Let us pray...

It's been a while. This is a bit of a test to see if anyone is checking this blogspot. If you are then please leave a comment...

How often do we hear, "let us pray" in church and use it as a mental trigger to rest our eyes and turn to our thoughts about the roast dinner or something else? How often do we say, "I'll pray for you" but never give it a second thought. How often do we say, "for your prayers..." and then follow it with an opportunity to gossip?

Well this Saturday is an opportunity for us to pray, to really pray. The reality is that the God of the universe wants us to meet Him in every minute of everyday but sometimes it can be really powerful to stop and take a chunk of time out and focus our attention on Him without distraction. It gives us strength to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

Let us join together in spending time listening, and being listened to. Let us direct our minds to the one who can direct our lives as individuals and as a community...

Let us pray... really pray.

Christmas Trees

Found this helpful in thinking about Christmas...

CHRISTMAS TREES

by Willam Schuh

[As first appeared in The News-Gazette, Champaign, IL  December 24, 2004]

In Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” we meet a character who is so incensed at the thought of others celebrating Christmas that he goes out into the night with the intent to steal the holy day.  As one who did not celebrate the holiday, the Grinch’s viewpoint on Christmas was based on what he observed the Who’s doing to prepare for Christmas.  Setting up Christmas trees, hanging wreaths and holly, buying presents, and preparing for a feast was all that the Grinch saw.  The Grinch did not know Christmas’ true meaning.

The Grinch starts his nocturnal assault on Christmas by removing these traditional Christmas symbols from the town of Whoville.  Afterwards, not satisfied that the public arena had been cleared of everything that symbolized Christmas, the Grinch then goes from house to house in an attempt to remove all traces of the holiday.  While stealing a Christmas tree, the Grinch is confronted by an innocent child who asks why the Grinch is stealing her Christmas tree.  The Grinch lies when he tells her that he is fixing the tree to make it better for the holiday.  

What the Grinch tried to do with the Christmas holiday is now being played out in our own public arena.  All across the nation and even at our own university, the signs and symbols of Christmas are being removed.  Christmas trees and wreaths, despite their pagan origins, are being removed.  We needn’t even discuss the nativity scene.

These symbols are being banned from display out of fear, or, heaven forbid, an actual endorsement of the holiday.  Even the word Christmas is being removed and replaced with such things as winter holiday or winter season. All the while, we are being told that this is all for our good; that this will improve how people feel about the winter festivals.

Just as the Grinch slunk from house to house, we now see these same Christmas symbols being removed from our businesses and other non-government sites.  Concern about not wanting to make even one person uncomfortable, is beginning to invade our own rights to practice our faith.  One must stop to ask if censorship of individual homes and yards can be far behind.

But the Grinch’s great error, as is the error of those who would try to do the same in our society, is that Christmas is not found in a Christmas tree, a light display, or a sale at the local mall.  Christmas is found in a manger in a small town called Bethlehem.  This is best shown in another Christmas special, “It’s Christmas, Charlie Brown.”

Frustrated and disillusioned by the secularization of the holiday, at one point Charlie Brown shouts, “Can anyone tell me what Christmas is all about?”  The ever wise Linus complies with Charlie Brown’s request by reciting the announcement of Jesus’ birth as recorded in Luke 2:8-14. After finishing his statement, Linus sums it up by saying, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”  At peace with this knowledge, Charlie Brown then sets out to celebrate the holy day.

The true meaning of Christmas is something that the Grinch eventually comes to realize as well, though Dr. Seuss’s book does not actually discuss the birth of the Christ child.  But Seuss’s book does show how the Grinch discovered that Christmas is not found in ribbons or tags, not in packages, boxes, or bags; just as Charlie Brown found that Christmas is not in a tree or a school play.

Christmas cannot be stolen or removed by taking down these symbols, because Christmas isn’t about these symbols.  Christmas is not found in a public display.  As the Grinch discovered after he had stolen all the symbols in Whoville, Christmas came anyway.  Christmas came.  It came just the same. 

So for all those who feel that Christmas symbols should not be displayed where everyone can see, that the word Christmas should be removed from normal conversation, or that greeting cards should wish nothing but season’s greetings, remember what the Grinch learned at the end of his night of “Christmas cleansing.”  The Grinch found that Christmas doesn’t come from a store.  He found that Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.

The Hills Are Alive

'Hope Hut' - A Creative Space for Prayer & Reflection in Lent

Lickey Church in Southwest Birmingham are inviting people to join together in using a creative space for prayer and reflection on the Lickey Hills over the Lent period. Their vision is to see 'Hope Hut' occupied every day from dawn 'til dusk from Wednesday 6 February to Saturday 15 March 2008.

'Hope Hut' will be located right middle in the woods in the Lickey Hill Country Park with trees surrounding you. It is a well constructed shelter already used on the Hills and will converted with a variety of reused materials from the woods themselves creating sides and extra warmth. A brazier (small fire) and chairs will also be available.

There are a variety of walks with panoramic views of Birmingham to inspire and focus your prayer.

Easter Monday will see another great opportunity to make use of the beautiful Lickey Hills, with an interactive 'Easter Experience' – an opportunity for people to creatively engage with the Easter Story, walking to 'stations' set up around the Hills. Bank Holiday Easter Monday (24 March - 11-4pm).

Time slots will be available for up to 3 people at a time. Please make use of this great opportunity by going to their website to sign up for a half- or full-day slot. Let us take to heart Bishop David's encouragement by joining together in prayer for Birmingham during Lent.

Web: www.lickeychurch.com

Email: steve.squires@globaluprising.com

Meeting the Rangers

Hello,

Thought you might like to know that I had a meeting with Rangers Steve and Joe at the Visitor's Centre on Monday (not quite the same as the Ranger's from the Lord Of The Rings but I couldn't find a photo of them!). It was a fantastic time of bashing ideas around and coming up with ways forward for some of our ideas. Being able to draw on their wisdom and skills was fantastic. I now know about all the forms we need to fill in to do something like the Easter Monday event! They were very positive about most of the ideas and were particularly interested in the Eco-hut idea giving some really great advice for how we can maximise it's potential. Blessings!

Steve

Going green!

Hello!

We've been thinking a lot about how we respond to God's call for us to look after His creation. We are in a very privileged position here on the Lickey Hills and the beauty of Autumn all around us is a constant reminder of our responsibility to take care of it.

We are exploring how we can be 'eco-friendly' as a church. Check out www.ecocongregation.org to look at how we might achieve this. If this is something you would be interested in being part of a team for drop me a line as soon as possible. steve.squires@globaluprising.com.

Blessings!

Steve

The story continues.......

So, here we are...

The first blog posting.

I'm really excited to be sharing with you the development of this role within Lickey Church. I don't claim to have all the answers but I hope that as we continue together in 'conversation with the community', we will find ways in which we can serve both the local community and the wider Birmingham community who visit the Lickey Hills.

Please pray with us as we listen to God and seek ways of being creative in communicating His message here on the Lickey Hills.

Psalms 8:15
"I wait for you, O LORD;
you will answer, O Lord my God."

If you have any ideas or thoughts please feel free to contact us by emailing...

Steve Squires
steve.squires@globaluprising.com

Rev. Philip Swan
philipdswan@aol.com

Sharing Ideas - Please Respond

So here are some of our thoughts so far: please let us know what you think by either making comments through this site or emailing: steve.squires@globaluprising.com.

PRAYER WALKS
Offering people an opportunity to walk the Lickey Hills with a spiritual focus.

EASTER MONDAY
An interactive 'Easter Experience' walk on the Lickey Hills giving people an opportunity to interact with the Easter story.

ECO-CONGREGATION
It would be great to be able to attain 'Eco-congregation' status (www.ecocongregation.org.uk) as part of our ongoing commitment to the environment.

CREATIVE ARTS
Using the church building as an temporary exhibition centre 2-3 times a year displaying both local artists work and work from organisations like Veritasse (www.veritasse.co.uk). Also giving people the opportunity to try some forms of art themselves.

HILL GIGS
It would be fantastic to be able to use the Lickey Hills to hold small open acoustic gigs showcasing some local talent alongside wider talent. This would have to be a summer event!

GUIDED WALKS
Using knowledgable local people (like George Gascoigne) to carry out historic walks on the Lickey Hill's and using the expertise of the Park Rangers to explain some of the nature we enjoy.

NETWORKING OF LOCAL BUSINESS / GROUPS
It would be great to connect with some of the local businesses in the area asking them how we can, as a church, offer to pray for them. It would be great to also pray for some of the businesses represented in Lickey Church.

BIG ISSUES
Giving people an opportunity to wrestle with big issues: locally, nationally and globally. How can we actually DO something about the issues of our world. This could particularly work with our existing connection with Malawi.

EDUCATION
Working on ways in which can we help and strengthen what the Visitor's Centre is able to offer educational establishments in Birmingham.

SERVING THE VISITORS CENTRE
As part of our commitment to the fantastic work of the Lickey Hills Visitor's Centre staff, we are looking at painting the School Room building in the Visitor's Centre in Jan/Feb 2008. What other things could we do to show our committment to the fantastic work they do?

OPEN CHURCH
We are looking at the possibility of opening the church for a full day on the first Wednesday of the month and at various other points too. We want to explore how we can help to provide creative space in the church building.

AN INTERFAITH AGENDA
How do we interact with the people of many other faiths and traditions represented in visitors to the Lickey Hills?

PUBLICITY
We are trying to develop cost-effective, creative ways of communicating the life of the church.

CHURCHYARD REFLECTION
Producing a point of reflection in the church grounds for those walking through the grounds or visiting graves. We're thinking along the lines of benches and some kind of Well with a reflection of the Woman at the Well from John 4.

GATHERINGS
We feel it is important to provide people with relevant services allowing and encouraging people to explore faith in ways which make sense to them. This would compliment what we are already providing.

RESOURCE FOR BIRMINGHAM
We hope to allow provision of the church facilities for people to use as a place of 'retreat'. Using the church as a central point for people using the Lickey Hills for training, worship and reflection.

HERMITAGE
Meaning: ‘A place of religious retreat or solitude’. It would be fantastic to start the New Year with a time of prayer for our Parish. We hope to have a 3-day time of fasting a praying for Lickey & Blackwell in 2008. The venue for this would be the church and an eco-hut made from resources found in the woods.

Join the 'conversation with the community'. We would love to hear your comments on these ideas.

Who is my neighbour?

The world we live in means that our 'neighbour' is no longer just the people who live around us. Our 'neighbour' could be the person who made the shirt on our back, or the person who produced the coffee we drink, or the person who does not have access to the life-giving drugs we can pick up at the pharmacy. We live in a global world. It is much easier to take, even steal, from an unknown African family or a face-less Thai woman than to take or steal from our next-door neighbour because we never see the consequences. When we refuse to take trading fairly within our global market seriously that is just what we do, we steal from our neighbour and become part of the problem rather than the solution. We, as a church, must begin to take a stand on the key justice issue of our time and help others to see that we believe in a God who wants to bring "life before death" (Christian Aid) as well as life eternal. As an African pastor said, "How we people know there is a church if we aren't helping the poor?".

Some rambling thoughts

I think the church in general have 'kind of' created our own language, a lot of which doesn't really make sense unless you know it. These rambling thoughts are written with the church in mind so if you're reading this and you're not sure what some of the jargon means, email me and I'll try to interpret it!

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There are so many people walking on the Lickey Hills. How do we begin to connect with these people and give them opportunities to connect with God? We know that, thankfully, God is more than capable of speaking to people without us getting in the way but at the same time He has given us the amazing task of introducing people to Him by the way we live our lives as a community and by communicating His message. The gospel of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection must first start by our own 'death and resurrection' experience. Laying down our selfish desires and putting God at the centre of our lives. Finding that place of sacrifice before God and admitting that we can't do this on our own, has to be our starting block. We need God to breathe His breath into us and for us to reconstruct our lives around the world-changing belief that He wants to be involved in our lives. So, we begin to connect with people by first and foremost understanding that we ourselves need reconnecting.

But as we come to better understand that truth and begin to centralise our lives around God, we also begin to understand that we are part of a bigger picture. A picture of God, beginning to fix this world we live in, and then the scary truth begins to set in, we are, in some mysterious way, part of that redemption plan. The glory goes to God but He, in His grace and mercy, chooses to use us to begin to put this messed up world back together again.

So, what are our responsibilities, as Lickey Church, in putting this messed up world together again?

First, we have responsibilities to one another, to 'be' communitiy and to live our lives together in 'oneness' (Ephesians 4:1-6), there should be no-one alone or in need, we have responsibility to spur one another on (Hebrews 10:24); to "trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, and love extravagantly" (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Secondly, we have responsibility to our 'neighbour' - the people we come into contact with outside of this immediate community. We are a living 'witness to our oneness'. People seeing us love one another extravagantly is testimony to God, who lives within us. How we live our lives together, determines how people see God. We need to be a community of people who have learnt to find unity in diversity. A group of people who may have no other commonality than the fact that Christ lives in us: we "submit to one another in love out of reverence for Christ." (Ephesians 5:21). But we cannot become a 'holy-huddle': a group of people who are content just to meet once a week and leave it at that. We are to be a community of people who are outward-looking, discerning the needs of the local community and reaching out to them in their place of need, giving them opportunities to see that God is interested in them and wants them to be part of this plan to begin to fix this broken world.

And we do this not because we want to change people to become more like us, or in order to get more people in church, but because primarily we are called to love as Christ loved. There can be no ulterior motives....