An Adventure in Ministry

I am in such a blessed position! My husband and I are the commanding officers (pastors) of a wonderful church and community outreach, and the people are gorgeous!! In our short year in leadership in this place we have seen God moving in a really powerful way; We have seen people coming to Christ, We have seen people touched with the Holy Spirit, We have seen people blossoming and flourishing before our eyes, We have seen prayers answered in a powerful way, We have seen God provide for our needs, We have seen more and more people who are lost and desperate come through our doors Yet I  WANT MORE! Recently at a conference I was challenged to dream big! To lay aside things that hold us back and press on to the goal. You see it is so easy to get bogged down in the day to day flow of life. It is easy for the little things to become the big things, and then the big things seem to fade away. The devil doesn't play fair! He always plays dirty.  BUT! ...

The English novelist Iris Murdoch once said “Prayer” is the most essential of all human activities” and I must say that this is so true. In the past few months I have really tried to focus on creating a regular rhythm of prayer in my life and I have seen just how essential prayer is to every moment of my day. Around 9 months ago I attended a spiritual day for Salvation Army officers and envoys in the North West, led by Majors Mel and Kath Jones. In the afternoon we had the opportunity to pray and reflect. One of the prayer stations was on the Stone Pillar of Jacob. It talked about Genesis 28 when Jacob sees the ladder to heaven. When he awakes he says: ‘Surely the Lord is in this place’ and calls is Bethel which means ‘The house of God.’ We were encouraged to consider where our own Bethel is. In our booklet there was also a quote from Henry Nouwen about finding a place of prayer which has been on my mind ever since it says: “As Jesus invites us, we need to find that private pl...

Over the past few days I have spent some time on retreat with some fellow ministers in the Salvation Army. It has been a great time of teaching, relaxing, laughing and worshiping. It has been good taking time out of my (VERY) busy schedule and just focusing on what is important. This morning in my War (prayer) room I was considering the testimony given at the end of the retreat. We heard great words about answered prayer, divine direction and a passion to see God moving more in our community.  One brilliant, Godly man stood up and told how God had healed him and taken him from a place with Cancer everywhere to one where they can't find any! He said if you ever want to know if prayer works, just look at me! AMEN! I had testified about taking Joy in the Lord. That fabulous verse in Nehemiah says 'The joy of the Lord is my strength!', and I told of how God had been bringing great Joy to me in my ministry and how I believed it was strengthening me. As I considered these ...

There are days when we feel like we could take on the world, and days when we feel we couldn’t fight our way out of a paper bag! This morning I feel useless! In fact, worse than useless! Don’t get me wrong, there are so many great things going on. I am seeing fruit in my ministry, my marriage and my family but I still feel like I want to pull the duvet over my head and never emerge. Maybe it’s tiredness, maybe it’s because I’m coming down with a cold or maybe I am letting the devil tell me what a failure I am (!)  but It all seems too much. This morning, as I read my daily devotionals (If you are a woman on fire for God and looking for a great daily devotional check out http://herbinderproject.com/ it is fabulous!!) God gave me a message. As I read Psalm 89v8 I felt in awe of his power and faithfulness. I then received a picture of a child hiding behind their father’s legs. I'm sure you have seen the scenario. The dad and child are out and the Dad has seen someone the...

Just under a year ago something happened that completely changed my relationship with God and shaped the way I live out my faith. Over lent I always try to take something on that will help others rather than giving up something, and I often participate in 40 acts. This is where you are challenged to do 40 different things and make an impact in your own community (Check it out at http://www.40acts.org.uk/ ) Last year, day 1 called me to buy a journal and make notes over the 40 days of lent. I bought a journal and started…. And I haven’t stopped! I have written all sorts in my journal; prayers, sermons, notes, doodles, artwork and anything and everything that God has prompted me to do. As I started spending time pouring my heart out to the Lord on the pages of my journal I found my faith was growing, I started really looking forward to spending time with God and was glad to get up a little earlier in order to spend time with him. Recently my expression of faith has been ext...

I am me! This week I had a revealation. I am me! Some of you may be thinking “duh, of course you are you!”  But this week it was something that really hit home. As part of our training and development as ministers in the Salvation Army Paul and I have just spent the last week at the William Booth Training college in London. It has been an interesting and challenging week in many ways! There was some great teaching, thought provoking worship and some fellowship with people walking on the same road of ministry as me. But for me, the greatest part of the week, was in the gentle call and affirmation that God seemed to breath over me as the days went by. There were a number of points over the week that God spoke to me and said “you are you and I made you that way. Stop worrying over the way you are, if you are wrong, I will tell you!” On Monday morning as I read my devotional I was struck by these Words As I meditated on these words I penned this prayer ...

It’s been a bit of a week! It was the first week back in full swing after Christmas which is always difficult. It’s one of those weeks that is spent trying to get back into the routine of things and getting up to date on all those little things. It has been busy to say the least! It has also been a week full of vision and dreaming, with meetings looking ahead and God laying heavy on me an urge to think big and to start walking in it! Our church is growing and God is miraculously providing. There have been moments that have felt like the ascent at the beginning of a fairground ride. The anticipation of what might be ahead that excitement mingled with nervousness and that little bit of dread that you cant make it on your own. It has also been a week of brokenness. There have been so many people through our doors this week screaming out for Jesus. There are people struggling with illness, grief and addiction. It really has been heartbreaking, but I am so grateful that we are able...

At this time of year, lots of people talk about resolutions. People talk of dieting and keeping fit, quitting smoking or drinking. I heard a statistic that 35% of us make a new years resolution and only 8% of them stick to it. That doesn't sound good, does it? I haven't made any resolutions, as such, but have made a renewed effort to spend more quality time with God each day and try to have more of an attitude of gratitude.  In my devotion time I have felt God has shown me a picture of a door. As I considered this, I began thinking about God opening and closing doors in our lives. It is a concept seen time and again in scriptures and also in my life. I  believe there are times when God closes the door on situations in my life and has opened new doors for me with fresh opportunities. There have been times full of hurt, bad situations, dark times and God has closed the door to them. There have also been good times, enjoyable times that have become closed doors. But the ...

At the start of this new year I felt called by God to try something I had come across in a few blogs. You choose a word (prayerfully!) and use it to hang your thoughts, journal and ideas for the year. A lot of people I have read about have seen it really transform their life, so I thought I would give it a go! The word I chose was GRATITUDE. So this week I have started 52 weeks of gratitude, and I will attempt to share some of my ponderings with you!    The first week asks why start this challenge? Well gratitude is a great thing to exercise. The talks time and time again about giving thanks. But how often when we pray are we guilty of giving thanks to God as a pre-curser to the main event.....asking for what we want.  Having an attitude of gratitude is something that I believe could completely change my faith, my marriage, my ministry and my relationships. When we go through our life looking for opportunities to give thanks, we can't help but also see love, ...