WHAT IS WORSHIP?

I spoke at our Youth Event last night on "What makes a Worshipper?". It's a good question - one that has been discussed for centuries. I'd like to say I had the answer on it, maybe not but I have a contribution to the discussion. My angle went like this: God is not a distant idol that we worship (Isaiah 57), he lives in us(1 Corinthians 3). If God lives in us - how can we worship him? By being, by living(John 10), by doing. Simple things make God happy. When we treat others with respect we worship him, when we are hard working we worship him, when we sit down, eat with friends, laugh and have fun we worship him.

Singing songs are a great way to verbalise our love for Jesus, but at one level singing at a church service is just playacting. But as we declare truth, so it becomes part of us and real within us (John 8). So I challenge you to declare the truth about who God is even if you don't feel like it and see what happens...

SNOW ON SNOW ON SNOW...

Hey! We had snow and managed to make a snowman before it all melted. Now all we have is a lump of ice with a sad looking Hat and Scarf lying on the grass next to it - is that something deep and spiritual or what?

SCOTLAND - Home of the brave (and my friend Jim!)

Just spent the weekend in the highlands of Scotland near the village of Killin in the unique company of my friend Jim McNeish. Jim has just bought himself a 16 bedroom hotel with the most incredible views over the loch. Have a look at his company site www.cantle.net for more details on the work that he does. I managed to cram a weeks worth of activity into a weekend and spent the evenings in front of the open fire in the "snug", nattering chatting like a couple of old women! Jim used to live in Arundel and attended Arun Community Church while he worked for the Body Shop some 7 years ago. He now works as a life coach for some of the most senior business leaders in the UK as well as other parts of the world. Jim is a great friend as well as someone who helps me see lifes issues in a different light. Or in his words "actively disturbing the everyday thinking to create new thought processes".


Jim often has friends to stay and loves to entertain with great food, walks around the incredible countryside and chats by the fire. Everyone who stays overnight has to fill in a guestbook describing "What was fun?" and "What did you learn?". So what did I learn? I learnt that I am one of lifes "fixers", I try and make things right and have a high sense of fairness. Which is great, but I also learnt that you can't always fix everything and sometimes situations and people are unable to be fixed! Sounds kind of heavy, but it's not - it's fun learning how people tick especially ourselves!



Finally some travelling advice: Scotland is lovely, go visit if you can - but if you fly make sure you only carry liquids less than 100ml in your hand luggage. I lost half my wash bag to the very polite man at Gatwick Airport security!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I hope you have had a great break, ready to face the New Year with a smile and a purpose. Apart from Lottie being unable to sleep all last night with earache, it has been a great time of just being together as a family.

Above are my amazing children enjoying their trampoline on Christmas Day morning. They were out there most mornings in their pyjamas (not sure what the neighbours thought!?!).


New Year celebrations were chilled and relaxed. It was great to spend time with friends (nice Christmas jumper Stuart), playing fussball, eating and drinking and of course watching Jools Holland. Thank you to our great friends Andy & Pippa (who only live round the corner!) for letting us stay for the night. Tomorrow it's back to normality, reality and work. The New Year brings with it a freshness and an opportunity to start again.

2007 for me and my family is looking exciting, full of change, full of opportunities and full of promise. Today is the start of that process and journey and although, probably like most of you, I prefer the event to the process and the destination to the journey I am keen this year to enjoy the everyday challenges, large and small. After all that is life!