Today the BBC reported that self-harm amongst young people is on the increase. At Ignite we responded to this issue in two ways. Firstly, we made a short film that can be viewed below. Secondly, we commissioned a book from our good friend Jess Wilson. I has been very well received and favourably reviewed. You can buy it in the Ignite Shop. I have also put it on my reading list on this home page where you can click through and buy it from Amazon.

So check out the film and make sure you recommend it to anyone who has issues with self-harm or suicide.  

In the UK on Friday, most of us were given a day off to watch the Royal Wedding between the future King, Prince William and his now bride Kate. I must admit to be a bit of an agnostic when it comes to the Royal family. I can take them or leave them. I would not want a presidential system but do not get too excited about the the current family either. It was with this lack of interest I sat having a late breakfast feeling myself being drawn into the saga unfolding on the tv. To my surprise I found myself really enjoying it. We then went into the garden and built a trellis fence which we had meant to do since last summer. By early  evening we felt like we had made good use of our bank holiday. Then I went to the Cardiff Civil Service football club dinner. The speaker was was ex-Wolves and Man City player Steve Daley. He was a funny guy and seemed to be more successful on the sporting dinner circuit than he had been on the football pitch! Thanks go to Steve Williams who invited me to be his guest!

Saturday saw us drive up to London so that we could witness the debut of Ben at the Royal Albert Hall. He was taking part in a showcase of talent organised byMardi Gras Productions. Ben was playing the part of the Tin Man in a sample from the musical The Wiz. The boy done good and we loved watching him! We stayed in the Hilton, Hyde park and were pleased with our room but even more delighted with our upgrade when we mentioned to the reception we could hear the elevator in operation! I love it when people offer great service and this was one of those "icing on the cake" moments! The weather was so nice in London we enjoyed a leisurely lunch and stroll around Covent Garden and could not resist the legendary Ben's cookies, which are quite simply the best cookies ever! I also started and finished the book Epic by John Eldredge. This is a great read for not yet Christians, highly recommended.

Sunday saw a quick lunch with Lesley's sister & family before celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Glee Club,  Cardiff Bay with a show curated by Cerys Matthews. 

Not only did she do a wonderful acoustic and band set, she also introduced the audience to some amazing music including 2 artists, Lester Allen and Natalie Duncan. They both featured on the BBC programme, Goldie's Band. In addition there was set from Tara Busch who with a range of analogue electronic instruments was a cross between, Rick Wakeman, the BBC Radiophonic workshop and the composer of a sci-fi B movie, just excellent. I am looking forward to the imminent release of the next album by Cerys, such a talent!

Today is a mixture of catch up, gardening, eating and a little work meeting this evening. This will not stop me from grabbing a cheeky pint in the Wenvoe Arms before close of play tonight. So weddings, food, gorgeous wife, excellent service, proud parent, fantastic music, some jobs well done, beer, family, books, gardening, DIY, work, God...a blessed life and a great weekend!

Over the years I have heard many evangelistic stories. This is one that moved me when I heard it. I think I may have even used this illustration myself. What this short movie. It will help to put Good Friday into context

One of the challenges of heading up a Christian ministry is that I spend a disproportionate of time with Christians. I do not come across many "not-yet Christians" in my work place! It is with this challenge that Lesley and I have been considering as this Easter season approaches.

The weather is getting warmer & we are more frequently engaging with our neighbours on the Close in which we live in the Vale of Glamorgan. However,  as people move from front door to car, it is often difficult even to say "hello" & yet still more difficult to know there names and share genuine concern & affection for their lives. God knows it is not good for us to live alone, yet so often we fail to make anything more than the most superficial of relationships.

We have lived in the village about a year now & we have determined to get to know people better. Our start was very encouraging. Our next door neighbours brought us in a bottle of wine and the lady over the road gave us a freshly baked loaf of bread. Somehow in our busy life we have not built on these positive beginnings. Easter is all about new starts and we are going for it!

We have bought Easter cards which we will post through each letter box. Contained within will be an invite over to our house for hot cross buns and coffee on Good Friday afternoon. We might even stretch to cadburys cream eggs for the kids :-)

We are also planning to add a bible verse into the card. My favoured one is: 1: John 3:16  "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."  Its relevance increases I think when you substitute the words brothers & sisters for neighbours!

Last week I attended the Billy Graham Rapid Response Training day to become a member of their rapid response training. It was excellent and very thought provoking. One of the illustrations was the incredible film. Beware, it is very moving

This is the statement that we issued to the press today. Already we are seeing some interest.

Street Pastors beacon about to be extinguished?

ONE of the beacons of Cardiff’s weekend night life could be extinguished through lack of funding.

The city’s faithful band of Street Pastors have been familiar to late night visitors for more than two years.

Drinkers in the town centre clubs and pubs have made use of the patrolling Street Pastors for everything from helping them find a taxi home to putting flip flops on their bare or battered feet.

But funding to ensure the work continues runs out next month and so the Street Pastors will not be able to continue beyond March.

 “Like everyone, we’re feeling the economic pinch,” explained Gary Smith, who runs Cardiff Street Pastors.

 “Our statutory funding runs out next month and although we do a lot of fundraising to support the work ourselves, the shortfall is too significant to allow us to continue.

 “As things stand we will be running our last patrols next month because we have no funds guaranteed to see us beyond then.

 “It really is a huge shame because we believe we’ve done a significant work to help reduce crime on our city centre streets and to help improve the tarnished image of our capital.”

 That is a view echoed by the partners, including South Wales Police and local business owners, who work with the Street Pastors during the busy weekend evenings.

 Ahead of the Black Friday event in December, Inspector Tony Bishop said:  “As the Inspector responsible for policing Cardiff city centre, I can say from experience that the Street Pastor’s presence and assistance to South Wales Police in managing the night time economy each and every weekend is invaluable.

 “The Street Pastors provide a very reassuring presence and dealing with victims and potential victims of crime in a very caring & professional manner has a significant and positive impact on those individuals who are at times very vulnerable because of their circumstances, normally because they have had too much to drink.

“South Wales Police manage the night time economy through a partnership approach & the Street Pastors are a very vital part of that team here in Cardiff city centre.”

There are more than forty trained Street Pastors in Cardiff, and there are a number of volunteers currently waiting for their accreditation.

 “Criminologists say when people are in danger then what they need is capable guardians. That’s what Street Pastors are,” said Gary Smith.

 “In Wales’ capital city we believe we play a vital role and we have no shortage of people wanting to help, what we are lacking is the funding to ensure we can continue delivering the service and accountability we have done up to now.”

Ends

Notes for Editors:

The Street Pastors are accountable to the police and local authority as well as the Welsh Assembly Government.

Cardiff Street Pastors were funded by the Home Office previously, but funding has been cut across the board.

There is no statutory funding available to date and because of the nature of the work the service cannot be mothballed, hence notice will have to be given to terminate the street patrols from the end of March.

The Street Pastors are on the streets of Cardiff on a Friday and Saturday night from 22:00 – 04:00.

During nights where major events are held, such as the student night Carnage, the Street Pastors give up an additional night to their usual Friday and Saturday in order to help support the emergency services to ensure safety in the city.

In the last year, 15 new recruits have joined the original team as they seek to support those in need of their help after a night out.

The Street Pastors have given out over 3,000 pairs of flip flops and 2,500 bottles of water.

Gary Smith is available for interview on 07782 305738.

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?