Youth Work Resource

Thoughts…

Posted by Mark Tiddy in christianity - (0 Comments)

This blog is going to be quite long so make sure you have a few minutes free, it’s in little bits that perhaps could relate to each other but at the end of the day they are my thoughts and although it may make sense in my head it may not when you read it. I have tried to change names basically so if you know what I’m on about you’ll get it, if you don’t it’s just a dull read! hehe!

When people try and start a con or a fraud I think the ideal aim and quite possibly most important thing is for it to look legitimate, for example a fraud website trying to con people to buy products, or a fraud eBay member will make it look as real as a genuine site, they will have (in the case of eBay) good feedback, they will have good about us, return policies, postage questions, FAQ’s and perhaps even a registerred address, pages on their company policies may read to be fine but on the inside things may be completely different. They may not actually be based somewhere, their practices may turn out to be very different to what they say they do, and it’s with irony intended that I say ‘Practice what you preach’. And of course with cons the main talent is being able to convince those worried customers, those concerned folk that everything is actually fine.

As large Churches become more and more well known in the UK it’s quite obvious that they are getting lots of money, not just from the large numbers and expensive equipment but from the obvious fact that they must have more money in the bag than they spent, a large Church in Peterborough was able to afford several million to build a brand new building and is, i think the largest purpose build Church building for perhaps centuries. However as previously discussed these mega-churches/rock Churches (the peterborough one not included in this from now on) worry me, how much of it is about the music and lights and how much is it about Jesus?

Being head of a large church can probably go to your head quite easily, people may start to put you above other things, perhaps even God. From talking to several people I have this to say about a particular church which I shall refer to as Log* throughout this blog.

Love is one of the main teachings behind Christianity, Love thy neighbour, Love your enermies, turn the other cheak, etc etc. Log, seems to adapt these ‘Love thy enermies but slag them off anyway!’, yes, Jesus called people sinners but I believe he did so in love, not bitterness, the two are quite easy to tell when people say them to you. If someone says something in love you can tell that they’re genuinly compassionate about it, but if they say it in bitterness it’s obvious from the way they say it, you can sense it!

The Log Church, on the outsite appears to be fine, mission statements seem pretty darn sound (theologically) but once again it’s the ‘Practice what you preach’ phrase, by which I mean Practice what your statement says. I believe that God can shape us and help us through the critisism of others, that as humble people we should be willing to hear what others say not stamp our feet screaming that we’re right and not even considor what the critic is saying.

The Log Church from my experience behaves like a spoilt brat! Metaphorically stamping it’s feet not willing to listen to what the ‘Critic’ or even ‘Equirer’ has to say but insisting that it is right, saying things to make you feel like 1 – you’re talking to a brick wall and 2- you were wrong to even as to start with! They say things that make you think everything is ok, and from experience I think that it works with most people who ask, until that is they realise they are merely being fobbed off by clever language or points etc.

Is it wrong to give money to a church? Of course not! Jesus teaches us to, the entire bible teaches us to, but what I do believe is wrong is for a Church to use clever guilt trips to make you feel that you absolutely should give money to their church (i.e. to The Log Church). It’s all about figures, I don’t believe that we should be made to feel guilty about what we give by a church, I’m not even sure that I think God makes us feel guilty, he might challenge us to think about what we give but I believe we should give what we feel in our hearts not empty our wallets because of a guilt trip.

And on the same note, the bible is a funny kinda book, it potentially could allow us to come up with an ‘ok’ for so many things by taking bits out of context, to forget their original meaning, and what better way to make people give money than to make them think that by giving it all, God will bless them by giving them twice as much back or something. Taking a verse of scripture completely out of context to say something like that (as the Log Church has indeed done before) is downright wrong. Humans are naturally selfish, if we had a box and we knew whatever we put in would be doubled we’d do it with money, and telling your congregation that God does that is rubbish! Yes, I believe God does bless what we give but I don’t think God’s blessings are as simple as to double it, God knows what we need and I believe God will provide us with what we need, whether that’s money or food or whatever but I don’t believe God will double what we give, however a nicely put out of context bit of scripture with the original meaning completely forgotton could tell us that!

In any church the leadership is a key, a church leader can control basically wherever a church goes, if a leader decides the church are going to have a prayer week it pretty much happens in some churches. The Log Church seems to have the wrong kind of leadership, rather than humble leaders willing to listen to the people of their church they seem to have the arrogant ‘I’m right, you’re wrong, and not only are you wrong we’re now gonna make anti-you comments to people’. As Christians we are called to be like Jesus, is that Christ like? About as Christ like as a suicide bombing transexual mormon! i.e. nope it’s not!

Jesus in character was humble and caring, he was willing to hear what people had to say, and yes I’ll admit in Jesus’ case he was always right but he was God so that’s not really surprising, however a church leader is not, and just like all Christians they have to learn how to be more Christ-like, to listen to their Church and to be corrected. I have now started a 3 year course to become a trained Christian Youth Worker/Minister (not of the ordained type!) but at the end of the 3 years it doesn’t mean I’m perfect, it won’t mean I’ve learnt all I need to know, it’s merely a learning curve, I will never be completely perfect and Christ-like and have all the answers until I join My Saviour in heaven.

And this is where I leave this long blog, I could find more points to talk about but I wont, maybe another time, see if you make the connects between the first few paragraphs with the rest of the blog, see what you think, it is merely my thoughts, however thoughts which several others I have spoken to also agree with and these opinions have been stressed by the individuals before I spoke mine. Blog rant over!

*Log - Could perhaps mean Lack of God, then again you could also come up with Lots of Gays, Laugh over gorillas or even Lucy Opressed Graham!

My ponderings this evening

Posted by Mark Tiddy in christianity - (0 Comments)
And sometimes I think that I’m not any good at all
And sometimes I wonder why, why I’m even here at all
But then you assure me

I’m a little more than useless
And when I think that I can’t do this
You promise me that I’ll get through this
And do something right
Do something right for once

And so today, or rather this morning as it is a rather silly time, I have these lyrics in my head from Relient K from a song called ‘More than useless’, I have no idea why they appeared but it strikes me that Relient K have a very odd way of looking at Christianity, the song talks about God saying to us ‘You’re a little more than useless’ which once you realise what it’s on about actually kinda makes sense, other lyrics from them have included ‘It’s the beauty of Grace which makes life not fair‘ and ‘I know to live you must give your life away‘. These strangely put lyrics seem to really click with me, it is the beauty of God’s Grace which makes our lives as Christians unfair! Yes, I did say unfair, it is unfair that we get to heaven, we don’t deserve it but God makes our lives unfair! For some reason I like things put in odd ways like that, seems to click with me.

And in other news…

I read today that Travis Barker (Drummer of: Blink 182, Transplants, Boxcar Racer and +44)
will be divorcing his second wife, for me this confirms my thoughts that having Travis involved in something is a bad idea, everything he is in falls apart, 2 marriages, the awesome Blink 182, Boxcar Racer ended as did ‘The Transplants’ alongside a side project with a DJ, which of course leaves the question ‘When will Plus 44 end’ before they’ve even started.

I think the thing is I can’t see bands like Plus 44 and Angels and Airwaves lasting, I think at some point Tom and Mark will end up reforming blink (probably without Travis!), Angels and Airwaves (although awesome musically) is way too ‘I’m Tom look at me and my ego whilst I dance’ , though I think perhaps Plus 44 has more chance of surviving.

Anyway bloggers, here are my thoughts for the evening, I shall now have a bath and proceed to sleep at some point. Good night watch out for bed bugs!

,

Christians

Posted by Mark Tiddy in christianity - (7 Comments)

So it strikes me (and I already appreciated the irony of this blog) that Christians just love to find problems with things, the other week the bishop was quoted on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph condemning something pathetic such as ‘not recycling’ as a sin, we had the Da Vinci code where Christians leapt up in arms saying ‘It’s not true, stupid book trying to be against our beliefs’, Christians love to moan!

The back of the Tab Church in Yarmouth is full of moaning ‘Why Catholics are wrong’, ‘why reading Harry Potter will get you to hell’ and other up in arms stuff like that.

The great band Relient K once said ‘We see the problem and the risk, but nothing’s solved.We just say, “Tisk, tisk, tisk, and, “Shame, shame, shame.”.

We seem to spend a lot of our time complaining about things and being negative, we tend to be cynical of even Christian things, so we don’t see someone healed and think ‘Wow God is good’ we think ‘Hmmm, not sure I believe that, it’s just for money’, we might see a Church Charity event or worship service and not think ‘Good they’re reaching out, looking after people as Jesus commanded’ but instead think ‘I bet they just want money, or numbers in their church’.

The fact is that cynicism doesn’t help our relationship with God, yes it’s good to be aware that there are false prophets out there and things not of God but if we analyse everything in a negative sense it just makes us negative, we might even get to the stage where we don’t look at a beautiful sunset and admire God’s creation but think about something which takes away it’s beauty (I Dunne what that would be).

Last night I went to Awesome, and I admit I went in a negative mindset, expecting something that would annoy me, or make me question however I was very pleasantly surprised and it was great (I refuse to say awesome!), I think too often we think of things negatively, sometimes if we see someone up the front with a lot of personality we think they want credit because they’re being ‘Extravagant’ or have ‘Stage Presence’ or whatever you wanna call it, but why are we judging them? They could just as easily be up there in all sincerity because it’s what God has caused them to do, the bible says that through all things God works for the good of those who love him, when we look through the bible we see that God used all kinds of characters to do his jobs and he still does!

I think that negativity isn’t necessarily bad, it can be a good thing to be wary but when you question the motives of say a church service or the leader surely it distracts you from worship, last night at awesome I could have quite easily spent the time thinking ‘now why is he jumping? is it for show? why is he drumming that heavy? is it for show?’ but if I’d done that I wouldn’t have been able to worship God through the music because I’d have been distracted, the point I am trying to make through this whole blog and yes some of you may disagree is that when we come into the presence of God or hear about God’s work somewhere is if we are negative about it it just doesn’t help anyone at all. It doesn’t help our relationship with God to be bogged down with negative thoughts it kinda distracts us, and bloggers that is my wisdom for this evening, agree or disagree as you please and yes I agree that churches in the past have hurt people by either being completely wrong deliberately or merely making mistakes but at the same time church has helped so many people more than the ones it’s let down, the church is made up of humans, we screw up, we make mistakes, we’re selfish but it’s God we can trust. 


  
                
                       
                        

       
              
                
				
	
              
				

			
			
								
			

            	
                

				
Healing…my perception

                Posted by Mark Tiddy in christianity - (2 Comments)                 
                
				

            
okay so every Thursday night at Church recently and tonight was the good old ‘Does God heal today’ evening, the one thing which I think is great about the Alpha course is that it doesn’t do it in a particually ‘one denominational way’ so it doesn’t do the C of E ‘God lets the doctors heal and that’s it’ and it doesn’t do the charasmatic ‘You will be healed and if not I’m gonna tell you you are healed anyway way’. Okay so I’m being a bit stereotypical there but I think it’s the general gist with the odd difference here and there, which leads onto the title of this blog…


Healing… my perception


I think today a lot of people are sketical and almost scared of the idea of God healing, our society has amazing medical knowledge and many a illness, disease etc can be healed through that, and yes I do believe that God has given the doctors knowledge and skill to do their jobs and discover things and also that he helps us through times in hospitals, however one thing which I absolutely do not believe is that this is the only way God heals, that is utter nonsense and I shall now proceed to share why i think this.


From my experience and from what the bible tells me I believe and to an extent know that God can heal today, I have heard loads of stories of people being healed…okay you say ‘they’re third party stories and therefore not as sound’, yes I’ll give you that, amazing as stories of people being brought back from the dead are I am still skeptical of amazing healings though (to contradict myself) I absolutely believe that God has the power to and will in some occasions.


The way I see it churches take 2 opinions (as meantioned before), the latter of these the whole ‘God will heal you if not I’m gonna say you’re healed anyway’ is ridiculous! God doesn’t heal everyone otherwise no-one would be dead! God, I believe that God does heal some people if it is his will (once again I hear you cry out, this time it’s ‘why would God want anyone to suffer’ I shall return to this later), Jesus says that we should pray for sick and pray for healing, infact it’s part of the great commissioning found at the end of Matthew & Mark so I believe that we should pray for healing for people and sometimes God will choose to heal them, I have prayed for things like headaches for people and they’ve been healed instantly so to my belief God does heal both small and large things.


Now to return to my ‘hear you cry!’ question, Why would God want anyone to suffer?
A while ago in the cinema I watched a film called ‘The Exorcism Of Emily Rose’, now in this film a young Christian girl became possessed by a demon which wouldn’t go even when prayed for, this girl was going through hell, now in a dream she met God and he said to her ‘You have 2 choices, I can take you now and you can come to heaven with me or you can stay here for a few more days and your story will change peoples lives’ in this case she chose to stay.
So how does this answer my question?
Well the bible tells me that ‘God works through all things for the good of those who love him’ so for 1 dying and going to heaven for Christians is the ultimate goal, the final healing if you like and the second thing that this quote spoke to me about was that sometimes suffering does good, for example I have heard of so many Christians who despite suffering/ not being healed have used their last time to do a great ministry which wouldn’t have been possible were they well.


So there we go, a tarkmiddy perspective on healing, make of it what you will however to conclude I shall say that regardless of success or not we should continue to pray for healing for people because if we don’t then it certainly wont happen!

  
                
                       
                        

       
              
                
				
	
              
				

			
			
								
			

            	
                

				
Audacious

                Posted by Mark Tiddy in christianity - (2 Comments)                 
                
				

            
For starters some background information, Audacious is a ‘Rock-style’ church movement in the UK, from what I can gather it only started a few years ago. They do all sorts of events including a summer conferance.


So what is the reasoning behind my blogging?


Well, having heard quite a lot about this Church, and been to a ‘recording-of-an-album’ event I’m skeptical to say the least, I think once again, much like Proclaimers it’s perhaps slightly down to style however some of their wording on their website is slightly sketchy and worries me.


For starters on the page relating to the Audacious Conference 2006 the opening sentance is


‘Here you will find all the info you need to make the best decision of the year – “to join the Audacious revolution”‘


Now an audacious revolution? Now a revolution is a relatively sudden or dramatic change (thanks to google for definition), now the way I see Christianity is that God is the same yesterday, today and forever and the message of the Church doesn’t need to change because God doesn’t, so an Audacious revolution is certainly one thing we do not need, we do however need revival (bringing again into activity and prominence), so revival is what the Church needs not revolution because scriptually nothing is changing, nor is anything changing in our actions as Christians, we will still worship God, Pray to Him and preach the gospel, no change or revolution there!


The next part from their home page is this:


The pages of church history were written by Audacious young people who weren’t prepared to settle for the status quo. They stepped out in faith, trusting in God for a new day.


ok, so Audacious people are Fearlessly, often recklessly daring, I don’t have a problem with that, and yes I guess people like Paul in the NT were young, however this quote from Audacious church is quite obviously talking to teenagers (other parts of the website say ”August 2005 saw thousands of UK school pupils, teenagers, and young adults‘ so we know who they’re aiming at) , so perhaps they’re slightly off there. Yes Paul (to use him as an example) was  Audacious (to use the ‘In’ word!), and he did indeed step out in faith but not necessarily trusting in God for a new day but worshipping God, and doing as he commanded us through Jesus Christ. To go back to the ‘not being prepared to settle for the status quo’, I don’t believe that that is what the early Christians were about, it wasn’t about not settling for the normal, saying this misses the point completely! Both early Christians and todays Christians are about sharing the good news of the gospel to the world, it’s not cause we don’t like the norm but because Jesus came so we can have something so much better. Audacious church, you have missed the point!


Now I am no-one to judge a church and write it off completely, however having also heard songs that don’t even meantion Jesus, let alone reference him, being used as worship makes me question the theology behind the church. I wouldn’t say that it isn’t a church and I certainly wouldn’t say that they are not bringing young people to Christ, however I think it is too much about them, it’s too ‘Look at us we’re the audacious church look what we do’ and Church isn’t about that, Church doesn’t need all that to get noticed, the glory of God and the light of Christ alone is what we need an ‘Audacious Revolution’ claiming to ‘Shape youth culture’ worries me, I believe it’s Jesus Christ who shapes all Christians through his Holy Spirit, Romans 12:2 says ‘…Fix your eyes on God, you’ll be changed from the inside out’ not ‘Fix your eyes on God and the audacious church will change you’ God alone changes hearts and re-shapes lives for him, not an Audacious Revolution.


Rant over!

  
                
                       
                        

       
              
                
				
	
              
				

			
			
								
			

            	
                

				
Blog 2 of 2 – a rant

                Posted by Mark Tiddy in christianity - (4 Comments)                 
                
				

            
ok, so normally I think of something that ‘Grinds my gears’ and go on a ramble about it and this evening is no different, here bloggers is my blog on the joys of ‘Echoed/Chanted Prayer’.


I grew up going to a C of E church, everyweek we’d be given these tatty green cards which contained the whole service order, prayer of confession, and other chanty boring kinda stuff. Yes, I know that this is how some churches are but it doesn’t work for me, for me a relationship with God is something awesome, something powerful and most importantly something personal, when I pray to God I want what I say to be from my heart, I want to tell God exactly how I feel whether it’s apologising for me being a muppet, praising him or just having a ramble to God from my heart, God created the entire world, and loves everyone but still finds the time to speak personally to little old me here in Peterborough doing youth work and I want to make my relationship with him equally as personal,  sitting in church saying ”Heavenly father I confess that I have sinned against you and against my fellow man in thought and word and deed, through neglegance, through weakness, through my own deliberate thought and I am truly sorry for my sin’ etc etc, and so on and so forth (I can remember that yet haven’t said it for about 7 years!) means nothing to me, I say it merely because it’s in front of me not because I mean it, when I screw up I want to say something personal to God because it’s my relationship with him and it’s not the same for everyone.


So what about the Lords prayer I hear you (and myself) cry! Well, Jesus said ‘This is how you should pray’ and yes I think if you mean the prayer when you say it it’s good to use however I’d take it as more of a demonstration on what we should include in our prayers so we should say sorry and thank you and it would be nice to have etc etc.


Anyway ramble over!

  
                
                       
                        

       
              
                
				
	
              
				

			
			
								
			

            	
                

				
A shorter blog for Laura!

                Posted by Mark Tiddy in christianity - (4 Comments)                 
                
				

            
ok, so a couple of things to blog on this time, however I promise it will be considerably shorter than the last blog firstly because I can’t be bothered to type that much again and secondly for Laura who’s brain really can’t handle long posts!!!


So firstly, as promised a blog on the ‘Hillsong UNITED’ Rock Churches, after the Audacious concert I really got thinking about these churches, they seem to be appearing everywhere and attracting loads of young people…so where’s the problem? Maybe it’s me being sceptical but when I see people jumping ‘Rock Gigs’ comes to mind, I am well aware that music can influence us, for example a bit of Ska makes everyone smile and rock gets people into the mood for jumping, personally I don’t find that jumping works for me when I worship God, perhaps it works for others but my worry is that when a Church is based upon very jumpy music is that whether people are there for God or the music. I don’t doubt that some people have become Christians through these churches but at the same time I wonder how many are going just for the music, though I guess perhaps this isn’t a bad thing, they must get the message too from the preacher. I don’t know really, I guess it’s one of those unanswerable questions that could lead into a ramble so I’ll stop!


My Second Promised Feature…is this!
Yes! Sunday was the Local Area Group Careforce meet up and although only 5 of us (including Becky who works for Careforce) it was a pretty fun day, after me managing to get lost in Leicester I made it to the church we were meeting at eventually, after church we went to the Park for a picnic then onto peddle boats! Yay! We finished off the day praying in a chinese-style garden, over all a fun day!


So blog readers, I leave you with a puzzle…who’s foot is this?
All will be revealed…next blog!