These are certainly interesting days! At the beginning of the year we decided as a church to give over the month of January to prayer. As part of this Steve Ball had accepted an offer from Roy Fields to lead some meetings at City Temple, Cardiff. Initially booked for 4 days, we are now entering the 5th week of meetings with "big Roy"! 

I was away visiting my mum for the first 3 days and arrived late on what was scheduled to be the last night. To be honest I was tired having travelled most of the day, worked late and spent little time at home but compelled by a commitment to support the leadership of the church I headed down into town. As I approached I remember saying to God to protect my from hype and more importantly from scepticism, a trait of the the old man I am desperate to kill! I also was aware that as a leader I wanted to measure and examine where "God was in all of this". I came into the building and found a seat near the back in the raised seating. Within the hour during a time of acapella  worship Roy had pointed to me and called me out. He prayed for me and the presence of God was sufficiently heavy that it was certainly easier to lay down than keep standing! After as i returned to the seat he shared a prophetic worked for me. It is fair to say that God had answered my questions as directly as I could have possibly imagined! 

Still some people have some real and legitimate questions about this which I will try to answer. Please note these are my personal opinions.

The meetings are interesting for a Welsh congregation. In the main they are around 2 hours of worship, 3 hours of preaching and an hour of ministry. That's right 6 hours! So there is a challenge straight away. They are long. Have we the patience, the stamina, the energy?

Do I think the meetings  are too long? Well yes but no one, least of all God,is  asking my opinion so what business is it of mine to ask for them to be shorter? Also there seems to evidence that the disciples had to wait a lot longer in the upper room before they encountered the Holy Spirit. These meetings seem to have power evidence of the power of God as the evening moves on. For some, that is an inconvenient truth.

 Is it at times fleshly? Most definitely. But hang on before you run away with the wrong idea. Most if not all church events/services are because they involve people. As Bill Johnson said if you want the fish you need to be prepared to spit out the bones! I think however this is diminished by the evident presence of God?

Is it theologically sound? In the main yes. Is there some things that are said or done that I would question? Probably but I refer you to my 2 previous answers.

Is Roy an itinerant operating without accountability? One of my delights about this ministry is to witness how Roy is listening to Steve Ball and Nigel James as they share with him their wisdom, opinions and concerns. Some of his ideas and practices have been influenced by these meetings. He appears to relish accountability and covering from the church.

Is it a Welsh Revival? The $64,000 question! I would it depends on your definition. When I was studying for my degree one of the key things I tried to clearly do was define my terms so as to avoid misunderstanding. To answer this question it is imperative that the term revival is understood. In the USA the term revival would be more loosely defined than it is in Wales. There it can be given to a meeting where people come to faith, where the holy spirit moves, where people are healed. It can also be used in anticipation of what might happen ie "At church next week we are hosting revival meetings" That was a tradition in the US to hold tent revival meetings where an itinerant preacher would pitch his marquee on the edge of time and hold "revival" meetings. In Wales when we think of revival we hark back to our rich history. We would think of Evan Roberts and the 1904-1906 revival. Over 100,000 people gave their lives to Christ in that time. Families, communities, work places, media and the economy was impacted. The revival poured out of the church and God moved across the nation in a powerful way. Crime went down, pubs closed, rugby clubs suspended games. It was impossible to to be unaware of it even if you were unaffected by the revival. 

At this point we are seeing God moving on individuals within the church. People are getting saved, there are people getting healed. Most of all people are falling in love with Jesus. Is it a revival? In the American sense it is. In the Welsh definition, not yet. (but it's not finished !) That is why it is being called an outpouring. I respect the fact that Roy and Melanie Fields listened to the leadership of the church when they explained the cultural differences of revival.

When will it end?  I don't know. No one does! We know it will continue for another 2 nights in City Temple as a minimum. It could go on for much longer. Keep checking the website

Should I come to see what all the fuss is about? If you live close by, why not? I know lots of people from Wales who have travelled all over the world to see evidence of the outpouring of God but have yet to drive across town to see what is going on. I mentioned this to my team at work an encouraged them to check it out for themselves. They are mature Christians they can make their own minds up when they have experienced first hand what is going on.

Is is only in Cardiff? No. Roy and Melanie have visited Swansea and Newport so far. February 1st & 2nd, they will be in Neath. More places will most likely follow. For the latest schedule. Check the website

How often do you hear the phrase "men can't multi-task"? To be honest I have always found this saying a bit irritating. I wondered; is there any evidence to suggest that women are better at this skill than men? Also  is it true that with the development of multiple technologies young people are better at multi-tasking?

At the moment I am writing my blog, listening to Billie Holliday on spotify, Stephen Fry has just popped up on tweet deck with his latest twitter and I am listening to a conversation going on in the corridor. Surely this is evidence of pretty good multi-tasking from this 48 year old bloke?

Apparently not! It would appear that research does not support it. Indeed the American Psychiatrist, Richard Hallowell describe multi-tasking as a “mythical activity in which people believe they can perform two or more tasks simultaneously.” If that is the case then what is going on with me, my writing, listening, eaves dropping and observing twitter? Well it appears that is just a simple case of interrupted sequential tasks. 

The phrase muti-tasking comes from the world of computers where the software and architecture are designed so that a number of tasks can be done at the same time. It appears this concept was then applied to humans and has gathered currency since then. It may well be true that I can write and burn a cd at the same time or perhaps hoover and do the laundry but this is because one task requires my focus whilst the other is being done be independent technology. You can also argue that we are able to breathe, see, hear and say walk at the same time but even this is a little controversial as how much of o these are in fact sequential rather than true multi-tasking.

So when applied to people it appears that if we do more than one thing at a time eg try to listen to a conversation whilst writing an email both activities will suffer as a result of not having our full focus. When I truly reflect on what is going on at this moment I know that I am writing and therefore unable to listen to any lyrics of the song that is playing on spotify without slowing down my typing. Each time a tweet pops up my fingers stop moving for me to read the twitter and the people in the corridor can rest assured that unless I stop doing everything else their conversation will not be over heard by their boss!

This has big implications for all the young people and students who believe they work better with the tv on, a number of msn or facebook chat conversations going on, their mobile vibrating with income texts and music playing on itunes. The research cannot find any evidence that young people can work in this environment any better than this old man can!

So if this is true, and deep down many of us always suspected it was, then why do we still flirt with this distraction called multi-tasking? Well I think the answer may well be on the question. I think often we are looking for distraction. The flitting action of moving from media to media may ensure we don't get bored, it also ensures that we do not get stuff done as quickly and effectively as we otherwise would.

Today is a day of prayer and fasting for the members of my church. If we believe these disciplines are significant in Kingdom terms then we should not be surprised why if "all hell" is let lose against us as we seek to engage. What better tool than to encourage us that they can be incorporated into our normal run of life. If multi-tasking is a myth, a lie then maybe its source is the so called "father of lies". Perhaps the challenge for me is to be more disciplined on the task in hand and remove all the distractions I have created to amuse and interrupt me and focus on the task in hand. That act of discipline appears to be entirely appropriate with my aim of being a effective disciple.

How about you?

One of the things I did over the Christmas break was to watch the second of the Narnia films, "Prince Caspian". I enjoyed it though it was not as good as the "The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe" and I have it on good authority that "The Voyage of The Dawn Treader" is better. Aslan does not appear in it that much but one thing he say to Lucy is repeated. He says "Things never happen the same way twice, dear one"

 At the beginning of a new year it often a time not just for looking forward but also for looking back. I know from experience, as we get older, the temptation to do this grows! So often we hanker after things of the past or resist change. Some people risk averse and prefer the status quo, this seems to me to be contrary to the life of a disciple of Jesus.

In Isaiah 43:18-19 God declares "Forget the Former Things, do not dwell on the past, See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you  not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert & streams in the wasteland."

He is the God of new beginnings. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it says "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" The option of not changing isn't given. Those who know Christ have changed and will go on changing as they increase from glory to glory (2:Cor 3:18) 

Sometimes it might be our desire that things should stay the same, but it is not His! As we look forward there is much to be done and it will not be achieved by business as usual. Therefore embrace God given change and get on with the task He has called you to. God wants to change you and through you His world. Plenty to be getting on with then......