitting here reading, writing and watching the world go by. Today is no different, except for the fact that people seem to be walking a little quicker, carrying a few more bags and are probably slightly more hassled than usual.
Its the Christmas season.
I am watching the sales people on the stall in the middle of the walkway trying to attract potential customers and get them to stop. There are many refusals, some polite with a smile, some not so polite (usually pointing to their watch as they refuse) and some just completely ignore the attempts of the retail staff. How many refusals must they get in a day, yet they still continue on with a smile!
Christmas can get so busy with all the shopping, the parties and the preparation for the big day that we can forget the importance of this period that we, as followers of Christ, are in.
This is the time we celebrate His entering into the mess of humanity to put the finishing touches to God's master plan for our reconciliation back into the family in place. We are not just celebrating the birth of Christ but also, in the words of the carol
Born that we no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.
This plan wasn't an afterthought of God but it was put together before the foundations of the earth were laid. His intention for humanity has always been to bring us back to himself despite our rebellion and disobedience. Christmas reminds us that God is good and He thoughts toward us are good.
Christmas reminds us that we have an intricate part to play in this plan. God chose Mary to carry Jesus, Joseph to take care of Mary, shepherds to spread the good news, the Wise men to give credibility to His birth and us to be witnesses to why His birth is vital for mankind.
In the busyness of Christmas don't be too busy to share with you friends, family and work colleagues why we, as Christians, love Christmas. It is because it shows Jesus' amazing love, God's incredible grace and the all encompassing fellowship of the Holy Spirit towards us.
If a small group of sales people can keep asking, despite rejection after rejection, can we, who have the very words of eternal life in us, keep talking to people about this Jesus in a manger.
Have a blessed Christmas.
Remember, God has crowned your year with favour.
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Who is to blame?

This week we have seen more headlines of children vulnerable to abuse. We all want to know who is responsible. We want to know how can someone put these atrocities right. We want to know what is being done about it.

Unfortunately they are the wrong questions that we are asking. So all the time we are asking the wrong questions we will get the wrong answers.

So what are the right questions? The right questions start with not apportioning blame but claiming responsibility. If we start with the understanding that those children are our responsibility then the questions become very different. An old African proverb says "It takes a village to raise a child". We all play our part in raising children. The problems arises when we abdicate our responsibility. We become so involved in our own lives that we forget that God created us to live and thrive in community.

As society as a whole has become more individualistic, it becomes easier to lay the blame at someone else's door. Blame has NEVER solved a problem. Taking OWNERSHIP and RESPONSIBILITY will. Nehemiah said this "I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly towards you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses." (Neh 1:6-7) He aligned himself with the problem and from there started looking for the solution to the destruction of his city. As the church of Jesus Christ (who aligned Himself with the problem of sin and brought the solution from there) we too often move away from society's problems with the excuse that we are "not of this world". 

• Children being abused is not a government problem.
• The country's national debt and recession is not the government's problem.
• The riots that took place last year is not the problem of poverty.
• Human trafficking is not a police problem.
• Children's lack of literacy and numeracy skills is not an education department problem.
• Childhood mortality in Africa is not Africa's problem.
• Children in care is not a social services problem.
• Litter and pollution is not a local authority problem. 

They are all MY responsibility. They are YOUR responsibility. They are OUR responsibility.

We start looking for someone or organisation to blame because it is easier than to look at our own lives and say "I'm sorry, I did not play my part in looking after you". 
Please understand I am not saying that governments, local authorities, corporate business etc does not bear some weight of responsibility. 
They do. 
But so do we.
We can't do everything but we MUST do something.
If we began, each of us, to say that is my problem, how can I fix it, imagine what a difference we could make.
What small decision could you make today that begins to take ownership of a problem you see?
Pray with me a version of Nehemiah's prayer and then ACT.

 "I confess the sins we, including myself and my family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly towards you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave us.

Here I am Lord send me"

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Guard your heart

Over the past few weeks I have been preaching on the subject of Healthy Relationships. Having the right people around us (and being the right people) is crucial to our growth in our walk with Christ.

Proverbs 4:23 tells us "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it" Our heart is shaped by the people that we allow to speak into it. Saying "Above all else..." means it is a priority. Our heart needs to be protected from unhealthy relationships which would misshape it, so why do allow the wrong people to shape our hearts?

Parable-

Imagine that you are incredibly hungry.

For some reason you haven't been able to get any food or you have been sick and not able to keep any food down.

You have no food in your house.

What do you do?

 When you are this hungry and have no food to satisfy your hunger. Where would you go?

• To a friend who is also really hungry and has no food? It makes sense to go there because he understands how you feel when no one else can.
• The people that have food are annoying because they don't realise how hungry you are and what you are going through.
• Your hungry friends won't judge you for being hungry.
• They will reinforce that you’re ok to be hungry.
• They will help you come to terms with your hunger.
• They won't look down on you like your non-hungry friends might.

If this sounds just a bit ludicrous, why do we do this with relationships?

If we were hungry we would go to people who could feed us not those that are hungry as well. To be with the hungry we need to have something to feed them with.

If we are feeling low spiritually or relationally why do we go to people who are as hungry as we are?

Go to those that will feed us. That's what the prodigal son did.

Show me your friends and I will show you your future.

As someone tweeted the other day "Align yourself with people who match your destiny and not your history"

I want to be someone who shapes people's hearts in a godly direction. What about you?

The NCLC Foundation

First let me say how excited I am about the season that we as a church are in. So much has happened over the past few months and God is in it all. We continue to see people make decisions to follow Jesus week by week - and that is why we exist. It's our mission, our cause.

In the past year or so we have experienced some huge changes as a church community. We have changed venue twice, welcomed new staff to the team, added robust financial policies and procedures to take us forward into our future, and not least, we have settled into our offices.

The coming year is one which we have given over to increasing our health in four main areas: Spiritual, Physical, Financial and Relational. I believe this year will be monumental for us as NCLC, because as we know, healthy life grows. We are taking the Kingdom of Heaven into areas where we have not ventured before.

We are raising up young entrepreneurs with a kingdom mentality and heart.

We are also in negotiations to purchase our own building from which we can base many of our meetings and activities, including our Sunday services.

We, as a church, are on the edge of something significant in our history and future.

There is an excitement and momentum building within our community. I am very excited about what the future holds for us as NCLC, and that is why this year we are introducing the NCLC FOUNDATION.

The NCLC FOUNDATION is one of the ways that we believe can help us strategically advance and shoulder the financial burden of our God-given vision to impact our world with the Kingdom of Heaven.

Our current "world" of Tyne and Wear, Teesside and Mwanza City is home to over 2 million people, ready to be impacted with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is a lot of people - and many of them are "ripe for harvest" (John 4:35).

The NCLC FOUNDATION will enable people to give strategically over and above their regular tithes to FOUR initial areas with a FIFTH to be added at a later stage.

1. Buildings Fund - this is to establish a building that we can call home. A place to base not only our Sunday Services but also many of the ministries of the church. This will initially be in the central Newcastle area, but will also establish homes for our other campuses (Haggai 1:7).

2. Missions - there is a lost and dying world needing the hands and feet of Jesus, before it will ever listen to the good news of the Cross. We have already established a campus in Mwanza, Tanzania. The Foundation will help fund this until it is fully established and financially viable. In time, there will be other campuses and churches to help plant and fund. There are also other overseas missions that we will be able to give to, including Compassion and A21 (Isaiah 61).

3. City Care - this is the local arm of our mandate to bring justice and relief to the poor. This funding will help expand Servolution and CAP but also establish our food and clothing banks (Micah 6:8).

4. Humanitarian Relief - over the past few years the world has seen some catastrophic disasters. We have been able to stand alongside many other churches to help meet the needs of tragedies such as the Haiti earthquake. We want to not only receive an offering at the time of the event, but also add to that amount, because we have been good stewards and prepared for such a time. There will also be wells to be dug and houses to be repaired (Isaiah 1:17).

And finally, to be added as soon as we have capacity -

5. Legacy Investments - we are building a church not only for this generation, but for many to come. Wouldn't it be fantastic to be able to leave a financial inheritance for our grandchildren in their church building? (Provs 13:22)


I pray that this will whet your appetite for the financial future of our church. Don't despise the day of small beginnings for your own contribution. I believe that God would have us plan for, and invest in, our future.

We will commence our NCLC FOUNDATION offering on the first Sunday in July and then on the first Sunday of every month thereafter.

I want to thank all of you who faithfully give financially to God through this local church. We have grown from 9 people in Starbucks six years ago to around 500 people calling NCLC home today. We have been able to do this through all of us adding our resources together.

Let's continue to partner together to build, not just NCLC, but the church across the world through the NCLC FOUNDATION.


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Where is my commitment?

The past six months have been pretty tough in many ways. This blog is not a "woe is me" moan but I do want to make a few points about what keeps me going. I have probably come closer to giving up and walking away from what I know God has called me to do than ever before. And as I write that last sentence there is a large clue as to why I keep going.

The Bible is not only the story of God's interaction and intention for mankind but it also gives great principles for our lives. Right the way through the narrative of God's word is a characteristic that is held in high honour but often given too little credence in our fast paced, easy-come easy-go world. That characteristic or virtue is commitment. The Bible will use the terms perseverance or faithfulness in similar contexts.

I look around and see that commitment is a virtue that is often found lacking. It is a virtue I have found lacking in my own life at times. How many times have I committed to losing weight and getting fitter, starting a project that lies unfinished, or even promising to take the kids somewhere and being too busy or too tired to fulfil my promise.

I don't know about you but a commitment is easy to give at the beginning or when things are going our way. Its when the going gets tough that commitment and perseverance are truly tested and seen. We are told that one of the outworkings of love is that it ALWAYS perseveres (1 Cor 13:7). We know that perseverance actually grows character in our lives (Romans 5:3-4).

Perseverance is actually hardest when we have a choice. If I am halfway home on my bike and the rain has soaked me to the skin, everything about me wants to quit but I know that I have no choice, I have to go on. Its much harder if its raining outside and I have committed myself to riding to work to get fit and save money but my car is sat in the driveway taunting me with how warm and cosy the drive will be compared to riding my bike.

What do we do when things don't go our way? Do we hold to our commitments and persevere in them or walk away?

Making a commitment means

• I can't just walk away from something when it is not going well.
• Its not so much about what I commit to but about it being part of my character.
• That if I persevere in my commitments I am becoming more like Christ (2 Thess 3:5)
• That I am walking in love.
• If I fulfil them and they are in the will of God then I will receive what He has promised (Heb 10:36)

I have seen too many people not persevere in their commitments when things are not to their liking. I don't want to run away. Just because I feel like it, it doesn't mean that I will. Coming close is actually a miss. Coming close to quitting, in the words of Pastor Matthew Barnett is a good thing because it means we have something to quit from. Coming close to quitting is actually completely persevering in our commitments. So be encouraged if you have come close to quitting but haven't, you are on the right road.

So, to finish, what keeps me going in my role as the senior leader in NCLC?

1. I fully believe God called me to start, grow and build this church.
2. Just because things aren't as I want them to be right now, I know they are not what they were but are closer to what they could be.
3. I have committed myself to seeing the lost become found and the found become disciples. Lives growing in God.
4. God has given me so much grace that I have to pass that through to other people.
5. I don't want to be known as a quitter.
6. I fully believe God called me to start, grow and build this church.

I have a choice, I can walk away but I will keeping going. You have a choice, what will yours be?

Hope this helps.


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Which crowd?

This week is Passion week. The days between Jesus entering Jerusalem to the adulation and adoration of the crowds, to being placed on trial for blasphemy and taken to the Roman death sentence of crucifixion.
The approaching weekend is probably the most significant few days in the Christian calendar. This time of year draws our attention to the sacrifice that Jesus made for us to bring us back into a restored relationship with God.
I have been contemplating some of the different crowds that have played a part in that week.

We have the crowd that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with praise, palm branches and proclaiming Him the coming king. They were there because maybe they had seen or even received a miracle from Jesus. They wanted to be part of this movement that they thought would sweep the Roman invaders from their promised land.

Then there was the crowd a few days later at Jesus' trial. Led by the religious and societal leaders, they shouted "Crucify him." There were possibly those from the crowd a few days earlier that were proclaiming their king.

Then on the day we now call "Good Friday" there was the small crowd that stood at the foot of the cross. Standing with their dreams in tatters and their hearts broken as their Rabbi, teacher, friend and master hung from the cross. I don't just want to be part of the crowd that gets carried along in the praise and worship of Jesus but is unable to go the distance to stand at the foot of the cross. I love the passion and vibrancy of our style of praise and worship, but lets not have it stop there. We need to make our way to the foot of the cross.

This Easter make a decision to be in the crowd that will stand at the cross and remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. Then also remember that He calls us to deny ourselves, take up our own cross and follow His way. When our dreams are seemingly dead and our hearts broken, when our marriage has failed, maybe our sickness is persistent or the notice of redundancy has come through- what do we do? Do we become part of the crowd that has moved from singing the latest Hillsong song loudly to proclaiming that God doesn't care or isn't listening or maybe even denying He is real? Or do we make our way to the foot of the cross and remember that even if we never 'feel' God's love again we know with every fibre of our being that He loves me because of Jesus' death. Do we deny ourselves and take up our own cross and follow Him?

Which crowd will you be part of this Easter?

As NCLC we will come together as our three campuses to worship and remember the sacrifice and the victory that Easter shows us. This is one of the great windows of opportunity we have to invite people from our world into our church community. Don't waste it.



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The Cry

Many of you who are from my home church NCLC will know that I have held little store in owning our own building as a base for our Sunday service venue. I could psychologise this as having moved around a fair bit as a child or just accept that maybe God wanted me to hold having a permanent base loosely in my heart.
That is up until now.
We have been moving around for the last six and half years. Last April we finally purchased our first piece of property- our offices in the centre of Newcastle. They are a very different setting from everything being run from what should have been our dining room.
We still have no home to base our Sunday services from and the many other ministries that I feel God has called us to impact our community with.
We have been looking for such a place.

Last week at our (too!) early prayer meeting we were praying for favour with the building and the local authorities in change of use. As we were praying I felt God impress on my heart the word "CRY". The building would be a place that evoke a cry.

The cry would be a cry from the broken.

A cry from those in anguish.

A cry from the desperate.

A cry that would change as people felt the presence of God in the building.

The cry would become a cry of release.

A cry of forgiveness.

A cry of wholeness.

A cry of gratitude.

How can a building illicit this?
Certainly not from a lick of paint or ambient lighting. A building can only see this response when it and the people who call it home are dedicated to welcoming home those in need and those who need to know the love, grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

NCLC, as a church will never be defined or confined by a building but a building that becomes a home can be an incredible tool. When we find a building that becomes our home, we will hear a cry that will resound across the North East.
Hope this helps you understand where we are heading as NCLC.
Love to hear your thoughts.



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