February 2012

Once the pancakes have been consumed, thoughts turn to Lent and the question of what to give up. I have given up chocolate( five times), biscuits(twice), desserts (once), shopping for clothes(once) over the years. Sometimes my motivation has been a mixture of wanting to focus on Jesus and build up to Easter remembrance and sometimes there has been a bit of a hidden diet plan in there too.
I am often intrigued by the non- believers I meet who are happy to tell me that they are giving up something for lent, without any thought of visiting a church or thinking about Jesus! An interesting cultural pull!
This year, I have thought long and hard and I think I am going to give up Church committee meetings for Lent. They are taking up far too many of my mornings, afternoons and evenings. Although they are often with lovely people talking about worthwhile things, the hours I spend in Christian meetings take me away from time with my family and take me out of the ‘real world’ of my neighbours, friends and work colleagues. How would my life look if for forty days I said ‘ yes’ to my friends and ‘ no’ to church agenda planners?
Three weeks ago a dear friend called and asked me to go to the cinema with her. Despite the fact that she usually kindly accepts my invitations to her to go to outreach events, I declined , apologising on the basis that I had too many other meetings that week. It was true, I had a church commitment every other night. But, it wasn’t a great excuse and I feel that I let her down.
Starting tomorrow, forty days, no church committee meetings, extra time for others. Activate my life for lent!
Thoughts? Comments?

Sometimes as Churches we put so much effort into ‘evangelistic’ events, and sadly these seemingly ‘outreach friendly’ events are attended by Christians with very few non-Christians.

In order to share our faith we must be prepared to share a bit of ourselves. So here’s the tough question; how many non-Church attending, non-Christian friends do you have? I can safely say that 6 years ago the answer to that was none.

I discovered a few years ago how easy it can be to make friends when you put some effort in. 3 years ago a close friend of mine had just had her third baby, when the baby was about 4 weeks old she said to me one day; I really need a night out! She had some restrictions though, it had to be close to home and she had to be in bed for 10pm! So we decided to go to our local Italian restaurant one Thursday night just before Christmas. Now who should we invite? We decided to be brave and went around the playground randomly inviting anyone who was there. I even texted everyone in my phonebook! The text simply said ‘Ladies night out 7.30 pm meet at (insert local restaurant name here) would love to see you there’. Guess what, we had over 20 turn up. Must ladies didn’t know each other. One mum surprised me the most, I had met her a couple of times at children’s parties, I texted her anyway (I wasn’t even sure she would know who I was!) She replied immediately ‘Would love to come’.

It isn’t always hard to get alongside people and make friends. A meal was a perfect way to chat and get to know people better, the result of that night has been some beautiful friendships.

Easy to arrange, minimal organisation…Dare you?

This was our challenge- sum up all that Activate Your Life stands for in ten short phrases. A new banner with the correct web address was needed. We wanted to move away from pictures of women, always a bit restrictive- white, middle class looking, a certain age. We chose a symbol of three females standing together. Then there was space for some text. We could put our strap line- a network to resource and inspire Christian women to share God’s love with their friends, neighbours and work colleagues. But sentences are too wordy. So the decision was made to come up with ten words or short phrases that would sum up and explain who we are to anyone passing the banner.
We have a wonderfully diverse Dream Team; different ages, different church backgrounds, different family situations with a broad spectrum of personalities. We had a fun hour bouncing words around. Splurging all our thoughts out, counting up the favourites, rejecting any that were vetoed, narrowing it all down. We came up with nine adding on to our name. Just when we were all happy we sent out a final confirming email and off the debate went again!! More discussion followed before the design arrived at the door of the bemused printer.
Today I have seen the completed banner for the first time- I love it!!
We’d love to know your thoughts and reactions? Did we miss out any major concepts or phrases? Which ten would you choose? Send us in your thoughts below or on our Facebook group page. Next time we are ready to make a banner we promise to listen??
Activate Your Life
Evangelism
Sharing God’s Love
Life giving
Inspiring
Passion
Dangerous Women
Resourcing
Community
Friendship