Tough Mudder Registration Day TM No2

Tough Mudder video blog No.1

Our interwoven stories.

Last night was our Team Vision Night and we had the privilege of honouring the hard work and consistency of our good friends Andy and Helen Rose. Their life, with the ups and downs could be summed up by the words "They kept turning up".
Anyway as I was preparing for team vision night, I began to think of the stories that have woven through theirs and began to write down just some of the links within our church.
Here is a glimpse of the rich tapestry of a few lives that connect with the NCLC community.
Andy met Helen and married her. Helen is friends with Katie, who she brought to church. Katie brought Gary & Emma Smith to church. Katie also brought her mum & dad, they brought Susan & Katie and then Danielle.
Paul Etherton moved up to newcastle from London with Dee & I, he met Katie & they got married and are pregnant. They moved to Kibblesworth, met Michael who came to church. Michael lives next door to Dan who came to church with his mum & dad who knew Ken & Isobel Wood. Dan met Nichola and married her. Ken & Isobel began looking after some of the international students who are in Newcastle to study. Ken & Isobel now have spiritual kids all over Asia, particularly in Malaysia.
Meanwhile back at the Roses. They had a friend called Matt who contacted me in the early days and came to church when he was visiting the north. He eventually finished uni and came to live up here. He finally got his butt in gear and asked out the amazing Judith, who he later married in a venue they found through a pastor at Judith's gym. The pastor & his wife decided it was time to retire and, because they liked Judith so much they mentioned this to her because they knew she went to a church that was looking for a building. We eventually bought this building and it is now our home.
So anyway about 300 years ago the youth event that I helped run and play drums at had this keyboard player who was an exceptional young man called Gav. He went on to be a rock god in a band called Yfriday, but when the band ended he started coming along to our church and eventually brought a lovely young woman along with him called Ileana. She had met Gav at a Europe rock gig where she went with her brother & Gav had gone to with Jamie from this church.
At a youth camp called Harvest I had previously come to know the young guy called Jamie. He eventually came along to church and then brought his younger sister and mum along. His sister met and married another rock god called Pak. Jamie's mother met a man called Brian and they are about to be married.
Back to to Andy & Helen. They are friends with a guy who is in our Teesside community and he used to go out with a girl called Claire. Claire ended up living with Dee & I for a while when she & her boyfriend split up. She met a young South African guy, Miguel, who had come to the church after his older brother came along with his family. They ended up getting married and now have a baby girl called Mia.
Around about the same time that Miguel's older brother came to the church, another South African moved up from London and started coming along. He was a cracking singer and worship leader. He met a girl who had started coming to our church. Yep, thats right they got married and had a baby boy called Jacob. The girl had been so impacted and challenged by a visit organised by the church to visit our sponsored children in Compassion Tanzania that she left her teaching job and began to work for Compassion.
When she went on maternity leave her job was coverd by another young guy who looks too much like Will Smith for my liking. This young guy had gone along to our international students gathering, run by Ken & Isobel. He went mainly for food, but there met a lovely young girl from Indonesia who he later married. This guy has a sister who caught the attention of a drummer from a local band. The drummer eventually left the band and started working part time for the church.
So back to this guy called Miguel. Before he married Claire he invited his friend called Laura along to church. Laura came along and got stuck in and I think she is still around. Anyway she brought her mum along who worked at an opticians. She offered a part time job to the drummer guy who was looking for a job at that time because he could only work part time for the church. He had already married the sister of the Will Smith guy that I talked about earlier.
Yet again back to the Roses. Andy has a fantastic brother called Simon, who came along to church after walking away from God. He reconnected his life to God and met a lovely young women in our church called Emma, yes of course they got married.
Are you getting this interwoven picture of lives connected in community?
This is just a glimpse of the lives that has brought together and woven into community. There are so many more stores that connect. If you are part of NCLC, thank you for being part of the bigger picture. If you are not, why don't you connect yourself into this tapestry.
See you at Vision Sunday.
Finding our Voice, Telling our story.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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)

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.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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"

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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?