Not Just When We're Plain Sailing...

Life throws buckets of water at us doesn't it? In fact, at times, literally storms. It's in these times, we are truly put to the test. It's often in the most chaotic of circumstances, that we lose our ability to keep our faith in God. The past month for me, has been a storm. More of a tropical one though. Moments of intense rainy periods, but most often followed by gleaming sunshine and calm. I like to think, I've been expectant of the good, post storm periods. 

Imagine the disciples in the boat, there's a huge storm happening and Jesus is fast asleep. In other words, life is going absolutely berserk, and the one who everyone thinks can solve the issue is fast asleep. In these moments of life, sometimes our minds tell us to prepare the life boats, and get ready to abandon ship. It takes alot of faith, to look beyond what the world tells us is likely to be inevitable. 

Do we always seek what is possible for God to accomplish? 

Do we rely on Him enough? 

Faith encourages us not to accept what is the norm, not what the world says will happen or what usually happens in these circumstances. Faith enables us to ride the stormy seas. Not abandoning everything to what appears to be swallowing us up, but to let God captain the whole vessel. God, who is creator, the one who says "Quiet! Be still!" and the waters listen. 

Sometimes, we tell ourselves we've got faith, but still remain sceptical and afraid. Have you ever encountered someone, (or even yourself perhaps?), who you thought had incredible faith,  but when the storms rage, they turn out to share a "more realistic" view, just 'incase' the God bit doesn't quite work out? 

Jesus asks his disciples after ordering the storm to be still, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?". You see, sometimes we have to encounter Jesus before we can truly believe. When we meet Him, we get to know Him, and know what He is capable of doing. There's no room for scepticism in faith, but plenty of space for God to suprise us. .  

What storms are you wrestling with at the moment?

We don't have to try and handle anything alone. We simply have to just surrender all of our insecurities to God, and He will steer us through everything in life. 


I've witnessed the awesomeness of God's power in recent weeks. Because for once, I've had to put my all into trusting God, in what seemed a situation beyond any human redemption. Instead I put my arms out to the one who can move mountains and said "you're in charge God!" And as Psalm 138:3 says "When I called on your name you answered".


Jesus' disciples must have been petrified, panicking and anxious during the storm. But when they woke Jesus, we don't read of his reaction being the same. Jesus simply brought calm. Psalm 29: 11 says "The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace."  

This morning, me and Rach read Acts 27: 13-26, The Storm. A story of when a ship was caught in a storm with Paul and some of his friends on board. Paul writes "When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved." It must have been a terrifying experience. We can only imagine how desperate they would all have been. But Paul tells all on board "But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed." And this is true for us all today. The world can take away everything we have, but the thing it cannot take away, is eternity with God. 


Paul encourages those on board : "So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me."


It's comforting to know that through faith, God gives us the strength we need to face the uncertainties of life. Faith, is not just for when we're plain sailing, but when the waters are stormy. 


Why not reflect on these words: "Be still and know that I am God!" Psalm 46:10

Broken Glass v Broken Lives

I hear some people are furious, upset and talking about it.

Maybe a little too much for a piece of glass?  Sadly not.

Beverley is a fairly middle class place, with a large majority of its residents being of retirement age. It isn’t the most exciting town for young people. Quite often you’ll see in our local press, reports of anti-social behaviour caused by ‘unruly’ youth. I believe positive transformation comes alongside positive investment. And get this, one story reported of how the council was to pipe classical music through the bus station speakers on evenings, to deter young people from hanging around. No headline story of how our authorities were going to tackle the root cause of the problem, just another ‘let’s see if this works-shove it under the carpet response’.  Nationally, the church by far, is the largest provider of youth work, and this applies to Beverley too. The town has at least four full time church youth workers, not to mention part time, gap year, and schools workers. I think it’s a huge privilege to be in a position where the church has committed and said “yes” we want to play our part and provide provision for young people. With that, comes a huge responsibility and a risk. The possibility of broken windows for instance...

For six years, we’ve been running a large youth event in Beverley Minster, the ‘Youth Café’. We often attract between 200-300 young people to each event. The whole idea is above all to ‘welcome’ young people into the church, help break down any stereotypes they may have, but to also provide a foundation for creating purposeful relationships with them. My vision has always been to feed these young people into our weekly programme, so that we can work more closely, and enable these young people to realise their God given potential in life. I must admit, for a few years, I’ve questioned whether or not the ‘feed in’ idea has been working, but now I know it is! Last Friday we had 28 young people aged 11-14 come to our Friday night youth club. The majority of them live on Swinemoor Estate, which itself comes with many difficulties and challenges. Most of these young people have come from broken homes and broken families, and simple things like having a conversation with them, and complimenting their behaviour has really encouraged and given them confidence. You can see it in their faces when you say “well done – you were brilliant tonight!”

Last Friday was particularly challenging for our staff, as we were faced with a couple of new lads, who insisted on being abusive towards us. In the heat of the moment, my head was thinking logical, professional, common sense things, but my heart was clearly shouting “just love, love, love…” I find the heart speaks powerfully, and I try to listen to it moreso than my mind. Probably all day, every day, these young people will be shouted at, criticised, judged, punished, and starved of sincere love. They have come to ‘us’, the church on their Friday night. It's not our right, but our privilege and honour. It is these people God calls us to work with. It is these people God calls us to share the good news with. It is these people that we are called to love.

Yes, a window did get accidently broken on Friday night. There was a very apologetic young person, who went home in fear that his mother would tell him off. And for a short time, I was more concerned about the window, than being thankful to God for bringing many young people through our doors that night and touching their lives. I realised the reality of the whole scheme of things. The window is £40-£50 to replace. Easily done. We can forget it and move on. There were many more broken lives in that place on Friday night   that deserve deeper investment.

Over Easter we held a 24/3 prayer event, and seven of these young people gave their lives to Jesus. We had to ask them to spend at least some time at home each day, because they spent more or less every hour of every day with us. They couldn't get enough of just being there. They wanted to be in the very place where they experienced God, and felt welcomed, accepted and loved. Today, one of these young people came to church for the third week in a row. We are called to serve the broken and bring God’s restoration on lives. This particular young person is beginning a life where he wants to experience all the fullness God offers. Not a life where one will constantly condemn his brokenness.

Beverley Minster should not foolishly ponder too much on its broken glass, but rejoice that it is able to reflect Christ, and reveal His love to these 28 young lives, every single week.

If a saved life comes at the cost of a window, then bring... (I'll say no more)

Listen to your heart… What brokenness has God called you to be more concerned about?

Broken glass over broken lives anyday!

Chinos, Toms and a Cassock.

Overpowered by the lingering clouds of incense. Holy Water as you enter. Six candles instead of two. An array of icons. A bell to announce the start of worship. A tabernacle containing reserved sacrament on the altar. A constantly lit candle. Some of the things Father David gave the opportunity for me to experience in his church today. St Alban the Martyr Parish Church in Hull. None of these are unfamiliar to me, but they've never had a regular home in my weekly experience of church. Until now…

St Albans is the place I'll be spending quite some time at, over the next couple of months, particularly Holy Week and Easter Day. A combination of work experience, observing, learning and 'just being' there will form my placement at St Albans. Why? Over the last 12-14 months, I've been pondering where I'm meant to be in life, and what God wants me to do. I've been discerning a call to ordination and am now in the process of preparing for a BAP or a Bishop's Advisory Panel, in the autumn. I'm working through a whole heap of books, form filling, journaling and book reviews.

I never considered being ordained when younger, and always wanted to be a pilot as child (a decision not to be, will be what many of my friends will be pleased about, considering my severe lack of driving ability), but having the privilege of the experiences I've encountered, the roles I've been honoured to fill, and respecting God's call of duty (which includes all of us Christians), I've felt a call to serve God, and serve God's people, my brothers and sisters, in a priestly capacity. I've not quite got my head around the prospect of potentially wearing fancy dress on a regular basis, but I do know my heart and mind is at peace with having to sacrifice my selfish desires, ways, and life, and allow God to steer the life God has given me, in the direction He sees fit. Not to say that I’m still anxious and nervous to say the least.

I know there's a degree of uncertainty, unknowns, challenges, opportunities, highs and lows yet to come, and this journey requires considerable patience, trust and faith on my part. But what I've been most humbled by, is people's support and their responses when I’ve told them of my decision to explore a call to ordination. Only tonight, someone said to me "I knew you would go forward for ordination eventually" and I'm thinking, "Well you could have warned me before I knew!" In fact, part of discerning a call, is when it’s confirmed by others, and it has been over a number of years, but I've more or less ruled out the idea, ignored and possibly blanked out the shouts, and lived for the current and not had my eyes on the bigger picture. This whole process is now a journey of discovery, listening, learning, exploring and discerning.

Father David asked if I had a cassock, and thankfully I do from when I was a part time virger at Beverley Minster. And so over the next few months whilst wearing a black dress, I’ll be surrounded by hundreds of years’ worth of ancient, multi-sensory, ‘smells and bells’, of the Anglo-Catholic tradition. A different approach I’m accustomed to, but I’m really looking forward to all things new, and experiencing the mystery of faith celebrated in the Anglo-Catholic way. Of course, I’ll still be continuing doing what I love, working as Youth Minister at Beverley Minster for the foreseeable future, where thankfully chinos and Toms are my uniform for Youth Ministry.

I'm sharing this with you because I’d love your prayers, and because I want to share my journey with you over the coming months!

God bless.