Here's that interview!

Hi there, hope you had a great Easter! If you're interested, that interview on the Nolan show that we talked about in the previous post can now be heard online. Sorry for the delay if you were waiting for this, some of us were off on holiday last week. Anyway, it's an MP3 and you can find it here (for info, it's about 1.8MB in size).

Stepping out in faith

Ain't it great what God does when we step out in faith? We bumped into the future First Minister of Northern Ireland recently in a story you can read about here. When we took that spontaneous spirit-led(?)step across the road to thank him for what we believe is a postive step for the future, we didn't know what it would lead to. In a subsequent TV interview Dr. Paisley mentioned the meeting, and confessed that afterwards "he wept" because he had been so moved by it and by the thought of the future for our young people. That in turn led to Steven being interviewed on the Stephen Nolan radio show ("the biggest show in the country!") about the experience and also about his hopes for the future.* It was a great opportunity to put across a positive Christian viewpoint to a wide audience. All because we stepped out across the road!

There's got to be a moral or sermon in there!

* We're hoping to get the interview online. We'll let you know if/when we do.

Event Junkies

I had an interesting conversation with John Kee (Summer Madness) yesterday. We got around to talking about 'Event Junkie Christians.' I guess what we were meaning by that term was Christians whose walk with God revolves around attending big events like Mannafest, Summer Madness etc. We all know people like this, they always respond to appeals, they make huge committments at these events, but they never go anywhere, that is until the next big event.
I've been thinking about this. What really struck me is that we have thrust this label upon young Christians, teenagers etc while the truth is there are just as many 'grown-up' believers who are event junkies! If I am honest I probably know more adults who's spiritual life and growth is dependent upon attending big events, conferences and Bible weeks, such as New Horizon, Northfield and Castlewellan. Actually quite often that can be me.
All of these programmes are amazing, Mannafest, SM, New Horizon, they all rock, but I guess what they highlight is that as Christians one of the things we struggle to do, is to follow Jesus, in an ongoing, personal, transformational relationship. We need a big fix! Why is that? Any ideas?

History in the making

I didn't think this could ever happen and yet here it is, and there is no evidence of photoshop being anywhere near this image! About five of the people sitting in this image claim to follow Jesus. It makes me think about this verse in 1 John 2:6
"Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."
My prayer is that these Jesus followers would walk as He walked, loving wrecklessly, forgiving absolutely, risking massively and most of all making a difference.