I was telling you all how I enjoyed Christmas. i was especially impressed by the latest ministry that is being developed out of the church. the Puppet People.  thanks to Hugh O’Brien and his inspiration earlier on this year we now have our very own little puppet ministry.  I think they did a brillant job of Christmas Day have a look and tell me what you think? Puppet People So I’m now looking forward to the next presentation. I’m hoping we’ll be able to use this group to make the children’s address come to life on a Sunday.

SANCTUARY FIRST

Believe it or not this Sunday evening we’ll be putting on the Sanctuary First service. The theme this month is “A WAKE UP CALL” the service is going to be based around the passage in Revelation 3. This is the letter to the church at Sardis.  This community finds itself being rebuked because it is something its not. I always think this is such a challenge to all of us who try to keep the church relevant. We need to be careful that we are not simply promoting programmes to look busy rather than being engaged with effective ministry. Here is the opening part of the liturgy. Its meant to cause you to think. I’m posting it as a kind of trailer, perhaps to coax you to come along or at least loh=g in on the net next Sunday at 7.00pm

“Music playing to reflect  imminent danger. On the screen the clock is ticking. There is an interplay between the world on the screen and the ticking clock. Finally the music stops and all that is heard is the ticking of the clock.  Then  suddenly an alarm breaks the silence!”

A WAKE UP CALL

Narrator Speaks
We’re on the edge of disaster .
We’re facing economic, ecological, spiritual and moral bankruptcy.
We watch on like people in a dream.
We’re asleep.
We’re snoring
Ignoring
The clock ticking
We only have one life
And we sleep through it
And we gamble with it
Like poker players in a game
We each hold a hand
We throw away the best cards
In search of the charmed suit
Only to find we hold a busted Flush

But we dream on

On Christmas Day I watched the “Deal or No Deal” Show. This is the show that has given Noel Edmunds his media career back again.  I believe the show was his brain wave. It has netted him a handsome amount of money over the years.

Now where am I going with this? Well I heard that one of my colleagues a minister in the Church was featuring on the show along with an amazing lady called Mariannne Wong. The show spoke of her selfless attitude in helping people and how she has been instrumental in building and supporting an orphanage in Kenya. All good so far.  However as the show proceeded it became obvious that Marianne was not going to be successful in winning money for her oprhanage . In fact she was very unlucky becoming the 18th person to have only won a penny.

I felt for the woman. Here she was on Christmas Day making a bid to help some of the poorest children in the world and she went home without a deal. The amazing thing is that Edmunds didn’t offer anything in terms of a consolation prize except for the usually  holiday for two sort of thing. Oh he did say the “No Deal” penny box was a collectors item. Big Deal. I guess Marianne will sell her prizes and make a few bob for the project in Kenya.  But I can’t help feeling that they were used a bit by Channel 4 to promote their TV Show.

So maybe we should get a petition up to help them raise 1 million from the 1p they received from Channel 4.

Any comments, am I reading this incorrectly?

This post is going to be all about lights at Christmas. Its truly wonderful how a candle can light up the darkness. I know it sounds like stating the obvious but to me it is always full of wonder. I think to myself so where did the darkness go? Of course its still there but the light has brought another dimension so that your eyes see things that otherwise would be hidden. Every Christmas there is always something or someone I see in a new light.

WE SEE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Last night I wa at the Dockers Welfare Social Club to listen to the Songwriters Christmas Song Competition. It was a great night organised by Stephen of “We See Lights“. It was great to hear a load of new Christmas songs. If you want to hear what some of them sounded like click here

CHRISTMAS LABYRINTH

I think the labrynth at St Andrew’s Parish Church Bo’ness is one of the most spectacular Christmas Light experiences you will ever come across. It was written by Maggie Lane who was our probationer minister during Christmas 2006.  A team of people still run with it and have created quite a wonderful Christmas encounter. It was designed to encourage us to make a journey to follow the star like the wise men of old to find the child i the manger who is the Saviour of the world.

there will be different stations for you to stop at on the journey giving you an opportunity to participate, to think, to pray.  Music will accompany you on your journey. You will be given an MP3 player to guide you through   your journey. the journey can be done 15 minutes or it can take you longer depending on how long you choose to stay at each station.

Word has got out this year and I believe we had a a good number of people going through the experience yesterday. So if your reading this and you can get over to Bo’ness between 2pm-4pm and 6pm -8pm today then I believe it will be an experience you’ll remember for a long time.  The thing I find encouraging about this is to see  people of all ages going through the labyrinth. If I  can get a hold of one of the tracks from the MP3 player I include it in my next post.

On other thing, I said I’d mention something about the other projects in India. take a moment to pray for those who suffer from the dreaded disease of leprosy.  Mount Zion Church in Chennai have been helping a group of people who suffer from leprosy who live together in a colony outside the city. Its about 40 miles from their church but they go every second week with food and money to help them. Last year you may recall we had an appeal in the town of Bo’ness to send them blankets.  Please keep this group of people in your prayers this Christmas. We sent £400.00 on Monday for the support of this community. A small amount but it wil go a long way to feed people with rice this Christmas.

BEING THANKFUL

Hope you enjoyed looking at the  last post Fixed Point.  Here’s another little film about a trip I made to India last year. It might encourage all of us to be thankful for all we have.

We sent off £13,500 pounds to India this morning. It was a real joy to feel that this money will be arriving in time to make a difference this Christmas.

This is money that we’ve been collecting to share with our partners in India who are part of our World Without Walls Project.  Somehow we seem to have adopted  five projects, some we are supporting more than others.  Take a moment to look through te slide show  SANGITA_TRUST.html

In this post i’m focusing on the Sangita Orphanage. Tomorrow i’ll tell you about one of the other projects.

If you scroll down on the slide show you’ll see pictures of the Orphanage being built. It looks really cool.

You will see that there are various projects on the go. Including a very worthy project which is helping feed men and women who live in a leprosy Colony.

I’m particularly concerned about the Sangita Orphanage at the moment, mainly because they are trying to build a home for over 70 children, while  being under the threat of being evicted from their present premises.  the landlord has upted the rent and has the right to evicte them whenever he wishes. He has already taken over part of the building and they now care for 70 children out of two rooms.

Paul and Grace Moses the founders have started to build the new orphanage but they need more funds to finish the project. `The thing is it is in an amazing site and the plans are quite spectacular. A million miles away from what the children are living in at present.  They need to build another three buildings to be able to house the children. Each building costs £6,000 to erect. Today we sent £7,500 this will help erect another building and also help with the running costs. If you’d like to donate to this work you can do so by going to www.standonline.org.uk our church web page and press the donate link on the left hand side of the page.

At last the 2008 Christmas movie is finished. I like to say a big thank you to a lot of people who have made this little production possible. Just over two weeks ago Iain Jamieson sent me a screenplay I thought it was pretty good. We needed a script for our Christmas movie so we ran with it. I must confess that I twisted a few arms up backs, but I think the result is really good. Video
Sorry Iain if i have butchered your script but you know what we director types are like. A huge thank you to Rae for shooting the movie and editing it. Thank you to Colin Jamieson for supplying once again an excellent soundtrack, and above all thank you to the actors, Mike Munro,Stephen Bogle, Johnny Lapsley, Vikki Smith and Alec Shuttleworth. Together we make a great team and I hope the movie will be a blessing to all who watch it. let us here what you think. We will give it its premier tomorrow at the Bo’ness Academy Christmas Service. So lets hear your comments.

Today has been one of those days where the time just flies and you wonder where the hours have gone. it seems a long time agaio since i conducted the service in the church at 10.00am this morning. It was really encouraging to see some of those who have been bereaved in the past year come to church this evening for the Service of Healing.

We’ve also been working on the service for this coming Friday when the whole school is invited to the church. I’m hoping that we will be able to make the first showing of this year’s Christmas Movie. Its been a challenge getting it to fit together but I think its beginning to look really good. You’ll get a chance to judge it within the next couple of days.Anyway here is one of the first `Christmas Movie we made. I think it was in 2003. Guest what, yes it stars Marcus Ford and Jonathan Mahoney.

VIDEO

What a laugh we had making this little movie. By the way i’m still looking for a donkey outfit for my star part in the Christmas nativity this Sunday evening. can anyone help out there?

Keeping silent I believe is part of the 5th amendment. Well you always hear that when the accused in the movies decides not to give evidence. All of us keep silent about many things. We don’t turn over everything that goes through our heads. We maintain that right to be silent about our thoughts. In this mediation i liken us all to “mobile prisons” locked up within ourselves. we need to break out and find freedom. SILENCE

The message behind Christmas is that God is not silent, he has broken the silence of eternity, he spoke a word, that became a human being, and eternity broke into time, and we can know, hope beyond the grave because of the manger.

I’m convinced that many of us believe in God but we never say it out loud because we are afraid of the consequences of speaking a word.

We live and follow Jesus like we read a blog or a web page from a distance never disclosing our identity.
perhaps this Christmas its time to break the silence and respond to God’s amazing grace in Christ. Can you suggest ways we can do that?

I find the whole idea of God engaging with our world so believeable yet unbelievable. But I the more you think about everything the more you find yourself asking the question. “So why am I here? What is my life all about? ” And you know something, there is a longing within us all to discover that kind of purpose.

I think it was Augustine that said “Credo ut inteligam” I believe in order to understand. This for me, is the secret to knowing the purpose of your life. Taking a step of faith. Beginning to believe that God is, rather than believing that God is not. Both position require you to take a stance of faith. One is absolutely exciting the other is depressing.

Anyway here is a meditation I wrote about 5 years ago for Christmas.  It was the forerunner to some of our “Word on the Street” meditations.video In this meditation we are invited to consider that God is closer to us all than we might think. Indeed his word his presence is all around us. In the words of Eugene Peterson, “God has indeed moved into our neighbourhood”

Here is the rub have we recognised and responsed to his presence? How we do that is uniquely different. Just as we’ve all been made uniquely different. I do think when you make the move of faith you begin to understand the purpose and you begin to see a pattern to your life.

Came across this on youtube and thought it was amusing. I’m always amazed at the patience tht must be required to be an animator. It must take hours of patient detail to make a short movie.

I’m looking forward to seeing and participating all the various Christmas events. I’m especially looking forward to my starring role in the children’s nativity. I’m going to be the donkey. You know what I think that’s not a bad role for the minister to play. I’m looking out for a good donkey outfit.

I think it might be harder work than I thought making a post every day all about media and Christmas. But here goes for the next post relating to Advent and Christmas.

Over the years we have made a few movies at Christmas time. As I said earlier on this week we started shooting the new Christmas movie yesterday. Its called the “Fixed Point” its a kind of CIS investigation into the whole story of the supernatural events that surrounded the birth of Jesus. It also looks at the whole issue of the “Massacre of the Innocents” I think its going to be an interesting little home grown movie.

Meanwhile have a look at our last Christmas production called “Missing You” Once again the Bogle band supply the music.

Starring in this one is Marcus Ford and his daughter Rowan. I think they do a pretty good job. If you like it I’ll post up “The Least of These” which was one of our first attempts. I think its quite a challenge to try and find different ways to express the significance of the idea that God was in Christ reconciling the world to God. Its just an amazing idea.

Christmas seeks to take us to the core of what Christianity is all about mending relationships. It tells us there is no relationship too far gone that cannot be rescued and fixed. So don’t give up on a bad situation you might be closer to success than you think. And the gift well here is the question in the end what did the postman do with the gift. Did he find the Miss loveless or did he just dump it. maybe you could come up with an ending to the film. Suggestions can be posted on the blog.