I can now FINALLY put pictures on this now and so over 6 weeks late.....here is a picture of my wedding!!
wedding
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Hi, my name's Matt and I am a.........

Well after worrying myself about the weekend as it approached I think I can safely say I made quite a bizarre stab at it (stab being the operative word!!)

Chris's parents have now safely arrived in their new home in Denmark and I completely lost all capability to be sympathetic for 2 hours for some reason.

My laptop (and therefore my life) died on Sunday evening (in The Salvation Army we don't say died we say "Promoted to Glory" however my laptop will not be there to meet me in heaven, I assure you!!)

We then had our second gathering of carus.......how bizarre..........we had 3 new people which was excellent and it was encouraging to see new faces there. However none of the 19 faces who'd made it the first time were able to make it this time. At 8pm we sat with only one person present apart from the 3 of us who lead carus (and we'd brought him with us!!) And so at 815 when the other 5 people arrived we tried to work out what to do, no laptop, no powerpoint and an audio system that was making a really horrible buzzing noise!!

We went ahead and even managed to keep going when the 3 new people had to leave after a work crisis came up just as we were about to move into some worship. So what did I learn from all this??

Well firstly I learnt this, don't trust technology!! I am completely owned by my computer and i-Pod and phone, Sat-Nav, Sky TV and any number of other electrical gadgets.

Secondly the vision for carus is to see new people come into relationship with God. On Sunday night I had forgotten the vision, I expected the same 19 people to come and bring their friends and in doing so grow the congregation!! I got it wrong!! We're being called to get out there and meet people. Meet them in town, in work, in school not just wait for someone we know to bring someone they know.

Thirdly I learnt this, my wife is an incredible woman of God and I need to learn to listen to her. For weeks she's been telling me that I wasn't living out the vision and everytime I made some poor effort and justifying myself, (I have a suspicion she reads this and so I would like to point out that this DOES NOT make her right all the time - clothes are at home on the floor!!)

Finally, I realised that I living out what God has planned is messy sometimes, it means taking chances, moving on, moving out (more on this later perhaps), taking time to listen, reflecting, praying, studying and lots of other things but above all it's about realising that without God we will continue to make a mess of His perfect plan.

And so I hereby begin the Christian Muppets Anonymous programme......members welcome

......crushing down on me

I'm feeling a little bit pressured as I write this today,

You see some people have added me to their links list on their blogs and it's a bit scary!! I suddenly feel the need to be funny or wise or intelligent and I don't really feel like any of those things.

Yesterday, as well as working from home I managed to get our 2 new sofas sorted in the living room, put up 2 pictures and tidy the flat all before Chris came home from work. I then made a us some soup (from scratch) and chicken and red pepper sauce with sweet potato gratin and fresh vegetables. I've never done cooking from scratch before and I loved it but I was so worried about getting the whole thing right I didn't really get to enjoy the meal or the company of my wife.

This weekend Christina's parents are moving to Denmark, it's going to be hard for Chris as she's going to miss having her mum and dad so close to home. I'm worried I'm not going to be able to look after her and help her through this time like a good husband should.

And then on Sunday night we have our second gathering of carus, this is our new congregation for young adults. We had 19 at our first gathering and I'm feeling pressure again. We had a great first time together and I didn't feel nervous or worried because there was no expectation yet all this week I've been thinking about this one "being better". I don't even know what that means.

Then we started to think about themes and God really spoke to me about identity, who we are. I took this to Matt and Christina and they liked it and I've spent the last few days praying and reading and I have come up with this idea, What we strive for in God is often much less than who He has made us. In fact we are often striving for much less than we already are. We strive to be more passionate but our idea of passionate Christianity is ususally rubbish and God has made us to be more passionate, we see this in our love of sports or our friends or family. We strive to be Spitiually disciplined but we are often looking for a few moments of time to spend each day. God has already made us to be more than that, we keep diaries, get to work on time, never miss an episode of our facvourite TV programmes. We strive to be His but God has already made us His by becoming ours in Jesus. And so in a few Godly moments carus is ready for the next 3 months;

October 23- A passionate ID
November 27- A disciplined ID
December 18- Thank God It's Christmas, His ID

Sunday nights 8pm, Plume School Maldon it'd be great to see you there......but there's no pressure

Bizarre!!

This Picture has appeared....but I'm not sure quite how I did it!! I'll keep trying
me

A weekend

What a weekend!!

Youth Councils 2005 is done and I really enjoyed it

A great gig on Saturday night and 2 sessions on Sunday. This blog is becoming more and more like me just loving my job written down but I really do!! The young people I work with are really on a journey and it's a privelege to be on it with them - next year I will leave the whole day to the team of great people who are there and watch them own it fully.

Finished the weekend with a curry and chat with Jon & Laura

Obviously more to it than that but I'll blog more tomorrow when I've taken it all in.

1. Youth Councils - A weekend event in The Salvation Army designed for young people away from their weekly church setting

Like a proclaimers classic!!

As this weekend draws closer I ask myself 'how far would I go to meet with God?'

It's a big question and I'm not sure what the answer is yet, I want to believe I'd go as far as asked but what does that even mean??......I'd definitely walk a thousand miles

No more back pages??

I've just returned from a manic few days;

Thursday &Friday were spent in Surrey with a team of people working on a Salvation Army event called 'ROOTS' and also catching up with my dad and younger brother living together in an apartment (it's all DVDs, Fast food and messy bedrooms!!)

Friday night I returned on the beautiful M25 for a Summer School meeting with the team of staff who worked at our week long event in August. This was great!! A chance to unwind and reflect on our time ministering to the young people who came.

Friday night was also weird because it was the first time Christina & I had shared a room in her parents house, now Chris doesn't quite get why I felt so weird about this but I'm sure that all guys feel this way when they first say goodnight to their wive's parents and then go upstairs together!! It was weird!!

Saturday morning we travelled to the Midlands for a family get together to celebrate our wedding with those who hadn't made it to the actual day, this was lovely and I got to know loads more of the family!! SUnday was another family occasion before again getting in the car and driving back to Essex.

On returning to Essex we had time for a quick cup of tea before I was speaking at a youth event call 'Synergy' This is a great event which after 9 years was closing on Sunday night. I spoke about living a 'no ifs' lifestyle which was hopefully useful to the people there.

And then it's been back to working on our Youth Councils this weekend!! It's all venue risk assessments, meetings with team leaders, video production and gig planning. What a week and what a weekend we're looking forward to!!

I love my job!! I know not everyone gets to do this kind of stuff for a living , or work with the great people I do or have crazy ideas and see them come to life but I do and I'm grateful to God for that.

I've decided that I'm not going to be a moaning church worker anymore, there are bits about this job that are tough and there are times when it's not all creative. But most of those times are there because I'm feeling rough or not very creative the fact is working for God is incredible and when I grasp that then it only gets better.