Timidity

One of the major battles I find myself most often facing as a young leader is that of timidity. I don't think I'm alone.

When Paul wrote to a young Timothy, assigned to look after the Church in Ephesus, he constantly exhorted him to fight timidity & stand in courage (2 Timothy 1:7, 1 Timothy 4:12). If Satan can cripple young leaders with a fear of failure, a sense of unattainable expectation or an inner weakness that terminates in their own ability then the forward advance of the gospel in our cities, towns & villages will be seriously threatened. Every person who accomplished something significant for God in scripture was weak & yet characterised by courage.

It takes courage to tell someone the gospel. It takes courage to love the poor. It takes courage to speak a loving word of rebuke over a wayward soul. It takes courage to rouse a sleepy congregation to spiritual zeal. It takes courage to take new ground in Church planting, in evangelism, in justice & in prayer. Timidity keeps young leaders from being the men & women God has called them to be.

And so, the clarion call to leaders young (and, indeed, old) is the words of 2 Timothy 1:7 - "God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self control". Fight timidity, says Paul, by recognising who you truly are. God has saved us for more than a cowering fear that keeps us from risking all in outrageous courage for the kingdom of heaven. He, in His Son, has given to us a new Spirit - the Holy Spirit - who births in us the strength to battle the fears that keep us bound & empowers us to make a difference with our lives for the glory of Christ.

This new Spirit that we've received accomplishes this through giving to us new characteristics. As children of a loving, all-sufficient Father who has made us safe in His Son we are to be a people of power, love & self control. These characteristics of the Holy Spirit directly counter those of humanities proneness to timidity.

Timidity cripples risk & cultivates fear. Power stirs up faith & releases courage.

Timidity turns us inward & grows pride. Love turns us outward & creates humility.

Timidity leaves us unable to deal effectively with confrontation & conflict because it either makes us power-hungry, crushing those we are pastorally dealing with or it makes us love-shy, avoiding those we are meant to be confronting. Self-control enables us to harness power & channel love into speaking the truth to people boldly & with confidence in God.

We can be courageous. We do not need to be defined by timidity. We can have courage to innovate for the kingdom. We can have courage to seek God with all our beings. We can have courage to lead people well - in power & love. We can have courage to dream dreams of the forward advance of the gospel in our generation because we understand who we are.

RBC Student Weekend 2013

One of the things I love most about what I do is getting to lead students. The "Student Moment" (as Louie Giglio calls it) is a highly formative and significant season of life. In the time frame between 18-25 we are bombarded with messages about "the good life". Our culture implicitly and explicitly communicates what matters most, what our legacy should be & what should shape our value system.

This is why Charlotte & I love serving our Church through leading the student ministry. We get to play a part in seeing these young men & women derive their identity, value system, world view & legacy from a different source. We get to point them to the sufficiency & supremacy of Christ. We get to communicate to them the importance of building their lives on the solid rock of the gospel & it's implications. And in the process of doing this, we get a front row seat in seeing God radical disciples by His Holy Spirit.

The RBC Student Weekend is a moment in the Student Diary every year that we eagerly look forward to for the reason that it gives us an opportunity to take 40 of our students away to enjoy the beach, have lots of fun together & spend time in God's presence getting our lives orientated around His glory & grace. This years weekend away was nothing short of spectacular. We approached the weekend having prayed loads & really anticipating a significant & transforming move of God amongst our students. We weren't disappointed.

Our worship times were phenomenal. Rarely have I experienced such a tender, sweet & profound sense of the Spirit of God moving in our midst. On Saturday night there was a moment where it just felt like the peace of Christ descended on our hearts as a prophetic song was sung out around Matthew 11:28 ("Come to me all you who are weary"). Much tears and prayer followed as God semented a deep work in many peoples hearts about His Fatherhood & sovereign care.

On the Sunday morning the opposite end of the worship spectrum was experienced as we moved from the tenderness of God's healing presence to the triumph & joy of the gospel. I can remember nearly bursting at the end of "You alone can rescue" as I just felt the heart of God that we should be a happy people in the gospel, not grumpy & cynical, but exploding with joy. As I prayed for an awakening of joy on the University campuses of Cardiff it felt like the place erupted in agreement and faith.

Likewise, the teaching was truly powerful. From a message by my good friend & Church Planter, Ben Franks on "Jesus & Money" that called us to treasure Jesus more than anything & led us to our knees to repent of half-heartedness & idolatry, to a challenging & fresh look at "Jesus & Sexuality" from Dave Mcnee that called us to make the Bible, not our own opinions, the over-riding authority in our relationships & sex life, we were truly blessed. I preached a message on "Jesus & drink", calling people to be filled afresh with the life-giving Spirit of God, exchanging fakes for the real thing (the glory of God) & we saw many people filled & empowered by the Spirit of God. The Weekends teaching ended with me doing a session on "Jesus & Significance", looking at how Jesus desires us to pursue greatness & success, but a greatness & success that rests in sonship & expresses itself in servanthood.

On top of all this we managed to raise over £600 for the Cardiff Churches NIght Shelter Project! Unbelievably incredible from a bunch of poor students! That to me summed up the work that God had been doing in setting our hearts alight with the glory of Jesus & the advance of the kingdom.

I'm left grateful & in awe at the God who "is able to do abundantly more than we can ask or imagine". To Him truly be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:20-21)!

New role, old call

This week saw the start of a new chapter for Charlotte & I. The growing sense of call towards pastoral leadership & vocational ministry over the last few years has combined with the affirmation of the Church we love & have been part of here in Cardiff over the last few years and led to me being appointed as a Pastoral Assistant at RBC. We are excited to play a small role in seeing the vision of the Church fulfilled, to be a family of faith on a mission to see spiritual transformation in South Wales & to the ends of the earth.

As I've started the role this week I've been overwhelmed by the sovereign goodness of my Father in heaven. During a prayer time with the staff earlier this week I was just smacked between the eyes with the truth that though this role may be new to me - new responsibilities, new challenges, new discipleship opportunities, new ministry - it is not new to the One who called me into it.

He is the God who wrote all my days in His book when not even one of them had come to be (Psalm 139:16). He is the God who chose me to be in Christ before I was born (Ephesians 1:4) and has prepared good works for me to walk in in advance (Ephesians 2:10). And perhaps most glorious of all, He will fulfil the purpose for which He called me (Psalm 138:8) so that at the end of my days I will be able to say "I have finished the race!" (2 Timothy 4:7).

So this new role is completely covered and upheld by His sovereign goodness.

If you are starting something new or anxiously peering into the near future take heart and be encouraged that our God is sovereign and good. When your past in secure in the sovereign call of God & when your future is assured by the sustaining grace of God it eliminates all fear in the present because fear in the present is motivated by a sense of lack, and in our sovereign God we have all we need.

Welcome.

Welcome to my blog.

I've decided to pick up blogging again after about 3 years off.

Why blog?

For me, blogging is foundationally a devotional activity. It's less about conveying information & more about pursuing God. It's less about communicating opinions & more about expressing love for Jesus. In the process of me seeking to honour Him through the words that I write, I hope that others are helped & led into a deeper joy in God themselves.

Blogging is also a means of being disciplined & diligent about using words to convey what the Lord is teaching me as I walk with Him, study His word & live in community with His people. I am a man who needs discipline. I'm all too easily pulled into the laziness of my flesh & so, with the Spirit's help, I pray that blogging would be a weapon to combat laziness with intentional expressing of & meditation upon God's ongoing, sanctifying work in my life.

Finally, blogging is a celebration of God's grace. I exist to bring God glory by magnifying the grace He has shown me in Christ, & if blogging can be a way of me doing that, I want to give it a try.

As John the Baptist said, blogging is about Christ increasing & me decreasing. That is what makes my joy complete (John 3:29-30)