Coffee addict? me? shut-up your whinging and pass me that used filter so I can suck on it.

Fall on your knees...

2009-12-19T15:03:00.000Z

Ok. 2 posts in 2 days. Result.
For some reason been thinking about christmas a lot recently, not sure why (hah - see, told you I had a sophisticated and devleoped sense of humour!) and specifically christmas music. I'm a bit of a music geek - I love music. I love the way it can make you feel things, the way it can summon particular memories, the way it can enhance a situation - and at christmas thats something I'm particularly protective of. It may sound weird but I'm always careful with music that I love a lot or that has a particular memory or resonance with me, careful not to overplay it lest its power diminish. And christmas songs most definitively fit into that category of protected music.
So in a complete scrooge like way I will not countenance the playing of christmas music before I'm ready to start feeling christmassy (as a rule of thumb i figure when we're into double digits in december we're probably ok to start getting excited). Otherwise when christmas does get closer and its legitimate to be excited then the music is just that same old wizzard track you've been hearing non stop for the past month, instead of that exciting christmas-is-coming harbinger of joy that it should be! (Ok, maybe not the best example but still...)
So, in that light thursday was my first day of really unleashing the christmas vibe, and in my searches for suitable material, and in the course of my work of looking for a big name worship leader to try to entice to an event in Dorking (dont ask) I happened upon a Chris Tomlin Christmas album. Upon listening to the album via the genius of spotify I found on it the track "O, Holy Night" which happens to be a track i really like, with great music and great lyrics. (Not always a given for a carol - see "Ding Dong Merrily on High" and its contribution "and i-o-i-o-i-o, in heaven the bells be swungen" - a double whammy of nonsense lyrics and bad grammar!)
And I loved it. Its an awesome track, (heres the spotify link if you were lucky enough to get onboard with this amazing resource before they stopped allowing people to join for free. Apologies if not, cos that link is just teasing you now!) that I listened to a fair few times over the course of the afternoon.
I was listening to it again as I was about to leave my office to walk home while outside the snow was lightly falling as dusk decended, (a combination guaranteed to melt the coldest of hearts to a certain amount of christmassy joy,) and as I left this refrain was reverberating in my head.

"Fall on your kness, O hear the angels voices!"

And as i walked down the high street, wrapped up warmly against the biting cold and flakes of snow that were gently drifting, all I could think of was this line. Fall on your knees. Fall on your knees. And if I hadnt been so opposed to public displays of anything that might be construed as different or strange I think i would have done just that as I thought about the magnificence of christmas.
Not the lights, not the tree or the presents, or any of that, but the real christmas.
That small baby being laid in a manger because there was no room at the inn.
That small baby born in what must have been pretty difficult conditions.
That small baby, who was the Son of God himself, who had been around since the beginnging of creation. The one through whom, and for whom, all things were made. Hands that flung stars into space as Graham kendrick puts it, now unable to even feed himself.

The whole of history come down to that one point, a young women and her first baby, with her supportive husband to be standing by her side.

And the fact that that baby there in the manger was actually the king of king, the lord of lords, the one who was worthy of more praise than anyone could ever give. In as humble a setting as you could imagine. Fall on your knees indeed.
This is our King. This is our Lord, our redeemer, our saviour.

And it came to me again that what we're about here is worship. Our response to gods greatness and mercy is what matters. (And of course by worship I mean infinitely more than singing songs and playing music)

Christmas seems to be so rarely about worship for me - I get caught up in all the other stuff. The wordly stuff - food, presents, tv, decorations, holidays etc, but also the religious stuff - the church services, the carols, the proclamation of what happened, the desire to ensure that people remember Jesus as the reason for the season (urrghh, I feel guilty even writing that phrase down!) All of these things have at one stage or another kept me from remembering to really fall on my knees and worship the King.
So my prayer for me this year, and for you if you'll join me, is that this christmas, alongside all the other good things that are associated with it, will be a time of worship, of glorifying the Son of God who became one of us. Who became small weak and helpless in order to rescue us and free us.

"Fall on your knees! O, hear the angels' voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born;
O night divine, O night, O night Divine."

Rubbish blog...

2009-12-18T09:44:00.000Z

I am a rubbish blogger. I feel like I should be good at it - I love writing, I love words, I have a lot of opinions and thoughts that I feel the world should hear, I have a well developed and sophisticated sense of humour (cough), I have a job which is flexible enough to mean that occasionally during the week I can blog without neglecting anything vital... all of which I have discovered doesnt make me a good blogger.
I dont really know what does make a good blogger - maybe I'll find out as I progress (I hope), maybe I wont. At the very least though I would actually need to blog for this to be considered useful reading, and my record of a blog every 6 months doesnt make this a need-to-check site (except for the loneliest and most disconnected of hermits!) So there you have it. One promise to try harder.

the view from my window...

2009-11-10T10:45:00.000Z

Im struggling to get inspired this morning (lack of caffeine thus far could be the reason...)

I need to put together a presentation about the exciting possibilities of townwide youth projects for the Churches, and have written a plan, have plenty of ideas, and am genuinely passionate about it all. But simply cant seem to get into gear to get it all in a nice presentation this morning!

I also have a bit of tooth pain in an old root canal filling I had done when I was a child after having one of my front teeth chipped (and the nerve killed) in an accident involving a big, powerful swing door and myself at Lee Abbey.

So here I sit, looking out at the drizzle outside. Wondering if its worth going out to get a coffee. Wondering if my reliance on caffeine is really the issue here. Pondering that perhaps my reliance on caffeine (if thats what it is) really should perhaps be something I need to think about.

And thanking God for things. Like my sister-in-law and her husband having produced Jacob Andrew James Payne last night, 7lbs 10oz. Well done them, and thankyou God!

Another fascinating blog.

Commissioning, Philippians and citizenship...

2009-10-20T10:34:00.000+01:00

Had commissioning service on sunday evening for my role as Churches Together in Dorking Youth Development Director (thats the job title on my job offer, so I'm sticking with it!) Wasn't quite sure what to expect - was kind of hesitant about it all. Despite my love of attention one of my worries was that it wasn't going to be focused enough on God, that there was going to be too much " oooh, this is Jimmy, isnt it great that he's here..." kind of thing. But I dont think this was the case. Was great to have people from many churches coming together, Jammy F did a great talk (one of those that actually seems to get even better the more you think about it!) and think it actually seemed to excite people about the whole set-up and the stuff that we trust God's got in store for us! I particularly appreciated the actual commissioning section where the "steering group" prayed for me. This might sound funny, but it really does "feel good" when large numbers of people are praying for you. (Not sure that "feel good" is the most appropriate phrase - so please understand that in the most helpful way you can think of!)

Have been reading through Philippians over the past few weeks (using Tom Wrights "New Testament... for everyone" book to help) This morning I've been struck by the challenge to live out, and be inspired by, our citizenship in Gods kingdom rather than any other. This of course throws up all kinds of really deep and intriguing questions about what citizenship in Gods kingdom looks like, before we even get to the nitty gritty of the challenge of how practically we can live that out in a society that has a whole host of conflicting motivations driving it! I have no deep insight regarding this at the moment, but hopefully as this sinks further into my conciousness I'll come back to the subject!

And finally, still cant remember where that suitcase illustration (see last post) comes from. I've skimmed through my CS Lewis and Adrian Plass books which were the most likely sources - but no joy. If anyone has any ideas I'd really appreciate it - its not important but it's gonna bug me until I find it now!

A new start?

2009-10-15T10:35:00.000+01:00

Useful discipline, or self-indulgent exercise in futility?
Self-obsession taken to extreme, or genuinely useful way of sharing?

Whats the use of me blogging? Will I actually follow through on it this time?

Difficult questions. Not necessarily easily or (at all!) answerable. But time will tell I guess.
I'd love to be a regular blogger. I'd love to get into the habit of setting out my thoughts and ideas as they develop and appear. I've noticed recently that I have a propensity to have thoughts, and if I don't capture them in some way (share them, write them down, do something about them right away) then they float away, ephemeral in the breeze of life and events.
And that's not good.
Because sometimes these are good thoughts, sometimes dare I say it these are even Godly thoughts. And without getting into the big question of why these thoughts are even able to disappear and fade away, my inclination is that if these things are from God then these are precisely the things I should be most aware of and focused on.
So maybe, hopefully, this blog can become somewhere I set these things out.

Here are some thoughts that I need to work through:
Spiritual mentoring,
Balancing strategic thinking with actual doing,
Leadership (without authority)
Catching Gods vision

But for today I shall restrict myself to pondering memory,a nd the nature of church. (Something light to start with!)

In the back of my head is a thought about church, about how if we were all more honest with each other about our failings, about our struggles, our fears, our doubts, then church would be a lot more loving and welcoming a place. Instead we sit there and sing our songs, and raise our hands in the right places (if that's what we do in our church), and cross ourselves and bow at the appropriate times (if that's what we do in our church) - and make out that everything is good with us,that we have no problems, that we have no unanswered questions, no doubts, no worries, that everything is tickety-boo with us.
I have a vague memory of some writer (possibly Adrian Plass - I thought it was CS Lewis in "The Screwtape Letters", but the bit I thought it was, was actually a different thing...) (if that makes any sense!) writing something about a church service where we all turn up with our suitcases full of our faith. Some of them are old and battered, and some are new and clean, depending on how long we've been carrying them around with us, and every sunday we turn up in church with our suitcases, and smile at each other and pat our suitcases as if to say "yes brother, my suitcase is full thanks" and occasionally we might even make a big thing about how heavy our suitcase might be as we lug it around with us everywhere. But one sunday we all turn up, and are seated in our usual places, patting our suitcases smugly - only to be told that today we are all going to open our suitcases. and everyones face falls slightly at this, but we all pretend that its ok - and its only as we go round opening our suitcases one by one that we discover our suitcases are all empty...

Now that's how i remember the story, its a vague retelling I guess that I've written there, and maybe bits are inaccurate (are the suitcases all completely empty? what does that say about church? is it all a big front or sham?) but the key point for me is this - spiritually I'd much rather belong to a church where we all displayed our empty suitcases than one where we pretended that they were much fuller than they actually were.
There's a real power in honesty and sharing - and I wonder if this is part of what confessing our sins to one another is meant to be. Removing any possibility of getting self-righteous and proud, of not allowing ourselves to be helped when we need it most, reminding ourselves that we all come before the throne of God not in our strength at all, but by the grace of God poured out on us through Jesus, that we are not better or worse than our brothers and sisters in Christ and that we are no more, or less deserving than them of receiving the amazing gifts of God.

Probably this says more about me, and the things I struggle with, than any actual deep thing at all. I (shamefully perhaps?) gain strength and encouragement from other peoples failing. Not, I hasten to add, in a bad way (how weak does that sound?!) but in the sense that I know we are all in this together. That its ok to fail or falter, because I know I don't mind when other people do so they won't mind when I do. That I'd much rather stand alongside my fellow travellers in the journey of following Jesus Christ and support them because thats simply what we do to each other. That God doesn't mind when we fail, and would much rather we try than not. That someone like David (murderer, adulterer, general all-round playboy) could be described as a man after Gods own heart despite everything he did.
Now I say that spiritually I'd much rather belong to a church where we open our suitcases and share our weakness than one where we all pretend that we're doing fine - but if I'm honest that is the spiritually challenging side of me. In truth there's part of me that would be more comfortable in a church where we can portray what we want to, and will never be called on any of it. That's the spiritually lazy side of me I guess, and I don't think I'd be able to stand it for long without getting cynical and about church and the people in it - but that's precisely the kind of thing that leads to a destructive situation and would lead eventually to a point where I had to leave the church; either as result of having grown so cynical that my faith was shrunk and gone, or one where I recognised the danger that spiritual complacency of this sort was having on my life and chose to get out to save my spiritual life.
This tension between spiritual challenge and spiritual complacency is one that I always need to work through. (Its a bit like exercise. I know its a good thing, and I know I should do it, and once I start doing it I'll enjoy it and benefit from it, but its that first push to do something about it that's always the hardest thing to do.) When I was younger one of my regular prayers at various youth meetings was that God would move us out of our comfort zones, to my shame I haven't honestly prayed this for a long time. I want to. I chose to. I just hope the lazy-ass bit of me catches up soon!

But theres definitely part of me, and the good part at that, that craves this honesty in church. I want to be part of a fellowship where we do fail, and get up and try again, and support each other in that.
Who's up for it? And who the heck wrote that suitcase in church thing?

About average for me...

2006-08-03T17:58:00.000+01:00

Ok. first post for 8 months. Thats about par for the course for me. I'm so lame at blogging, I'd give it up if there weren't that small part of me that REALLY enjoys writing rubbish for other people to read (or, of course, not read). I like to think if I wasn't doing youthwork I could be a top quality writer, maybe a columnist or sports reporter for a classy paper or magazine - and of course I still hold on (in the still small centre of me) to the belief that there is a cracking novel within me. I will be a published author one day. Or of course not.

To be honest I'm blogging now cos I'm not feeling motivated to do anything more constructive. Might go for a run later. Might not. Really should finish putting together a letter for the young poeple coming to Soul Survivor with us next week, but I bore myself sometimes with the admin side of youthwork. I know I should be more disciplined with myself about it, but... well, actually there's no but. Thats it, I should be more disciplined. End of story.
Doesn't make for such an entertaining blog entry though! Maybe I should make out like its this big struggle thing thats dominating my life, an epic battle, a tug of war between my desire to be a lazy sod and my calling to youthwork - yes... and then I can call my blog "Struggle" or something similarly snappy and eyecatching. Then over the course of the weeks I can log my attempts to actually do something useful in my office, all the while, ironically, not actually doing anything bccause I'm too busy blogging. yes. This sounds like a good idea. Of course its rubbish though, I just need to remember what I'm working for and not focus on what I'm actually doing. And thats the biggest danger in any kind of christian ministry I guess (although, natch, can't claim to speak with any degree of authority about any area of ministry other than youthwork, and even then the authority I speak with is rather lame - a local parish council level of authority I'd suggest if you want it contextualised!) distinguishing between what you do, and why you do it. In my situation it can be expressed more clearly in this example - I run 3 youth groups during school term-time, and we do many activities (some better planned than others!) and games. And so although it seems that the bulk of my time is spent with organising/preparing/clearing up these activities it shouldn't be my main focus. Although in my weaker moments (when I'm awake) it is often the case that my attention and thoughts are directed to these tasks...
All of which is a rather convoluted way of saying that without God at the centre of what we do in our christian lives (and I wouldnt limit it to church or christian "workers"- because I believe that this applies to all of us in our everyday lives, not those fortunate and lucky enough to be paid to do what we would want to do anyway!) we rapidly become focused on the external, worldly side of things, and miss out on what Gods doing. The practical is important - doing things properly and professionally can be, and should be, an act of worship - but as the old incident at chéz Martha, Mary and Lazarus reminds us there is a better way...

Ok. That'll do for today (and, if past form is anything to go by, probably this year!). Just enough time to fill you in on some minor info. Its my birthday in a few weeks, and I've decided that I wish to keep tropical fish. I need a hobby, and this is to be mine (if I dont get bored of it). And so I hope to receieve much fish-relate paraphenalia, so if you want to get me soemthing, you know what to do!
Similarly, my cd collection now reaches monumental proportions - top albums of the moment are the new Muse one, the legendary Johnny Cash with American V (which is a fantastically beautiful piece of work, with added poignancy as well as musical excellence) and one by a fantastic worship leader Martyn Layzell (who blogs as well) called Turn My Face. This is the first album for a few years from him, and it doesnt disapoint. He's always been a worship leader I particularly "enjoy" - partly I suspect because his songs seem to be written in good keys for me to sing, and also because he uses chords on his guitar that are simple enough for me to play. Oh and the lyrics are good and I can engage with them very easily as well. Natch. Cos its not about me. Its about God you see, and just cos I can play or sing a song doesn't make it any better than any other. Oh no. Ahem. But seriously I love the album. Buy it.

Ok. enough drivel. I will post some more about music soon. Or not. (I will also find a new literary gag that doesn't involve following every statement with "or not. etc.") (Or not.) (Sorry)

May God bless you gentle reader.
J

I'm loving this page...

2005-12-30T15:46:00.000Z

Crazy random facts on the BBC website I'm loving this...
100 random facts = my kinda trivia. My favourite is probably about the japanese having a word for "a wish that there were more designer-brnad shops on a given street"!

(chokuegambo in case you're interested!)

Sunday afternoon...

2005-11-27T13:57:00.000Z

No snow. how disappointing. in a week where the rest of the UK has seemingly ground to a halt over a few flakes of the white stuff, here in Berko we aint had none. Bah. But I wont go on about it.
(I love the cold mornings though. nothing quite like crisp frost over everything. particularly when my walk to work consists of crossing the living room. Hah)
Ok. Watched wales vs Australia in the rugby yesterday on tv. great stuff. don't understand how Australia only lost by 2 points though. we (wales) were all over them, they score a couple of breakaway tries, and suddenly the last 10 minutes were as tense as anything I've experienced over the last 12 months. (yes, i freely admit I have an easy life!)
Today. church this morning. satisfactory, nothing more. We worked on the nativity play for the squigglets. Nothing to write home about. (although ironically it is apparently worth putting into a blog!)
this evening am doing the talk at sunday@5, over at sunnyside chucrh. just finished writing it up. all about not having a Plan B. about trusting in God entirely. about when Peter walked on the water when Jesus called out to him. Challenged myself as I wrote it, just a bit concerned as to whether it might be a bit too meaty for the service. not quite sure of the level to pitch it at. so might have to adapt it as go along. gonna work in some good stories about sea-sickness though (at first you think you're going to die, then you're afraid you wont - cant find who said it originally, but unfortunately it wasn't me!) so that should be fun. all good.

Youthwork - the conference 2005 in Eastbourne

2005-11-23T12:54:00.000Z

Well, been a week or so since I last put anything on here. And even longer since I wrote anything specifically for this, so here's a post.
Just got back from youthwork conference in Eastbourne this weekend (I say just - I mean, of course, some days ago) (just to satisfy the pedants among you!) and want to say how good it was.
May take me some time to unpack every part of it (metaphorically - I was only away from thursday to sunday afternoon, and theres not a huge maount of stuff you need for a trip that long. The actual unpacking of course took place on sunday evening when I arrived home.) but want to make a start here...
Firstly though, and I appreciate the chances of them ever reading this are small to non-existent, I want to thank all the people at youthwork magazine, spring harvest, YFC, Alove (Salvation Army), and Oasis for putting it on. Special quantities of kudos go out to Andy Flannagan for leading the music over the weekend and the early day section. MAjor repsect to him as a worship leader. Musically and technically - superb. Creatively - outstanding (mash ups of Usher and Stevie Wonder with modern worship songs! Excellent). Spiritually - so astute. Nice one Doc.

Ok. so unpacking then... will have to happen another time. the clock has defeated us my friends. Till next time...

Young people are the future of the church... Grrrr

2005-11-05T13:41:00.000Z

Time for another bit of youthwork writing…
This is the talk some of the young people will be delivering at church tomorrow morning. Ok, so I wrote it, but we’re trying to get the church to take note of all the capable young people and the life they offer to the church as a whole. Young people aren’t the future of the church, they’re the now as well. I’ll let you know how it goes after the weekend!

In a minute we are going to watch a clip from the cartoon series, The Simpson’s. In this episode Homer, the father of the family, is staying at home while his family are stuck in a cold church. The reasons he stays at home are varied and manifold, but boil down to the fact that its cold outside, he thinks church is boring and his trousers are split…

Video clip from Homer the Heretic, Simpsons series 4, 05:50-08:12mins

In this clip Homer ends up staying at home, and not going to church with his family on a Sunday. The weathers cold, his trousers are too tight, and he would much rather stay in and enjoy himself. It might seem a little controversial to say this in church, but I reckon there probably cant be many people here this morning who have never felt like doing what Homer does…
Maybe on a beautiful sunny day going too church is not too bad, when we’re filled with the joy of spring or summer, and the birds are singing sweetly in the trees, but when its cold and rainy and miserable outside (a little like today maybe!) staying in seems like the better option.

Homer though is of course wrong in this clip. Going to church isn’t about simply doing something to keep God happy once a week. We are not here this morning as part of an unpleasant duty that we MUST do to appease God. True some of us may have some slightly different motivations for being here, some may be here out of a sense of duty, some may be here to accompany a friend or family member – none of these options is a particularly bad thing. A sense of duty is definitely not a bad thing, and coming to accompany someone who otherwise would maybe not come demonstrates great love and affection.
But perhaps the ultimate reason we gather together every Sunday is a point that Homer seems to miss. Namely that we come together to worship God, and to give him praise for what he has done, and continues to do for us. We come to church because God deserves our love and worship, and one of the best ways we can express that is to get together with other people who think the same and do just that.

And it doesn’t matter how old or young you are, what your background or tradition is, we are all part of Gods church. The Sunday school are going to show us some pictures they’ve made later in the service – and this is worship to God. Every week they learn about God, and making these pictures is just one way of expressing that. During communion the young people in the choir are going to sing a Russian children’s prayer, and that is part of our worship too.

The reason that parts of the service this morning is being taken by young people from various groups linked to the church or parish is to make a point – to celebrate that we are all part of Gods church, old and young, lively and less lively, hairy or balding. We are part of the church, not just St Peters and All saints, not just a Berkhamsted church, not just a British church, not just a protestant church, but part of Gods church, which extends across languages, cultures and continents.
We want to celebrate the diversity and life that we have in the church, the life we see here in front of us this morning, the life we experience in all the different ways in which the church reaches out to the people of this town, whether its through the wonderful musical tradition we have here, or through the work with the young people, or maybe the Sunday together lunches, or through the bell ringers, or through the mothers union or the toddlers group, old and young, lively or sedentary, it all is part of our life that we are celebrating this morning.

Christians across this town may express our faith in different ways, but we are all unified by our shared faith in Jesus and what God the father has done for us through him.
Different groups within the church may demonstrate our faith in different ways, but we are all unified by our shared faith in Jesus and what God the father did through him.

Homer may not have understood what church is about, maybe many of the people around us in our jobs, at our schools, our neighbours, do not understand what church is about. But if we continue to demonstrate it, in the way that we are doing here today, with so many different parts of the church involved, then we will surely be able to help them understand. In the end in the Simpson’s episode we saw Homer does begin to understand what church is about. And let us continue in our service this morning reflecting on what our shared faith is, and giving thanks for the many and varied ways that faith is worked out in our community here.

I do youthwork as well...

2005-11-03T22:09:00.000Z

Realised I haven’t put enough stuff about youthwork into this blog, so thought I’d add this little presentation that I prepared for my new boss (more on that as well eventually!) to show the kind of stuff we do round my way…

Jimmy is responsible for a number of regular and ad hoc activities in Berkhamsted and Northchurch. These are as follows.

Regular Youth groups

Wednesday Pathfinders Games Club

T.E’s youth club

(Friday Niters youth club)

(Cell:Plus)

Schools work
Regular Assemblies at

Victoria First School

Thomas Coram Middle School

Ashlyns Secondary School

St Mary’s First School

Westfield First School

Greenway First School

Berkhamsted Collegiate School

Occasional Contact (assemblies) with

Egerton Rothesay School

Bridgewater Middle School

Regular lunchtime clubs

St Mary’s First school Bible club

Thomas Coram Rock Solid group

Ashlyns CU

As well as detached youthwork at lunchtimes at Ashlyns School

Trips away

Firm Foundations Festival

Soul Survivor Festival

Annual Pathfinders Tour

Chellington trip (provisionally regular! Only one so far!!)

Sundays
First Sunday of month - ST Peters
Second “     “     “  - St Mary’s
Third     “     “     “  - All Saints’
Fourth “     “     “  -  St Mary’s
Fifth     “     “     “  - Usually St Mary’s, but open to offers…

Other activities including co-ordinating town-wide occasional youth services (aWAKENING), as well as doing a weekly “Footy Alpha” with some of the yr10 and yr11 lads from Ashlyns School also are a regular part of the youthwork that Jimmy is involved in. The basis for all of this work is relational youthwork - building up steady and stable relationships with the young people involved in the different activities, and through that encouraging them in developing and growing faith. The model for this is illustrated below:

Using a model of concentric circles of ever increasing commitment and faith, we seek to draw the young people through and on into ever deeper faith.

Super-size me

2005-11-03T12:15:00.000Z

Well just to prove that I'm uptodate and in no way at all lagging behind "popular" culture, I finally got round to watching "Super-Size Me" this week. (Thanks to the joy of Sky+, I recorded it about 2 weeks ago, and have only just got round to finishing it. I will extol the wonders of Sky+ some more on another occasion!)
Man, I'm never eating fast-food again. It's a quality piece of film for those of you who are even less with it than me and also have yet to see it. I thoroughly recommend it, although not while you're sitting down eating junk food. You'll feel so disgusted with yourself that you won't be able to finish your food. Or the film, depending on whether you're really determined to munch your way through the grease and additve laden stodge that you've purchased.
My favourite bit of the film (without this sounding like a 10 year olds book review; "I liked this book, and I would give it 8/10. My best bit was...") was the section where Morgan Spurlock (the film maker and "star") had his first super-sized meal from McDonalds, and took 20-odd minutes to finish eating it, immediately followed by his stomach deciding that its contents were too mcuh for it, and expelling the aforementioned, offending, over-sized meal. Apparantly McD's removed the Super-size option from their menus a short while after the film was released, but I was still amazed at the difference in size between American McDonalds meals, and European McDonalds meals (or British at least). It's like the difference between a 2 litre bottle of coke, and a can!!! Unbelievable. No wonder there is so much obesity in America - if all their food outlets think that such gargantuan portions are normal I'm amazed that there are any people over there who aren't over-weight!!
BTW, it feels wrong referring to the McDonalds "menu", I always figure resturants as having menus, and to my mind I never included McD's in that category. Menus are for posh places, McDonalds has a choices board!
Ok. So it's all been said before, and a long time ago, when the film first came out (2003?), but this is my blog, and I'll put what I like in here. Hah. World domination starts here!

2 days in a row...

2005-10-26T10:23:00.000+01:00

ok. the fact that most of my posts seem to be concerned with the fact that i'm not very good at posting regularly seems to me to be a bit telling.
I either need to think of something interesting to write about regularly, or I should just quit. But I dont want to, so I won't.

Interesting thing of the day...
Actually noticed yesterday, just after posting, that instead of 5 hours worth of good music that i hadnt listened to for a month, it was 5 days worth. Thats more like it!
Really got to crack ona nd do some real work today. so will leve this post here for now.

Inspiration lacking...

2005-10-25T13:46:00.000+01:00

So, like 2 posts in the same month. No really, I’m gonna get going with this bad-boy of a blog anytime soon.
Or not, time will tell.

Ok. Back from weekend away with guys from various of the youth groups around the town. (young people from/with links to All Saints Church, St Peter's church, St Mary’s Northchurch and Sunnyside church – quite a group when you think about it like that!) Was mostly girls actually, but the one lad we took seemed to enjoy it (quellé surprise!) We went to a place called Chellington, an old church that became a residential centre when it closed, and was recently done up. Its fantastic. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who wants to take a group away. (I should mention Kings Road Church here with grateful thanks for the loan of their minibus. Oh yes, churches working together. There aint nothing else like it. Yeh! John 13:35)

Had a cracking weekend, or at least the leaders did. No, everyone seemed to enjoy it actually. Which is nice.

While writing this am listening to “Favourites that I haven’t heard for a month” apparently I have 5 hours worth lined up. Is that all? Kinda disappointed that that is all. Guess I listen to cd’s on my computer more than I think. Either that or I haven’t set a lot of tracks as favourites. So far have had Prince, Oasis, Daniel Bedingfield, Supergrass, Queen, Stealers Wheel, Violent Femmes, and now it’s playing Switchffot. Dangnabbit, this is all good stuff. (am trying to cut down on casual use of dammit, Good Lord, Jeez, and other words/phrases that can be construed as in anyway-slightly-at-all blasphemous. Which is actually quite tough. Am also trying to read the bible in 3 months. Which is by the by.)

Half-term this week, so no youth groups or schools work. Good opportunity to tidy the office without time pressure, and also to sort out the piles of resources that I tend to dump after an evening group when I'm too tired and fail to sort in the morning cos I’m too lazy! That and an opportunity to meet up with people and go for a Costa™… bliss!

Ok. This is long enough. Till next time. Laters.

Testing

2005-10-19T16:48:00.000+01:00

Testing this new function, (where I type in M*cr*s*ft W*rd, and it automatically updates my blog, neat huh?) Really should have done more blogging, but just been too busy (read: couldn’t be bothered.)
Ok. This is just a test, so lets see…

Lets pretend this is the start shall we?

2005-02-19T14:25:00.000Z

Ok. So this is it. This is my blog. Honestly, I'll be updating it regularly now.

Been thinking though, it needs a new name now given that I'm off coffee... Can't think of one thats funny enough to warrant it though. Shame. Lack of imagination holds me back in soooo many things.

This new beginning thing is starting to look like a bit of a bad habit unfortunately, so my new years resolution (ahem - not late at all) is to try and keep this being updated regualrly - at least once a week if not more! After all, my life is so interesting, and I'm such an engaging writer that... oh, hang on... nevermind. I'm gonna carry on with my evil plan anyhoo...

So,
cups of coffee today = 0
games of football watched = 1 (although man u v everton is on telly later)
productive stuff achieved = 0 hours

Good day so far.

2 out of 3 aint bad...

2004-09-21T13:03:00.000+01:00

...except that this post makes it 2 out of 5. but still, its a fraction...

ok. cups of coffee - am still on my first of the day, but anticipate a sizeable intake this afternoon.

feelings - tired. one of those days when brain doesnt seem to start.

plans - limited.

HAd a good weekend though, achieved very little of note on saturday, which is a good feeling... watched "Kill Bill vol.2" which was an interesting experience given that i still havent seen vol.1. Guess i dont really need to now, although i still have a hankering to see the seen when the bride kicks the ass of 100 japanese assasins. Guess i'm just a bad person!
Do like Tarantino films, despite agreeing with everything people say about too much unnecessary violence in films, guess that makes me a hypocrite then. Ah, yes, but a hypocrite who could rip your MF head off punk. Hmmm... maybe these films do influence us.

Went to Bristol on sunday as well, that was fun. Good sermon on church, and about how we shouldnt give up on it, because we should rememeber that its Gods Holy temple that hes building using us. Good point, well made.

Journey there and back - good, except for flipping middle lane huggers. nothing on the inside, a cue of 20 cars waiting to overtake them, and still not budging from their lane. Grrr... Had to keep reminding myself that God loves them too, and that they aren't the ones referred to when he talks about the firey pits of hell being reserved for the likes of these...
Maybe theres a worse punishment reserved for them. Hmmm...
Best leave it there for today!

Coffee, feelings, and empty promises...

2004-09-17T17:58:00.000+01:00

Cups of coffee today = 1 (lack of milk for coffee making me too lazy) (however this is a good number beneath my daily average methinks!)
Feelings = grey and cloudy outside, therefore slightly lacklustre day. (question have i got SADS?!)
empty promises = intend to get going with this blog regularly. (track record not looking good though. 4 posts in 2 1/2 months? i've known* trappist monks that are more communicative)

So lets see how it goes.

In the meantime, update on summer...It was good. Soul Survivor was wicked, Soulinthecity was outstanding and Passion for your name was just what i needed.

The weather stank though.

* i say "known", i mean of course "havent known, but imagine there may well be, in the whole world..."

ahem...

2004-07-20T11:07:00.000+01:00

Ok ok, so its been a few weeks since i last published. Holding my hands up on accusations of being rubbish at this.
Get used to it though!
Finally got broadband back now, so should be easier to do!
Schools have broken up last week, so work is a bit quieter - no asemblies or lunchtime clubs and christian unions. On the other hand have got SoulintheCity next week - which will involve a bit of work! Not just that taking some of the young people, but am also being a small team leader.
Will be interesting to see how it works out.
On an entirely unrelated point, just been listening to the Polyphonic Spree's new single - and its a cracker. Listen to it. Also Kanye West's album is pretty cool. Heard it for the first time last night, and enjoyed muchly. Particularly track 7. Go listen.

its been a week

2004-07-02T11:47:00.000+01:00

Well, it's been a week since i last blogged (is that the verb I'm looking for? sounds good, even if its not good english!) and its time for an update...
I suppose i should quickly say that i've not updated since last week for two reasons:
One, broadband in my house has been down - and despite only having had it for a week or two, i now cant be bothered to use the net without it - it takes SOOOO long to use it with dial-up!
Two, I've been too busy to be able to sit down and think about life or anything. (note to self - does this mean i need to take more time out, or merely be more effective in what I actually do?)
Ho hum.
Anyhoo - my thoughts for the day... Hows life here?
Well. God wise things are good. Whenever I do stop to think about whats going on here in Berkhamsted with the young people and God, i get really excited. People are growing in faith, they're challenging their friends and family, they're making a difference to the the people around them. Which i guess is what we're trying to do. Which is nice.

2004-06-25T16:16:00.000+01:00

Me in a bar in Cape Town

In the beginning...

2004-06-25T13:15:00.000+01:00

...was the word, and the word was...
well, actually, the word was - you're going to start a blog. Unleash on the world (or the part of it that uses the web, and reads english) the thoughts, ideas, dreams and visions of a welsh-man in an alien country, of a youthworker, of a single twenty-something.
So here it is.

Ta-da...

More later, as I'm already running late today!!!