GOODBYE, REDEEMER CHURCH LONDON

Dear Redeemer,

I've never learned so much.

The last 18 months I have been surrounded by the energy and pace of Redeemer Church London. I’ve seen everything behind the scenes; the hard work, the passionate hearts and all the fun! From leaflets to videos, from the prayer ministry to the connections team, from organising huge events like Carols to just having a coffee with one of God’s precious kids. It’s been a blast.

I’ve never seen a Church that has such a urgency to reach out; Redeemer is hungry to impact people, to grow, host and bring others into a relationship with Jesus. The events like Little Fish, Carols, the Running Meet-up and an all year round Alpha aren’t just for fun - they are all charged by the desire to show people that Jesus is for you and wants to live in your heart. This church provides such a warm, welcoming open door to those who have never experienced Jesus before.

There is a rich foundation of community and love amongst the people of Redeemer that just oozes family. There is a solid bridge between the diverse generations and a beautiful mix of cultures and ethnicities that feels like peace, sounds like a friend and surely is a taste of heaven.

Megan and I have felt part of something huge, something that has a long and strong destiny. At only five years old I just know that Redeemer has loads more in store, this is merely the beginning. 

Some of my own highlights from the last year and a half:

• Leading the ‘Activating a Supernatural Culture’ Meetup in our living room, developing deep relationships that we will never forget.
• Preaching my first ever sermon about my story and how God speaks.
• The giant temporary office at Exchange Plaza! Hilarious space given to us by God.
• Learning from Pete and the Advance Church Planting team down in Cornwall for a week.
• Organising the 2018 Carols; a beautiful looking, great sounding event despite the busy period.
• Baptising so many, including my friends Mak, Sunny and Brooksy.
• Moving the Redeemer staff into the new office on Bond Street - pop in for a cup of tea with Pete and Rach anytime! I love those guys!

Of course there is loads loads more. But my true number one highlight is the time I’ve spent doing life with my brothers in Christ - I’ve got to know them so well, prayed with them, cried with them and journeyed with them. We’ve taken huge steps toward the heart of the Father and learn’t about who we are in Christ, that’s called church. Thanks lads, you know who you are!

Finally I just want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for being so lovely, so kind, so full of the joy of Jesus. Pursue that intimate, raw and vulnerable relationship with your best friend, Holy Spirit. Walk closely with each other as you do, share the blessings and share the struggles, hug each other and feed each other. Shine like Jesus shines.

Let’s go change the world,

Joseph x

To follow what Joseph and Megan get up to as they move to Brighton subscribe here: www.youtube.com/josephthedreamer

SUCCESS IN 2017: STEP FOUR

We've looked at three steps to prepare for success in 2017 so far:

1. Evaluate your biggest life areas
2. Prioritise, and evaluate your thoughts and rituals
3. Prepare your mind: give yourself permission to be yourself, including accepting your past, and acknowledge what you can and can't change

Today, we're going to look at a really important fourth step, which I'll call ownership.

Own your roles

You hold many roles in life - looking at the different arenas I play in, I'm a husband, a dad, a technical specialist, a boss, an employee, a musician...some of those are more important to me than others. Which of your roles are most important to you?

Now, here's the challenge. Each of those roles belongs to you - you own them. That means that they're yours to do what you'd like with, and if you're not actively owning them, the chances are that things have started to go wrong.

It's easy to come up with excuses for not doing well in a particular role:

I'm sorry honey, I know I'm late home again, but I've got no choice but to stay in the office.

Sometimes (quite often, actually!) an excuse like that is a symptom of a lack of ownership. You're very rarely in a situation where you genuinely have no choice. You could choose to leave the office on time, and perhaps it would cost you a promotion, but which role is more important to you?

Let me tell you from experience: once you've decided up-front what your most important roles are, the tough calls become less tough, and you start to own them a whole lot more.

Own your goals

Now we get onto the exciting bits. Do you really want to see success this year? Set some big goals. Where do you want to be by 31 December 2017? How about by 2020?

Now, let's reverse engineer those, laying them over the rituals we talked about two weeks ago. What new rituals could you put in place that would point you in the direction of those goals? What would you have to do every day, every week and every month to achieve them?

And here's the secret:

Put them in your calendar.

Let's be silly for a moment. Perhaps you're single, but would like to be married. If you went on a date every night for the next six months, do you think you'd be closer, or further away from getting married? Of course you'd be closer! Of those dates, some of them may have been awful, you may miss a couple, and some you may have ended up going out with people you'd never normally choose to go out with, but who knows?

Give it a go. Set some big goals, with hard deadlines, and create some rituals today.

You can do it.

WHAT TO DO WHEN NO-ONE UNDERSTANDS HOW YOU'RE FEELING: INSEEP STILLENT TREMBLE-WRAP, BUMPBRUSH AND RESTILAX

Have you ever felt totally alone?

It's as if no-one is speaking your language.

As much as you try to express how you are feeling, and your friends nod obligingly, you feel like you're missing the mark; no one understands.

It can sometimes feel as if even God is not on your side. 

Psalm 88 expresses the feeling of abandonment well:

But I cry to you for help, Lord;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
Why, Lord, do you reject me
and hide your face from me?

But soon, often through the healing prayers and conversation of those who've walked the same road themselves, comes healing and we can echo Psalm 147:

He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.

In this poem I've tried to put some of this into words:

(Those of you for whom English is your second language, don't panic; I've made up a lot of these words to emphasise just how difficult it is to express our feelings and how baffling we can appear to those around us.  But God understands.)

His stillent, smally whispers ooze into my mindconscious
like a dusk-sweet hotchoc, 
like a mocha sunrise welcoming wide
with embracements louder than fearage, 
not instructioning, but come in mending,
pushing enlightenmentations, praisements and incouragabilities
that I inseep onto my naked black and bruises.  
I tremble-wrap his echo within my born-worn soul
but he stainleaks through my weak cardio
when I bumpbrush against heartbeatings as fraggi-brittle as mine.
His hushed shade cools and breaths an enveloping: 
           "I understand." 
And so I restilax in his softly stronging arms.

Sometimes we know we're not making any sense; we just need someone to understand. I have a God for that.

If you identify with any of this, please know that you have a God who knows you and understands you to your core.  I encourage you to read the Psalms where you'll find those who have walked your path or something like it. And I encourage you to find friends who can walk with you. 

You will find fellow travellers at Redeemer, a community of Christians who value honest living and who worship a God who knows us.  You'll be most welcome.

HERE'S HOW MUCH MONEY WOULD MAKE EALING EVEN HAPPIER.

Ever since the Panama Papers news story, I've been thinking a lot about money. Then I read this, in the Financial Times of all places.

A couple of weeks ago the top 'reader's question' in the Management section was essentially:

My partner and I have similar jobs at the same organisation. He just got a 20% pay rise. Should I force him to pay 20% more than I do towards rent and other expenses? What do you think?

The answer to this relationship issue is obvious to me.

Forget about the money.

Surely a relationship is priceless.

I love my job.
But if my employer didn't pay me, I wouldn't turn up to work.
I don't get paid to be a husband and a daddy, but I still turn up anyway.

Dear Financial Times reader: I assume you love your partner. Why not try being generous to them with your money?

---

Money has a way of appearing incredibly important.

We've been sold the idea that more money will make us happier, in spite of celebrities' ludicrous lifestyles that publicly fall apart on the pages of every newspaper.

For example, it's easy to judge wealthy people who can afford to avoid tax, but I can guarantee you two things:

1. If you or I were in the same situation, we'd do exactly the same thing. Don't even pretend that you wouldn't. When the Government announces an increase in a tax-free allowance, I don't tell them to keep my money anyway. Tax avoidance is legal, and should be expected. (As opposed to tax evasion.)
2. If a wealthy person is happy, it's not down to their wealth. They'll be happy because of the relationships in their life, or experiences they're having.

So...

QUESTION: How much money do I need to be happy?
ANSWER: Just a little bit more.

I implore you, don't stake your happiness on the amount you earn or your bank balance.

Instead, please look at all the evidence and realise that you'll be happier if you're more generous, regardless of how wealthy you are.

Here's the really good news...

Every Sunday we have an opportunity to get happier by giving away our money - Redeemer will use it to transform Ealing and support others around London and around the world!

There's only one question left:

How happy do you actually want to be?

THE SIX BIGGEST THINGS I MISS ABOUT MY DAUGHTER

I wonder how many of us in Ealing are living here whilst family members are living miles away?

It can be a challenge not seeing our loved ones, despite technology helping us keep in touch.

This year my daughter is doing a gap year in Uganda -  over 4,000 miles away. She left England in October and will not be back until July - 9 months later! The longest she had ever been away until now was one week, so 9 months feels like a really long time!

She is volunteering for Smile International which has involved:

• teaching in a local school
• helping with their hospital ministry
• supporting families
• helping to run outreach events through the church they are partnering with.

I am so proud of what she is doing and how she is coping living away from home - not only shopping and cooking for herself and others, finding her way around and making new friends, but also washing her own clothes by hand!

She moaned about having to use the washing machine to wash her own stuff at home!

But even though I am proud of what she is doing I miss her loads...

I have particularly missed her at special family occasions such as Christmas, Mother's Day and my birthday but to be honest I just miss not having her around generally.

• I miss our chats in her room - often laying on her bed finding out how her day had been or telling her about mine
• I miss watching DVDs on her bed together – our favourite being The Musketeers, or a good chick flick
• I miss listening to her putting on different accents (Australian being the most cultivated one) whilst revising for exams - don't ask me why but we both used to be in stitches so it certainly livened up the revision!
• I miss her making me cups of tea – she had my exact requirements pretty mastered before she left
• I miss not being able to give her a hug and tell her I love her in person
• I miss her noise…the house is very quiet without her!

My daughter, Lois, is so full of life, energy and fun, loud and vivacious and underneath very caring, loyal and compassionate towards others.

Being a mum has been one of the best things I have had the privilege of doing. It can at times feel like a heavy investment - endless sleepless nights (both for babies and teenagers!), selfless serving, giving yourself emotionally, physically and financially, running around after them, praying for them, trying to negotiate with them, not to mention the endless washing, cooking and clearing up...but it is great to watch them as they leave home and take on responsibilities and challenges – to know that you have been a part of shaping who they have become and to realise that they are now investing in others around the world.

Are your family far away?

What do you miss about them?

I see the church as a family too – a place to belong, a place to share life with others, to make memories together, to show love and commitment, to encourage one another and be there for one another in life’s challenges.

Why not come along to Redeemer and see for yourself!

The Bible says:

God sets the lonely in families

Have you found a family in Ealing yet?