From the pastor's desk March

 Last week I had two texts with questions sent to me from two different people. One of them helped me to really focus down on to a subject and the other caused me to expand my thinking and open up to a subject.

The first was simply “What creates a great environment in church”. That needs a whole blog by itself, so I will come back to that one at a different time. The second question, which I want to focus on here was, “From a pastor's perspective what are the three most important things that a church attendee could do to help you build the house?”

That got me thinking. There are lots of things that I could have replied with but how do I condense it all to the three most important to me, in our setting and at our stage of growth?

Is it about finance? Is it about serving? Is it about attitude? I tried not to over think my response and so replied within a few minutes. Here is what I wrote to him (not in order of importance)

1. Keep connected to the right people, especially when it gets tough.
2. Be a disciple & disciple others.
3. Have a daily encounter with the three things Jesus left behind-

• His word,
• His Spirit,
• His Body.

There you have it. That’s what I would want you to know.  There are many other actions and behaviours that will flow from these three. For us as a church at our stage of development, this is what I want you to do to help build our church community.

Keep connected to the right people, especially when it gets tough.
Over the years this has been one of the most crucial things that has helped the church, grow, decline or plateau. When we move out of connection with the right people we stop being discipled and pastored. This can happen due to tough life circumstances or due to being hurt or messing up. It's not just staying connected to people, it is staying connected to the RIGHT people. Are they encouraging you to be part of the community that has loved you, fed you and looked after you or are they pulling you in another direction?

“If the people you hang with don’t like your church, give it a month and you won’t either.”

Be a disciple & disciple others.

This is our commission. Jesus told the people he was discipling to go and do what He had done for them. I don’t want a church of attendees, I want a church of disciples.

Have a daily encounter with the only three things Jesus left behind.
We live in grace but we are called to certain disciplines as disciples. Are we getting the word of God into our minds and hearts? It will bring health and growth. Learn to feed yourself on the Word, this is what mature followers of Christ do.

Jesus said He would leave His Holy Spirit to comfort and encourage us. He gave us a language to speak that will build us up. Do we use it daily? The Spirit gives gifts to build the church not for our own little parties.

Jesus said that He would build His church. He is coming back for His church. He loves His church. That is you and me. It is what He uses to refine us. In all her beauty and flaws, she is what Christ loves. Are we meeting together, not just on a Sunday, but as a daily habit? Meeting in formal and informal settings.

If we can continue to get these right, we stay healthy as disciples, we continue to do what Christ has told us to do and we stay connected to Christ. The house will be built.

There is a lot more I could say on all of these three factors but would take far too long.

I hope this has helped.

Yours,
Pastor Jon Cook

Check your eyesight

How is your eyesight?

Last week I went for en eye test to make sure that my glasses

were still fit for purpose. In my right eye I have great vision but with my
left eye I could hardly make out the chart on the wall never mind read the
letters on the third row down. But that same eye is great for reading and over
the years my eyes have adjusted to favouring the eye that sees the best in the
given situation.

My problem comes when I inadvertently favour the wrong eye. So

trying to use my left eye to see over a distance leaves me confused and
misreading situations.

I don't know about you, but so often I have done the same with my

perspective on circumstances that I have been in or with people. I have looked
at them with blurred vision. I am reading them through my own bias or have
listened to the negative that other people have said and not seen the best in
the circumstances or the person.

How often have we looked with the wrong eye and drawn our own

conclusions from what the other person has said?

We look and hear what confirms what our perspective already is,

not necessarily what the truth is.

I watched Pastor Brian & Bobbie Houston give a fantastic

positive interview for Australian television this morning (you can watch it
here- http://au.tv.yahoo.com/the-daily-edition/video/watch/21563204/the-rise-of-hillsong/
) One of the things that Pastor Brian said when asked about difficult times was
that it was really hard when they were misrepresented by people.

I guess what I find difficult is when when people look at our

church and misrepresent her. They have believed what they want to believe.

We are not perfect but we are family. Family can drive you up the

wall but we make a commitment to invest in each other and see the best. Why?
Because Christ did the same for us. He saw past our brokenness and rebellion
and saw family. He showed us grace and that then enables us to see each other
through eyes of grace.

Church is not an organisation, she is the bride of Christ, she is

our community, our home, our family. Speak well of her, bring the best out in
her. The Message says this in Eph 5:26 "Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her..."

My question to all of us who call NCLC home is will we keep our

eyesight clear and see the best, see and speak with grace, the same grace that
Christ continually extends to us? 

I am committed to creating an environment where your life can

flourish. A place where the crowd becomes a community, where the house becomes
a home and where friends become family.

Lessons from Tough Mudder

 I pray you are having a great start to the week. As most of you will know, on Saturday, a team from NCLC competed in the event aptly named "Tough Mudder." It was tough and there was a LOT of mud. We finished, having completed every obstacle.
It made us all confront the fear in our head whether that was of heights, ice baths, dark holes, long runs or electric shocks (you REALLY should have a fear of electric shocks). Between us we managed to raise about £1500 on behalf of the A21 campaign
against human trafficking.

One of the things that was most evident throughout the event was teamwork. We were in it to complete it. The only way that we wanted to complete it was together. We all needed encouragement at different points of the course. We contended FOR each other not WITH each other in the tough times.
We all made a decision that we start, run and complete the course together.

The Bible in Psalm 84 says:
Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you.
Selah
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.

We have committed to the journey together as a community. We go through the tough times together. I want as many of us to start, run and complete this journey together. We are encouraged in Hebrews not to step away from meeting together.
The amount of times I talk about leaning into community when times get tough, yet it still breaks my heart to see one or two people step away using weak excuses or some even great sounding reasons but it still comes down to a decision to step out of what God has placed you in.

There is strength in our community.
There is companionship in our community.
There is accountability in our community.
There is discipleship in our community.
There is growth in our community.
There is healing in our community.
There is value placed in our community.
God is found in our community.

Those that are planted in the house of The Lord will flourish (Psalm 92).

I am committed to building a church where lives will flourish.
I have no plan B.

Flourishing is not just about things going well. It is about staying the course when things get tough. It is about being able to withstand the harsher seasons yet still bear fruit.

Let's contend FOR each other in tough times, celebrate WITH each other when times are great and stand ALONGSIDE each other to complete the journey and win the prize. A prize which is much more than a cool T-shirt, a not so cool orange headband and a pint of cider.


Yours
Pastor Jon Cook

Tough Mudder videos and pictures

So the event is finally over and done with for this year. I did a video just before the event and an update today.
I have also included a video of the event and some pictures.
I am hopefully doing 2 next year.
We raised about £1500 for The A21 Campaign against human trafficking.

The Arctic Enema

The day of reckoning has arrived. Tough Mudder TM 10

So the morning of the event is here. The team are turning up in half an hour.

Tough Mudder No.9

A quick update on Tough Mudder. 2 days to go.

Though I would give you a quick update. The team has formed well. We have trained hard and really want to work this as a team.
I am resting from training for the last 2 days.
We have raised over £1000 so far for A21 campaign against human trafficking.
Please go to www.justgiving.com/nclctoughmudder

Tough Mudder No.8

So this morning I am pleased to announce that I managed to run 10.5 miles in a respectable time. The hardest battle was not the hills, the tiredness or the chafing thighs; it was the battle inside my head. Give up or finish the race!
I think the next run maybe even harder as I now know the cost of completing it. This time I was ignorant of the pain and the battle in my head.
You can join me in paying the cost by going to our justgiving page and sponsoring us.
https://www.justgiving.com/nclctoughmudder/
Thanks

Tough Mudder No. 7

Post workout blog.

Ten 100s

100 runs (12 mters)
100 burpees
100 press ups
100 kettle bell swings
100 chair jumps
100 sit ups
100 leg raises
100 bicep curls
100 tricep ext
100 horizontal pullups

Tough Mudder No. 6

My birthday training blog

Tough Mudder No.5

Post workout video. Sorry about the abrupt ending, I ran out of storage on my phone.

Tough Mudder TM No.3 Post training session.

Training Session 1
20 running circuits of the church hall (about 9 mins)
1 min press ups
2 mins church circuits
1 min body weight squats
2 mins 2 feet step hops
1 min spiderman floor walk

1 min rest

2 mins 2 feet step hops
1 min plank
2 min burpees
1 press ups
2 min burpees
1 min lying pullups

Yes I know its not a lot and I have a long way to go but at least I have started.

Tough Mudder Registration Day TM No2

What is our focus?

Christmas is less than two weeks away. Yet again I have to ask, where has the year gone? I can't believe how quickly the last 12 months have gone. Yes I know it is a sign of growing older that time becomes compressed. The year or so has gone so quick yet so many events have taken place.

In the last 14 months we have seen two amazing young people leave this Earth to take their place with their saviour. Some lovely friends have left and returned to their homelands, taking a piece of our hearts with them. New people have come in and added themselves to our community, some because they have come to know the grace, love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ

This is our focus.

I have been so challenged lately by the apostle Paul's words in Romans 9:3 where he is basically saying that he is so desperate for his Jewish community to come to know Christ that he would be willing to accept separation himself if that were possible. Think of the impact and consequences of those words for a minute. Those are some pretty big feelings that Paul is pouring out there. This is the same Paul who can seem quite harsh and focused on the personal purity and growth of followers of Christ. He lets his feelings for his fellow Jews overflow with desperation as he sees them following the same legalistic road that he once travelled.

My challenge for us as NCLC is, are we more focused on our own personal walk with Christ (which IS essential) than we are to see our friends and our world saved from a life without Christ and a lost and dying eternity? Do we have a bit of Paul's desperation in us? We don't have to be alienated from Christ, but we may have to give up some of our "me" time.

This coming year our challenge as a church community is to keep our focus on the lost and to also grow more Christlike.

We will be making some changes in the new year that will allow us to move forward and see our communities impacted with Christ.

Over the past eighteen months we have bought our own office space and moved from doing everything in our dining room. We have also moved Sunday venue three times, ending up in our venue, the place we now call home. We have brought structure, policies and procedures to our staffing, finance and HR areas. This has all helped set a great foundation for the organisational side of our community. Despite the tragedies of lost loved ones, people leaving the community, "God has crowned the year with His favour."

Now it is time to continue our forward momentum.

The church leadership is being very intentional about looking at all aspects of our community to see what has stagnated and what is working. We will be reintroducing some things, leaving some things behind and starting some fresh initiatives. All done within the boundaries and culture of who we are as NCLC and with the question in mind...

"Will it MAKE and GROW healthy DISCIPLES?"

I am excited to see what God will bring in 2013.

But we still have a few more weeks to serve the purpose of God in 2012. Our Christmas presentation is not just a nice service at Christmas, it is an opportunity to present the good news of Jesus to those that don't know Him. On the 23rd December we have the Cottey's back with us from Tanzania. Then our last service of 2012 on 30th December at 5pm will be a great night of worship and baptisms. If you haven't been baptised, don't put it off any longer, obey what the word of God has told us to do. What better time to be baptised in water than as we end one year and head into the next.

Are we prepared, as Paul was, to give up something of ourselves in order to bring the lost to Christ. This is our challenge. Will you join me?

See you Sunday.
Teesside 11am
Newcastle 6pm.

Merry Christmas

Yours
Jon, Dee,Théa, Imani & Judah Cook
(not forgetting our newest addition to the family, Breck our black labrador puppy)