Update!

I'm off to Portugal the day after tomorrow, so most likely will not be posting until during Mobilise! Very excited about the whole thing. Just got back from Brighton tonight and can't wait until I'm back on the seafront in less than two weeks.

Before I go on holiday, I have several pieces of news to share:

CCK have a new website. Try cck.churchinsight.com, it's very good. Much better than the old one, and I am very impressed. I was there on Sunday, and it was excellent, David Fellingham giving us a walk through the Da Vinci Code and exposing its lies as well as the half-truths.

Bournemouth Family Church are never to be outdone however, and they too have a new website at bfc.churchinsight.com. Although this website is less informative than CCK's, take a look at their old site and see how much of a leap into the 21st century they have taken already! I'm hoping more content will follow soon enough.

While I'm away, the next Newfrontiers Magazine will be published in which Terry Virgo's new book "The Tide Is Turning" will be profiled and reviewed by my pastor, John Groves. I just got a quick look at the review and now I can't wait to get my hands on a copy! Louise Salway, one of the young people from Bournemouth Family Church is also profiled sharing about her time in Africa. The youth in Bournemouth are crazy in every way - including for God. It's good to see them given some profile!

Closer To God: Another Shameless Plug

The July-September edition of Closer to God will be out soon, once again with contributions from writers in our family of churches. Jonathan Bell writes again, this time alongside such people as Jennifer Rees Larcombe.

I Love Team

This is the team I have been a part of this year, whose job it has been to lead the student work at City Church Sheffield. Tonight was our last opportunity to get together, and as usual it was fun.

Left to right there is me (I'm leaving Sheffield for the summer this Saturday!), Rachel Round (also leaving this Saturday to go on holiday), Alex & Rosie Chapman who are about to go off to Kenya for Alex's 4th year elective (medical student), Jon Lee (who is leaving us forever... very sad), Becki Ring (going away this Saturday too), and Liz Recalde who will be in Spain next year.

Spending this time together made me realise how much I value being part of a team, where each person has something different to contribute and we can help each other grow as we take responsibility for building the church. It is been an amazing opportunity to be part of this group, and I'm going to miss them all over the summer! Thankfully God's given us Mobilise where some of us will meet up again before September.

Teams are great. Thank God for teams.

The Feast profiled on BBC website

I have referred in the past to the event Winchester Family Church help run in the summer called The Feast. I recently found that the BBC are reporting on it here. It includes an interview with Chris Kilby, an Elder at Winchester Family Church who is part of the group of three leaders in the city who head the whole thing up.

Before Easter they ran an article on my friend Ang Dinnie, who is the student worker at Winchester Family Church.

Attributes of a Christian according to Catherine Tate

Icons of Incompetance: Labour Do Not Do...

When I started this blog I knew that I was writing to a split audience in that roughly half of my posts were on politics and therefore included my particular political beliefs and affiliations. The other half roughly was concerned with posts on Christianity, the church etc and has been unashamedly Christian.

I knew that most readers who were interested in one of these categories, would be completely put off by the other, and for a while I continued posting on both anyway. I thought at the time that one theme would naturally overtake the other. In May this finally happened with every post being in the "christian" category, with the exception of one post which crossed the boundaries (I am rather pleased by the way that Newfrontiers' first MP is likely to be a Tory... the natural choice in my opinion). This approach was rewarded with more hits to this blog in May than I have ever had before.

So if I want to keep my readers, it doesn't seem logical to keep the political side going. But on the other hand, I just found this hilarious piece of propaganda from labourdonotdo.com...

TEMPORARY LINK TO OUTSIDE: PICTURE POSTED SOON! Go here.

Despite worrying about hits, I remain conscious that this is my blog and politics is one of my interests. And I found this poster hilarous! There are many more if you follow the link.

Keywords
Luke Wood Newfrontiers Conservatives

A Proposition For Newfrontiers' Mobilise 2006

I'm setting myself a target for this year's Mobilise. As many other Christian bloggers do at such conferences, I'm planning to blog my way through it.

I don't mean spending hours at the internet points in the Brighton Centre (although I may post once or twice from there) - those who have been will know that the schedule is too demanding for that. Even if you had the energy to, you wouldn't get a break long enough to write comprehensively about the previous session. Plus, these four days happen only once a year, and it would seem foolish not to spend every available moment getting to know the other 5,000 people a little better.

What I am going to do is make enough notes that I can come back to the talks after the event and reflect on them in a series much like my current Attributes Series. Following in the pattern, it will be primarily for my own benefit; too often with events like this, I don't allow myself enough time afterwards to process what has been said. But knowing that I've set myself the expectation that I'll come back and write about each session will hopefully help me to be disciplined to actually do it!

I wrote one article about Mobilise 2005, but that was written for our student newsletter at CityChurch Sheffield (it was only later that I realised it might be suitable to put on this blog). This year I want my blogging on Mobilise to be planned and deliberate, as that's why I set myself this task.

So... does anyone want to join me?

Keywords:
Luke Wood Newfrontiers Together On A Mission Mobilise Brighton CityChurch Students

Adrian Warnock links to Luke Wood!

Now there's something I never thought I'd see. The giant of the Christian blogosphere offers a link to Luke Wood as a thank you. Apparently I have sent at least 10 visitors to his blog in the last month! Well, in the spirit of passing on thankfulness, thank you Adrian for linking back! I am very grateful.

This Is Not A Church Review 3

Finally I get to write about last weekend! It seems weeks ago now, but my time with ChristChurch stands out in my memory as an outstanding time of worship and encouragement.

I arrived in London and made my way to Tottenham Court Road to meet a friend for coffee. She was waiting for me at the exit of the tube station. Those who know central London will know that Tottenham Court Road tube station is right next to the Dominion Theratre, where Hillsong Church meet on a Sunday. As I was emerging from the station a fight was beginning between a black man (who was standing at the tube exit shouting “repent! Don‘t burn in hell!”) and a Hillsong-honey (as the super-attractive members of that church have become known). The Hillsong member was trying to get the shouter moved in case people thought he was associated with Hillsong!

So a very amusing start to a great afternoon. We walked across the river to the South Bank and had some dinner at Wagamama, which is right next to Vinopolis where ChristChurch meet (you could see the wine-museum through the arches of the restaurant!). After a very nice meal we made our way across the street to their meeting place. The venue is always packed, let alone on a day when Kate Simmonds is leading worship, so it was a particularly inconvenient day to be moved out of their usual venue by the hosts and put in a smaller room! We were glad we arrived early and it paid off later.

We were welcomed by Adrian Holloway and then the time of worship began. Kate had brought her usual Brighton band along, including her husband Miles and a couple called Matt and Nadine (Nadine blogs here at xanga) who are soon to church plant into Hull. I couldn’t tell you much of the detail, but the presence of God was there and it was great to be able to worship Him in our capitol.

The most memorable part (and this bit reminded me of Baxter’s Boy) was when, towards the end of the time, we had finished a song and Kate said “I don’t normally do this, but…” and went on to tell about her time visiting a revival in Pensacola in the US. She said she knew that she went there a singer, and came back a worshipper. “Before that,” she said “I thought Christian songs were a bit twee.” But she told us how that had changed during this time and we went on to sing the song which she says impacted her the most during that time: “Draw Me Close To You”.
The following time of worship singing that song was certainly marked by God’s closeness as we enjoyed His presence with us and goodness to us.

David Stroud preached a message on our need of the Holy Spirit in our worship:

1) Passionate, Spirit-filled worship is fuelled by truth - Psalm 95:1-7

2) Spirit-filled worship should be marked by an encounter with God - Psalm 95:6-7
A sense of call, empowering, healing and revelation all come during a time of worship.

3) Spirit-filled worship produces obedience that takes us on with God - Psalm 95:8-11

It was a great afternoon - you should go and visit soon!

Links
My second visit to ChristChurch London
My third visit to ChristChurch London

Keywords
Luke Wood ChristChurch London Newfrontiers Kate Simmonds

Attribute 29: He is the stumbling stone of all religion

For all religions or set of beliefs which would set themselves up against the knowledge of God, Jesus is their stumbling stone. Against any kind of legalism that creeps into our personal or corporate lives, He is the stumbling stone. He is the only one who can help us to see those things for what they really are.

When we become ensnared in the drudgery of life, seeing Him again lifts our heads, and He becomes the stumbling stone to our life without Him.