Simon Benham's Blog

Kerith Volunteer Celebration

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:49:23 PDT

Kerith would be nothing without the army of volunteers who are at the heart of everything we do. Whether it is a Sunday, a course, a small group, social justice outreach or a conference we're hosting, nothing we do could be achieved without our amazing volunteers.

Once a year the staff team like to lay on an event to say a BIG THANK YOU for all the early mornings, late nights, coffee poured, children and youth befriended, cars parked, food parcels delivered and whatever else you've done in the last 12 months.

This year we're having a party, starting at 7pm this Saturday 22nd June at Brackenhale School, Rectory Lane, Wild Ridings, RG12 7BA. There is loads of parking on site. There will be light refreshments served and no dress code, which makes me very happy. Even better it's all free!

If you are a Kerith volunteer you should already have received an invite from your team leader. However, if by any chance that invite hasn't made its way to you please consider yourself invited. You can just turn up on the night, although if you were able to let your team leader know you were coming that would help us with numbers. Hope to see you there!

Simon.

Choosing Extraordinary by Helen Cottee

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 02:00:02 PDT

One of my goals as I'm involved in helping lead Kerith is to release the creativity which I believe we all possess. God is a creative God (just take a look at Genesis 1:1) and we made in his image have that creativity in us too.

We will all express that creativity differently. Some of us will do that in ways we normally define creativity such as painting, singing, playing an instrument or writing music. Others will do it in less traditional ways such as restoring cars, building a business, writing software, gardening or baking cupcakes!

Helen Cottee is someone in our community who certainly fits in the former category of creative gifts (I can't comment on her car restoring or cupcake making ability!). Many of you will know her as our worship pastor and a song writer and worship leader, but in the last year she has stepped down from those responsibilities in order to focus on writing a book called "Choosing Extraordinary", which she's now finished. I want to hugely commend Helen for seeing the creative process all the way through to its conclusion, and producing what from the bits I've read looks like an excellent book.

Helen describes her book as follows:

It’s a strange thing to write a book about living an extraordinary life. It can somehow have the power to make you feel anything but extraordinary. In fact on a very regular basis the question slithers through my mind ‘Who on earth am I to be talking about this this?’

But that, my friend, is entirely the point. Who am I? Who is anyone? Where does this niggle inside us to do something noteworthy come from? Were we created to drudge through lives with little regard for our dreams, our eternity or the people around us; or could it be the case that there is something greater planted in each one of us that pushes us on to live a life that matters, to be someone that makes a difference in the world?

This book is my journey into the discovery of 'extraordinary'; it is the shrugging off of the every-day in favour of something bolder. This book embraces the idea that every person has dreams and desires planted in their heart, and that these dreams can and should be fulfilled.

We only get one life, let's make sure we make it an extraordinary one.

You can also read excerpts on Helen's blog. Helen's book is available from the Kerith bookshop and from Amazon. She's also keen to help anyone who would like to use the book in a small group setting, either within Kerith or in other churches. If you're insterested in that you can contact Helen by leaving a comment on her blog.

Well done Helen, and may she encourage the rest of us to step out in our own expression of creativity and choose extraordinary!

Simon.

Fathers Day

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:40:57 PDT

A big encouragement to be thinking about who to invite to join us in our Fathers Day celebrations.

In the morning we've got a kids farm outside K2 after both the 9am and 11am meetings. We've also got thanksgivings at the 11 and I'll be interviewing Phillip Curtis about what it feels like growing up not knowing your father, and what we can learn from his experience both about being a dad, and knowing God as our Father.

Then in the evening at 6pm we head over to Oakwood Youth Challenge (RG40 3DA) for a relaxed time together with a hog roast, a live band, football and a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and make some new ones. Everyone is welcome (not just Dads) so just turn up for what should be a great evening. There will be soft drinks and food on sale, although you're welcome to bring your own if you want to.

Obviously the event at Oakwood means there's no 7pm meeting at the Kerith Centre.

Hope to see you there!

Simon.

Pete Greig and Prayer Meetings

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 23:42:00 PDT

We were so blessed on Sunday morning to have Pete Greig with us. There was a double bonus for those of us who made both meetings as he preached a different message at the 9 and 11. Both messages should be going up on the website, although only the message from the 9 has been uploaded so far - I'd really encourage everyone to listen to both of them.

In the message at the 11 Pete spoke about prayer being the hinge on which us experiencing God's blessing turns. That times of trouble and testing are inevitable for us, but it is only if we pray that we will see God meeting us supernaturally in the midst of our trouble. Yet if we are willing to pray, then all heavens resources can and will be released at the time of God's choosing.

So let's pray. I encourage all those who can to make it to the prayer meeting this Wednesday from 8-9pm in K2, and to the Social Justice prayer meeting which runs for the preceding hour in the K2 lounge. Sadly I can't be there as I'm in Estonia this week, but please don't let that stop you from coming, or give you an excuse for not being there.

On great thing Pete said, amongst many, was "your prayer life is at its best not when you pray about the big things occasionally but the small things continually". I've decided this week to try to pray about the small things continually, can I encourage you to do the same.

With much love from Estonia,

Simon.

In Estonia

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 07:52:58 PDT

I've just landed in Estonia where I've come with Ken Bothamley for a five day trip. We're being looked after by the wonderful Mike and Virge Maton, who many of you will remember from their time in Kerith. The picture is of the house opposite Mike and Virge's - I think this is a place I could feel very at home!

We've come over to visit some of the Estonian churches we work with, especially the church on the island of Kuressaare where our Academy students come from.

Although we work with lots of churches overseas, my approach has always been that it should be other people who go and visit and work with those churches, whilst I focus on building our local Kerith Community. Having said that I try every year to go to one of the countries we are working in - two years ago it was Lithuania, last year it was Albania and this year it is Estonia. Usually those trips are midweek so that I can still be in Kerith the Sunday either side of the trip.

God has put the nations on our heart, and I think we're just at the very beginning of an explosion of nations God is joining us with. My prayer is that as part of that many of our community would get to travel and be a blessing to many other churches around the world. It might be you :-)

Have a great week, and hope to catch you on Sunday for our Fathers Day celebrations - Sunday morning in the Kerith Centre and a hog roast at Oakwood in the evening. Can't wait.

Simon.

Peter Greig with us this Sunday Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 07:38:23 PDT

This Sunday we've got the privilege of having Pete Greig with us for both the 9am and 11am gatherings. Pete is one of the founders of the 24-7 prayer movement, the Director for prayer at Holy Trinity Brompton in London and leads a church called Emmaus Rd in Guildford.

I first came across Pete through his book "God on Mute". In essence it tells the story of Pete's wife Sammy and her battle with a life threatening brain tumour. It wrestles with the huge issues of unanswered prayer and why a loving God would allow people who love him to suffer. I read it around the time we were praying for Janine Jackson not to lose her leg to cancer, and it profoundly shaped me, my prayer life and my relationship with God. If you haven't read it I can't recommend it highly enough.

More recently a number of us heard Pete speak on prayer at the HTB Leadership Conference, and I heard him do possibly the best salvation appeal I've ever heard at the Big Church Day Out! Pease come and hear all that he has to say to us about prayer.

Sadly Pete won't be with us for the 7pm, so please can I encourage all those who normally come to the 7 to come and hear Pete in the morning - you won't regret it. Then at the 7 we'll be having an evening of worship, which lots of people have been requesting for a while.

Hope to see you twice on Sunday!

Simon.

All Leaders Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 08:39:25 PDT

This blog is for all Kerith leaders, and for anyone interested in joining our new Sandhurst site in September.

Wednesday night this week (5th June) is our termly All Leaders Meeting, starting at 7.45pm. We've got a bit of a change this time in that we're going to be meeting in Sandhurst School, our new Kerith venue from September. We'll start the evening with drinks and refreshments, then have a chance to look round the rooms in the school which we're going to be using. We'll then meet in the hall for worship, some updates on the life of Kerith from me and then a chance for Q&A and time to pray together.

If you're either a Kerith leader, or have registered an interest in being part of the Sandhurst site, then you should have already received an invitation. However, if somehow the invite didn't get to you, or you'd just be interested to hear all that is going on, please consider yourself invited.

Please don't be at all worried about having to make it over to Sandhurst. The school is really easy to find. For all of you with satnavs the postcode is GU47 0SD. For the rest you basically head towards Camberley Marks & Spencer's down the A3095, and before you get to the Rackstraw Pub turn left down Owlsmoor Road. The school is down that road after about half a mile on the left. We'll have some friendly car parkers out there to show you the way!

Simon.

Konnections Fundraising at St. Anne's Manor

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Thu, 30 May 2013 04:27:52 PDT

Our friends at Hilton St. Anne's Manor (which claims to be in Bracknell, but to my mind is in Wokingham!) have chosen our Konnections ministry to be their charity of the year again, and this Sunday they've got a fundraising event with all the proceeds going to fund the new sensory room the Konnections team are planning.

The event is in the beautiful grounds of the hotel, with all the activities listed above to enjoy. Please come and support the event if you're free, and bring family and friends too.

In addition the Konnections team need volunteers to cycle the Konnections spinning bike, which we have to keep moving from 10am-4pm. I'm doing a half hour slot on the bike from 2.30-3pm, there are others slots available so if you fancy having a go please contact Anja at anja.davies@kerith.co.uk and join the team! Hopefully some of our fearless Serenje cyclists will join in and help us to win!

Everyone cycling will receive a T-shirt to wear, and Anja says she might even have some Swiss Chocolate for all the cyclists as a thank you!!!

Hope to see you there :-)

Simon.

The Christian 1:6 Diet

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Mon, 27 May 2013 23:00:09 PDT

I was chatting on Sunday to a couple in our church who are doing the 5:2 diet. Basically this involves eating normally five days of the week, and then for the other two days only having a quarter of your normal calorie intake. They seem to be doing really well on it, so maybe there's something in it!

That got me to wondering how many Christians are on the 1:6 spiritual diet - getting spiritually 'fed' one day a week on a Sunday, then going a whole week without feeding themselves at all (in fact we know that many people actually only come on a Sunday one week in two or one week in three, making their diet more of a 1:13 or 1:20).

Whilst the 5:2 diet may do great things for your waistline, my own personal experience is that the 1:6 spiritual diet will do terrible things to your relationship with God! So here's my encouragement. Get into the habit of feeding yourself every day. Read at least a chapter of the Bible every day (I'm working my way through John's gospel at the moment). Listen to worship music in the car and in the kitchen (I've gone back to listening to some old Hillsong Albums). Talk to God about everything! Spend time with Christian friends actually talking about God and his impact on your life, rather than just how Newcastle were lucky to narrowly avoided relegation this season. Read stuff which is going to build you up. This is one diet where you're allowed to eat as much as you want. I'm thinking of calling it the 7:0 diet!

And whilst you're at it don't forget that the other part of being healthy is to exercise well. Our spiritual exercise is doing the things God wants us to do in life. Looking out for the vulnerable. Sharing our faith. Obeying his promptings.

And if you mess up one day and eat a spiritual cream cake, whatever that might look like for you, then remember we have a God of grace who has fresh mercy for us every morning.

Happy eating and exercising!

Simon.

Job Opportunity - Full Time Accounts Assistant

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Mon, 27 May 2013 04:26:36 PDT

I wanted to let you know we have another opportunity for a key role on the Kerith staff team. As well as our Site Services Assistant, we are also recruiting for a new full time Accounts Assistant to work in our Finance Team. The Accounts Assistant is a specialist role for someone with previous finance experience, who can accurately handle numbers and is motivated to meet regular deadlines. Experience in an accounting package is essential and we’d also love someone who has run a payroll before. If you know someone or you yourself love it when numbers balance, if you’re not fazed by deadlines and you want to enable Kerith ministry leaders to do their best work, then please consider if this could be for you. Oh yes, you probably love using Excel, too!

This is an essential role to us. The finance team is the engine room of Kerith – nearly all that we do generates a financial transaction which needs to be accurately recorded and processed in a timely manner if we’re to steward the resources God gives us with integrity.

Key responsibilities are detailed in the Job Description, which is in the information pack which is available from reception, but they include:

Preparing accurate offerings & gift day totals
Processing giving received under Gift Aid
Maintaining fully reconciled bank accounts
Running our Payroll
Managing the purchase ledger
Accounting for staff & volunteer expenses

The role reports to Helen Dodwell, our Financial Controller. The finance team is part of the wider Ops team, which together handles finance, HR, IT and events management, fully participating in Kerith staff team life based in our Barn office.

Friday 14th June is the closing date to apply. The recruitment process will include an interview and meeting with team members. This is planned for Thursday 27th June. If you or someone you know are interested in joining our team, you can pick up an application and information pack now from the Kerith Centre reception, or contact ali.hudell@kerith.co.uk

Many thanks,

Simon.

Six10 this Sunday Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:43:00 PDT

This coming Sunday we've got a variation on one of our regular Ten10 Sundays, where ten different people get to preach for ten minutes each our three meetings. Because this Sunday we've got Canon Andrew White coming in the evening, we've only got space for six preachers in the morning, making it a Six10.

Our preachers at the 9am meeting are Erida Sinakoli, Max Ranger and Ralph Allen, and at the 11 are Alice Benham, Luke Marshall and Jennifer Hosker. As always with these Sundays I know that God will speak to us powerfully through what everyone brings. Hope to see you there!

Simon.

Ben Cooley and the Zoe Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Thu, 23 May 2013 00:02:00 PDT

Right now our good friend Ben Cooley, CEO of Hope for Justice, and Tom Lister who used to be in Emmerdale, are cycling 2,700km from Latvia to Southampton. They're tracing the journey of Zoe, who was trafficked into the UK for the purposes of sexual exploitation. After months of suffering and abuse she was rescued by Hope for Justice following weeks of work by their specialist investigators.The Zoe Challenge is aiming to raise £500,000 to fund a second team of investigators so that more of those people suffering terribly on the margins of society - more 'Zoes' - can be reached.

If you want to support Ben then you can give £10 by texting 'ZOEC55£10' to 70070 - I've just done it. And once you've given there's a really simple option to add Gift Aid too, turning £10 into £12.50 if you're a UK tax payer.

Whilst you're at it you might also want to sponsor our heroic Kerith cyclists who recently completed their epic bike ride to Istanbul, raising money for the furniture for the girl's dormitory in Serenje - you can do that here.

You can see more about what Ben Cooley and his buddies are up to in the video below.

Simon.

Canon Andrew White at Kerith on Sunday Evening

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:14 PDT

Canon Andrew White, also known as the vicar of Baghdad, will be with us for our evening meeting this coming Sunday (26th May). The Kerith Centre doors open at 6pm with tea and coffee being served, and the meeting will start at 7pm. We will take up an offering for Andrew's amazing work as part of the meeting.

Any of you who follow Andrew on Facebook will know how the situation in Iraq has deteriorated very badly over recent weeks, and that Andrew daily faces challenges which I find it hard to comprehend. Yet whenever he comes to us he always brings such a sense of hope and confidence in the sovereignty of God, as well as an incredible anointing and sense of the presence of God - I'm sure he will do the same again on Sunday.

If you are able please can I ask you to park in the college car park on Sunday, as I'm sure we'll have many guests and visitors coming along to hear Andrew.

Simon.

Calling the Men of Kerith

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:51:42 PDT

Matt Ranger and his team have been busy organising the next Kerith mens event. These are always brilliant times to get together, so please get a ticket this Sunday for yourself, and another one for that friend you're going to invite along. Below are the details Matt asked me to pass on.

Hope to see you there,

Simon.

-------------------

Men of Kerith ;-) Let the games begin! After the last event I thought it would be good to keep the momentum going and get another event in before the hectic summer season starts for everyone.

So on the 1st June we are going to have a whole evening of fun. Tickets are available at Kerith next Sunday, or if you can't make it to collect from the Kerith just email matthew@rangerz.co.uk It’s going to be a ticketed event at a cost of £6 per ticket or 2 for £10.

The evening will consist of Pizza (of course food is very important) music, table tennis, FIFA on the big screen and this time we are also hiring in a Gladiators game where you will get the opportunity to knock each other off a platform with a giant cotton wool bud ;-) Once again it’s going to be competitive! If none of that takes your fancy feel free to bring your own games, or just come along and spend the night chatting and making new friends.

Soft drinks will be available to buy on the night, or bring your own beverage of choice.

Doors will open at 7.30 and the event will end at 10.00.

Many Thanks

Matt

Twitter @matthewranger

K4 Fashion Show

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Sat, 18 May 2013 03:04:00 PDT

On Saturday 8th June our K4 shop will be having its first ever fashion show at the Kerith Centre. Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start. The “show” part will last until 9pm. Cold drinks will then be served and you will be able to buy the clothing modelled, plus other clothing/accessories and jewellery.

Tickets cost £5 with all profits will go to Kerith Social Justice projects such as Foodbank, CAP, Konnections, Job Club and Hilltop. We are limiting the event to 200 people as all seating will be downstairs in the auditorium (there will be a catwalk down the centre of the auditorium with all the seats facing the catwalk - not a configuration we've ever used before!).

Tickets are available from the K4 shop and from the Kerith Centre reception. Why not pick up yours on Sunday for what is going to be a great event.

Also if you'd be interested involved in making the fashion show happen, then please contact Catriona Mitchell via the "who's who" section of the website.

Simon.

Job Opportunity - Kerith Site Services Assistant

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:40:05 PDT

A couple of years ago I had a prophetic word from a friend called Julian Adams, part of which was that as a community God would give us facilities and buildings to use. That has certainly been proved to be true with the recent additions of the Barn, the K4 shop, the Studio and soon the college house behind K2. From September we'll also be using Sandhurst School on a Sunday, and if you were at the prayer meeting this week you'll have heard that we're looking for a warehouse in Bracknell to store Foodbank food, stuff for the K4 shop, furniture and who knows what else.

Although exciting, all of these facilities need maintaing and improving. Therefore from September the Site Services team are looking to take on a Site Services Assistant, based at our Bracknell Site, but also getting involved in the maintenance and daily running of our other buildings. The role would involve keeping all of our buildings maintained to a high standard as well as setting up rooms for Ministries to use, Health and Safety monitoring, grounds work, decorating, ordering , store keeping, and liaising with our Events team and external contractors. We are looking for a proactive people person, with a passion for all that Kerith does.

If you are interested in joining our team and becoming an active part of the day to day management of our buildings, you can pick up an application and information pack now from the Kerith Centre reception.

And if you know of any warehouses I'd love to hear from you on that too :-)

Hope to catch you on Sunday for the last part of James,

Simon.

May Prayer Meetings

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Tue, 14 May 2013 01:24:41 PDT

Please join us as we meet together as a church on Wednesday to pray together for an hour starting at 8pm in K2. We'll be praying for a load of areas of church life including our new Sandhurst site and some of the changes we're making in Bracknell. We are in an exciting season of growth, and there is so much both to thank God for and to pray about.

For the hour before (7-8pm) we'll be praying specifically for our social justice ministries.

I'll be at both so hope to see you there.

Simon.

Serving Our Children Better

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Wed, 08 May 2013 02:00:10 PDT

Over the last few years we've seen huge growth in our children's work. The number of children on a Sunday has more than doubled, and we now regularly have over one hundred 5-11's across the two morning meetings. This is all great, but growth always produces problems which need to be solved if we want to continue growing. For a number of years we've managed the growth by taking over unused rooms in K2, up to the point where we now use every room in K2.

To create more space we earlier this year moved many of our staff offsite to free up space in the Kerith Centre, and we're about to start making use of that space from this Sunday.

So from this Sunday (12th May) the Brooke Lounge will be set up as a Parent and Baby / Toddler room. This will be a space for new parents to bring their babies and children into as it will have a TV with a live feed into the meeting in the auditorium, so that they won't miss any of the meeting. There will also be provision made for breast feeding mums to use this room to feed their babies in a private space.

Then Life Unleashed (which used to be called J-Gen) will be meeting in the old main office upstairs at the normal time (usually once the offering has been taken in the adult meeting).

Finally years 5,6 - the present Boulder Gang group in K2, will now be meeting upstairs in the Spurgeon hall from Sunday 12th May. Their registration will happen in the upstairs Lounge at 8:50am and 10:50am, after which they will be in the adult meeting for worship before going to their group for their meeting. They will then meet their parents back at the registration point at the end of each meeting for collection.

All of this is with an aim to serving our children and young people as well as possible. If there are any teething problems then please be part of the solution in helping to resolve any problems that arise.

All very exciting.

Simon.

May Giving to Grow Gift Day

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Fri, 03 May 2013 01:24:05 PDT

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:7, 8 NIV)

This Sunday is part two of our series looking at the book of James, and is also our next "Giving to Grow" gift day. Much has happened since we announced the gift days in February:

We've almost concluded the negotiations to buy the college house
We've found a venue for our Sandhurst site - Sandhurst School - where we'll start meeting from the 15th September
From next Sunday we'll be making use of the rooms freed up by the office move for children's work on a Sunday (last Sunday we had 108 five to eleven year olds in the K2 Hall across the two morning meetings - we desperately need more space!)
We've been able to repay a number of the interest free loans
We've given £2,000 to Jubilee Church in the Wirral for their building project, and have another £4,000 to give away locally and internationally

That's great, but there's still so much more to do, and be paid for, so please be thinking and praying about what to give on Sunday. And if you're not going to be around this Sunday please go to the website and give online there, or put it in the offering the following Sunday marked "Gift Day".

I so appreciate everyone's generosity, and know that through your generosity you will be a recipient of God's abundant blessing.

Hope to catch you on Sunday,

Simon.

Kerith Cup Finalists

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Wed, 01 May 2013 02:00:07 PDT

Once again the Kerith Football Team have made it to the final of the local churches cup competition, where this year they are playing against St. Paul's from South Ealing (if only Newcastle United could be as consistent!).

The final is at 5.15pm this Saturday at Binfield Town FC, Hill Farm Lane, Binfield, RG42 5NR (apparently most satnavs don't take you all the way to the ground, but at least close enough to see the floodlights!). Entry costs £3.

I know that Jonathan Horne and the rest of the team would really appreciate our support. Hope to see you there :-)

Simon.

James and the Violin and Pete Moon

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:53:37 PDT

If you weren't around on Sunday you'll have missed the video the team produced, based on the construction of a violin, about how the trials in our life can produce something of great value and worth. Even if you were around it's worth watching again - you should be able to see it above, but if not follow this link. You can also catch up on the sermon here.

In addition to that Pete Moon re-recorded his preach from a couple of weeks ago (for some reason the recording didn't work the first time round). You can catch up on that here - it's very powerful so please listen to it if you missed it first time round.

I want to say a huge thank you to all our volunteers, who week after week upload all the sermons and videos to the website or the rest of us to enjoy - they are all heroes!

Simon.

Sandhurst Venue

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:57:28 PDT

I'm not sure I've ever experienced a busier week than the one I've just had! Delivering training, being trained, speaking on Alpha, meeting our wonderful children's work team, leading a prayer meeting, helping plan the preaching series from September to December, helping plan our Christmas programme, spending time with Matt Barlow and Russ Kline, lots of other meetings as well as planning my preach for Sunday (which I'm really excited about). I love what I do, although I am also looking forward to having a day of rest on Saturday :-)

All of this activity was great, but probably the high point was confirming that we've got a venue for our Sandhurst site. We've felt for a while that Sandhurst School would be the ideal meeting place for us, both in terms of location and the quality of their facilities. Well this week I had a meeting with the Governors on Monday, and the Headteacher on Thursday, after which they've agreed to us meeting there from the 15th September. They are so positive about partnering with us, and I'm praying that from this we'll develop a great relationship with the school and be a real blessing to them.

Please join me in thanking God for answering this prayer for us, and for all that it will allow us to do in the Sandhurst area.

Hope to see you on Sunday,

Simon.

James and the Giant Peach

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 02:00:10 PDT

This Sunday we start a new 4 week series, looking at four different themes in the book of James. We start by looking at how to deal with the different trials we all face - something which I know will be relevant to all of us at many points in our lives.

James, the author of this book, was the half brother of Jesus and one of the key leaders in the early church in Jerusalem. James is thought to have been written before AD48, and may well have been the earliest New Testament book. It is a wonderfully practical book, encouraging us to have a faith which changes the way we live. In terms of it's style it is similar to the book of Proverbs, containing a series of 'wise sayings'. It was written to Jewish believers everywhere, rather than being written to a specific church. James was martyred for his faith in AD62.

In advance of the series I'd really encourage you to find time to read the whole of the book - it will do you good! It's only five chapters long so won't take you long. Then when you've read the whole book spend some time focussing on James 1:2-8 which is what we'll take a look at on Sunday. I've included it below to make it as easy as possible!

Please be there on Sunday if you possibly can, expecting God to speak to you in whatever trial you're facing.

Hope you have a great week,

Simon.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. (James 1:2-8 NIV)

Assume the Best About Others

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 02:00:03 PDT

I've noticed an interesting thing about myself. When I mess up, when I get something wrong or let someone down, I want them to assume the best possible motives for my actions. But when others mess up, I often attach the worst possible motives to their actions.

So if I'm late for a meeting I want others to assume that it was because something really important came up which delayed me, or that I got caught in traffic which I could do nothing about. In fact that's the conversation which is going on in my head as I walk into the meeting, "if you only knew what has happened to me you'd fully understand why I'm late".

Yet when someone else is late to my meeting, I often assume it's because they just couldn't be bothered, because they're a bad person, or worst of all because they've got something against me or what I'm trying to achieve, and want to make that very obvious to everyone else involved.

I do the same over loads of other things. If I tell someone I'll get back to them, but don't manage to, I hope they realise that it's because I was just so busy. But when someone else does the same to me, I assume it's because they don't like me or don't care.

I'm wondering if you're the same? And I'm wondering what life would look like if in that gap, in that space where somebody has let me down but I don't know why, I assumed the best possible thing about that person rather than the worst. If I treated them in the same way I want them to treat me. To react as though there was a very good reason for what they've just done, rather than a very bad one. I think that the conversation I have in my head about the people around me would be very different. And I suspect that even when the best I assumed about them turns out not to be true, I'd still be in a much better place to resolve the resulting conflict, having set out to think the best about them rather than the worst.

I think that was some of what Jesus was getting at when he said "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets". (Matthew 7:12 NIV)

So is there someone today you need to assume the best about. A friend, a boss, a partner, a son or daughter, a parent. Why not have a go at treating them like you'd like them to treat you, and see what God will do with your relationship.

Simon.

Dr. Philip Lee TMTL Cancellation

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Benham) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 05:03:06 PDT

Sadly Dr. Philip Lee, the Bracknell MP who was due to be the speaker at TMTL tomorrow (Thursday), has had to cancel as the Whips have called him in for government business (sounds painful to me!). He has promised to come back in the future when he's free - watch this space!

TMTL will still be meeting as normal.

Hope to catch you at the prayer meeting tonight :-)

Simon.