Pastor Rhys

Seems that the world is creaking. In London, the made up Doomsday clock was put back one minute recently. I seem to remember that after the Cold War we also gained a reprieve of another 60 seconds. We have a full 4 minutes left to midnight. Not sure why, when we consider the rumblings over arms sales to Taiwan from China; then India and Pakistan; North Korea; Iran and Russia; not to mention Islamo-facism. But hey, we can rest easy! We have 4 minutes. More tremors.

Haiti is only 3 hours away. Christians especially have felt a great heart for Haiti over the years. Our orphanage survived the quake and aftershocks. The orphanage was the only intact building in the area! Mercy! But we know the rest of the story. Our fellowship is still feeling the shaking as we try to weigh the situation. The rest of life feels trivial after Haiti. But we must not give into futility, despair, or neglect of home.

The economy also has tremors. We are in a bull market but we still lost 650 points on the Dow in the last two weeks. Some feel that the recovery will not be a V but a W.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported today that one in five of men aged between 25 and 54 are out of a job. I heard of a fine Church member in his 30’s out of a job this week. I would employ him myself if I could. For small businesses the impact of the credit crunch is chronic. I have seen shock in the eyes of some. Christian ministries and Churches have to make tough decisions. Creativity is in one way stunted, but in another we really do have to be creative!

Families are under pressure. Teens are pressured and bombarded from a thousand points. Life was tough before all this anyway.

It just feels like everything is creaking right now. I suppose that we were never supposed to feel comfortable in this world.

Jesus said that a storm is coming. Could this be our storm? The winds and waves will beat against the house. But on the Rock, Christ himself and with obedience to His words, we stand firm.

Last night Americans saw a young man Colt McCoy suffer a loss and then the microphone was on him. His Texas team had lost and they may well have won, after a strong start, had he himself not gone off injured early on.

How do you react to that without preparation and a swirl of emotions? We can learn much form him. First a moments quiet. Don’t speak if you don’t have any words yet!

The he briefly says how much he enjoyed football and then of course he uses a word to warm the heart: team. But my heart was warmed even more when he starts talking about Jesus as a natural part of who he is. No show, it just spills out because that’s who he belongs to.

I have watched dear friends go through greater losses this year. I have seen friends lose most of what they have through the stock market crash and other friends loss virtually lose all their financial resources in this brutal  financial era. I have also seen them handle it better than they know. Their faith has just spilt out and even bled as they bled. The community went from the magic Kingdom to Great recession. Teachers took big pay cuts, and vacations were cancelled.

I need to say “Well done” to our Church for so many have handled job loss and business freeze with such grace.

We will bounce back but I hope so a little wiser and determined to glorify the One who was with us at all times.

We have also lost loved ones and some have private losses. There are bad health reports out there and even very close. We carry griefs that many will never know about.

In a time of loss Lord please may Jesus spill out of us, because when there’s little to say He will always light up the occasion.

Postscript.

Well done to Alabama. Bryan Howell our student Minister at the North Campus will be pleased. But ironically the image of victory I have is the coach Nick Saban getting whacked on his shoulder with the increasingly daft “Gatoring” practice, then being interviewed in his greatest moment with a half pink shirt and no doubt wondering how to face the culprits afterwards! Hope they enjoyed the walk home. Winning has its responsibilities too. Funny how the best story came out of defeat.

My first blog from my iPhone hence it’s a touch twittery and no spell check, but Louise who is better than me.
I recommended a book on Sunday, the best of 09 for me by far. Let me tell you what it was not.

Not the excellent “It” by Craig Groeschel though I love that a trendy Church zooms in on passion for Jesus as key to unleashing creativity.
Nor Malcom Gladwells “Outliers” though I love  the concept that it takes 10,000 hours practice to break through into excellence. Great stories on Bill Gates and the Beatles.
Nor “Hole in the Gospel” by Richard Stearns, breezy and helpful for the first 100 pages. Reminds me of Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.
A visit to Oxford helped fuel a fresh look at C.S.Lewis “Faith, Christianity and the Church”.

Of my 32 books this year it was the last read. It makes the discovery of this book like seeing a rare bird after waiting all day. (Actually I liked all the other books)

And the winner is…
Counterfeit God’s by Tim Keller. Stunning book. Keller has the ability to be scholarly yet compelling.  He’s writing about you and I. He helps us understand our world. He addresses a well worn theme with freshness. There are a series of top expositions. Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 set the scene.
I wonder if we see the success of his ministry: a keen insight into the inner drives of urban people followed by the mind renewing power of God’s word.
Lay down your idols even the good ones like family. Idols are a brutal master.
God is a Father who gives His beloved Son for us. It’s all in the best book.

In Him

I thought Coyotes were only in movies and cartoons. In fact I needed spell- check to help me. But we have Coyotes in our sub-division.

We can now recognize their night-time cackle or scream or whine, or sarcastic insult. Then they set the dogs off. I assume the dog owners are deaf or immune to their own dog. I have not yet heard a sound like “Fido be quite”. That would help a little. We have both had disturbed sleep this week.

Next thought. I have been reading Acts 20 with care for some days. It is one of the “par excellence” passages on pastoral leadership. Paul is training the leaders to watch out for coyotes, or actually wolves who are actually humans, claim to be Christians, want to be leaders, but they are coyotes. These self- appointed leaders will “arise”. They have no legitimate claim. Their concern is not the vulnerable flock but themselves. They want power; they have no comprehension of leadership without themselves at the center. They are always a mess deep down but they act like they have all the answers. So they disturb the flock and feed their egos in their desire to be appreciated and recognized.

There will be some coyote followers, usually the naïve or the like-minded. Like attracts like. Some just enjoy the aura of the pseudo-leader who flatters to deceive. The coyote will not hesitate to harm the Ephesian elders. For they are the one thing that will stop the coyote. Hence the leaders are the target. But that is not the end of the story.

The coyote must be chased away; so Paul prepares this young leadership team with a plan:

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.” v28

“Be shepherds of the church of God” v28

“So be on your guard!” v31

He teaches them to shoo-away the wolf-men, or wolverine.

There is no one way to deal with the problem. No rule book but His Word and His Spirit. Sometimes the coyote will flee at the first sign of opposition; bullies are insecure. Others are more stubborn. Some utterly persistent to the point of self destruction. Their identity is wrapped up with the latest fix. The appetite is ravenous. But they are never satisfied.

Sometimes you ignore it and leave, or wait, and then like Paul in Acts 16 decide that enough is enough and in one word end the folly.

I told a few friends about the coyotes. Some have offered to bring a shotgun suggesting that it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission!

We are praying for the nights to be quiet again. As a pastor I know that wild animals were a threat in bible times, as to David and our Lord. But we are warned of the enemy and of “wolves” As a shepherd I am ready to watch the sheep, on a well-taught state of alert, and must be ready to lay down one’s life for the sheep, unlike the hired hand or the wolf that devours.

Pray for leaders today and the Lord’s true flock and don’t feel sorry for the coyote.

I talked about someone on Sunday like she was my sister. Amy Grant was Christian music’s darling in the 80’s. Her songs impacted across the ages, maybe from “age to age”. Louise and I played that vinyl over and over when we were first married.

Then it seemed to go wrong. Amy divorced. Rumors abounded though I don’t recall her defending herself too much. She married country singer Vince Gill and they have had 1 child together.

We went to hear her sing on Friday. The voice has actually got better, I’d say, which is unusual for a mature Mom (complaints later but I can think of the odd great singer who lost it for a while!).

Her self-deprecating humor was sweet. She sang Thy Word, Father’s Eyes, El Shaddai, Love of Another Kind, Love Will Find a Way, What About The Love, (and Baby Baby was always about her baby!)  She seemed very peaceful and I could sense the Holy Spirit working through her.

Seems she still sings for Jesus. Amen. But I wonder how well the Christian community treated Amy? I have heard Michael W Smith affirm her faithfulness to the Lord and her integrity on TV. He knows better than most.

I am the first to fight for marriages. I am passionate about that and pastorally risk offense to give it one more tries. The truth always stands. The standard is the Lord’s have no doubt. Ministry requires a high standard. Some disqualify themselves and never find their way back to the place of humility again. That should cause us to tremble. Amy may even have had her heart condemn her, I don’t know. But somehow I wonder if the girl who we once loved may just need to hear the word of the Lord to Israel

“Go show your love to her again.”

We may just see God use her again. We may even be healed ourselves.

I love to learn. It grows on you.

It’s a shame that many of us catch the bug long after school or even college. I mean really learn rather cram for final exams. In the UK it used to be all about that stressful month when it all hinged on your performance in 15 three hour long exams. You don’t really learn at that point; it’s a fitness test.

After college I did continue to read and then devour books. Of course THE BOOK has been my sword for 30 years. But I love to read, good books not just anything. I’ll be with them for a while so I choose my book-friends carefully. But I find that when I have just heard the speaker or am in a cool Oxford bookstore I am friendlier to the book.

Then there is life lesson though we cannot always plan those. Wisdom tends to try to avoid situations that teach us! Years can make us wise if we listen. But we often don’t.

Then there are the people around us. I am very aware what a classy bunch New Hope really are. I learn so much from the people.

I was told a few years ago: Go to world class events. U2 October 6^th…yes! So really my rugby experience is a learning opportunity!

2009 for me has been “meet the famous person” year. Maybe we’ll have a Christmas photo celebration.

I told Church this Sunday (with a third missing due to every event in the South East) this week’s wonders include Colin Powell and the brilliant General Petraeus. The latter gave what felt like a private word from the Lord after all had gone home. After a brief chat about London, he pointed over my shoulder and said “Keep your eye on the big picture.”

It was a “fix your eyes on Jesus moment” for me. When we meet heroes they can speak to our lives and we listen and remember. Many of these folks can also express it well also. Great word General David.

But hey not just ‘cos I have to, but because I want too, He is the teacher.  Jesus that is. He’s the master, the teacher and the leader. Somehow he creates in me a desire to learn. I think that’s the teacher in Him, always bringing the best out of us, even if we face the worst. He is behind it all for my and our good. And maybe if I learn something, I am supposed to pass it on, especially the bits that are about Him. You can learn that anywhere.

On September 13^th we have testimony day. We are baptizing in the creek that day and I trust that many will pray for a remarkable day of mass baptisms.

We also have “cardboard testimonies” in our services, with 50 testimonies broken down into 2-5 words. Not a word spoken.  Many Churches have done this to powerful effect. We trust that we’ll see stories of God’s grace: some recent, some young, some well tested.

Pray for God’s power at New Hope.

Pray that other churches will have a go as well.

We need a flow of testimonies. Your story and mine. My life verse is “I will not venture to speak of anything expect what Christ has accomplished in me” Romans 16:18

What would happen if we couldn’t find any such stories? Or if our own story has to go back 40 years with nothing since?
What if we had to trawl and search hard for any recent testimony of salvation?

Can you see how this will challenge us?

1. Believe in the power of a testimony.
2. Be ready with the gospel in your life to share with another.
3. Be concise even in 2 words or 30 seconds (we often have to brief at first).
4. Have an up-to-date-this-year-revision on your testimony.
5. Expect God to save others and live accordingly.
6. Rejoice on September13^th not as mission accomplished but as mission begun.

Remember that it glorifies God and keeps the main thing before us.

Follow me on www.twitter.com/rhysstenner

I read this today and it warmed my heart. As they say in the British House of Commons: “Hear Hear” (which means Yea!).

Craig Groeschel, in his book “It”, (love it so far!) emphasizes that the special IT factor for a great Church is not the Building, the Campus, the lights, PA ,web-site, audio, style, demographic, strategy, cool chairs on stage, props etc. Now he does have most of those. But that’s not it. What got the Church to that point?

It was IT. There was something else.  So the book focuses on some of the factors that are there when a Church has IT (I’ll let you guess what he means by that) if you don’t get IT (“How can a man be born when he is old?”) then don’t worry. Or maybe you should; in case you don’t have IT!

These will of course include vision, the presence of the Lord, the word, prayer, etc. He then quotes the partly controversial but mainly remarkable Mark Driscoll. His vision is Jesus! Now of course there’s more to the plan than that. But not a bad place to start as your core. I like that.

That’s every true believer’s heart of course. Like the little boy who when asked in Church

“What is brown and eats nuts”? He replies: “I know it sounds like a squirrel but I’m sure that the answer must be Jesus”.

I know it’s the right answer, but frankly I need to say it about New Hope. I need to put that in print today, because that is my message and our message. I am not ashamed of that. Nor shall we be. It’s the best.

We do cling tight to the Scriptures (at least when we read it we know that that bit is inspired). We focus on the person of Christ and His Cross. You cannot be a Church without that. Of course I’d like $15 million of cool stuff to make a bigger impact. But that’s not and never will be IT. Yes, I do have a dream list too, with big plans. Yes, I can see a preferred future and I do feel an urgency. In fact, like Nehemiah, I can see enough ruins in the world to declare “let’s rise and build”.

But just for today I’m glad to say Jesus is IT, and everything follows that, or it, or really Him. The vision begins with Jesus and even is Jesus. Turn your eyes upon Him, fix your gaze on him and much ado about the paraphernalia becomes strangely dim.

Some things are too private to share here.  I have also learned, coping with the grief of leaving a life and country, not to dwell too long on the hard bits. Equally I have refused to be a minister who only shares the good bits. It is often the bits of the bible that are hardest that we most need to face. It is often our weakness that earths our message and makes us accessible and relevant. I cannot be a concrete Pastor. God won’t let me.

Yesterday we had college day. In some ways we were all “freshers”.  Louise and I had a British experience. Mainly books and lectures and kind of “Britain’s got talent” shows. Almost none of the paraphernalia of an American University. The food at University here is amazing! We had too many missionaries at our college to have great food!

Louise helped make the room look great and Meg has a wonderful roommate from a smashing family. Then goodbye, for a short while. But we know that we went through a defining moment. Through the wardrobe door into Narnia. As Ike Reigard twittered this week: “a trapeze moment”. But hey, Meg wants to be back for all the Welsh Rugby Autumn internationals though! We must look ahead.

Now I am not listening to any Mark Schulz for a few years! Nor seeing that movie. Nor home movies. Not sure how I can run the gauntlet of the kindest people of all: New Hope. Some know how to do it quickly with a nod and a wink. Not sure how easy it will be the wedding tomorrow of one of my dear friends, Mike, whose daughter gets married. Mike also has 3 girls. We take notes from each other. He is a few years older, but is never patronizing to me (don’t you just love that). But I feel for him too.

Then I guess, hopefully a little more tender, not “tenderer” as the spell check tells me, (my English teacher would have had a fit) and even a touch wiser, we press on. So a big day, Sunday, at New Hope. Hoping that the hundreds we have invited to “Be Our Guest” will come. Reasons 2 Believe and the hope for every man and woman, boy and girl, and freshman. So back to the routine in faith. Time with God, two girls to school and head down for sermon prayer and prep. That’s next. I’m also grateful for the iPhone that keeps me in touch with a classy young lady in Birmingham, Alabama.

Some moments from this summer, with the new iphone, thought you’d like to see…