Art during church?

A few weeks ago we had 6 baptisms at the morning service of the church I attend. I was asked to do art during the service as part of the worship experience. Here is what happened...

The people at the end were selecting images that represented either things they had been set free from or things they had been set free into through new life in Christ. One person picked a penguin. I am still trying to figure that one out!

Are churches ready to help the needy?

This morning over breakfast I was reading "I", the stripped down version of the British newspaper "The Independent". Two lines jumped out at me:

- "More than one in seven retail stores across the UK are empty and in some small towns the number of boarded-up shops is nearly as high as two in five."

- "The number of people contacting a debt advice charity for help online doubled during January as growing numbers of people struggled to keep up with their borrowings."

People are increasingly in need. Local authorities are planning to lay off up to 20% of their staff. Companies are downsizing as the economy struggles. 

And for once the government isn't offering to step in and fix it all. In fact in the UK they are calling for charities like churches to step forward and help! But are we, as Christians, ready to help? 

I have a friend who isn't working so that she can have the time to set up a food bank for the town she lives in. She wants to involve churches, but also local food stores, social services, schools, etc. She is a Christian and she wants to be ready to help by the time it gets worse.

Will you be ready? What will you do?

Image: Mantas Ruzveltas / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A snapshot of Spain

I am just back from Spain and thought I would share a glimpse of what it is like there with you. Enjoy!

It's really not about buildings

I love churches. I love the windows, the light, the shadows, the pointy bits, the carvings... All the architectural cool details. And when I visit anywhere I try and get into them and take a few pictures. I did that a few weeks ago in Linz, Austria. That is where this picture is from.

From my travels, cities and towns across Europe are FULL of cool church buildings.



What they are NOT full of is people. Certainly not people that know Jesus. Country after country that I go to has an evangelical population of under 3%.

But I will admit -- it is a strange world when it is hard to get a photo of a European skyline that doesn't have a church spire in it and yet my job is to see more churches planted in Europe...

What does it mean to be an "Evangelical" in the UK today?

If you have ever wondered what it actually means to be an "Evangelical" Christian in the UK today, here's a GREAT resource for you.

The Evangelical Alliance and Christian Research have just released some insightful research that they call "A snapshot of the beliefs and habits of evangelical Christians in the UK". Complete with easy to understand charts and insights by Christian leaders such as Derek Tidball, Elaine Storkey and Roger Forster, it deals with topics as diverse as Bible reading and assisted suicide, giving and abortion, women in leadership and miracles.

Well worth a look and available free online at http://www.eauk.org/snapshot/

Church planting in... the Balkans?

Recently I was in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia meeting people involved in church planting. It is pretty challenging. There could be almost as many evangelical Christians in my church as there are in all of Bosnia! But some exciting stuff is going on, with more to come. Watch this to find out more...

Saturday night in Austria

What is there to do on a Saturday night in Austria? I visited a town where churches are ministering to young people out clubbing...