AboutLife

As you can see, I haven't been blogging for  a while. I've started again though, and have moved my blog to the SPTC site - you can find it at http://sptc.htb.org.uk/graham .SO if you're interested in these random thoughts that's where to go.....

Read a wonderful poem by the Welsh poet R S Thomas recently. It’s called ‘The Chapel. You know those old grey chapels by country roads in Wales or Cornwall, small – they probably only ever held about 50 people at most – (the picture is of one we saw on holiday in Wales this Easter) well it's about one of those.

Fascinating story on the BBC website about the way Spirit-filled Christian faith can change a community can change with Christian .

We’ve just had International Week here at HTB. It was quite a remarkable event, with over 1000 people from around 70 different countries and almost as many languages. And all getting on fine. In fact better than fine, amazingly united, passionate and focussed around a devotion to Jesus. Some incredible stories or persecution, pain, poverty, yet none of it seeming too much to deflect them from that same devotion to Jesus.

WE DID IT! Finally, after 40 years of hurt, I have seen my beloved Bristol City go up. We won 3-1 at home to Rotherham today, to clinch promotion. It ranks up there behind getting married to a wonderful wife, and having our wonderful kids as one the best days ever. It was awesome. Big atmosphere before the game, early goal to settle the nerves, another before half-time, a third to make it sure and even their consolation couldn’t stop the last 15 minutes of noise, singing, with the ground rocking. At one point, all four stands were singing ‘Stand up if you’re going up’ at the same time – just made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. I’ve watched so many disappointing outcomes – play-off defeats to Cardiff, Brighton, missing out on promotion against Blackpool a few years ago, but this makes up for them all. You go through a lot of pain as a football fan, but days like this are what you watch football for.

Gave a lecture last week in Durham Cathedral on 'Developing Churches that can Transform the Culture'. It was part of the 'Fresh Expressions' lecture tour - Prof. Jimmy Dunn gave the morning lecture & I did the afternoon.

It looked at whether churches ought to be trying to transform the culture (Stanley Hauerwas says that's a waste of time). If he's right how then do we interact with culture? His point is that the church's main contribution to societies is to 'become communties capable of producing people of virtue'. Right on.

Well, it didn't happen. We went to Millwall and lost 1-0. Pretty depressing afternoon. Millwall is a thoroughly unpleasant place - most of the home fans don't watch the game - the main purpose of the afternoon seemed to be to taunt & goad us lot with increasingly aggressive neanderthal grunts. Anyway we lost. But we get another go next Saturday, at home to Rotherham. If we win that one, we're still promoted. And Sam and I will be there again Maybe this time....

I may achieve a lifelong ambition next weekend. Bristol City, whom I’ve supported for over 40 years, are on the brink of promotion to the Championship (the second tier of English football for those of you who don’t know). A fantastic 3-1 away win at Carlisle today sets us up with needing just one more win from the last two games to ensure automatic promotion. Next week we are playing away at Millwall, here in London. And Sam and I will be there. (the picture is of Adriano Basso our fanatically Christian Brazilian goalkeeper....)

I’m in Palm Beach Florida. And I’ve never been in a place that oozes so much wealth. The cars, the buildings, the shops, the clothes, above all the houses, just reek of money. It’s smart, smooth, expensive, kind of beautiful in a slightly sickly way – a bit like a dessert laced with too much sugar – just puts your teeth on edge.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I wonder if some of the worship songs we sing are more about us than they are about God. So many of the songs I find myself singing in church end up saying more about what I am, what I am doing, or intend to do than about what God is, what he is doing etc. Most of them have lines like ‘I will worship with all of my heart…” “I will give you all my worship….” “I surrender all….” and so on. Now there’s nothing wrong with this – the Psalms do it quite a bit, but if that is all we sing, and if the subject of most sentences is ‘I’, then it ends up pointing more to me than to God. The song subtly becomes more about me than it does about God. Worshipping God is not a celebration of our intentions or desires, but is being enabled to gaze upon him and lose ourselves in that, or allowing him to gaze on us and sensing his searching eyes on us.