Bear All

Morning All! As I preached a couple of weeks ago and wrote in the most recent edition of Spotlight, our faith in Christ should be one of extreme adventure punctuated by unquestioning obedience to God's perfect work for our lives; the Lord doesn't do boring! This does not mean that we will never be involved with situations, events and problems which are mundane or a bit dull! Rather, through the application of faith, we can inject a sense of purpose, excitement and fulfillment into every area of life whether that be raising children, cooking tea, doing the housework, going to school, working in our jobs, leading worship, preaching or buying the weekly shop in Asda - every arena of life carries with it the opportunity for a Kingdom encounter as we outwork the line in the Lord's prayer: 'Let Your Kingdom come, let Your Will be done on earth as it is in heaven'.

The key for outworking adventurous faith (which surpasses anything that our Beloved Bear can cook up), is ACTIVATING AN OPPORTUNITY. We must always look for Holy Spirit led opportunities to take faith, apply faith and use faith in our daily lives. They are all around us, the problem is we are simply not aware of them. Last Friday I was in John Lewis eating cake. The life of a Youth Leader is a tough one. As I was quietly minding my own business, one of the table tidiers walked past and a name suddenly flashed into my head: 'Anne'. Here was an opportunity to outwork God's Kingdom in the middle of John Lewis! I wish I could say that I approached this lady and asked her if the name 'Anne' meant anything to her. I wish I could say she broke down in tears and I wish I could say I led her to Christ right there and then over the Earl Gray and Cheesecake.

But I didn't; I bottled it. The opportunity for adventure was sat under my nose and I opted for a quiet life. I did repent and seriously consider going back to speak to her but felt the moment had passed. These opportunities are all around us to demonstrate God's Kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17), accompanied by signs, wonders and miracles. Adventure is available for us all, the question is whether we can a) discern those opportunities and b) act with radical obedience to realise their potential to release Kingdom power.

This Tuesday we had our first ENERGY meeting back after the Summer Holidays. Put simply, over that time I was rather uninspired about what I had planned for the Youth this term. After prayer and some conversations with a few people I realised that God wanted ENERGY to be given an opportunity for a faith adventure. As a Team, we needed to help the young people lead ENERGY rather than lead ENERGY ourselves. The phrasing is subtle but the difference is huge. We have a number of young people with a leadership anointing which is not dependant on how old they are. Last term many of them were involved in leading sessions themselves and the results were wonderful. Many of the young people have a fresh fire in their bellies for Jesus; as I taught on Tuesday night we must love God passionately. As well as being the first and greatest commandment (Matthew 22:38), we see this quality consistently and constantly demonstrated in the life of Jesus (John 2:12-17).

As a result of this, we have given ENERGY the responsibility to plan and prepare this term's activities. Included in this is an opportunity to do the Sunday Evening Christmas Service (20 December). Next week they will come together, run their own meeting and really capture God's heart for what HE wants this term. The Team's job will be to help make it happen. Just to be clear, I'm not abdicating my spiritual responsibility or authority for the youth ministry. Rather, I'm looking to give the young people Holy Spirit-led opportunities to go on that awesome adventure of faith. Sorry Bear but you're just no competition!